“Wow,” she breathed, then suddenly began to cry.
Chapter 15
“O h, Tyler, you really should have seen him!” Lucinda said as she climbed up next to him in the wagon. “It was the most… I was so scared! But he was beautiful too! Like a snake or a lizard-no, like a bat-I don’t know. And he was all shiny and he breathed fire and I was so scared I thought he was going to kill us-I was sure I’d die!”
It was the day after Lucinda’s dangerous adventure and she still hadn’t stopped talking about it. Tyler was getting a little tired of hearing the story over and over, and glad that she wouldn’t be able to talk about it at the Carrillos’ house. He was also grumpy because with the upset last night and all the attention given to Lucinda, he hadn’t found time to have a proper look at Octavio Tinker’s journal, or what remained of it.
Still, Tyler supposed, he’d feel a whole lot worse if his sister had been turned into dragon barbecue.
“And Haneb, he was sooo brave-did I tell you?”
“Yeah, you told me…”
“He stepped right out in front of it and he told me to go in the shed and hide. I thought he was going to get burned to bits! If it wasn’t for Mr. Walkwell ringing that bell, the dragon would probably have killed us both. Alamu, right, it’s Alamu!” Lucinda added breathlessly. “That’s the dragon’s name. Alamu.” She said it more like the name of some new boy in school than of something that had almost turned her into fried chicken. “He’s really scary-Alamu, I mean-and beautiful. But amazingly scary!”
“You were lucky, girl,” said Ragnar as he finished adjusting the horse’s harness. The yellow-haired man had carried her back to the house wrapped in a blanket after the dragon had flown away. Lucinda had been shivering so much her teeth clicked together. “Yes, Haneb was brave, but if Mr. Walkwell had not rung the feeding bell over at the reptile barn you still might have been killed.”
“But I wanted to ask you last night-how did Mr. Walkwell even know what was happening to us?”
“We have a tracking device on the male dragon,” announced Colin Needle. He had come out silently and stood in the doorway, listening. “I found it at a scientific supply company on the internet. We always have to know where he is, just because of things like what happened last night.”
“Aren’t you coming to the party, Colin?” Lucinda asked.
“No, I have a lot of important things to do.”
Tyler wondered what could be so important that it was worth skipping a party, especially when you lived on an isolated farm.
“It’s really too bad you can’t go,” Lucinda said. “It sounds like it’s going to be fun.”
For a moment Colin Needle showed something like genuine regret-he actually looked human. “It’s all right. The Carrillos… well, they don’t like me much.”
“Gee,” said Tyler. “I wonder why.”
“Be quiet!” Lucinda elbowed her brother hard. “Nobody likes you, Tyler Jenkins.”
Colin stood and watched as Ragnar flipped the reins and the horse started around the long gravel driveway. “Have a good time,” he said, then turned and walked back into the house.
“We can’t leave yet,” Ragnar said. “We are still waiting for Simos.”
“Mr. Walkwell’s going with us?” asked Tyler.
“He likes the Carrillo clan.” Ragnar grinned. “Ha, I will tell you one thing from yesterday that would make even the gods laugh. When the dragon came, Simos himself drove the truck to the reptile barn! I did not know he even knew how!” He turned to Tyler. “He did not waste time looking for me or Gideon-when he learned your sister was at the Sick Barn with Alamu he knew he had to go quickly.”
“Cool!” said Tyler. He wished he’d seen it-Mr. Walkwell forced to deal with the modern world.
“I hope it didn’t hurt his poor feet,” Lucinda said dreamily.
“Then when he came walking back,” Ragnar went on, chortling, “all he said was, ‘Someone go and get that stinking machine. Now I must bathe.’ Poor fellow!”
Mr. Walkwell appeared at last and they set off. Tyler made a few driving jokes, but the wiry old man only glared at him, maintaining a dignified silence. The wagon rolled along through the valley and over the dry hills on the far side until they finally reached the road to the Carrillos’ farm. Ragnar hopped down to unlatch the front gate, which was made of white-painted iron bars and had a smiling sun beneath the letters: CRESTA SOL DAIRY FARM. It seemed like the kind of thing you would see in simple colors stamped on a carton of milk. After a moment Tyler realized that it probably was just that-the logo for the Carrillo family’s dairy.
“What’s ‘Cresta Sol’ mean, anyway?” he asked. “It sounds like a toothpaste.”
“Maybe it’s Spanish for ‘My brother is very ignorant,’ ” Lucinda suggested.
The long driveway was gravel, the huge front yard mostly dirt except for an old swing set. Two figures Tyler recognized from the diner ran toward them, the boy, Steve, and his older sister Carmen, laughing and shoving each other.
“Come on,” Steve said when they reached the wagon. “Alma’s making something so she’s being all artistic and she won’t come out, but we put the Ping-Pong table up in the backyard and I’ve already beaten Carmen like a hundred times straight.”
“Liar,” his sister said. “You only won the last time because I stepped on one of your dolls and almost broke my leg.”
“It’s not a doll,” Steve replied with dignity. “It’s a collectible action figure of Helldiver from Deep End.”
“ Deep End? You play that?” Tyler was more than interested.
“Play it? I totally own that puppy. Well, except the last level. Can’t get past the Grand Central Crustacean.”
“Oh, man, that was so hard. Took me forever.”
Steve’s eyes bugged out. “You did it? You beat the crab?”
“Once, yeah. But I was playing it on Easy.”
“Oh, man, I don’t care, you have got to come show me.”
Steve grabbed Tyler by the arm and dragged him toward the house just as a woman in jeans and a top that looked like a painter’s smock stepped out the door, so they all nearly collided. She was about the same age as Tyler and Lucinda’s mom, but she had long black hair pulled back in a ponytail and was a little shorter and a little more rounded.
“You two must be Tyler and Lucinda,” she said. “Steven, quit yanking on the guest’s arm.”
“The crab, Mom! He totally knows how to beat the crab in Deep End .”
“I only did it once,” Tyler protested.
“That does sound impressive.” She smiled. “However, Steven, no disappearing to play games right now. Stay outside and show our guests around-you can all play something together.” She turned to the new arrivals. “Hi, I’m Silvia Carrillo. Happy Fourth of July.”
“Thanks for inviting us,” Lucinda said.
“You want to play Ping-Pong? Or come in and get something to drink?” Carmen spread her hands out. She was wearing a grown-up-looking bracelet full of jingling silver charms. Tyler had to admit she was kind of pretty for a girl his sister’s age.
“Yes, everyone come in,” said Silvia Carrillo. “Simos, Ragnar, can I get you men a beer?”
“To take with me, please,” Ragnar said. He looked genuinely regretful. “I have work to do back at the farm, helping Gideon. I will come back tonight for everyone.”
“Working? On the Fourth?” Silvia laughed. “You are way too dedicated.”
Steve and Carmen took them on a quick tour of the house. They looked into Steve’s impressively neat room as they went by and both boys gazed longingly at the game station. The youngest girl, Alma, waved shyly from the room she shared with Carmen. “I’ll be out in a minute,” she called. “Hi, Lucinda, hi, Tyler. Happy Fourth of July.”