Mr. Walkwell looked around to make sure no one in Rosie’s was listening to their quiet conversation. “No more talk about him until I have spoken to Gideon.”
“Kingaree came with old Caesar,” Colin whispered to Lucinda as they followed Mr. Walkwell out of the diner. “That’s all I know.”
“With Caesar?” She couldn’t put ancient, sweet-tempered Caesar together with Kingaree-with that face full of sharp edges and violence. As they approached the wagon she looked nervously up and down the street, seeing Kingaree’s menacing form in every shadow. As a result, she stared right at Steve Carrillo standing in front of the general store with his popsicle for several seconds before she recognized the husky boy.
“Steve!” she shouted. “Oh, wow, Steve! It’s me, Lucinda! We’re back!”
He waved and then called to someone inside the store. A moment later Carmen Carrillo, his older sister, came hurrying out onto the sidewalk. She saw Lucinda and ran toward her, Steve following, and they met in the center of the street to exchange hugs and excited greetings. Colin watched them embrace for a moment, then walked on toward the wagon without saying anything.
Carmen was taller and had lost weight-she looked quite glamorous, Lucinda thought, but Steve seemed like he might have put on a few pounds. “I missed you guys so much!” Lucinda said. “I was wondering when we’d get to see you! Tyler’s back at the farm. He’ll wish he came along, now.”
“Yeah, Alma’s back at our place,” Steve said of the third and youngest Carrillo child. “She’s sewing stuff this year and she hardly ever comes out of her room.”
“She gave up wood carving?” Lucinda asked. “That’s too bad!”
Steve laughed. “Naw. She still carves, too. And does clay sculptures. Her room is more cluttered up than mine!”
“Not possible,” said Carmen. “Wow, great to see you, Luce. I shared your emails with Steve and Alma.” She smiled. “Well, not everything… ”
“Thank you! How are you guys?”
An odd look crossed Carmen’s face, sliding like a shadow. “Okay, I guess. Kind of. We’re having a lot of weird trouble with that guy from last year.” She looked around but the small street was all but empty. “The one who landed on your farm in his helicopter.”
“Edward Stillman?” Lucinda suddenly felt a chill. This new guy Kingaree, the crazy rich guy-what did the universe have against Ordinary Farm? “What kind of trouble?”
“He keeps offering our folks money,” said Steve.
“He’s buying up land all around your property,” Carmen explained. “So of course he wants our farm, because we’re right next door.”
“He’s offering tons of money, too,” Steve said. “We heard our mom and dad talking about it. They don’t want to sell… but it’s a lot of money. My dad keeps trying to talk to your uncle Gideon about it, but your uncle won’t ever call him back or anything. Dad even went over to see him but Gideon wouldn’t even come out to that big old crazy gate he built. Have you seen that? Oh, right, you must have.”
Lucinda smiled, but her joy at seeing two of her friends had soured. Stillman back, and now this Kingaree hanging around. What next?
“Hello, you bad children,” Mr. Walkwell greeted the Carrillos, but without his usual sly good cheer. “Lucinda, we must go back. We have things to discuss with Gideon.”
“Tell him my father really needs to talk to him, Mr. Walkwell,” Carmen said. “Please. It’s important.”
The wiry old man looked overwhelmed in a way Lucinda had never seen before. “I will tell him, of course. But Gideon Goldring does what he wants, always. Come, Lucinda.”
“Bye, guys!” she shouted when she’d climbed aboard the wagon, next to silent Colin. “See you soon, I hope!”
“Come for the Fourth again!” yelled Carmen. “That was totally fun last year!”
To Lucinda’s surprise, Ragnar was waiting for them out by the new gate. The big Norseman did not smile as they came in, only held the gate open and waved the cart through, then closed it by hand afterward and secured it with a bolt.
“What’s wrong with the gate?” Colin asked. “It should open and close by itself.”
“The invisible lightning is gone,” Ragnar said. “Your mother turned it away, or off, whatever you say. Until we know what is happening.” He was clearly agitated. “Did Gideon go with you? Did he stay in town?”
Mr. Walkwell seemed as surprised by this as Lucinda. “No. Gideon was here when we left. He did not go with us.”
Lucinda was beginning to feel really frightened. She looked at Colin but he seemed as confused as she was. “What’s going on?”
“We cannot find him,” Ragnar said. “We have been looking everywhere since just after you left this morning. Everyone on the farm has been searching and we have looked in every place we can think, all through the house, the barns, the hills, the pens.” He shook his head. “But Gideon has disappeared. He is gone.”
Chapter 10
“… and he was so scary, Tyler!” Lucinda whispered. “Like
… like the devil or something!” His sister couldn’t stop talking about Kingaree, the mysterious Fault Line escapee, but although Tyler was impressed and even worried by her experience it seemed like the least of their problems just now.
The farm folk were assembled in what Tyler and Lucinda called the Snake Parlor-the big front room with the stained glass window of Adam and Eve being tricked in the Garden of Eden, the serpent running all around the sides of picture as if to draw a noose around them with its body. Tyler couldn’t help wondering whether gathering beneath a glowing picture of Satan was really the best choice at such a time.
The rain that had pattered on his window and the roof a short time ago was gone and already the day was growing unbearably hot again. Everyone was talking at once and everyone sounded frightened-and no surprise: Gideon was not just their protector but the only thing that connected most of these people to the present century. Tyler couldn’t even imagine what Sarah and the Mongolian Amigos and all the others must be feeling.
Mrs. Needle stood at the middle of the room frowning, her face hard as carved ivory. “You must all be quiet and listen now,” she announced. “Do you hear me? Silence!”
“Why? You are not Gideon!” cried Hoka, one of the Amigos. “You are not the master of the house!” His two silent companions looked impressed that he would talk back to Mrs. Needle but they also looked as if they wished he hadn’t done it.
Colin Needle had a strange look on his face too, Tyler thought-a bit green around the gills, as Tyler and Lucinda’s mom liked to say. Guilty conscience about something? Tyler wondered.
“Hush, all of you!” Mrs. Needle’s voice was sharper this time. “Don’t be foolish. Nobody is claiming to be the master here. But someone must take charge… ”
“Then it should be Simos,” said Ragnar loudly from the doorway. “Walkwell has been here longer than any of us. He has always been Gideon’s right hand.”
Mrs. Needle rolled her eyes in disgust. “This is not about who is in charge, it is about finding Gideon…!”
“Have you searched the whole house?” Tyler demanded. “It’s miles long! Why are we wasting time blabbing? Gideon could have fallen down somewhere where we can’t hear him calling…!”
A lot of the others murmured in agreement, but Mrs. Needle was not having it. “Of course we have searched the house, Master Jenkins, and since it is large and full of unused rooms we will continue to do so. Leave that chore to those who know the place-myself, Sarah and her kitchen help, and Caesar… ”
One of the “kitchen help” suddenly rose from her seat. It was the tall African girl Azinza, swaying like a tree in the wind.
“I saw Gideon in a dream!” she cried.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” hissed Patience Needle. “This is quite out of order. Sit down, you foolish girl…!” Mrs. Needle turned away from her, leaving Azinza open-mouthed. “Nobody has seen Gideon since supper yesterday. Caesar says his bed was not slept in. We will organize into groups. The women will search all through the house while the men… ”