Tiger Rock, page 4
Because Kai had lunged back through the window so fast, his momentum kept him going, even after his arm got caught. His arm, stationary at the window, didn’t come with the rest of his body, which was trying to tumble into his room.
Pain flashed in Kai’s shoulder; it felt like his arm was being pried from its socket. Tears sprang to his eyes as he shuffled his feet to get his balance. He grabbed for his dresser, catching himself so he didn’t continue to fall away from where his arm was caught in the window.
Gritting his teeth, Kai managed to right himself, and he used his free hand to lift the window off his trapped arm. As soon as the window was up, he retracted his arm and rubbed the spot on his forearm that had taken the brunt of the heavy window’s frame. Then he rotated his arm to make sure he hadn’t done any major damage to his shoulder. He hadn’t. His shoulder was sore, but his arm was moving okay.
For several seconds, Kai clutched his dresser and tried to steady his breathing. His heart was thrumming so loudly that its beat was all he could hear.
When Kai’s heart started to settle down, he inhaled and took a step back toward the window. Leaving the window closed, he pressed his cheek to its cool glass and looked down.
The owl was gone.
But Kai didn’t feel relief. The unease that had been with him all day had now ratcheted up a notch. No, make that several notches.
Because the owl that had crouched in the bushes below Kai’s room was definitely not some toy or yard sculpture. When it had opened its eyes, Kai had clearly seen that the owl had one emerald green eye and one bright blue one.
On Sunday afternoons, Kai and his friends usually went on “quests” when the weather was good. The quests were something Kai’s dad had come up with.
How about I hide something somewhere in town, Kai’s dad had suggested one afternoon when Kai and Asher and Todd were hanging around, bored, complaining that they had nothing to do. “I’ll give you a clue that will lead you to another couple clues,” Kai’s dad continued, “and you can follow the clues to find the treasure.”
Todd, whose own parents were total workaholics who tended to ignore their only child most of the time, had thought this was rad, and Asher had gotten into it, too. That day had started the regular routine they followed now.
Kai’s dad was a genius with clues. They had to ride their bikes all over town to find the next clue and the next until they found “the treasure,” which would be anything from cookies to concert tickets to a CD. Once, when the clues were really hard, they’d found three fifty dollar bills in a little wooden chest hidden in a nook at the base of the clock tower in the town square.
Kai was still jittery the day after he’d seen the owl. He had gone straight to bed, but he’d lain awake for a long time before finally drifting into a restless sleep. All night long, the owl had haunted his dreams, so much so that Kai had used his “Wake myself!” trick three times. His eyes were scratchy from lack of sleep when he met Asher and Todd on his front porch to study the first clue of the day’s quest.
It was a nice day. Spring had finally settled in for good, and the days were getting warmer. The soft blue sky overhead held wispy white clouds. Normally, Kai would have been happy to be outside on a day like today. But right now, the open sky somehow felt threatening. He felt exposed. He kept rotating his head, searching the neighborhood for anything that seemed out of place.
Kai didn’t see anything that shouldn’t have been there. The mostly one-story houses that lined his narrow street looked as they always did on a day like today, their windows sparkling and their dark roofs shimmering in the sun. The bushes were thick and healthy. The driveways held the usual array of sedans and SUVs. As was common on weekends, several people were mowing their lawns. A few children played in their yards or ran up and down the sidewalks. The air smelled like fresh grass clippings, and the screams of little kids pierced through the roar of lawn mower engines.
Kai forced himself to pay attention to his friends. He needed to forget about the stupid owl and stop looking for things that weren’t there.
Todd, who clutched the tiny scrap of white paper that held their first clue, frowned at it. “What does, ‘Hey, you don’t want to bail on this one!’ mean?” he asked.
Kai had no idea, and his mind was too fuzzy to try to figure it out. He shook his head and waited for Asher to come up with something.
Asher chewed his full lower lip for several seconds. He muttered to himself under his breath. Then he snapped his fingers.
“It’s Old Man Gruber’s place,” he said.
“Huh?” Todd said. He unwrapped one of the caramel candies he often had stuffed in his pockets. He popped it in his mouth and held out another couple wrapped ones. “Want some?” he said around the candy in his mouth.
Asher and Kai shook their heads.
“Old Man Gruber doesn’t bale his hay,” Asher explained. “You know how he just puts it in mounds in his fields?”
Todd nodded. Then he shook his head. “How do you know the clue’s supposed to take us to Old Man Gruber’s place. This time of year, a lot of hay isn’t baled yet. The clue could mean any one of a dozen farms.”
“Too random,” Asher said. “Kai’s dad wouldn’t send us to every farm with unbaled hay. Old Man Gruber is known for his unbaled hay.”
“I think you’re assuming too much,” Todd said. “And you know what they say about assuming.”
“You’re assuming I care what you think,” Asher said.
“Hey,” Todd said.
“Exactly,” Asher said.
Kai wasn’t in the mood for Todd’s and Asher’s bickering. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go see what we find at Old Man Gruber’s. He has that little stand next to the road, where his daughter used to sell flowers. That would be a good place to hide another clue.”
Todd chewed his caramel with his mouth open and thought about it. He shrugged and nodded. “Why not?”
Asher rolled his eyes. All three boys went for their bikes, which leaned against the slender porch railing that ran along the front of Kai’s family’s house. They all put their feet on their pedals and coasted down the driveway to the street.
Old Man Gruber’s farm was only a couple miles from Kai’s house. It was a straight shot down the street and then onto one of the back roads that crisscrossed the farms that surrounded the town. As they rode their bikes over, Kai lagged even farther behind than usual.
His mind was not even remotely on the quest. His focus wasn’t on pedaling his bike, and he wasn’t noticing much about the houses and yards they were passing. He was back to thinking about Tiger Rock. And the owl.
Kai remained lost in his thoughts until they started to pass the last house at the end of the street before turning onto the road leading to Old Man Gruber’s place. This house belonged to Mrs. Nelson, a widow who liked to be sure everyone knew she was proud of her thick green lawn, her “prize-winning” flower beds, and her perfect white picket fence.
Kai was pedaling past that fence when he spotted something crouched near one of the posts. He slowed his bike, afraid he was seeing the metal owl again.
When Kai dropped his speed, though, he realized that the lump at the base of the fence board wasn’t an owl. It was a cat.
But it wasn’t a real cat.
Kai’s feet came off the pedals, which whipped around and smacked his calves. He jerked the handlebars as he stared at the cat, and his bike careened off the road.
Only just aware that he was losing control of the bike, Kai kept his gaze on the cat. He could tell it was made of the same detailed metal he’d seen on the future Pizzaplex’s animatronics and on the owl in his backyard.
As Kai gaped at the cat, it turned its head. Like the owl—and like Tiger Rock—the cat had one green eye and one blue eye.
Kai’s breath caught in his throat, and his left hand lost its grip on the handlebar, so only Kai’s right hand squeezed the brake handle when he involuntarily clutched at it. Kai’s front wheel locked up, and the bike flipped, sending Kai head over heels into the picket fence.
Kai’s left arm shot between two of the fence boards, and his bike came down on top of him. Kai’s head grazed the fence boards, and his knees skinned the concrete in front of the fence. Kai got a nose-full of the strong fertilizer Mrs. Nelson used.
Stunned, Kai lay still for several seconds.
“Whoa!” Todd’s voice rang out. “Are you okay?”
Kai closed his eyes. He did this partly because of the pain in his head, his arm, and his knees, but mostly he was closing his eyes because he knew he’d landed near the cat, and he didn’t want to see it.
Kai heard the sound of bike wheels speeding over concrete. Then he heard the squeak of Todd’s brake. After that came the clatter of bikes hitting the ground.
Kai opened his eyes as his friends reached him. Todd leaned over and grabbed Kai’s right hand. He tried to hoist Kai up from the ground.
A sharp pain shot through Kai’s arm, and he cried out. The pain worsened as Todd tried even harder to lever Kai up from the ground.
“Ow!” Kai screeched.
Todd kept pulling.
“Stop!” Kai yelled. “Stop it! That hurts!”
“Sorry,” Todd said, panting. He dropped Kai’s right hand.
“His arm’s stuck between the fence boards,” Asher told Todd as he shifted Kai’s bike away from him. “You need to work his arm free carefully.”
Todd dropped to his knees next to Kai’s trapped arm. Kai felt the bike’s weight come off his body, and before Todd could “help,” Kai turned so he could pull his own arm out from between the boards.
Kai’s right shoulder was still sore from the wrenching it had gotten the night before. Now Kai’s left arm was screaming as loudly as his right arm had when it had gotten caught in the window.
“Ow,” Kai said again. He gingerly rotated his arm and rubbed his shoulder.
“What happened?” Todd asked. “We were up ahead. I didn’t see.”
Kai wasn’t about to describe what had really happened. “It was a cat,” he said vaguely.
Todd nodded. “Figures. Cats are menaces.”
“They are not,” Asher said. “Cats are great.”
“Whatever,” Todd said. “Everyone knows dogs are better than cats.”
“Dogs are stupid suck-ups,” Asher said. “Cats are independent.”
Todd had some comeback for that, but Kai tuned him out as he carefully got to his feet. His friends continued their cat versus dog argument, one that Kai had heard many times before (Todd had a dachshund and Asher’s family had two cats). Kai ignored them and bent over to check his bike. It seemed to be okay.
“I’m going to head back home,” Kai said, interrupting Todd’s rant.
Asher looked at Kai. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. You’ve got a bump on your head there and your knees are bleeding.”
Asher started to turn his bike to go with Kai. Kai shook his head.
“You guys don’t need to come back with me,” Kai said. “Go ahead and finish the quest.”
“You sure?” Asher asked.
Kai nodded. He could feel tears welling, and he didn’t want his friends to see them. He turned away from them. “I’m sure. Go on and find the prize.”
Kai quickly wiped his eyes. He turned back to face his friends.
Asher and Todd exchanged a look, then they shrugged.
“If you say so,” Asher said.
Asher and Todd got on their bikes and headed down the street. Kai watched them go, then he started walking his bike home. As he went, his arm continued to throb … and his mind continued to replay the image of one green eye and one blue one.
On Monday just before noon, Kai and his friends got out of English class and set off to get their lunch. Kai wasn’t really hungry, but he was happy to be out of the classroom. The crowded room with its desks crammed too close together had felt like it was pressing in around him during the whole class. He’d tried to ignore that feeling, so instead he’d spent most of English class thinking about Tiger Rock and the metal owl and cat. Now that class was over, he realized he really had no memory of anything his teacher had said. He figured Todd would fill him in later. Todd was used to telling Kai what he’d missed when Kai’s mind wandered off.
Now Kai and his friends were being bumped along by a crowd of kids all trying to get to the cafeteria to be first in line. Kai was still lost in his thoughts. He was wondering if there was some ritual that he could find, something that would get the visions he was having—because they had to be visions—out of his system.
Although consumed by his mental chatter, Kai could hear Todd and Asher talking as the three boys approached the top of the escalator heading to the main floor of the old brick building. Yet again, his friends were arguing.
“It’s not a stupid assignment,” Asher said just before they stepped onto the escalator.
“Yes, it is,” Todd said. “Write a story about a food that comes to life? What could be stupider than that?”
“I think it’s clever,” Asher said. “It’s like those commercials where they give candy personalities and stuff. I’m going to write about corn. I think corn could have a great adventure.”
“That’s corny,” Todd said. He snorted out a laugh so loud that several kids below them on the escalator turned around and gave him a look. He, as usual, was oblivious.
Kai stepped onto the escalator last, and so he was looking over the top of his friends’ heads as they rode downward. Trying to ignore their continued squabble, he gazed out in front of him, expecting to see the huge, paned arched window that dominated the front wall of the school.
When Kai focused on the building’s front wall, he did see the big window. But he also saw something else.
Below the window, a new white clock had been installed. Kai frowned and focused on it.
The white clock had a face. Not just a clock face but an actual face. The clock had two eyes, a round black nose, and a wide, toothy smile. It appeared to be made of metal, and the face was outlined in black. The eyes were designed to look like they were closed. There were mechanical dropped lids under feathery black lashes.
When did they put that up? Kai asked himself.
The escalator brought Kai closer and closer to the clock, but because he was going down, he had to tilt his head back to keep his gaze on it. Something about the clock was giving him the heebie-jeebies.
Almost at the bottom of the escalator, Kai craned his neck to study the clock. Aware that Asher and Todd were stepping off the escalator, Kai prepared to follow them.
And that’s when the clock opened its eyes.
By now, Kai shouldn’t have been thrown by the sight of one green and one blue eye. But he was, so much so that his legs went out from under him, and he stumbled.
As soon as Kai stumbled, the escalator stair’s teeth gripped the hem of his baggy pants. Kai’s left pants leg was abruptly snatched up. His leg was jolted backward so violently that he fell forward. Landing on his stomach, flat, Kai hit his chin on the metal grating at the bottom of the escalator.
For three long seconds, the escalator dragged Kai’s leg away from him as if the escalator and his leg were a wishbone and someone was trying to snap the V of the wishbone apart. Kai’s groin and left hip joint caught fire. It felt like his leg was being torn away from him. He could feel the escalator pulling and pulling and pulling. And then the pulling stopped.
The muscles in Kai’s hip and groin were still straining, but at least the strain was now static, not increasing. Kai became aware of shouting, and he felt hands closing over his ankle. “Get me something to cut his pants!” a man’s voice called out.
Kai blinked and looked around. He saw his tall, burly history teacher, Mr. Harris, squatting next to him. Mr. Harris was bent over. Kai had a close-up view of Mr. Harris’s curly brown hair. Beyond Mr. Harris, several kids were staring down at Kai.
“Way to go, klutz,” a boy called out. It was Ron, one of the big kids who liked to make fun of Kai’s frizzy hair.
“That’s enough,” Mr. Harris snapped.
Ron shut up, but Kai could hear the kids’ murmured comments. “How do you get yourself stuck on stairs?” one girl said.
Kai felt the pressure on his leg let go.
“There,” Mr. Harris said.
Wait a second, Kai thought. Stairs?
Kai felt Mr. Harris’s warm fingers on the skin of his shin, above his sock. Kai pressed his lips together because the skin was tender; it felt burned.
Kai looked past Mr. Harris, expecting to see the escalator’s metal stairs. He blinked and rubbed his eyes.
There was no escalator.
Kai had fallen off the last two steps of a wooden staircase. The same wooden staircase he’d gone up and down hundreds of times. Kai frowned and looked at the last step of the staircase. It looked like one of the stair tread’s boards had come loose. Apparently, Kai’s pants leg had gotten caught under it.
Why had he thought he was on an escalator?
“It doesn’t look like you’re injured too badly,” Mr. Harris said. “But let’s get you to the nurse’s office just to make sure.”
Mr. Harris stood and bent over Kai. “Do you think you can stand?”
Kai nodded. His groin and hip were still burning, and his shin was sore, but otherwise, he felt okay. Physically, that is. Mentally, he was on the edge of a total freak-out. He hoped Mr. Harris couldn’t tell that Kai was quivering so much that he had to clench his teeth to stop them from chattering.
What was going on? And when would it stop?
As soon as Kai got home, he went straight to his room and locked his door.
After Mr. Harris had gotten Kai to the infirmary, Kai’s parents had been called. His mom, just coming off her graveyard shift at the ER, had arrived within fifteen minutes and had a brief discussion with the school nurse.
