The Boy with 17 Senses (19 page)

“Ouch,” Bonip said. “I can't move.”

“Me, neither,” Jaq said. He closed his eyes. The burbling fountain filled his head with soft swirls of color. “Ugh,” he said at last. “How are we ever going to do that again?”

“One more time,” Bonip said. “It's got to work one more time. I know it will.”

Jaq wasn't so sure. The wormhole was barely a flicker now.

It took a while, but finally the pain in Jaq's head began to ease. He threw off his heavy backpack and the last of the
wippers who were clinging to him. He peeked out of the bushes and saw a darker and quieter mall. Jaq didn't see a single giant. His heart sank. They were too late. Fiona was gone.

“This is it?” Hedgemud said. Twelve furry heads poked out next to him.

Jaq pulled the bundle of diamonds out of his backpack and buried it in the dirt, placing a stick straight up near the pile. He put his lighter backpack back on. He'd packed a flashlight and some rope, the only rescue supplies he could find.

Just as he was about to jump out of the bushes, a
clack-clack-clack
sound headed their way. He ducked back just as a giant came into view.

“Gunther,” Bonip whispered. He turned to the other wippers. “Big and mean, and he tastes like that smelly kid next door with the sweaty socks.”

“Ew.”

“Shh,” Jaq said. Time seemed to slow down as he watched the grabby giant walk by their hiding spot. Was he hesitating? Was he looking their way? Why couldn't he walk faster? The echoes of Gunther's steps vibrated through Jaq's body—
thump . . . thump . . . thump
—while Jaq's heart was speeding away—
thumpthumpthumpthump
. His feet wanted to speed away, too.

Slowly, very slowly, Gunther passed the bushes and continued down the first-floor corridor. Jaq watched the giant walk beyond the moving staircase. Finally he was able to let out the breath he'd been holding, and when he did, he noticed something across the way.

“Look,” Jaq said, pointing to the restaurant with the two golden arches. “There's a light on over there. I'm hearing and seeing something coming from inside.”

“Let's go,” Bonip said. “Follow my lead, guys. If you see a crunchy stick on the floor, it's delicious. The green leafy stuff, not so much.”

The wippers jumped down and bounced across the hallway.

Jaq ran after them, keeping his eyes on Gunther's back as the giant walked away. They quickly made it to the restaurant, and Jaq saw what was making the noise.

Fiona sat in a booth, her head in her hands. She was crying. Faint maroon swirls danced around her head and drifted up in the air as her body shook with sobs.

“Fiona?” Jaq said.

Her head whipped up.

“Jaq!” she said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “You came back!” She kneeled down on the floor and looked
him in the eye. “Thank goodness. And, look, more white fluffy guys!”

Bonip didn't look happy. “Hey, the floor is clean,” he said angrily. “Where's the food?”

Fiona reached up to the table and grabbed a red carton. When she shook it, a faint clatter echoed from inside. “I have some fries left,” she said.

The wippers all jumped toward her, so she placed the carton on the tabletop, and soon they were swarming over it.

“I'm so sorry I'm late,” Jaq said to Fiona. “I meant to come back at the right time, but I got tackled by a horrible boy next door, and he wouldn't let me go. And now Plenthy is gone.”

“Maybe not,” she said. “Listen, I think I figured it out.”

“The song's a map,” they both said at the same time.

They both laughed. Fiona picked Jaq up and put him on the table, which was covered with papers and books and wippers.

“I figured it out after you left. I kept wondering why he'd say
music
when he saw you. And then, when you described the images . . . it just made sense. So I recorded it today with my mom's iPhone,” she said. “I don't see the same things you do, but I thought if you came back, we could figure it out together.”

“What about Gunther?”

“He's doing his rounds. I'm supposed to be writing up his hourly log.” She lifted the paper. “He comes in now and then to tell me that he hasn't seen anything. This will go on for a couple more hours, and then my mom will pick me up after her late shift is over.”

“So we're safe here?”

“Yes. If he comes by, just duck behind my backpack until he leaves. Now let's listen to the song.”

She pulled a device out of her backpack. It was much bigger than the one she'd given Jaq. When she pressed the front, Jaq heard the song again.

“Okay, tell me what you see,” Fiona said, pencil ready.

“There's the splashy, watery part that must be that fountain,” Jaq said. “And here comes the rising-up part.”

“The escalator,” Fiona said.

“And then big popping red circles.”

“Got it,” she said. “Next?”

“It's peaceful. All earth tones. I feel like I'm surrounded by soft clouds that are gently brushing against my skin. And now comes the spicy part. The sounds are prickling my mouth.”

“Like in the Mexican restaurant,” Bonip said.

“Yes,” Fiona said. “Plenthy
would
use that as a marker. Okay, good. What's next?”

“This part is bubbly. There's a freshness about it.”

“The bath store?” Fiona said. “It's just around the corner from the Mexican restaurant.”

Jaq relayed each sensation, which Fiona wrote down, and then she added her guess as to which store went with each picture.

“And now this part makes me feel like it's dark and quiet,” Jaq said.

“Dark and quiet?”

“Yes, there's a tunnel of darkness, an emptiness.”

“Hmm. There's a corridor upstairs where three stores just closed. It's practically deserted. There's only one left at the end, a pet store, it's—”

“Turn it off!” Jaq interrupted.

“But the song's not over.”

“I can't take that last part! It's terrifying.”

Fiona switched off the song and looked at her paper. “The pet store? That
would
be terrifying to a little guy like Plenthy. What if he's been kept in the pet store this whole time? Maybe he's not gone yet?”

“Can we check?” Jaq asked.

She stood up and held out a hand for him and the wippers.

“Let's go.”

27

MUSIC CAN GIVE YOU CHILLS, MAKE YOU CRY, OR KNOCK YOU OUT IN TERROR

F
iona held Jaq while the wippers clung to her sleeve. She grabbed her skateboard and headed for the escalator, keeping an eye out for Gunther.

“I don't see him, but this is a huge mall,” she said.

Once they reached the second floor, Fiona put down her board, and they were off. She said the names of the stores they'd marked on the map as she zoomed past them.

“Round red popping—balloons!—the party store!”

“The spa store!”

“The Mexican restaurant!”

They turned a corner.

“Bed, Soaps, and Stuff!”

“Uh-oh,” she said more quietly. “Uncle Gunther.”

Jaq looked up and saw the angry giant striding toward them. Fiona stuffed Jaq into her jacket pocket.

“Um . . . hi, Uncle Gunther!” Fiona said, waving.

He scowled at her, and then they were past.

“The dark corridor is ahead,” she said.

Jaq peeked out of the pocket. “Do you see that?”

“I don't know,” Bonip said from Jaq's shoulder. “Is there something to see? Or are you hearing something? Or tasting something? Or touching something?”

“Noise,” Jaq replied. “That corridor across the way. There are stripes and blasts of very faint colors. Let's go.”

Fiona hurried toward the sound at the end of the hallway while Jaq silently prayed that it was the right spot.

The sounds grew louder and brighter as they reached the end of the corridor. Fiona put a foot down, and they stopped in front of a glass-fronted store filled with living creatures in wire pens. The colors in Jaq's vision were coming from the chirps, barks, mews, and other noises from the animals in the cages.

“This
has
to be it,” he said. “Do you hear it? It's still noisy in there, even though everywhere else is quiet.”

“How do we get in?” Bonip asked.

Fiona tried the door, but it was locked.

“There,” Jaq said, pointing. He had seen that the sounds were sneaking out a hole in the door. It was a narrow, rectangular slot. Jaq could reach the bottom of the opening if he raised his hands. The slot was covered with a metal door that swung open when Jaq pushed it.

“Let me boost you guys in so you can look around,” Fiona said. “I'll wait out here and stand guard.”

“Okay,” Jaq said. “Do you want to go first?” he asked Bonip.

“Yeah. We'll tell you if the coast is clear.”

Fiona held out her hand for the wippers, then lifted them through the opening. Once Bonip gave the okay, Jaq crawled through, landing on a pile of papers that had been dropped through the slot.

The store was filled with a racket that made Jaq cover his ears. Squawks and chirps and barks punctuated a background of burbling water tanks. Bonip waited by the slot, but the rest of the wippers had spread out in search of more food. Jaq could see little balls of white bounce in the air as they hopped through the store.

Faint light spilled from the tanks, but the rest of the room was dark, especially near the floor. Jaq pulled out his flashlight and swung it around, illuminating cages and tanks that were stacked on top of each other. They stretched from the floor upward, almost as high as he could see. He gasped. They were filled with terrifying creatures.

“No wonder the end of the song was so full of dread,” Jaq said. “It's like a store of monsters in cages.”

“It's definitely monsterful,” Bonip agreed. “Which one do you think Plenthy is in?”

They scanned the tanks near the bottom and saw mostly water-dwelling creatures. “Not there,” Jaq said. “He'd drown.”

Moving on, they came to cages with furry creatures huddled in big piles, mostly sleeping.

“They're huge!” Jaq said. He backed away from the pens, hurrying to the middle of the aisle.

“What if he's in one of the top cages?” Bonip asked.

“I don't think he'd be there, where anyone could see him,” Jaq said. “Maybe there's a back room.”

They continued down the aisle and reached the end. On the opposite end of the back wall was a door, so they ran over to it. Jaq held his hands to his ears. “Do you hear that?”

Bonip tilted his head toward the door. “Music?”

“I think so,” Jaq said. He let the music into his head, and then he collapsed.

Jaq came back to consciousness with Bonip jumping on his chest yelling, “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”

Jaq shoved him off and stood.

“What happened?” Bonip asked.

“That music,” Jaq said. “It was filled with sadness, and pain, and terror. It was overwhelming.”

“That's probably your guy,” Bonip said. “But how do we get in there?”

Jaq approached the door and saw hinges along the side. It was a swinging door. He got down on the floor to look underneath. He could hear voices now.

“—or I'll take it away,” said a deep voice.

“Then I'll starve myself, and you'll have no act,” another voice said.

“Just play something happier!” the giant voice said. “Or mysterious, like that piece you recorded for the act. I like that one. Anything but that latest piece of garbage. I swear, I'll take that keyboard and mouse out of your cage and you'll have nothing to do but sit. No more GarageBand for you.”

“Then I'll starve myself—”

“Stop saying that! And just so you know, there's another one of you running about. A younger one. Gunther told me. When I get my hands on him, I won't need you anymore, you old geezer. I'll feed you to your new neighbor, Squeezer. I'm putting his cage on the desk so you can see what I'll do to you if you don't do exactly what I say.”