The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past (33 page)

Binny proffered an answer before Dr.
Trace could get her bearings. “Of course not. We just met tonight
for the first time.”

Dr. Trace was getting angrier by the
moment.

“
How did you get out of
those rooms?” Grater demanded.

This time it was Jay’s turn to
interject, “Excuse me, did you lock my children in your exam rooms
back there?”

A wave of confusion washed over the
Head of Security’s face.

“
Of course not. They
wouldn’t lock us in.” Binny smiled her best smug grin at
Grater.

“
Well this has all been
very exciting, but if you wouldn’t mind coming back to the exam
rooms, we can finish our testing and send you on your way.” Dr.
Trace was trying desperately to control the situation.

“
That won’t be necessary.”
Binny responded.

The room full of adults froze in
stunned silence. Zach and Penny were watching Binny
intently.

“
Excuse me?” Dr. Trace’s
eyes were ablaze with anger.

“
There’s no need to test
us. None of us have lowered resistance to meningitis, and I can
prove it.”

“
Oh really? Do tell.”
Trace tried to hide her feelings with a forced laugh.

Binny surveyed the room. Now everyone
was looking at her expectantly. “Every clinical trial has to have a
control group. The control group exists to show what happens to the
patients that didn’t get the drug. This is a super important part
of the scientific method.”

“
I don’t need to be
lectured on the scientific method, young lady.” Trace responded
snippily.

“
Of course not Dr. Trace.”
Binny sounded like she was giving a report in front of her class.
“The point is, Mom, you were in the control group. You got the
placebo. You never received the drug. You had us without the help
of any drugs at all.”

Trace laughed heartily. “That’s
impossible. There was no – ” her voice trailed off.

Binny’s eyes glinted as she looked
straight at Dr. Trace, waiting for her to complete her
sentence.

“
There was no what?”
barked Jay. If his eyes could shoot lasers, they would have bored a
hole through Dr. Trace.

Caught off guard, Dr. Trace stuttered,
“What I meant to say was, my dear, there’s no way for you to know
who is in the control group. The patients, and their families, are
kept in the dark so that knowledge doesn’t affect the outcome of
the trial. None of them can see the participant list.”

Binny had gotten Cassie’s coloring
from Zach and topped the pages with the single sheet he and Penny
had retrieved from the records room. She pushed the combined
documents towards Dr. Trace. “Here’s the proof. It’s a list of ALL
the participants in the study.”

Samantha Trace walked slowly towards
Binny, carefully taking the papers from Binny’s hand and
skeptically scanning the topmost sheet.

Binny smiled knowingly at Dr. Trace.
“Do you see in the column marked ‘Control Group’? My mother’s name
is in that LONG list?”

“
You told us you tested
hundreds of participants. Did you not even bother to check which
ones were in the control group and didn’t need to be tested?” Jay
asked.

“
It’s ok Dad. It’s not her
fault. Even the researchers are kept in the dark on who’s in the
control group so it doesn’t affect the results.”

“
Young lady, where did you
get these documents?”

“
Well, that’s a funny
story. My sister was coloring over at Dr. Huitre’s house earlier
today, and she thought these records were scrap paper.”

Dr. Huitre shifted on his feet looking
increasingly uncomfortable.

“
Look at the one on the
bottom, there’s a pink limousine!” Cassie shouted, happy to finally
have something to add to the conversation.

“
So there is.” Dr. Trace
looked at Dr. Huitre, glaring. “I don’t know how these documents
ended up at your house, Henry,” she said with a glare in Dr.
Huitre’s direction. “This participant list is supposed to be under
lock and key in our records room.” She folded up the pages and put
them in her pocket as she spoke.

“
Hey, those are my
drawings.” Cassie whined.

“
It’s ok, you can make
another one at home.” Julie had pulled Cassie towards her and was
patting her reassuringly.

“
Seems like you’re doing
an excellent job of keeping these important documents very secure.”
Jay directed his sarcasm at Dr. Trace.

Without taking her eyes off Dr.
Huitre, she responded through gritted teeth, “Obviously we have
some work to do to make sure our records stay secure.” Then turning
her head to Jay and Julie she continued, “Please accept my
apologies for this lack of professionalism. I assure you, this is
not standard procedure here at Luce Laboratories. I so appreciate
you coming out here tonight, and I am deeply sorry to have caused
you any inconvenience or worry.”

Jay clapped his hands together, “So,
we’re done here?”

Without waiting for a response, Julie
squeezed Cassie and Binny’s shoulders, ruffled Zach’s hair, and
said “Let’s go home.”

§

As they exited the building and headed
for the parking lot, Penny, Dr. Huitre, and the Jordans could make
out the muffled sounds of an even more agitated Dr. Trace berating
the security team. “I’m glad I don’t work for her.” Jay joked.
Everyone laughed. Dr. Huitre made one final round of apologies to
everyone and left in his own car.

As the kids piled into the Jordan
family station wagon, Julie swiveled around in the front passenger
seat, “Uh, Penny? I’ve been wondering – what are you doing
here?”

“
Oh, I wanted to hang out
with Binny so I hopped in the Luce Laboratories van.”

“
You did what? Does your
mother know where you are?”

“
Oh, it’s ok. She thinks
I’m at your house.” Penny flashed Julie a smile as if the matter
was settled and then continued giggling with Binny as they fastened
their seatbelts.

Julie was so tired, nothing was
surprising her anymore on this endless day. “Well let’s get you
home before she starts to worry.”

§

The day had been so crazy that Binny
could hardly believe half the things that had happened. She was
still extremely sad about her parents’ announcement, but it was
difficult to dampen her feelings of accomplishment after leaving
the Luce Laboratories headquarters.

As Jay turned the car onto the main
street and off of the Luce Laboratories campus, Zach leaned his
head forward from the way back seat, between Binny and Penny’s
whispering, “Binny, I don’t understand, there was no control group.
There was only Mom.” Binny whispered back, “I know. But Trace
couldn’t admit that in front of Mom and Dad. She was so worried
we’d tell Mom and Dad that she went along with my lie.”

“
Remind me never to get on
your bad side.” Zach joked and then leaned back in his
seat.

Penny turned to Binny, “Remember that
day when you were skateboarding and you got mad at me?”

Binny’s cheeks turned pink, “I’m so
sorry about that. I really am.”

“
No, no, it’s ok. I just
remembered something. You were so sure I was making fun of you. And
I told you then that you weren’t able to read my mind.”

“
I remember.”

“
I just thought, I won’t
be able to say that to you anymore.” Penny and Binny couldn’t hide
their happiness from each other. Their relationship had come quite
a ways in a very short time.

From the front seat Jay piped up,
“What are you two girls laughing about?” The only response he
received was more conspiratorial chittering from the back
seat.

Jay continued, “You kids did very well
tonight. And especially you, Binny. You were a real superhero
tonight.”

“
Dad!” Binny was
embarrassed.

“
No, I mean it. This was a
hard day for all of us. The last thing you kids needed was to be
questioned, poked, and prodded by some angry scientist lady. You
stepped up, took charge, and got us all out of there. You’re my
hero.”

Julie was looking back at Binny
proudly as Jay delivered the compliment. “I hope you’ll be there
for me if I ever need rescuing.”

Binny was beaming.

Binny reflected on her life. It was so
very different than it had been just a few days ago. She and her
siblings and her new best friend had super powers. She’d
successfully kept that knowledge from her parents and from that
terrible Dr. Trace. And most importantly, she’d kept her baby
sister safe. Binny had information that Luce Laboratories didn’t
want her to reveal. That should keep them away from Cassie for
awhile. Binny had made a promise to Cassie. She’d kept it tonight,
and she intended to keep it forever.

Binny looked down at her little
sister. Cassie’s eyelids were heavy; she was on the verge of
falling asleep. Before her eyes closed completely, Cassie looked
back up at her sister and gave her a tired but sweet smile. Binny
didn’t know what exactly came over her, but she couldn’t resist
taking a look inside Cassie’s head and seeing what she was
thinking.

On the screen that hung high in
Binny’s mind she saw her own face looking down at her sister.
Unsurprisingly, the image had a distinctly pale pink hue and was
covered end-to-end in countless luminescent sparkles.

25

It had been a month since four
children had exhibited super powers in the small lakeside
neighborhood of Madrona. But so few people had seen them
demonstrate their powers, it was almost as if it had never happened
at all. Signs of normalcy and calm were still
everywhere.

“
It’s not fair. You can’t
be the seeker, you have to be one of the hiders.” Zach explained
for the umpteenth time.

“
I promise not to cheat.”
Binny was laughing as she said the words, her smile making it clear
she had no intention of honoring that promise.

A chorus of “Hi Mom”s rang out from
the Jordan siblings as they passed their mother coming up the steps
to the house, while they ran in the opposite direction.

“
Where are you all going?”
Julie inquired.

“
Oh, hi Mrs. Jordan.”
Penny flashed a toothy grin as she brought up the rear of the
pack.

“
Hi Penny. And please call
me Julie.”

“
Okaaaaaaay.” Penny’s
voice got fainter as she ran past. The last thing Julie could make
out was Penny saying, “Well Cassie has to do the seeking. We’ll
never find her if she hides.”

Julie continued her ascent onto the
porch and towards the front door wondering what the children were
debating as they ran down the hill. She almost ran into Jay leaning
against the front door frame, arms crossed, smirk on his face, and
shaking his head. “I have no idea either.”

Julie and Jay shared a
laugh.

“
I was just coming by to
spend some time with the kids. I’d promised Zach that we would play
some chess.” Julie’s smile was still a touch nervous, her
statements a little bit tentative.

“
Of course. Zach will love
that. Are you staying for dinner? It’s grilled cheese and steamed
cauliflower night. There’s plenty.” Jay raised his eyebrows in mock
enticement.

“
Mmmmm, my favorite.”
Julie joked, but her eyes showed she was grateful for the warm
welcome.

§

“
But I want to play
hide-and-seek again!” Cassie whined.

“
We’ve already played
twice. Dad wants us to get home for dinner. If he has to come get
us he’s going to be annoyed.” Binny lectured her sister.

“
I don’t care!”

“
Hey Cassie, what if we
stop and say hi to Rembrandt on the way home.” Penny
suggested.

“
Ooooh, OK.” Cassie’s tone
went from dark and stormy to endless sunshine in a
flash.

Binny held her tongue despite the
exasperated look on her face. All three girls started the trek
towards the edge of the Madrona woods and then home when Binny
noticed that Zach was dawdling. “Are you coming?”