The Atomic Weight of Secrets or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black (19 page)

As Lucy opened her mouth, Faye kicked her under the table.

“Just... just tired, Miss Brett,” said Lucy, her fingers heading into her mouth.

“The lot of you?” Miss Brett asked. “Were you up in the night experimenting?”

Lucy opened her mouth, but Faye cut her off.

“Yes, Miss Brett. We’re terribly sorry. We were all excited to, well, you probably wouldn’t understand. Mmmm, these cakes are lovely.” Faye indulged in a doughnut. “Delicious. I’m feeling more awake already, aren’t you, Wallace?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Wallace said, “I mean, Faye. Yes, Faye.” But he only looked at his doughnut.

“All right, you five. Listen to me. I do not care whose idea it was, and I do not care what it was you were doing, but we have a new rule on Sole Manner Farm: no midnight experiments. Now, I want you all to go back to bed and come back to the table when you can eat with your eyes open.”

The grateful children marched back into their rooms and fairly collapsed onto their beds. Lucy and Noah were asleep before their heads hit the pillows. The other three found they were restless again, and sleep did not come for them.

When Lucy and Noah both woke about an hour later, they were ready for the day. Jasper, Wallace, and Faye limped through the delayed breakfast and managed to get through the morning lessons. Nobody mentioned the failed escape attempt, and no one discussed whether or not they would try again.

W
EEKENDS
I
N
T
HE
M
EADOW

OR

WHEN A SECOND ISN’T ENOUGH

T
he rest of the week was easier, but now they knew the truth: It was going to be impossible to just sneak away from Sole Manner Farm to rescue their parents. It became the unspoken secret among them and, as they did not speak of it, it became easier to ignore as the days went by.

Lessons became quite interesting. The children found that they enjoyed teaching Miss Brett about all facets of science, explaining chemical reactions and physics. Miss Brett, meanwhile, loved to find things the children didn’t know, and they were so pleased that she cared enough to do that. They learned about animals and about trees. They learned about planting and caring for the things they planted. They walked in the meadow, and Lucy picked the last of the apple blossoms as tiny apples began to form on the trees. They read stories about pirates and ogres and princesses and frogs. Mostly, they learned that, however unsure they were about the rest of the world, and however much they didn’t fit in with most teachers and students, they were sure Miss Brett cared, they had each other, and they were all in this together.

Even Miss Brett. She might have come to the farm with a minimum of information about her students, hired to teach five children whose parents had simply gone away, but now she knew these were not children like any other. She had come to care deeply for them, to love them. She was there for them, however they might need her. They knew this and loved her for it.

Still, this did not keep them from knowing that everything else was some horrid mystery, some terrible unknown story in which they played some strange role as captives. And the role their parents played? This question could keep them awake at night and sour even the sweetest things Miss Brett did to please them.

When the men came for the children on Friday afternoon, Miss Brett had a big hamper of treats for them to take on the ride home.

“Home?” said Faye with disdain. “I’ve never been to the bloody place. In what way is it my home?”

“It will be,” said Lucy. “Rosie is lovely. Not lovely like Miss Brett, but she makes delightful cakes and things and she clucks and—”

“Is she a chicken?” asked Noah.

Lucy giggled. “Sometimes,” she said.

“I think it will be a very nice weekend. It will give you a chance to get away,” said Miss Brett, not realizing the look of alarm she caused in her students. “You are here all week, trapped on this farm.”

“And now we can be trapped in a house in Dayton,” said Noah.

“You’ll have a chance to get away, to take a well-deserved break from school—”

“I think I’d rather stay here with you, Miss Brett,” said Wallace.

He looked so small today, Miss Brett thought. She knelt down and held his shoulders. “Let me tell you something, Mr. Wallace,” she said. “You are going to enjoy the weekend. You will have fun and spend a little time relaxing, and on Sunday, a mere two days from now, you will be back here and you won’t be able to get rid of me.”

Lucy threw her arms around Miss Brett. “I’d never, ever, ever want to get rid of you, Miss Brett!” she said.

The driver of the first carriage to pull up was a very round man who wore what appeared to be black duck feet and a rubber suit that went all the way to his chin. His nose stuck out like some crazed duckbill, upon which sat very dark glasses. He had a rubber hat upon his head.

The second carriage was driven by a very small man with an enormous black hat. His black fuzzy slippers came up to his knees, becoming fuzzy boots. He had something like snakeskin leggings and a feathery vest over a furry-sleeved pullover.

The children separated to climb into both carriages, but the man in the fuzzy slippers stopped them.

“The duckman it is, then,” said Noah.

Faye leaned up toward the duckman and said, in a soft voice full of venom, “Don’t think we don’t know, Mister Duckman. We’ve got your ticket and the game’s almost up. We’re not the
simple mindless fools you think we are.” She then climbed into the cabin. The duckman appeared not to have understood a word she’d said.

“It will be all right,” Miss Brett whispered into Wallace’s ear. He held her hand tightly.

Slowly, Wallace looked up at Miss Brett. She smiled back at him, nodding. He seemed to either relax or succumb to the inevitable, letting go of her hand and climbing into the cabin. Jasper handed the hamper up to Noah, who had climbed in while Faye was threatening the coachman.

Jasper turned to Miss Brett, to whom Lucy now clung.

“Come on, Lucy,” Jasper said. To Miss Brett, he said, “Thank you.”

When they were all in the carriage, they found it most comfortable to sit across the back of the extra-large, soft seat. With the first jerk of the reins and the movement of the carriage, Lucy climbed up and waved, and Miss Brett waved back, but every time Miss Brett was about to put her hand down, Lucy did not, so Miss Brett waved and waved and Lucy waved and waved and Miss Brett waved back until the carriage was out of sight.

It wasn’t long before they were hungry. They opened the hamper to find butter biscuits like they’d had that first day. There were jam tarts and cheese sandwiches and an icy cold bottle of juice for each of them. Lucy reached for a jam tart and gobbled it in a flash. She reached for a butter biscuit and a cheese sandwich and ate them together, one in each hand. Completely covered in
cheese, jam, and crumbs, she received a napkin from a thoroughly disgusted Faye. Now tidied but thirsty, Lucy took about three sips of juice before Jasper caught the falling bottle.

“Be careful, Lucy,” said Faye.

“Never mind. She’s asleep,” said Jasper. “She does this sometimes. She’ll be starving and eat so fast it knocks her out.”

“Takedown by strawberry tart,” said Noah.

It wasn’t long before there were five sleeping children in the back of a carriage driven by a black-billed duckman.

“And there’s the yellow carriage house!” Lucy announced. The others were in various states of stirring, except for Noah, who leaned heavily on Faye’s shoulder.

Faye jerked away from Noah. “You had better not be drooling on me,” she said.

Noah looked as if he didn’t know where he was.

“See, there’s the firehouse and the lovely park,” said Lucy. “And look, we’re passing the green grocer again, and there’s that statue of the thing.”

“What do you mean
again?”
asked Noah, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Well, I’ve been awake for hours and hours,” said Lucy, “and this is the third time we’ve passed that statue.”

“You’re wrong,” said Faye, trying to orient herself to her surroundings.

“No she isn’t,” countered Jasper. “Lucy’s almost never wrong. She can remember things.”