Chase Tinker & The House of Magic (9 page)

"The fever must be making her delirious,"
said Grandfather.

All at once, a long, terrifying scream filled
the air.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

It had to be the most frightening sound Chase
had ever heard and it was hard to believe that it came from such a
frail-looking person. He clamped his hands over his ears.
"Shouldn't we call—" he yelled over the wailing, which ended before
he finished his sentence, "—a doctor?"

Crying and sniffling, Janie knelt by the bed
and clutched her mother's hand. "The Healing Room will make her
feel better, won't it, Grandfather?"

"It should help, but she's extremely sick,"
he said, placing his hand on Clair's forehead. "I can heal her cuts
and bruises with my own healing magic, but with her illness, I
believe she should be diagnosed and treated by someone more
experienced about these sorts of things than I."

He held his hand over the bloody gash in her
leg. Light-blue beams flowed from his palm and into the wound. It
vanished within seconds. He did the same to her other injuries.

"Oh, the poor dear," said Miranda as she
entered the room with her arms filled with supplies.

"Miranda," said Grandfather, "why don't we
leave you and Janie to make her comfortable before we give the
doctor a call. Will you please let us know when you're done?"

Out in the hallway, Chase wiped at the drops
running down his nose. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"I hope so," said Grandfather, worry lines
furrowed across his forehead.

"What about our dad? Why isn't
he
here?" Chase glared at the closed door. "We need to ask Aunt Clair
what happened!"

"We'll hear her story when she's ready," said
Grandfather. "We just need to be patient."

Persephone and Andy sat cross-legged against
the wall and watched Chase walk back and forth. His soggy sneakers
squelched with every step.

"What if he's lying somewhere hurt or sick!"
he exclaimed, the swish, swish of his wet jeans making as much
noise as his squishy shoes. "We have to find out."

"While we're waiting," said Grandfather,
staring at his grandson's pants, "maybe we should tidy up a
bit."

With a quick twirl of his finger, four small
tornados popped into the hallway. The kids squinched their eyes
shut as the winds whistled and whipped around them. When the
tornados finally spun away, they were all completely clean and
dry.

"Much better," said Grandfather, pushing his
sparkling glasses up higher onto his nose.

Chase's clothes now felt tingly and toasty,
as if they'd just come out of a warm dryer. He glanced down. "Hey!
What happened?" His green t-shirt was gone. He now had on a
dark-blue one with the word "Mariners" written in white and blue
letters across the front. "How the heck did—"

His yelling was cut short by the bedroom door
opening. Mrs. Periwinkle stepped into the hall. Andy and Persephone
scrambled to their feet.

"Mom!" cried Persephone. "How's she
doing?"

"Clair's resting a little better—"

"I need to talk to her," said Chase,
forgetting all about the switched shirts. "She needs to tell us
where our dad is."

"That will have to wait," said Mrs.
Periwinkle, placing a hand on his arm. "At the moment, she's not in
any shape to answer questions."

They filed back into the bedroom. The bedside
lamps had been lit and together they cast a rosy glow over the
room. Clair looked frailer than ever lying beneath the bed's heavy
blankets. Janie had curled up on one side of her, and Maxwell on
the other.

Her breathing was a little more normal, but
she was still murmuring some curious things. "Can't let them find
me. My fault. Can't believe it happened. Got to warn...keep them
safe. Should've listened…" Tears trickled from her closed eyes and
fell into her dark hair.

"Is she dreaming?" whispered Andy. "Or is she
talking about something real?"

"I don't know," said Grandfather sadly.

Chase shoved his hands into his pockets and
gazed at his aunt. Mrs. Periwinkle was right. It was going to be
next to impossible to find out about his dad any time soon. Without
a word, he turned and left the room. He'd have to deal with it
later. And, it was hard to stay mad at her when obviously she'd
been through some sort of traumatic experience.

He wandered back to the study. The rain had
stopped. In fact, the low evening sun now peeked through the
clouds. It was hard to believe it was the same day, so much had
happened already. Dinnertime had come and gone, but at the moment
he didn't feel hungry. His stomach felt as though seagulls were
dive-bombing for fish in it.

The French doors still hung wide open, making
it easy to see the island next to theirs in the distance. Walking
out onto the slippery deck, he leaned against the railing and
stared down at the rain-soaked beach as he ran through his mind
everything Clair had been mumbling. He had so many questions. Who
was looking for her? What did she need help with? And what had
happened that was her fault?

"Is that a boat down there?"

Chase jumped about a foot into the air. He'd
been so lost in thought, he hadn't heard Andy and Persephone
walking up behind him.

"Where?"

Persephone pointed to the far side of the
beach. "Over there." Way down the beach a motorboat sat on the
sandy shore. Waves lapped at the back of it as if trying to coax
the boat back into the sea. "It's not ours so I wonder who it
belongs to."

Chase squinted at it. It looked as if
something big and dark was huddled in the bottom. "Dad?" He
sprinted across the deck and down the stairs.

"Chase! Wait up!" yelled Persephone.

He didn't want to stop. He had to get to his
dad. Rushing down the grassy hill, he leaped onto the beach and ran
along the water's edge. Gritty, wet sand flew behind him with each
long stride. Gasping for breath, he skidded to a stop next to the
motorboat.

When Persephone arrived a moment later, she
found Chase slouched in the boat, clutching a large, black
coat.

"It's not him," he said, his voice sounding
flat and hollow, even to his own ears. "I was so sure when I saw
this." He wanted so much to look into his dad's eyes again and tell
him how much he'd missed him.

Andy ran up and bent over to catch his
breath. "What is it, Chase?"

He tossed the soaked jacket onto the sand.
"Just this ugly old coat."

Persephone reached down and grabbed it.
Perching herself on a huge chunk of grayish-white driftwood, she
dug through the pockets. She pulled out a few pieces of colorful
paper. "Looks like British money." Laying the notes aside, she
searched another pocket. This time she found a plastic card. "And a
driver's license."

"Let me see," said Chase. She handed it to
him.

"It's Dad!" yelled Andy.

"What's it doing here?" Chase stared at the
picture and the name on the card. Benjamin Thomas Tinker.

"This must be his overcoat," said Persephone.
"It looks like a man's."

Chase looked up as she held the coat in front
of her. Their eyes met. Chase realized for the first time that
Persephone's eyes were an unusually vivid shade of green. Feeling
his face burning, he looked away. "Do you, um, think this means he
was in England at some point?"

"I don't know," she answered. "It sure is
turning into a huge mystery." She unzipped an inside pocket. "Wait,
I found something else. It's a passport." Opening the small blue
book, she thumbed through it. "It's Clair's."

She handed the book to Chase. He stared at
Clair's picture, frowning.

Andy picked up a stick and scribbled
absentmindedly in the wet sand. "Even with all this, we still don't
know much of anything," he mumbled.

Chase climbed from the boat and shoved the
license and passport into his back pocket. Grabbing a rock, he
tried to skip it across the water. It caught on a wave and sunk.
"We need Aunt Clair to wake up!" He pitched another rock into the
choppy Sound.

"The Healing Room should help her get better
faster," said Persephone. "Then hopefully it won't be too long
until she can tell us what happened."

Chase continued to throw rocks. He didn't
want to look at her because whenever he did, his tongue felt like a
huge cotton-ball. "Does it bother you to live in this house and not
be able to use any of the magic?" he asked.

"But I can."

"Janie said you and your mom aren't magical,"
said Chase, looking puzzled.

"Janie doesn't know everything." Getting to
her feet, Persephone pulled out a necklace she had hidden beneath
her shirt. Hanging from the long, golden chain was a coin-size,
toffee-colored object. "It's a piece of the Relic. Mr. Hiram gave
it to me when I turned thirteen. He said because I was like a
member of the family, I deserved to share in the magic."

The boys gazed at the glowing disk.

"Way cool!" said Andy. "What can you do with
it?"

"Like you, it makes me part of the house's
magic. I carry it with me wherever I go," she said, brushing her
finger across its shiny surface.

"You must know all the magical rooms then,"
said Chase.

She shook her head. "I've never done much
exploring. It's not a lot of fun by yourself." She dropped the
necklace under her shirt again. "Should we head back?"

"What should we do with the coat?" asked
Andy.

"Bring it," said Chase. "We can ask Clair
about it when we get the chance. And we should probably move the
boat so it doesn't float away."

"Good thinking," said Persephone.

Puffing and panting, the three kids tugged
the motorboat farther onto the beach.

"The water in it should dry up if the sun
keeps shining," Persephone said, brushing sand off her hands.

Andy plopped onto the driftwood and wiped his
brow. "Whew, that was heavy." He glared at Chase. "Dude, what the
heck? Why didn't you use your tele-brain power?"

"I've never moved something that big," said
Chase.

"Size matters not, Grasshopper," said
Persephone.

"Thanks, Master Yoda, but I think you're
getting your movies a little mixed-up."

"Ah,
Star Wars
fan, huh?" she said, a
teasing lilt in her voice.

"Yeah, I like old movies." He smiled shyly at
her as he scooped up the coat and they headed back along the beach.
"My dad loved—" He stopped abruptly. "—I mean—loves old movies. He
got me hooked on them."

"Our little town doesn't have a movie
theater," she said, "but maybe we can see if anything good is
streaming on
Netfilms
this week."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Chase,
relieved the other two had ignored his slip-up.

"So, Persephone, does your dad live here
too?" asked Andy.

Persephone shook her head. "He died a few
months after I was born."

"Oh," said Chase. "Sorry to hear that."

"No big deal," she said, shrugging. "It was a
long time ago. He was from Egypt. My mom said she met him at a
friend's wedding and they fell madly in love. Then a few years
later, he was killed in a car crash."

"That's awful!" said Andy.

Chase nodded sympathetically while hoping
that being fatherless was one thing he and Persephone would never
have in common.

When they got back to the study, Grandfather
was there relaxing at his desk and reading the newspaper. His ink
pen was busily scribbling a letter for him. "So, what do we have
here?" he asked when he saw Chase carrying the soggy coat.

"We found this in a motorboat down on the
beach," said Chase. "It had British money and these in the
pockets." He handed Grandfather the driver's license, passport and
money and hung the coat across the back of a chair.

"Hm, interesting," said Grandfather as he
stared at the license. "This is the first time I've seen anything
of him in over fifteen years." He ran his thumb across the smooth
picture. "He's wearing his hair a lot shorter these days."

"We have lots of pictures of him at home,"
said Andy, "but Mom took them down after he disappeared."

Grandfather leaned back in his chair. "I
guess the question is, why is this here," he said, tapping the
license, "and not Benjamin?" He placed the card, the passport and
money onto his desk and got to his feet. "It's a mystery I'm sure
will be solved in due time. Right now, I have something else I want
to show you."

Following him, they climbed staircases and
zigzagged down hallways until they came to a wide hallway that
looked as if it stretched across the whole house. The walls here
were plastered with pictures of men, women and children wearing
clothing from different periods in time.

"This is the Tinker family Hall of
Portraits," said Grandfather.

"Look at all the pictures!" exclaimed
Andy.

"Every Tinker's portrait ends up here at some
point," said Grandfather.

"Here's one of my favorites," said
Persephone. She stopped in front of a portrait of a beautiful,
young woman sitting in front of a stone fireplace. She had on a
bright-red evening gown. Her waist-length, light-brown hair hung
over one shoulder and she was smiling at someone outside the
picture.

"Whoa! Who's the babe?" said Chase.

Grandfather cleared his throat. "Ah, your
grandmother."

"Oops. Sorry, Grandfather," he said, holding
up his hands and backing away. "No disrespect or anything."

"No need to worry," Grandfather said, smiling
fondly at the portrait. "Sierra was quite fetching in her day."

Chase wandered farther down the hallway and
stopped in front of another portrait. The woman in the picture was
one of the ugliest ladies he'd ever seen. Her dark hair was pulled
back into a skull-hugging bun, which emphasized her very prominent
nose and the hairy red wart on the end of it. She also had a grim,
thin-lipped mouth. But, what made her look most alarming was the
black patch covering her left eye.