Floors: (13 page)

“If you put him facedown, he’s harder to hear,” said Leo. Remi picked Blop out of his jacket pocket and turned him upside down, dropping him back inside. His wheels spun back and forth with a
whir
, but his muffled tin voice dropped into the background.

When they arrived at the Bow Bridge, Leo was the first to spot the hidden arrow. Under the arch, near the water, a cluster of ducks was staring.

“There it is,” said Leo.

“It makes me wonder if there’s an arrow under the real bridge,” Remi pondered. “I’ll have to get a boat and see next time I go there.”

Leo smiled at this idea, because he’d been thinking the same thing. Maybe the two of them could go together once all the mysteries of the hotel had been solved.

Leo reached over the grass and the trees and took hold of the gold-plated arrow, which was about the size of a toothpick. He pulled and nothing happened.

“Try pushing it in,” said Remi, who was impatient by nature.

Leo tried and, again, nothing happened.

“Let me have a try,” said Remi, reaching past Leo to grab the little arrow.

“No, I can do it,” Leo said. He’d missed opening the blue box and he wasn’t about to let Remi open a secret room in
his
hotel.

Leo and Remi both reached for the arrow at once, but Remi got there first. Leo, in his frustration, tried to push Remi’s hand aside. When he did, the arrow snapped off in Remi’s hand.

“Now look what you’ve done!” said Leo.

Remi had always been a daring, energetic boy, but he was also tenderhearted, his confidence easily shaken.

“I’m sorry, Leo. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just got so excited.”

Leo turned back to the Bow Bridge, his frustration made worse by the fact that Remi didn’t fight back. Remi turned to Blop for comfort, pulling him out of his red jacket pocket and asking him for help.

“Blop, how do we find the train?”

Blop’s head spun back and forth as he scanned the park, the Lake, the bridge. He seemed to be thinking.

“The ducks have turned, which is very odd indeed. Might that be of interest?”

Leo, a glimmer of hope returning, moved in close to the ducks. It was true; they had all turned, their miniature heads now facing the other side of the bridge.

“Remi,” said Leo. “Give me the arrow.”

Remi handed the toothpick-size arrow, the tip of which had been broken off, to Leo. He leaned in, too, and saw what Leo saw.

“A bull’s-eye! No way!” Remi yelled. He was so excited, in part because he realized the arrow was
meant
to be broken off, but even more because the rupture between him and Leo had been repaired. All was not lost after all!

Leo stuck the arrow in the center of the bull’s-eye and stepped back as a hole opened up in the ceiling over their heads.

“Better move back — I’ve seen this happen before,” warned Leo.

Remi was a perceptive listener, and as the ladder shot down out of the ceiling, he thought he heard something else from the other end of the room.

“So cool!” he said, because it was, and then he added, “I think someone might be trying to get in here.”

Leo stayed very still and listened. Someone was fumbling with a key card in the hall, trying to get the door open. Leo looked at Remi and put a finger to his lips, then he started up the ladder double time.

When Jane Yancey finally got the key to work, she opened the door to the room only a crack, hoping she would catch Leo doing something he shouldn’t be doing, and
be able to turn him in. She thought she heard a swishing noise, but she couldn’t be sure. The room had turned completely dark, and she opened the door wide, proud of herself for sneaking downstairs and making off with the key while no one was in the lobby.
I’m a crafty girl,
she thought to herself. She let the door go as she searched for a light switch, not realizing the door was on a spring, and it slammed behind her.

She felt she was not alone.

“Hey, Maintenance Man! You get out here right now! Stop trying to scare me!” she screamed, but now she wasn’t so sure. Maybe the maintenance man hadn’t entered this room. Maybe she should get out, fast, and never come back.

Jane Yancey got hold of the handle and threw the door open, afraid to look over her shoulder and see someone chasing her.

She couldn’t be sure, but as she ran down the hall, Jane thought she heard the sound of a distant train.

“Oh no,” said Remi. “I’ve done it again.”

“Done what?” Leo asked. Neither of them had made it up the ladder before it shot back up into the hole, taking them with it. The hole had closed and they were in Merganzer D. Whippet’s secret Railroad Room.

Remi wouldn’t say, and Leo began to feel as if he’d made a mistake being so upset about the arrow.

“It’s okay, Remi. You were right. I shouldn’t have gotten so angry about the arrow. I’m sorry.”

Remi seemed to perk up as he looked at the train waiting to be boarded. They were standing on a platform, the train was marked with a number 5, steam pouring out from under its wheels like it wanted to go but wouldn’t leave without them.

“I left the blue box behind,” said Remi, wincing at the sound of his own words.

“Oh,” said Leo. “That
is
bad.”

“I know, I know — I blew it. I should never have set it down. Someone else might find the box, and then what will we do?”

But Leo was worried about something else entirely. Without the box they didn’t have the model, which meant they’d have to figure out how to get out of the room themselves.

“I didn’t get a very good look inside,” said Leo, trying to put a good face on things. “Do you remember anything that might help us?”

“Not really. I mean, it was a train. There were lots of tracks and tunnels.”

Not helpful,
thought Leo. He was beginning to think inviting Remi into things had been a mistake, but then
Remi had an awfully good idea. He pulled Blop out of his pocket.

“Blop, this is important, okay?”

“Important, yes. What is it?”

“Did you get a good look inside the blue box?”

Leo and Remi held their breaths as Blop’s little head turned back and forth between the two. Clearly the robot wanted to please Leo and Remi. He didn’t want to let them down, and they were happy to find that he did not.

“It’s the donuts you want, that’s the trick,” said Blop.

“What do you mean? What donuts?” asked Leo.

Blop’s head twisted around and faced the train.

“Climb aboard and I’ll show you.”

Leo scratched his head and looked at the train. It was small, more like a roller coaster, and looking around the room he saw that the course it would take was filled with banks and sharp turns, ups and downs, tunnels and bridges.

“Wow, thanks, Blop! You totally saved us!” said Remi. Turning to Leo, he added, “Which car do you want?”

Leo wasn’t sure they could trust Blop, but he wanted to, and he was glad Remi was the courageous type. He’d have hated to drag an unwilling participant onto a train bound for who-knew-where.

“I’ll take the back car, you take the front,” said Leo.

“You got it,” Remi answered, setting Blop in his jacket pocket and climbing over the rail into the train car. Leo jumped into the last car and had a feeling of déjà vu. There was something familiar about the inside of the box he sat in, but he couldn’t quite place it. There wasn’t time to give it much thought, because the engine on the train began to lurch forward on the tracks. When it did, Leo spied the seat belt in his train car and the light went off. He knew this car, and so he knew he’d better speak up.

“Put on your seat belt, Remi! You’re going to need it!”

The engine was taller than the two cars behind it, with a small round window in the back. Leo and Remi were sitting in the open air, and it was Remi who realized something first.

“Leo?” he said as the train pulled out of the station.

“What is it?”

“Someone is driving this train.”

Leo’s heart raced as he looked past Remi and saw the round window in the engine car. It had fogged up, like the frosted glass in the Room of Rings, and someone was writing a message with their finger.

Leo’s knuckles went white against the sides of the car as his grip tightened, and then the train shot out of the station so fast, it felt like Leo’s face had been blown off.

Remi howled with laughter, his jet-black hair fluttering in the wind as the train rounded the first tight turn and flew over a bridge. It was a rough ride, both boys being hurled back and forth in their cars as they entered the first of three dark tunnels. Before they knew it, they were coming back into the station, which pleased Leo, because he expected the train to stop so they could get off.

This was not to be.

After the third time around, Leo and Remi both began to realize they weren’t getting off the train unless they figured out what in the world they were supposed to do. It crossed Leo’s mind that they might
never
get off the train.

“I’m going to hold Blop up in the air!” yelled Remi. He’d turned back to Leo, grinning from ear to ear.

“What? Why?!” Leo fired back.

Remi didn’t answer as he spun back around, pulled Blop out of his pocket, and held the small robot over his head.

“Don’t drop him!” Leo said, half expecting Blop to catch in the wind and nail him in the forehead as he flew by.

Around and around they went, no one speaking, all three of them watching. It was a surprisingly quiet and smooth ride, like a roller coaster on rails of Jell-O, and both boys took note of the route: two bridges, three wild turns, four ups and downs, three dark tunnels.

“Have either of you ever ridden a carousel?” Blop asked as they rounded a corner.

Leo and Remi both answered yes.

“So you’ve grabbed the dragon rings, then?” asked Blop. Remi didn’t know what this meant, so he looked at Leo, who shrugged.

Up and down, over a bridge, and through a tunnel they went, rounding the station for the fourth time.

“Many carousels have the dragon ring feature,” Blop continued, “which works like this: As you pass the dragon, you take the ring out of his mouth by hooking it with your finger. Every time a ring is taken, a new one appears. Take the gold ring and you get a free ride.”

“Sounds fun, but what’s it got to do with the train we’re on?” Leo asked.

“The dragons are in the tunnels, or so says the blue box,” said Blop.

Remi howled with delight, very happy that he’d given Blop a good long look inside the blue box. Even Remi hadn’t seen the tiny dragon heads in the tunnels.

“Here comes a tunnel now!” Remi yelled, dropping Blop into his jacket pocket and leaning out of the car as the world went dark.

But it was useless. The tunnels were so dimly lit, they couldn’t see anything — at least not until Leo took his flashlight out of his pocket.

“I’ll point the light,” he yelled. “You grab the rings!”

When they came to the second tunnel, Leo shone the light on the walls and there it was — a magnificent dragon head, its mouth open, a ring hanging from its teeth. Remi took off his seat belt and leaned far out of the train car, so far that he nearly tumbled onto the tracks. His finger caught the ring and it popped free. There was a short pause as the train went by, then the dragon breathed a stream of fire, lighting up the tunnel with an orange glow. Leo had to duck below the flame in order to avoid having his hair set on fire.

“It’s white!” Remi said.

“If Blop is right, we’ll need a gold ring,” Leo answered.

Around and around they went, collecting rings from the fire-breathing dragons, one in each tunnel. Every
time a ring was taken, a new one appeared, until Remi had nine rings in his pocket. Through the station, up and down, over the bridge, and heading into the first tunnel — this time the ring was gold, as they’d both hoped.

“That’s the one you want,” said Blop, gazing out from his perch in the red jacket. “The gold ring is always the winner.”

“Don’t miss it!” said Leo, worried that the entire system would reset and they’d need to start over. He was starting to feel sick from all the times around the track and wanted to get off the ride more than ever.