Jack James and the Tribe of the Teddy Bear (19 page)

TAKOTA WANTED TO stop playing the dead game right then and there, sprint to Winmart, and check on the other Tanakee. However, Principal Humbert wouldn’t go away. He insisted on escorting the children, even though the store sat across a small parking lot right next to the school.

“Can’t let you go by yourselves,” he said, and that ruined any plans Takota might have had. So when Jack picked him up and put him in the backpack, he had no choice but to keep still and quiet.

Approaching the store, Takota heard the unmistakable sounds of children in the throes of emotions ranging from elation to desperation to sheer anger. He stopped worrying about Mr. Humbert so much. He got the feeling Jack wasn’t concerned with the principal, either.

“If someone bought all the toy animals, where are the Tanakee?” Jack posed the question Takota had on his own mind.

“What?” Mr. Humbert sounded perplexed. “What’s a Tanakee?”

“Uncanny!” Amelia ignored the man.

“Can you see this, Takota?” Jack was out of breath.

“What? I can’t see a thing,” answered Takota.

Mr. Humbert’s voice went up an octave. “What was
that
?”

“Here,” disregarding their principal, Amelia took the bag off Jack’s shoulders and pointed it toward Winmart, allowing Takota to see what had them so amazed—four long tables, lined up and spilling over with toy puppies and pandas, turtles and toads.

The entire store had been pilfered of every stuffed animal, it seemed. Dozens of children pawed and fawned over them, some with parents, some running in wild packs worse than wolves. Shouts of joy competed with impatient wails. The lucky ones rummaged through piles of plush toys, while others watched jealously, forced to wait in line. Amid the chaos, Takota spotted a familiar, well-dressed man who didn’t quite fit in. He stood to the side, scrutinizing each toy.

Then he spoke.

“That’s it! Step right up—everybody gets a teddy bear! But remember, only one each, please!”

“It’s him!” Takota shouted.

“Jack!” Mr. Humbert sounded frightened. “There’s something, or someone in your backpack!”

“It’s who?” Jack seemed unconcerned about Principal Humbert’s revelation.

“Archer Savage! He found me!” Takota answered. “And now look, I led him straight to the others!”

“What on earth is going on here, Jack?” the principal demanded.

Jack started running. “Let’s go check!”

Behind them, Takota heard Mr. Humbert fighting for breath. Finally he managed to holler to the children as they raced from his sight.

“Okay! That’s fine! You, you go on! I’ll just, I’ll just go and get my head examined now!”

In Winmart’s toy department, they found the stuffed animal tower had been dismantled, a large, dusty hole left in its place. Takota went numb, unable to breathe. The nest where the Tanakee had lived. Their sanctuary. Gone, replaced by an empty skeleton of wire and rope.

“Don’t worry, Takota,” Amelia seemed to sense his loss. “They’re safe.”

“How can you say that?” he was ready to climb out of the backpack.

“I know, okay? Don’t ask me to explain it. I just know.”

“All right, all right,” Jack said. “Let’s just go with the empirical, tangible data in front of us. Obviously they aren’t hiding here anymore, and we all know how fast and sneaky you guys can be. Takota, do you think they’re outside on those tables with the rest of the stuffed animals?”

“No way,” Takota was certain. “They would never allow that to happen.”

“Okay, so let’s say they escaped from Savage undetected. Let’s say they’re still hiding in this store.”

Amelia added, “That explains why that Savage guy is still here. You’d think he’d be long gone by now if he’d captured them.”

“Unless he’s after me,” Takota frowned.

“We’ll never let him get you,” Jack insisted. “And we won’t let him have your friends, either.”

Takota sensed the same tingly, static-charged energy as before with the principal. Someone was coming, so he did what came natural. He played the dead game.

“Takota, what’s wrong?” Jack noticed his sudden lapse into a fake coma.

“There you are,” a woman said. Stuck inside the bag, Takota had no way to see, though he knew it was Liz, Jack’s mother. “I’ve been chasing you all over the store, mister. You knew you were supposed to find me first thing after school today.”

“Sorry, Mom.”

“Sorry’s not gonna cut it. You’re walking on thin ice after the stunt you and your dad pulled this morning. I could have gotten fired, you know that?”

“But Mom, we weren’t pulling a stunt, we…”

“I don’t want to hear any more. Omnidimensional power, living teddy bears—I just don’t want to hear it!”

“Yes, Mom.”

“Good. Now, I want you to do me a favor and keep an eye on your little sister, okay? She’s in Kid Kastle listening to the storyteller lady, so go and sit with her or something.”

“Mom! I don’t wanna listen to the storyteller lady.”

“Come on, Jack. You like stories, don’t you? Amelia, don’t you like stories?”

“Well, sure, but…”

TWENTY-SIX

 “‘SOMEONE’S BEEN EATING my porridge,’ growled Papa Bear. ‘Someone's been eating my porridge,’ said Mama Bear. ‘Someone's been eating my porridge, and they ate it all up!’ cried Baby Bear.”

Thanks to the frenzied stuffed animal giveaway, Kid Kastle was a ghost town, population: 2—Jack’s little sister, Lily, and the storyteller, who diligently performed her rendition of
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
despite a sparse audience. Even from Jack’s backpack, Takota felt the passion she poured into the prose. He sensed she loved her work, dressing the part of a word alchemist in a long, purple robe adorned with gold sequined letters and symbols. Her fine white hair cascaded over dainty shoulders past a face glowing with youthful vigor which belied her old age.

When the storyteller was finished, Lily clapped enthusiastically, begging the woman for another.

“Oh, thank you dear. Thank you so much,” she said. “I will tell you another story. I’ll tell you all the stories you want. In ten minutes. Right now it’s Teresa Tree’s break time!”

“Aww!” Lily cried.

“I’m sorry, dear. I promise I’ll return quickly, but really I must go. When you get to be my age and nature calls—you answer,” she laughed.

Lily crossed her bare arms and sat on her knees, rumpling her light pink dress. “I’ll wait right here.”

“Deal,” Teresa gave an exaggerated nod. “Besides, that’ll give some time for the stuffed animal riot to die down outside. Then the kids’ll be back. Where’s your teddy bear? Didn’t you get one?”

“Humph!” Lily dropped her shoulders. “I already have tons of silly teddy bears.”

“Oh, okay,” Teresa smiled. “Suit yourself. If you change your mind, there are some teddy bears over there to play with.”

Lily’s eyes about popped from their sockets. Obviously she recognized something, and it shocked her, though from inside the pack, Takota hadn’t the first hint what it was.

“I’ll be right back, honey,” Teresa didn’t notice the child’s sudden amazement.

Smiling at Jack and Amelia, she whisked her regal shawl in two graceful sweeps of her arms and exited Kid Kastle, leaving them alone to watch Lily.

“Jack, Jack,” the little girl stood and blinked up at him. “I think I know where your teddy bear is at.”

“Where?”

“There,” she pointed to a pair of brightly colored plastic bins filled with toys of all kinds.

“Okay, so where are they?” Jack picked up an Etch A Sketch and dropped it.

“They’re, uh…” Lily searched. “They’re…”

“Right here!” Ayita stood up. Lily’s jaw dropped to her chest.

“Ayita!” Takota jumped from Jack’s schoolbag and hurried to her. “I thought I’d never see you again!”

Ayita beamed and tossed her arms around him. Then her attitude soured.

“You jerk!” she pushed him away, causing him to tumble over a tiny dump truck. “You left us. You promised not to leave, but you did anyway!”

“I had no choice,” he shot to his feet. “Everything was happening so fast. When I got out of that grocery sack, I needed to hide somewhere. Jack’s bag was the safest place I could find.”

She didn’t respond. She was distracted by the excited spasms of the six-year-old girl.

“Jack! Oh my God! Jack!” Lily squealed. “You were right! You were right! They
are
alive, and they talk!”

“Shhh!” Jack tried to quiet her. It didn’t work. She’d built herself into such hysterics she became breathless.

“Come here, Lily,” Amelia hastened to her aid. “Sit down and just breathe.”

“But, but,” the little girl stammered.

“I know, I know,” Amelia stroked her hair. Then Cheyton and Enola came out of hiding from behind the cabinet doors of a plastic kitchen playset and Lily lost it.

“Oh my GOD! They’re monsters! Little tiny monsters!”

Jack tried to cover her mouth. She wormed from his grasp and scurried out through the fake Kid Kastle drawbridge, screaming for her mommy.

“Great!” Cheyton grumbled. “Wonderful plan, sis. Now what, stupid?”

“Cheyton! Be nice,” Enola lowered her eyebrows.

“We can’t trust humans,” he glared at Takota. “And we can’t trust anyone who trusts humans, either.”

“That’s not true,” Amelia said. “You can trust us.”

Takota knew the girl was only trying to help, but he wished she would let him fight his own battles.

“I’ve had just about enough of you!” he rushed toward Cheyton. He didn’t get far. Jack and Ayita both helped to hold him back.

“Yeah? Do something about it,” Cheyton lunged in return. Enola had to restrain him.

“Everyone! Let’s get ahold of ourselves, really!” she shouted. “How can we solve our problems if we can’t stop fighting? We’re a team, a tribe, no matter what. We have to rely on each other, to trust and help one another. And right now we have to help Pud.”

Amelia surveyed the room. “Where
is
Pud?”

“That’s just it. We don’t know,” Ayita fretted.

“Who’s Pud again?” Jack seemed confused. “You mean the funny-looking orange one?”

“That’s Pud!” said everyone in Kid Kastle not named Jack.

“But, what happened?” he continued. “Did Savage get him?”

“We hope not,” Enola frowned.

“Yeah, we’d better hope not,” Amelia sounded distressed. “Jack, Pud has the O/A!”

“What! How?”

“He sneaked it away before the police found it this morning,” she explained. “When he showed it to me, it didn’t look very good. Jack, the O/A looked like it was dying.”

“Dying? It’s a machine.”

“I’m just telling you what I saw, what I felt. Its spirit clothes were colorless. It was dying, or at least very sick, and Pud insisted he could fix it.”

“He did,” Enola said. “He did fix it.”

“Sort of,” corrected Cheyton.

“I don’t know what this is all about,” Jack said. “But we’d better find Pud and the O/A before Savage or the police do.”

“What about your mom, Jack?” suggested Amelia. “She works here, maybe she can help us.”

“I don’t know. It’s been hard to convince her of anything lately.”

“Why do we need to convince her?” she pointed at the Tanakee. “All she has to do is see these guys right here, right now and she’ll be a believer.”

“No way!” Cheyton rejected the idea. “We’re not bringing any more humans into this. You’re the ones giving us all the problems. No more colluding with them, got that Ayita?”

“Wait a minute,” Takota argued. “You can’t talk to her like that. She has Eteea, and if she feels she can trust humans, I believe her. I believe her because I feel it too. My Eteea gets strong whenever I’m with Jack, and it’s getting stronger all the time.”

“That’s what I feel, too,” Ayita motioned to Amelia. “It gets stronger when we’re around these children.”

“Give me a break with this Eteea talk!” ordered Cheyton. “You don’t have it any more than I do, and not any more than the rest of the Tanakee.”

“Yes we do,” Ayita disputed. “Just because you can’t feel it doesn’t mean we can’t.”

“Okay, then enlighten me. What is Eteea telling you right now?”

“Well, I, uh…”

“See! It’s unreliable!” Cheyton raised his voice. “It’s uncontrollable and it always will be!”

Ayita bristled. “I don’t need to control Eteea to understand it. One thing’s for sure, though. Jack and Amelia are our friends.”

“Cheyton, listen to them, please,” begged Enola. “You’ve got to try and open your heart to these children. They want to help us.”

“Why is everybody ganging up on me?” he reeled from Enola’s embrace. “All I wanted was to keep us safe. And I was, until
he
came around,” he pointed at Takota. “Can’t you guys see it’s his fault?”

Takota fought off a fit of rage, feeling as if he might come to blows with Cheyton. Their furtive, sideways glances became direct stares. Before they got the chance, though, a change in the environment made them both pause and take notice. All the Tanakee listened, and each one of them stopped and fell frozen, once again pretending to be mere toys.