War on Whimsy

Table of Contents

 

 

GROSSET & DUNLAP
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009024831

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-18516-2

An extremely tall man and woman huddled together in a small, damp, dark cell.

Their nostrils were filled with the scent of roses. Their mouths were dry from thirst and fear.

A little boy lay asleep on the woman's lap, his thumb in his mouth.

“We should never have done it,” whispered the woman. She brushed away a leftover teardrop from the little boy's face.

“Maybe not,” sighed the man.

“What do you think she'll do?”

This time the man smiled, his teeth a sudden flash of white in the darkness.

“She'll call Nicola, of course.”

“Nicola! Phone call!”

Nicola Berry was startled. Who would be calling her here at this time of night?

“For me? Really?”

It was past midnight and she was at her great-grandmother's one-hundredth birthday party. The music was thumping, and Grammy was tapping her feet and jiggling her hips, leaning on a walking stick in each hand. Nicola and her cousins were all hiding yawns as they danced in a circle around their tiny, white-haired grandmother who might have been the oldest one at the party, but seemed to have the most energy. The littler cousins were asleep, curled up in corners. Even Nicola's dad had collapsed on a sofa, his head tipped back, twitching violently each time he snored.

“She said it's Shimlara,” yelled Nicola's crazy great-aunt Annie over the music, handing the cordless phone over to her. “I said it was a bit late to be calling. She said it was lunchtime on her planet. Her
planet
! What a jokester!”

Nicola took the phone from Great-aunt Annie, who marched off, muttering and shaking her head.
When will they start believing that I actually do know people from other planets?
she wondered
.
After all, it had been international news when Nicola and her friends saved Earth from being destroyed by a spoiled princess from the planet of Globagaskar.

Why would Shimlara be calling Nicola now? It had only been a matter of hours since they had dropped her back home after their last mission.

Nicola's older brother, Sean, appeared by Nicola's side. “Why is Shimlara calling you?”

“How would I know?” said Nicola, irritably, because she was worried.

They went down Grammy's hallway toward her bedroom, where it was quiet.

“Hello? Shimlara?”

“Oh,
Nicola
!” Shimlara's voice sounded tiny and strange, and then she burst into tears. Nicola made an alarmed face at Sean. It wasn't like Shimlara to cry for no reason.

“What's the matter? What's happened?”

“Mom and Dad and Squid have
vanished
!” sobbed Shimlara.

“But are you sure?” said Nicola. “Maybe they went shopping and forgot to leave a note.” Her own family was constantly doing that.

“There
is
a note,” said Shimlara. Her voice became stronger. “In Dad's handwriting. It says, ‘Help, Shiml—' and then nothing else, as if he was interrupted. I think they've been
kidnapped
!”

“Have you called the police?” asked Nicola.

“What are police?” said Shimlara.

Maybe they had a different name for the police force on Globagaskar. “Who do you call when someone commits a crime?”

“We don't have crime on Globagaskar. We're far too advanced for that. That only happens on prehistoric planets. No offense.”

“Okay, but, isn't kidnapping a crime?”

“Stop being so picky!” snapped Shimlara. “All I know is that I've got a very bad feeling. Can you and the Space Brigade come to Globagaskar? Please?”

“We're on our way, Shimlara.” Sean's voice boomed down the line. He'd gone into Grammy's bedroom and was listening in on the other phone.

Nicola gritted her teeth. She was the leader of the Space Brigade. It was
her
job to say dramatic things like that.

“We'll be there as soon as we can,” said Nicola. “Just try and stay calm.”

“Hurry,” said Shimlara. “Please hurry.” She hung up.

Sean came out of Grammy's bedroom, his eyes shining. “Looks like we're going back into space sooner than we thought.”

“It looks like it,” agreed Nicola. She was suddenly feeling very wide awake.

Except it wasn't that easy. How were they going to get away from Grammy's party? How were they going to call the other members of the Space Brigade at this time of night? Furious parents would refuse to wake their children up. If Nicola and Sean tried to tell them about Shimlara's predicament, they would say reasonably, “Why doesn't she call the police?”

“Nicola! Sean! Get out of the way!”

Nicola and Sean's mother raced past, pursued by her sister, their Auntie Peg.

“Aha!” Their mom reached the bedroom at the end of the hallway first.

“You
always
get the most comfortable bed!” sulked Auntie Peg.

“What's going on?” asked Nicola.

“We're all staying the night here,” said their mother. “Grammy wants the party to continue on till breakfast time. You kids are all going to sleep in sleeping bags in the living room. That will be fun, won't it?”

Oh, yes, great fun, sharing a room with a dozen wriggling cousins. However, it would certainly be
convenient
for a discreet trip into space.

“Did you win?” Their dad came down the hallway, rubbing his eyes.

“Sure did!” said their mother. Nicola and Sean winced as their parents gave each other high fives.

“See you kids in the morning!” said their mother.

“If we're not around for breakfast it's because we've gone to the pool,” said Nicola, trying to buy more time.

“As long as you're back by ten—”

“Of course,” said Nicola, crossing her fingers that they'd be back by then. Luckily Tyler always flew their spaceship on Time-Squeeze speed, which meant that they could spend days on another planet, but only a few hours would pass on Earth.

“We can text Greta,” she said to Sean, as they closed the door on their embarrassing parents, who were bouncing around on the four-poster bed. “But what about the others?”

Greta was the only one in the Space Brigade who owned a cell phone. (She was also the least popular member of the Brigade, but now that they'd been on two missions with her, it was impossible to imagine leaving her behind.)

“Greta can go and knock on Tyler's window,” said Sean. Tyler lived across the street from Greta. “I don't know what to do about Katie.”

“Wait a sec,” said Nicola. “Katie's mom is away at the moment!” Katie's mom didn't miss a thing, but her dad was an eccentric scientist who wrote textbooks about frogs. “I bet Mr. Hobbs won't even notice we're calling so late!”

Nicola was right. Katie's father was delighted to hear from her. “Nicola! How are you? Still tap dancing?” Nicola and Katie had last done a tap-dancing class when they were five years old.

“You bet, Mr. Hobbs! Is Katie there?”

“I think she might be asleep, but I guess I should wake her. Shouldn't she be getting ready for school?”

“Absolutely!” No need to mention it was past midnight on a Friday.

A minute later she was talking to a sleepy Katie. In the meantime, Sean was busy using a cousin's cell phone to text Greta.

After Nicola hung up with Katie, Sean read out loud a text message reply from Greta:

“How could we be
organized
for something unexpected like this?” said Nicola.

Sean shrugged. He never let Greta's snarky comments bother him.

“How was Katie?”

“As soon as she heard Shimlara needed us, she didn't ask questions,” said Nicola.

Twenty minutes later, the Space Brigade gathered quietly in the front yard of Nicola and Sean's great-grandmother's house. They were whispering because most of the party guests and Grammy had finally gone to bed.