The Secrets of Ordinary Farm

Chapter 10

“… and he was so scary, Tyler!” Lucinda whispered. “Like

… like the devil or something!” His sister couldn’t stop talking about Kingaree, the mysterious Fault Line escapee, but although Tyler was impressed and even worried by her experience it seemed like the least of their problems just now.

The farm folk were assembled in what Tyler and Lucinda called the Snake Parlor-the big front room with the stained glass window of Adam and Eve being tricked in the Garden of Eden, the serpent running all around the sides of picture as if to draw a noose around them with its body. Tyler couldn’t help wondering whether gathering beneath a glowing picture of Satan was really the best choice at such a time.

The rain that had pattered on his window and the roof a short time ago was gone and already the day was growing unbearably hot again. Everyone was talking at once and everyone sounded frightened-and no surprise: Gideon was not just their protector but the only thing that connected most of these people to the present century. Tyler couldn’t even imagine what Sarah and the Mongolian Amigos and all the others must be feeling.

Mrs. Needle stood at the middle of the room frowning, her face hard as carved ivory. “You must all be quiet and listen now,” she announced. “Do you hear me? Silence!”

“Why? You are not Gideon!” cried Hoka, one of the Amigos. “You are not the master of the house!” His two silent companions looked impressed that he would talk back to Mrs. Needle but they also looked as if they wished he hadn’t done it.

Colin Needle had a strange look on his face too, Tyler thought-a bit green around the gills, as Tyler and Lucinda’s mom liked to say. Guilty conscience about something? Tyler wondered.

“Hush, all of you!” Mrs. Needle’s voice was sharper this time. “Don’t be foolish. Nobody is claiming to be the master here. But someone must take charge… ”

“Then it should be Simos,” said Ragnar loudly from the doorway. “Walkwell has been here longer than any of us. He has always been Gideon’s right hand.”

Mrs. Needle rolled her eyes in disgust. “This is not about who is in charge, it is about finding Gideon…!”

“Have you searched the whole house?” Tyler demanded. “It’s miles long! Why are we wasting time blabbing? Gideon could have fallen down somewhere where we can’t hear him calling…!”

A lot of the others murmured in agreement, but Mrs. Needle was not having it. “Of course we have searched the house, Master Jenkins, and since it is large and full of unused rooms we will continue to do so. Leave that chore to those who know the place-myself, Sarah and her kitchen help, and Caesar… ”

One of the “kitchen help” suddenly rose from her seat. It was the tall African girl Azinza, swaying like a tree in the wind.

“I saw Gideon in a dream!” she cried.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” hissed Patience Needle. “This is quite out of order. Sit down, you foolish girl…!” Mrs. Needle turned away from her, leaving Azinza open-mouthed. “Nobody has seen Gideon since supper yesterday. Caesar says his bed was not slept in. We will organize into groups. The women will search all through the house while the men… ”

“But I tell you I saw him!” cried Azinza. “I saw what happened to Mr. Gideon!”

Mrs. Needle turned on her with cold fury. “Enough of this foolishness…!”

“You have no right to stop her speaking,” said Ragnar, moving up beside Azinza. For a moment he and Mrs. Needle stared at each other and the pure hatred between them made the hairs stir and lift on Tyler’s neck. At last Mrs. Needle waved her hand in disgust and turned away. “Go on,” the big man told Azinza. “Tell what you saw, girl.”

“This is not foolishness,” she said, but she could not quite look Patience Needle in the eye. “My people used to come to me for my dreams. They called me goddess.” She shook her head angrily, her eyes still bright with tears. Tyler felt sorry for her. Gideon might have saved this young woman’s life, but he had also pulled her away from everything she knew and believed. “Last night, I had a strong, strong dream,” she began. “A telling dream like the kind I used to have back home. A great creature with many fingers-as many fingers as the apple tree outside has branches-held Mister Gideon. It hurt him and he fought against it, but he was not strong. And then he… he… ” Azinza’s face crumpled. “He began to melt away…!”

She tried to say more but could not. Weeping, she let little Pema help her to a chair. Babble and upset filled the room.

Mrs. Needle turned on Ragnar. “There! Are you happy to fill these frightened peoples’ heads with such nonsense?” Whatever order there had been a moment ago was gone. Everyone in the Snake Parlor was talking at the same time.

Lucinda sidled up. “I’m scared, Tyler,” she whispered. “Where could Gideon have gone?”

“I can think of a few places.” He was thinking about the washstand mirror and the shadowy world on the other side of it, but he wasn’t going to talk about it out loud: Lucinda was the only person in the house who knew. Still, could Gideon have got into it somehow? Did it have something to do with Mrs. Needle taking the washstand mirror out of the library?

What better place to hide someone you don’t want found? Tyler thought. Just knock them out and shove them through the mirror…!

The more he thought about, the more reasons he discovered that it might be true. But how could he tell the others when he’d been hiding something so important for over a year…?

His thoughts were interrupted as a sudden quiet fell on the room. Mr. Walkwell stood in the front doorway, his narrow, bearded face gray with dust.

“I have been down to the Fault Line,” the farm’s overseer announced. “The bad news is there is no sign of Gideon there-the lock is still on the outside, but I opened it and went down to look and found no recent marks or footprints. I suppose that is also the good news, because if he had entered the Fault Line there would be nothing we could do to follow him. It has now been locked again. No one else go near.”

“Time to begin the search, then!” said Ragnar before Mrs. Needle could say anything. “Hoka, Jeg, the rest of you men, come with me.”

“What if we don’t find him?” Lucinda asked. The faces of the others showed that they had been wondering this too.

It was Ragnar who answered. “That is too hard a question for today, child. While we search things will go on as they have. Mr. Walkwell will run the farm, Mrs. Needle will… will see to things in the house.”

Patience Needle favored him with a poisonous smile. “Thank you for giving me permission to do my job, Ragnar Lodbrok.”

“Enough arguing.” Mr. Walkwell broke his silence. “Back to searching. Search everywhere again. Gideon is old and he might be hurt. Waste no time.” He turned and walked out the door, hooves clicking on the wooden entry hall floor. Most of the men of the farm followed him-but where, Tyler wondered, was Colin Needle? He spotted him a moment later, talking urgently to Lucinda, which bothered Tyler more than it should have. He didn’t want the pale young man being friendly to his sister. It was just… creepy. Creepy and wrong.

“Hey, Needle,” he called. “Needle!”

The older boy shot him a resentful look. “What do you want, Jenkins? I wasn’t talking to you.”

“I think your mother knows something about Gideon disappearing-something she isn’t telling us.”

“Tyler,” Lucinda said warningly, “don’t… ”

He ignored her. “Don’t lie to us, Needle. You know she had something to do with it, don’t you?” Tyler took a step nearer; to his satisfaction, Colin took a step back.

“Just shut up, Jenkins!” sad the older boy. “You don’t know anything. You’re busy ruining everything while people like me are trying to save this place.”

“Stop it, both of you!” Lucinda cried, but Tyler was just getting started.

“Oh, sure,” he said. “Save the farm… like when you tried to sell Meseret’s egg to the person Gideon hates most in the world? When you pretty much gave away the secret of this place? Yeah, you really care…!”

Tears actually came into Colin Needle’s eyes. He balled his fists and for a moment Tyler thought the older boy might take a swing at him, but instead Colin turned and hurried out of the Snake Parlor toward the front door.

Tyler stared after him. “What’s his problem?”

“You’re a creep, Tyler Jenkins,” Lucinda said. “He came to me for help! He wanted someone to listen to him! And he might have had something important to say about Gideon, but no, you had to be… you had to be… ” She turned and stomped out of the room, headed for the kitchen. As the door fell shut behind her, she shouted back, “

… A big creep!”

“Huh?” Tyler said it out loud, even though he was now the only person left in the room. “I don’t get it? What did I do?”