The Secrets of Ordinary Farm

Chapter 4

Angry but very tired, Lucinda sat on her bed and did her best to ignore Tyler banging around in his room, thumping the walls and door in frustration.

Okay, so they’d been locked in. She didn’t like it either, but they couldn’t do anything about it tonight, so why wouldn’t her brother just let her go to sleep?

Tyler’s room finally went quiet. Lucinda took a book out of her suitcase and settled back against the pile of pillows to read, an old novel of Mom’s called “The Singing Tree” about a Hungarian family during the First World War. The story was good and she was tired enough just to fall into it, so when someone knocked on her window it startled her so much she screamed and dropped the book.

It got weirder. Tyler was hanging upside down at her window like a huge bat, waving and grinning.

“You idiot!” she said as she jumped up to shoulder open the ancient window so he could climb in. She looked down. “It’s like three floors to the ground! You could have broken your neck!”

“You sound just like Mom,” he said. “There’s ivy all over the walls outside-it’s totally grown into the bricks, really easy to climb.” He sat up, his hair all kinds of wild and looking enormously pleased with himself. “Nobody’s going to lock me in.”

Lucinda found herself almost admiring his total irresponsibility. “You’re insane,” she said. “How are you going to get back?

Tyler sank to the floor and stretched out on his back. “It was pretty awesome, really. There’s a big moon, tonight-plenty of light for climbing. And this house…! I forgot how big it is. It just goes on and on-crazy, gigantic big…!” Tyler’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that?”

Lucinda sighed. It was like having a young dog around-sniffing, scratching, digging, chewing, always into something. “What’s what?”

“That.” He pointed at the ceiling above her dresser. “That square up there. Looks like a trap door or something.”

“Yeah, well, check it out tomorrow, Dora the Explorer. I’m tired.”

“No, really.” He sprang up and pulled out a couple of the dresser drawers. “Here, help me-keep this from tipping over… ”

“Tyler, no!” But it was useless, of course-he was already clambering up the dresser, making it sway ominously. She hurried forward just in time, wincing as she heard the wooden drawers creaking and protesting under his weight. When he reached the top of the dresser Tyler reached up and poked the rectangular ceiling panel, then poked it again. It gave a little.

“I knew it!”

“Knew what? That there was a heating duct up there?” But Lucinda was a little intrigued in spite of herself. Tyler pushed the wooden panel up and out of the way, exposing darkness. “Eew,” she said. “Probably full of spiders.”

“Give me your flashlight, Luce.”

“Where’s yours?”

“I dropped it when I was climbing on the roof.”

Lucinda sighed. “Good going.” She found the dopey pink flashlight Mom had given her and passed it up to Tyler. He gripped it in his teeth, then pulled himself up into the space above until he could rest his upper body on the edge and only his legs dangled down. “What do you see?” she asked. “Don’t let any spiders crawl down or I won’t be able to sleep in here.”

His voice was muffled. “Yeah, that makes sense. You’re on a farm with dragons as big as a jet plane and you’re worried about ordinary house spiders?”

“Spiders are creepier than dragons. What’s up there?”

“Mostly heating pipes or something… and insulation. Old empty boxes.” He sounded disappointed as he rattled things around.

“Don’t make so much noise!” she hissed, up into the dry, old-smelling air above her head.

Tyler’s face appeared in the opening. “It’s a big space, Luce. An attic.” He vanished, returned to his inspection. A long moment passed. “Wow. Actually, there’s a lot of stuff stacked right behind that heating pipe thing over there… ”

Then he fell silent. Lucinda listened for long moments, heart pounding. He was doing a good job of being quiet-too good. “Tyler?” she called.

“I found a cool-looking box up here, Luce. It’s like wood, and it’s got… labels all over it.”

“What do you mean, labels?”

“You know, like someone sent if from far away. Come stand under the hole and help me get it down.”

Despite her very strong desire not to handle anything that might have spider webs on it, Lucinda got on a chair and reached up, squinting her eyes in case anything jumped off at her. The box, when Tyler slid it down, was smaller and less heavy than she’d expected, about the size of an overnight bag, made out of pale, thick wood with rusted metal corners; Lucinda just managed to avoid getting scratched by the metal as she took it. Tyler jumped down.

“What is it?” There were labels all over it, like someone sent it from far away. The labels were in English, but the names all looked very exotic-the sender seemed to be someone named Koto. Lucinda couldn’t even guess what kind of name that was. “Wow-look at this label,” Tyler said. “This box came from Madagascar!” He pulled his knife out of his pocket. “Swiss Army to the rescue!” He began hacking through the thin metal bands that held the box closed.

“Don’t cut yourself,” she said, but Tyler ignored her; a few moments later he was prying up the lid of the small crate. When it popped free, a smell rolled out like nothing Lucinda had ever smelled before, dusty and dark and rotten-sweet, confirming every prejudice she had against this venture.

“ Oohh, gross!” She gasped. “What is that? Don’t touch it, Tyler!”

That was something shriveled and possessed of little legs folded up against a long, dried-out body. Tyler lifted it off the top of the nested paper. “Awesome. It’s a lizard!”

“Yecch. It’s lizard jerky, is what it is.”

Tyler actually waved it in her face, like he was four years old.

“ Stop!”

Luckily the lizard had been dead and dried long enough that it had almost no smell, but Lucinda still didn’t want to touch it. She watched as Tyler set it aside and began digging through the scrunched-up paper. “The rest of looks like it’s all plants,” he said, holding up some kind of bulb with little bits of dry soil still clinging to its tiny roots. “And seeds in glass jars-this one has a note on it that says, ‘Unknown Sarracenia… ’ Tyler was digging busily in the paper now, and suddenly she flashed back to him as a very small kid, seeing in her mind’s eye the way he used to excavate in the just-opened cereal box for a free toy, and how crazy that used to make their mother: ‘Pour it out in a bowl, for God’s sake. Don’t stick your dirty hands in there!’

Tyler tossed something at Lucinda-a bundle of letters, held together with an old rubber band that broke into pieces as she grabbed for the letters. They scattered all over the floor.

“Clumsy,” said Tyler, which made Lucinda fume. She picked one up and was startled by what was written on it.

“ ‘Doctor Grace Goldring! ’ ” she said. “Wow – did you know Gideon’s wife Grace was a doctor?”

Tyler shook his head. “But this stuff is mostly seeds,” he said, disappointed. “Some powdery, mushroomy stuff, and a couple of bugs in, like, test tubes… ”

“So she was a biologist… ” said Lucinda, impressed. “A scientist.”

Tyler stopped abruptly, his hand sunk deep in the packing materials, and for moment Lucinda was scared that the poisonous spider she’d been worrying about all along had bitten him. Then she heard it too-a key turning in the door of her room.

Lucinda looked at Tyler, who stared back at her, wide-eyed. “Just a minute!” Lucinda shouted. “Don’t come in!”

Tyler was shoving everything he’d pulled out back into the wooden crate. Lucinda frantically tried to gather up the letters, dropping several in her haste, but there was no time: the door banged open.

Mrs. Needle stood in the doorway, slender as a pointing finger. Her eyes widened when she saw the crate and its contents on the floor, but her face otherwise remained an emotionless mask. “I might have known. The first day and already you two are causing trouble.” She called over her shoulder, “Colin!”

Her son walked in. The boy who had just endured a horrid dragon-snot burn looked fine now, just as his mother had claimed. He gave Lucinda a look as he walked into the bedroom that she could have sworn was pure embarrassment.

“You locked us in!” Tyler said accusingly.

“And you not only got out, you made what must have been a very dangerous excursion to get here,” snapped Mrs. Needle. “What did you do, child, climb out the window? Do you know how foolish that is?” She stared down at the crate. “And what is this?” She looked up to the open panel in the ceiling. “Incorrigible. A few hours back in the house and you are already burglarizing the place, rifling through things that don’t belong to you… ” She shook her head. “Colin, gather this all up and carry it to my office.”

He already had it in his hands. “The lizard too?” he said, sounding weary.

“Yes, of course the lizard-goodness only knows what kind of important scientific specimen it might be.” Mrs. Needle sighed. “As for you two, I am sure Gideon will have something to say to you both in the morning. Tyler, back to your room.”

“You’re not my mom,” he said quietly, but for once that was as much resistance as her brother was willing to offer. Colin led him out.

Great, Lucinda thought as Mrs. Needle locked the door behind her. She threw herself back on the bed, miserable. She wanted to pound her heels on the floor like an angry toddler. Here less than a day and we’re in trouble again.