GOT THE AB-COMS SICK AND TAKEN AWAY! YOU’RE NOT EVEN MY
BROTHER
ANYMORE! YOU’RE JUST NORMAL AND MEAN!”
Adeline grabbed her schoolbooks and stomped away, and Ted got a terrible feeling in his stomach. What
was
he doing? A month ago, he and Scurvy Goonda were spending every single day together—sleeping in the same bed, even—and now he had somehow become exactly like the people who told him that Scurvy was just the product of something misfiring in his head. But this—hundreds of millions of kids being orphaned by their friends on the same day—this was somethingreal. He was a jerk for refusing to admit it. If this was becoming a normal kid, no thanks.
Ted grabbed his backpack and darted out the front door. He found Adeline at the end of the street, waiting for her school bus with a couple of other second graders, one of whom looked extremely sad.
“What?” said Adeline, seeing him coming.
“You’re right,” said Ted. “I’m acting toward you the way people act toward me. I’m sorry.”
“Okay, Ted. So, now what?”
“I’ll try and do something about this. If Scurvy thought that I could stop this from happening in some way—I’ll talk to him.”
“Scurvy is GONE, Ted.”
“Well, maybe not.”
The school bus pulled up and the two other seven-year-olds got on. Ted had stood with Adeline many times before to make sure she was safe, and he’d never heard the bus so quiet. She climbed onto the first step and then turned around.
“You PROMISE you’re going to do something?” she said.
“I promise to try.”
“Try
doesn’t count.”
“Okay, Addie,” said Ted. “I promise. Get on the bus, and we’ll talk more about this later.”
Adeline disappeared up the steps and the bus pulled away, leaving Ted holding his backpack, wishing that he hadn’t just made an impossible promise. There was no way a problem of this magnitude could be his responsibility, no matter what Scurvy might or might not have told Adeline before stompingaway in the middle of the night. Somewhere, there had to be a team of scientists examining data from beeping machines and poring over data readouts, pegging the moment that the disappearances had taken place and working on a quick solution to put everything back the way it was supposed to be. It was ridiculous to think that someone like him could resolve this crisis.
Still, his doctor wouldn’t be pleased with what he was about to do.
XVIII
It was almost eleven o’clock, and Ted was glad to have the night alone to himself. It had been an odd day, yet one that was, shockingly, not as awkward as he had anticipated. Many of his classmates must have had younger siblings missing imaginary friends, because the eyes he felt looking at him as he made his way through the hallways weren’t of the usual
you’re a freak!
variety, but instead were sympathetic, as if his fellow students might finally be considering that his pirate was, or had been, real.
Ted approached Stop to Shop from the road behind the supermarket. He knew that the rear door was always open, and he didn’t want to alert Jed to his presence. He pulled the door open just enough so that he could slide inside without risking a squeaking hinge, and bounded behind a water fountain. From there, shuffling close to the ground, he made his way behind the deli display case. It wasn’t the best hiding spot because all the food that was usually inside the case had been removed for the night, but it offered an excellent view of his old stomping ground, the meat aisle.
The new meat attendant was a guy Ted had never seen before. He had thin yellow hair and bone-white skin, and he was in the middle of singing to himself. Ted didn’t recognize the lyrics to the ditty, which might have been in a foreignlanguage. Before he had been fired, he had heard a rumor that the store might be bringing in a few Czech employees, and this could be one of them.
The possible Czech was drinking steadily from a liter bottle of blue
BROTHER
ANYMORE! YOU’RE JUST NORMAL AND MEAN!”
Adeline grabbed her schoolbooks and stomped away, and Ted got a terrible feeling in his stomach. What
was
he doing? A month ago, he and Scurvy Goonda were spending every single day together—sleeping in the same bed, even—and now he had somehow become exactly like the people who told him that Scurvy was just the product of something misfiring in his head. But this—hundreds of millions of kids being orphaned by their friends on the same day—this was somethingreal. He was a jerk for refusing to admit it. If this was becoming a normal kid, no thanks.
Ted grabbed his backpack and darted out the front door. He found Adeline at the end of the street, waiting for her school bus with a couple of other second graders, one of whom looked extremely sad.
“What?” said Adeline, seeing him coming.
“You’re right,” said Ted. “I’m acting toward you the way people act toward me. I’m sorry.”
“Okay, Ted. So, now what?”
“I’ll try and do something about this. If Scurvy thought that I could stop this from happening in some way—I’ll talk to him.”
“Scurvy is GONE, Ted.”
“Well, maybe not.”
The school bus pulled up and the two other seven-year-olds got on. Ted had stood with Adeline many times before to make sure she was safe, and he’d never heard the bus so quiet. She climbed onto the first step and then turned around.
“You PROMISE you’re going to do something?” she said.
“I promise to try.”
“Try
doesn’t count.”
“Okay, Addie,” said Ted. “I promise. Get on the bus, and we’ll talk more about this later.”
Adeline disappeared up the steps and the bus pulled away, leaving Ted holding his backpack, wishing that he hadn’t just made an impossible promise. There was no way a problem of this magnitude could be his responsibility, no matter what Scurvy might or might not have told Adeline before stompingaway in the middle of the night. Somewhere, there had to be a team of scientists examining data from beeping machines and poring over data readouts, pegging the moment that the disappearances had taken place and working on a quick solution to put everything back the way it was supposed to be. It was ridiculous to think that someone like him could resolve this crisis.
Still, his doctor wouldn’t be pleased with what he was about to do.
XVIII
It was almost eleven o’clock, and Ted was glad to have the night alone to himself. It had been an odd day, yet one that was, shockingly, not as awkward as he had anticipated. Many of his classmates must have had younger siblings missing imaginary friends, because the eyes he felt looking at him as he made his way through the hallways weren’t of the usual
you’re a freak!
variety, but instead were sympathetic, as if his fellow students might finally be considering that his pirate was, or had been, real.
Ted approached Stop to Shop from the road behind the supermarket. He knew that the rear door was always open, and he didn’t want to alert Jed to his presence. He pulled the door open just enough so that he could slide inside without risking a squeaking hinge, and bounded behind a water fountain. From there, shuffling close to the ground, he made his way behind the deli display case. It wasn’t the best hiding spot because all the food that was usually inside the case had been removed for the night, but it offered an excellent view of his old stomping ground, the meat aisle.
The new meat attendant was a guy Ted had never seen before. He had thin yellow hair and bone-white skin, and he was in the middle of singing to himself. Ted didn’t recognize the lyrics to the ditty, which might have been in a foreignlanguage. Before he had been fired, he had heard a rumor that the store might be bringing in a few Czech employees, and this could be one of them.
The possible Czech was drinking steadily from a liter bottle of blue
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