The Slippery Map by N. E. Bode

better if he stayed. He’d be forced to take the Child-Calming Menthol Drops, and he’d be rendered listless and dull, guaranteed! And Dr. Fromler, battling gale force winds, was still after his teeth.
    Oyster held tight to the edge of the bucket and jumped for the black hole of the basin. The sink basin’s drain widened so that Oyster and Leatherbelly slid through, then fell into darkness. Dr. Fromler and Mrs. Fishback charged the sink basin. And Oyster, bucket in one hand, Leatherbelly in the other, could see theirhorrified faces, peering down into the drain.
    Oyster wedged his bottom into the silver bucket. The bottle of Child-Calming Menthol Drops in one pocket, the small map of his imagination in the other, Leatherbelly in his lap, Oyster was carried off somewhere by the bucket. He and Leatherbelly sailed through darkness.

C HAPTER 5
T HE S ILVER B UCKET IN THE W ELL
    (B ONELAND W EST OF THE P INCH -E YE M OUNTAINS )
    O yster heard the distant, rustling voices again.
    â€œGet him, Hopps!” one said.
    â€œNo, no, there. Hold steady!” said another.
    Then the bucket slammed down so hard that Oyster and Leatherbelly shot out. They both ended up sprawled across a floor. It took a moment for Oyster’s eyes to adjust. He was on his stomach in a small room filled with cans and barrels marked FIGS: REFRIGERATE . It was dusty and dark. Leatherbelly looked at Oyster as if it had been Oyster’s idea to fall through a dentist’s sink into darkness, fly in a silver bucket, and land in this cluttered room.
    Oyster rolled onto his back and looked up. Two faces loomed over him. One of the faces was small and sweet with blinky eyes. He was smiling as he said, “I think we’ve got ourselves the right one, don’t you?”

    The other face, which had a deflated look as if it had once been fat and dimpled, wore a curdled expression, and its beady eyes stared at Oyster suspiciously. “I’m not so sure,” he said.
    â€œOh, Hopps,” the happy face said. “It’s the boy! It is!”
    â€œListen, Ringet, we can’t jump ahead of ourselves.”
    So these were the voices that Oyster had heard through the glove compartment. He stared up at them. He wanted to be the boy they were looking for. Hewanted to think that all of the strange things—the Awful MTDs, the Mapkeeper, the chocolate on the broom handle, and the silver bucket—were leading to something. But Oyster had trouble believing that he really could be the boy they were looking for. “I’m just Oyster from the nunnery,” he found himself saying. He was just Oyster who got in the way and who wasn’t worth the trouble.
    â€œOyster?” Hopps repeated. “That doesn’t help!”
    â€œIt’s the boy!” Ringet went on.
    â€œHow do you know, Ringet? How do you know anything?” Hopps said.
    â€œI just do!” Ringet answered. “He was near the spot you left him! He didn’t wander too far maybe because he knew we’d be coming back for him.”
    â€œI’m not allowed to wander far away, ever,” Oyster said. “I’m not allowed outside the nunnery gate except for certain reasons.”
    Hopps ignored Oyster and lit into Ringet. “I told you that I don’t really remember where I left him. That’s the problem!” Hopps said, rearing back and poking Ringet in the chest. “And if you breathe a word of that, I’ll kill you, Ringet. I will, and we won’t be friends anymore!”
    It was clear now that the two men were very small, with broad chests and short legs. They wore earrings all the way up their ears and had furry cheeks but barechins. They both had a good number of dark moles on their faces. They wore flat, circular caps.
    â€œI won’t tell,” Ringet said. “I’ve already promised! I haven’t even told Oli or Marge or anyone on the Council! But, but”—and here it seemed like