He found the recycling area in the kitchen, but it looked like the boxes in it this week were all too small.
Maybe he’d better wait for Mrs. Bailey to come back inside to help him find a box. Until then, he’d open the fridge to look for a Capri Sun. They didn’t have them all the time because Mrs. Bailey said they were expensive, but because he was leaving this week, she’d bought a bunch for him.
As he drank his fruit punch Capri Sun—his favorite because it was the sweetest one, and it always turned his tongue red—he thought about his plan. He was going to be really good at the Mattinglys’ house and make them see how smart he was and how well he could read. After a day or two, he’d tell them about Lucy, and if they were as nice as he hoped, then they would let Lucy move in with them too. She could be his mom and they could be his grandparents, and everybody would be happy. He didn’t remember much about his grandparents—they’d died even before his parents did—but he did remember his grandpa being funny and laughing loud and giving him great big hugs and throwing him in the air and catching him. Life would be great with a mom and a grandpa.
It would be really great. It would be the best. And Mrs. Bailey said the Mattinglys were “supernice.” He liked the sound of “supernice.” But if he liked the sound of “supernice” so much, why was he crying so hard?
The phone began buzzing in the hallway. Christopher sniffed and sat up. He got out of the chair and went to check it, since Mrs. Bailey was still out with the babies. She’d told him to let her know if the Mattinglys called.
He stood in front of the table where it was plugged into the charger. The screen flashed a name.
Lucy Hart.
Christopher wiped his face as if she could see through the phone that he’d been crying. Lucy was calling. If he answered the phone, he could talk to her. He wanted to talk to her so badly it hurt. Nobody was as nice as Lucy. She’s the one he wanted to live with, not these other people. She was the one who read to him. She was the one who bought him all those cool sharks. She’s the one who he wanted to tell his good news to—that he was so good at reading he was getting worksheets from a fourth-grade book, that he scored six points in basketball at recess yesterday, that Emma, the most popular girl in his class, had wanted to partner with him in the math quiz today because she wanted to know all about Lucy and how she’d gone to Clock Island.
Even if the Mattinglys were supernice, even if they lived in a castle, even if they lived on a boat or even Clock Island, he didn’t want to live with them. He wanted to live with Lucy in their two-bedroom apartment with sharks painted on the walls.
Because he knew that if Lucy promised to paint sharks on his walls, she would paint sharks on his walls.
Christopher reached out to pick up the phone, but at the last second before he touched it, Lucy’s name disappeared. The buzzing stopped.
He gave a little cry. Maybe Mrs. Bailey could call her back for him?
The phone lit up and started dancing on the table again.
Lucy Hart.
If he answered the call, he could hear her voice. He could tell her about his plan. He could ask to say hi to Master Mastermind. He could ask about the contest.
What if she won? Maybe that’s why she was calling?
Christopher wished the phone wouldn’t buzz like that—like a snake or a bee. Why hadn’t Mrs. Bailey set it to ring like a song? But he wasn’t going to be afraid.
“The only wishes ever granted,” Christopher whispered to himself, “are the wishes of brave children…”
He knew how to be brave. He knew how to do it, but he didn’t know if he could do it.
But the Mastermind had told him he could do it. And Christopher had promised he would try.
His hands were shaking. His heart was racing. The phone kept ringing.
But he was brave, he told himself.
The Mastermind himself said he was brave. Lucy said he was brave.
So he was going to be brave.
* * *
—
Lucy gasped at the sound of Christopher’s voice as he said hello. “Christopher? Is that you?” Tears streamed down her face. “I can’t believe you answered the phone.”
“I saw it was you, Lucy! I wanted to talk to you! That Mastermind taught me not to be afraid of the phone!”
“Sweetheart, I’m so proud of you. I’ve never been so proud—”
According to the timer Ms. Hyde was rapping her fingernails on, over three minutes had already slipped away. Tick-tock.
“Christopher, Christopher,” Lucy said. Her hands were shaking. “Listen. Could you do me a huge, huge favor? If you’re at home, could you run back to your room and get The Secret of Clock Island off your shelf, okay? We’re playing a game, and I need to know what’s written on page 129. Okay? Can you do that? Can you? Good. Just don’t hang up.”
“One minute,” Ms. Hyde said.
The next few seconds of silence were agony. She was close to hyperventilating. She could hear Christopher knocking books off the shelves.
Christopher yelled into the phone. “Found it!”
“Page 129, Christopher. One-twenty-nine. Just get to that page and read me what it says. Got it?”
“Fifteen seconds,” Ms. Hyde said. Then, “Ten seconds.”
“Did you find it?” Lucy asked. She looked around. Andre was talking to someone, but he didn’t look hopeful. Melanie was standing, pacing with her phone still plastered to her ear.
“Got it!”
Ms. Hyde counted down, “Five, four, three, two—”
Christopher gave Lucy the answer.
“I win!” Lucy shouted. “It says, ‘I win!’”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
In The Secret of Clock Island, a girl named Molly runs away from an orphanage to Clock Island. When the Mastermind asks her what her wish is, she tells him she wants to stay there with him. That’s her only wish. He tries to scare her away, but she says there’s nothing he can do or say that’s scarier than what went on at the orphanage. He gives her impossible riddles to answer, and instead of answering, she pelts him with a barrage of questions—
Why do you always stay in that shadow? How does that shadow follow you everywhere you go? Is it like a hat? Can I wear your shadow hat? Do you have a weird face? Is that why you always wear a shadow? Can I see your weird face? Is my face weird? What’s so wrong with a weird face after all? Why is this place called Clock Island? Is the island a clock, or is the clock an island? Why is your house so big when you live alone? Is that a saber-toothed ferret? Do you have kids? Do you want kids? Do you want me to be your kid? Can I stay here with you and be your kid?
And he tries to make her face her fears, but she only laughs and tells him she already did that ages ago after her parents died and she was taken to that orphanage. If he really wants to scare her, he’ll have to drive her back there, but unless he grabs her, throws her in a bag, and carries that bag over his shoulder all the way to the orphanage, there’s no way she’s going back. No sir. She’ll just stay. She’ll sleep in the ferret’s room.
Finally, he says he’ll let her stay if she plays a game with him—the hardest game for any child to win. She must play the staring contest game, and it isn’t easy, she knows, to win a staring contest against a shadow.