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Praise For Barbara Frances'

Lottie's Adventure:

Facing The Monster

An absolutely fun ride! The story rolls along from one event to another at a pace that keeps us intrigued with Lottie's fate. She draws us into her world of colorful characters and fast-paced adventure as we savor the fun through the eyes of this bright and curious pre-teen. The people are real; the places are memorable; Lottie is honest and smart and endearing. There's a surprise around every corner. An adventure for all ages! This is the kind of book you won't want to put down.

Beryl Knifton, Drama Coach and Educator, Secondary

What a delightful book!!! Growing up in a Hispanic family like Lottie, I can relate to her family. Your book is so relevant for all kids who will enjoy Lottie's spunk and zeal-a real hero!! There's a lesson to learn, a time to develop relationships, to help others, and to blossom. Kids reading chapter books will find its contemporary feel an easy read while diving into the adventure of a lifetime! Congrats!!

Rebecca Hoeft, Retired Educator, 5th Grade

The spirit of Lottie lives in all of us and is celebrated in this delightful tale of innocence that knows no social boundaries or limited thoughts but rather heart driven compassion!

Hailey Helm, Co-owner, Tinsel Delights, LLC

What a refreshing plot. All of the characters are so believable. Lottie seems like someone who lives next door. We need more stories like this one which show just how important family connections are. The older and younger generations connect in such a loving way and Lottie showed so much compassion for someone not of her race or gender. How awesome! There are lots of readers, young and old, who will find this an intriguing tale.

Wanda Hasley, Retired Educator, 4th Grade

I loved this book! An adventurous and loveable young girl named Lottie creates chapter after chapter of exciting scenarios with a cast of characters so real they literally leap off the page. For readers, young and old alike, the masterful writing of Barbara Frances will warm your heart, delight your senses and energize your soul.

Catherine Ruivivar, Par. BP, CBP, RMT

I couldn't put this book down because I wanted to know what would happen next! It's a charming story and I like the writing. Lottie is a very likable character, as are all the characters except those that aren't meant to be. I enjoyed grandmother's melting ambivalence. There are certainly enough points of tension and surprising turns to keep one reading on. I particularly liked the descriptions of Hispanic family and culture. Well done!!

Patricia Orlosky

It's an exciting thriller that makes you want to keep on reading.

Adam Lubbers, age 12

LOTTIE'S

ADVENTURE:

Facing The Monster

Barbara Frances
Lottie's Adventure:

Facing The Monster

All rights reserved.

Published by

Positive Imaging, LLC

Austin, TX 78748

http://positive-imaging.com

bill@positive-imaging.com

Cover and Illustrations by J.E.M. Hebert

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Copyright 2016 Barbara Frances

ISBN 9781944071172
Dedication

For my grandchildren, Mikael Grace Burns and Hayden Nelson Brown, the ever brilliant lights of my life.

Exceptional thanks to my best friend and beloved husband, Bill Benitez, who is the constant wind beneath my wings.

Special thanks to my sister-girlfriends whose editing, readings, suggestions, humor, and encouragements have kept me plugging away: Beryl Knifton, Shirley Lanehart, Nora Rodriguez, Wanda Hasley, Joyce McCart, Catherine Ruivivar, Priscilla Ramirez, Hailey Helm, and Lucretia Jones. How fortunate I am to have these "sisters" in my life.
Contents

One – The Runaway Dog

Two – The Mysterious Letter

Three – A Farewell Fiesta

Four – Riding High

Five – A Cold-Hearted Grandmother

Six – The Vicious Maid

Seven – A Scary Hallway

Eight – Friendly Relief

Nine – The Hidden Passage

Ten – An Amazing Discovery

Eleven – Risky Schemes

Twelve – Troublesome Stories

Thirteen – The Map Dilemma

Fourteen – A Terrorizing Chase

Fifteen – The Secret Room

Sixteen – Melting The Ice

Seventeen – A Ghost in the Drapes

Eighteen – The Crazed Cat

Nineteen – The Threatening Tourist

Twenty – Midnight Escape

Twenty-One – The Path of a Planet

Twenty-Two – Puzzling Disguises

Twenty-Three – An Undercover Journey

Twenty-Four – Panic and Dread

Twenty-Five – Stinky Breath Emerges

Twenty-Six – Desperate Departure

Twenty-Seven – The Rising Sun

Twenty-Eight – Facing the Monster

Twenty-Nine – The Special Visitor
One

The Runaway Dog

"Chester, Chester, you come back here," Lottie called out to her spirited Golden Retriever as he twisted himself through the hole in the fence. Oh no, now I'm in trouble, Lottie thought. With a sigh of frustration, she watched as he bounded to the park at the end of the block.

"Now, look what you've done." Lottie turned to see Tía standing on the top step with the leash in hand. "Don't I tell you over and over to keep that dog in the back yard where the fence is good? Do you have wax in your ears, Niña?" Tía held onto the rail as she slowly crept down the steps. Tía's knees were really stiff because it had rained that morning. Lottie didn't have a clue how rain could cause her knees to stiffen, especially since she had been in the house during the entire downpour, but rather than get Tía all worked up, she avoided the question.

Tía was Lottie's great Aunt, and she took care of her while her mom was at work. Even though Tía María seemed like a grandmother in many ways, Lottie wished, almost every day, that her real abuela, still living in Bolivia, could come to the United States. "Maybe someday, if I work really hard," her mother would say.

Lottie ran up the steps, "Here Tia, let me help you." Tía handed her the leash. "Just get that dog and get the wax out of your ears." Lottie picked up her skates from the sidewalk and pushed through the gate. Tía shook her finger, "I'll wait here. Get right back and don't put your nose where it doesn't belong. Your mama will soon be home."

Lottie paused at the mailbox and looked down the street. Still no sign of the postman. "Please get here with that letter before Mama gets home," Lottie prayed, once in English and then in Spanish, just to cover all the bases. Then, like a shooting star, she raced towards the park, calling, "Chester, Chester!"

The ducks were honking, and Chester was standing with his head cocked to the side exactly where Lottie knew he would be, at the edge of the pond. Chester was not the most obedient dog in the world, but there was one thing he'd never do. He would never jump into a pond or lake without permission. Now he might hop on the couch even though he wasn't supposed to, and he might drink out of the commode right after you would tell him not to, but he would never go swimming without Lottie or her mom giving the okay.

Lottie's mom had explained, "That just goes to show that dogs, like people, have their good points and their not-so-good points."

Lottie hooked the leash to Chester's collar while he whined and danced around. Please let me go after those ducks with their silly quacking, he pleaded with her. Lottie understood Chester better than she could some of her regular talking human friends.

Lottie tried to comfort him. "I know, I know, they do make an awful noise; it gets on my nerves too. But we've got to get back home before the postman comes. I've had enough trouble for one day." Lottie sat down on the ground and put on her skates. Chester started jumping around. "Why, of course, you can pull me," she told him.

As soon as she was up, Chester broke into a gallop, pulling her at such speeds that her long, red curls flew straight up towards the tree limbs. Instead of taking the short route home, Chester decided to go the long way. He probably figured he needed the exercise. Lottie was having such fun that she didn't realize this change until it was too late.

Across the pond from Lottie's neighborhood were the big homes with the giant yards and long driveways. Over here people didn't hang across the fences talking with one another, and there were no dogs or cats out roaming around or roosters crowing or music playing.

"You darn dog," Lottie exclaimed as she saw May Beth playing hopscotch in front of her family's three car garage. As luck would have it, May Beth saw Lottie and came running towards her. Lottie remembered what her mom had said about being nice to everyone, so she turned her skates to the grass and yanked on Chester's leash. "Stop, Chester."

Lottie looked down at her cut-off jeans and worn tank top and felt a little embarrassed. It's what's on the inside that's important, she could hear Tía María 's voice in her head. May Beth's smile was almost as broad as the silly bow pasted on her head, which, by the way, perfectly matched her perfect shorts, blouse, and socks. Her tennis shoes were so white they almost hurt Lottie's eyes.

"Guess what, Lottie?" May Beth called. "We're going to Disneyland in California. What are you doing this summer?" But before Lottie could answer, she went on, "Then we're going to our cabin in Oregon. Mom says it's too hot to stay in Austin during the summer. We have our own lake there with a boat. I'm going to learn how to water ski this summer."

Lottie didn't know what to say. She could tell May Beth that she'd be going swimming in Barton Springs and having picnics every Sunday afternoon with her mom and all their friends and families. The kids would have contests to see who could spit watermelon seeds the farthest while the old grandmothers sat on fold-up chairs under the trees and waved their paper fans almost as fast as their mouths were moving in Spanish.

Then towards sunset, the men would get out their fiddles and guitars and everyone would sing and dance. A fruit jar of Tequila, something the children couldn't touch, would be passed around and before long, everyone would be laughing more than usual. After a while the kids would go to sleep on their blankets and wake up the next morning in their beds. But all that would just bore May Beth.

Chester came and sat right beside Lottie's leg and licked her hand. He didn't like May Beth either, and he was ready to go. But May Beth wouldn't leave well enough alone. "My report card just came in, and I made all A's again. My dad says I get to take riding lessons this fall because I'm so smart." Lottie had to get out of there before she did something terribly mean like yank that stupid bow right off May Beth's head. "Well, we got to go."

May Beth looked disappointed. "Come over tomorrow. We can go swimming. We don't leave till the next day." Lottie was back on the sidewalk, and Chester was starting to pull her away. "Sorry, May Beth, I have to go to the hospital tomorrow."

"What?" May Beth asked horrified. "Why?"

"To have my ears filled with wax, so I won't have to listen to all your bragging." Lottie's voice trailed off as she sped away. Not to be outdone, May Beth screeched, "You're nothing but an old tomboy."

Lottie didn't notice the yards speeding past her because she was bubbling with jealousy. Why couldn't she go someplace exciting? Why couldn't she have an adventure? Why couldn't her mom make enough money so they could go someplace besides San Antonio for the day? She knew the answer to these questions. May Beth had a dad, and she didn't. Lottie's face started to burn with anger. Life just wasn't fair.

When Chester turned onto her street, Lottie's mouth flew open, and once again she turned onto the grass and commanded Chester to stop. Now fear mixed in with the jealousy and anger and made her insides churn like boiling water. As if in slow motion, she watched her mom's VW Bug pull up just as the postman got to their mailbox. Her mom stopped and talked with him. Then two letters went from the mail pouch to her mom's hands. Lottie's stomach turned somersaults.

Two

## The Mysterious Letter

Lottie's house was the opposite of May Beth's. It was a small duplex with no garage at all. Her mom parked the VW under an awning by the side. Tía María had part A of the duplex, and Lottie and her mom lived in section B.

As soon as Lottie's mom came home from work, Tía would say hello to Carmen, Lottie's mom, tell her what she'd cooked for dinner, and then, with a filled dinner plate in hand, go to her half of the house and lock the door. She'd then watch the Spanish soap operas that she'd been recording all day.

She would stay there until the next morning when she'd unlock the door and come over to cook breakfast. It was then that she'd talk with Carmen about how Lottie was behaving, the weather, the price of chicken at the corner market, how Chester was a pain, and what her soap opera friends were going through. She liked to talk in the mornings when her mind was fresh. Sometimes, she talked so much that Carmen would hurry to get dressed just to get away.

Lottie was careful not to slam the screen door as she came into the front room. The faint sobbing of a soap opera star could be heard through the wall. Her side of the house was unusually quiet, and Lottie tip-toed, thinking she could get to her room before the explosion, but, as usual, Chester blew her cover and went running into the kitchen.

"Chester, my sweet. I'm so glad to see you too. Where's my darling girl?" Lottie couldn't believe it. Her mom sounded happy. Maybe oh, maybe that letter hadn't come.

Lottie stepped into the kitchen. Her mom was still wearing her nurse's clothes. She stretched out her arms. "Oh, mi niña Linda." Lottie jumped onto her mother's lap, and they hugged and rocked back and forth. Chester kept jumping around and barking until they included him in a three-way love hug. Nothing made Lottie feel better than to have her mom's arms tight around her while Chester licked her face, and her mom told her how much she loved her.

Lottie rested her head on her mom's shoulder and looked over at the table where two letters rested next to a tall glass of iced tea. Lottie knew she had to act quickly or else this snuggle time would turn into disaster time. She pretended to yawn and stretched out her arms "accidently" tumbling over the glass of tea.

"Niña, what did you do now?" Carmen raised her voice as she scooted Lottie and Chester off her lap. The tea was soaking one letter, but trailing away from the other.

"I'm sorry, Mom, I'll get a towel," Lottie said as she grabbed both letters and headed for the cup towel drawer. She looked at the return addresses and saw that the unsoaked one was from a Mrs. Genevieve Harrolton. Harrolton, that was one-half of Lottie and her mom's last name, Harrolton-Sanchez. The letter was heavy. The postmark said Chicago.

"Mom, this one's from Genevieve Harrolton," Lottie said.

"What?" gasped Carmen as she took the envelope and opened it. She pulled out a long letter and a packet of something.

Carmen began reading. "Mother of God, what's she up to now?" She said just loud enough for Lottie to hear.

"What is it, Mom? Who is Genevieve Harrolton." But Carmen was too busy reading to answer.

Lottie looked at the other letter, soaked, still in her hands. Sure enough, it was from the school. Knowing that her mom wasn't paying attention, she quickly dried it off, then dashed to the bookshelf in the corner and put it in her favorite book for good luck. "Thank you, Guardian Angel," she whispered.

"This is too much! Who does she think she is anyway?" Then Lottie's mom said some curse words in Spanish, but Lottie knew exactly what she was saying because she could speak Spanish as well as she could English.

She could never understand why her mom would say certain things in Spanish as if Lottie wouldn't know what she was talking about. It was kind of like when she was little, and her mom and dad would spell out things they didn't want her to know. They knew that she'd been reading since she was four, but it never seemed to enter their minds that along with reading comes spelling.

"First class, no less!" Carmen angrily waved the packet at Lottie.

"What did I do?" Lottie demanded.

Carmen paused and looked at her. The anger left her face. "I'm sorry, Lottie. This is from your Grandmother, your daddy's mother. She wants you to come visit her for two weeks. She sent a first class ticket."

"You mean on an airplane?" Lottie couldn't believe her good fortune. She'd never been on an airplane except when she was a baby and her mom and dad were moving back to the United States, but she didn't remember that trip at all.

Lottie began jumping around and shouting, "I'm going to go someplace, have an adventure."

Carmen's face was angry again. "Oh no, you're not. After all these years, with not a word, not so much as a card, and now Mrs. High and Mighty expects me to ship my daughter off to her for half the summer. No way, she's got another think coming."

"Two weeks is not half the summer, and she's my grandmother. I never even knew I had her." Lottie felt her eyes sting with tears.

"That's exactly the point, Lottie. She's never been there for us. Not even when your dad was alive."

Carmen got the plates out of the cabinet and began spooning out food from the pots on the stove. "Go wash your hands; it's time to eat."

"No," Lottie said quietly.

Carmen stopped with a corn-dripping spoon in mid-air. "What did you say?"

Lottie couldn't keep it in any longer. "I said no," she shouted. "She asked me to come, and she's my grandmother, and I have to go."

Lottie ran to the bathroom. She took a long time scrubbing her hands. Some tears trickled down her cheeks. She took a cool washcloth and wiped her face. Her mom was usually right about most things, but this time she was wrong, and Lottie wasn't going to keep quiet.

When she returned to the kitchen, her mom was staring down at her plate. She seemed very sad which made Lottie feel terrible. Chester was cowering in the corner. He couldn't stand any kind of discord. Lottie sat down and looked at her food. Eating was the last thing she wanted to do right now.

Then her mom did something that made Lottie want to cry out loud. She reached over and caressed her cheek with her hand. "My darling niña, you're right. You can go."

In the next instant, Lottie was on her mom's lap in a tight hug, and Chester was running around like an insane dog, yelping his silly head off.

Three

##

##  A Farewell Fiesta

Some dark clouds to the west looked as though they wanted to scoot over and rain all over the fiesta under the big oak trees, but Cousin Ernestina said they wouldn't dare arrive until after Lottie had opened all her gifts.

Lottie felt like a princess. She was dressed in new shorts and a shirt that her mom had bought at an expensive place in the mall rather than the thrift store where they usually went.

Angelique, Carmen's best friend, who worked in a beauty shop, had tamed Lottie's wild hair into what seemed like a hundred little plaits with brightly colored beads dangling on the ends, and to top it all, she did it for free, not letting Lottie's mom give her so much as one dollar.

Tomorrow Lottie would be flying off, first class no less, to a big city, called Chicago, in a northern state of the United States, called Illinois. Lottie had gone to the library and found out that Illinois had been the name of a group of Native American tribes that spoke a language called Algonquian.

When Lottie asked her mom if the people in Illinois still spoke that language, Carmen said she doubted if anyone there today even knew what Algonquian was. This really disappointed Lottie because she loved languages.

She already knew Spanish and English, and now she was speaking Russian well enough to talk to Sophie's mom. Sophie and her mom and dad and two brothers had moved from Russia to Austin when Sophie was in the second grade.

Lottie liked Sophie from the very beginning, and they quickly became best friends, and as Sophie learned English, Lottie learned Russian. For some reason, Sophie's mom insisted that the family continue speaking Russian when they were at home, so every time Lottie spent the night with Sophie or went to her house to play, she too had to speak Russian.

Someone had put a large bow around Chester's neck, which made him strut around like he was the honoree at Lottie's going-away party. Then one of the boys threw a frisbee in his general direction, and, in an instant, he forgot about being uppity and took out after the flying object like any regular dog.

Lottie really wanted to get out and play with the other kids, but she didn't want to get her new clothes dirty. She wanted to wear them tomorrow, so she'd look especially nice for her new grandmother; the grandmother who'd only seen her one time, and that was when she was a tiny baby, all shiny clean and smelling like talcum powder.

Lottie saw Sophie score another goal. "Way to go, Sophie," Lottie yelled. With two older brothers, Sophie had been toughened up and was better at sports than most boys. Lottie admired that about her. Sophie waved and flashed a broad smile. Sophie's face was one giant freckle; she had freckles on top of freckles.

The kids at school sometimes made fun of her just like they made fun of Lottie because of her hair, calling them Freckle Face and Bush Head, but they would act like they didn't care. Sophie's mom had told them that, for the most part, bullies were not particularly smart people, but that information didn't help much when they were calling you names. Usually they'd get back by speaking Russian. The bullies would get downright mad because they thought Lottie and Sophie were saying things about them, which, of course, they usually were.

"Okay, gather round, everyone, it's time for cake and presents," called Cousin Ernestina. The tables were loaded with tamales, corn-on-the-cob, sliced tomatoes, chips & salsa, cake, and presents. Everyone formed a circle around Lottie. Lottie looked around at her extended family of friends and knew that she was going to miss them.

Yesterday her mom had told her that two weeks wasn't long enough to get terribly homesick, but long enough to have some great adventures. She figured her mom was probably right, but at that moment she had to swallow the lump in her throat.

Hours later as Lottie and her mom drove home in the pounding rain, the only sound inside the car was the wind-shield wipers flapping back and forth. Boxes were stacked on Lottie's lap and on the floorboard by her feet. Tía sat on half of the back seat with some boxes on her lap. The boxes contained new clothes, underwear, pajamas, a pair of turquoise high-tops, Lottie's favorite, and a neat turquoise backpack and duffle bag for the trip.

Chester was squished on the other half of the back seat, hugging the window, not moving one inch onto Tia's territory. He knew better than to meddle with Tia. Everyone, including Chester, was quiet, lost in thought.

Lottie's mind was thinking back to that morning which hadn't started out all that well. Before they had left for the party, she and her mom had begun sorting and arranging things on Lottie's bed that she planned to take on her trip. For example, there was her special box of colored pencils and her journal where she would write and make drawings of what had happened on a particular day.

Lottie wrote in her journal only on those days when something special happened. Like tonight she would write about her party and draw some pictures of the kids playing soccer and chasing frisbees, and probably one of her opening presents.

There was also the special rock that she and her dad had found on Enchanted Rock; she couldn't remember it all that well, but she had been told that the two of them had polished it to its present glimmering state. That rock was always under her pillow because it helped her to sleep. She even took it when she went to Sophie's house for the night. She told Sophie that the rock made her feel like a part of her dad was always with her, and Sophie understood perfectly.

As Lottie was wrapping the rock in one of Tia's small silk handkerchiefs, she suddenly remembered the most important thing that she'd have to take. "Mom, please get THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Lottie realized she'd made a big mistake.

A moment later, her mom was standing in the doorway, "What's this?" She was holding the tea-stained letter from the school in one hand and HUCKLEBERRY FINN in the other. Carmen tore open the letter and blew out a large breath through her lips.

"I was going to tell you, but I forgot when I got the..." Lottie stammered.

Carmen interrupted her, "A C in social studies and a C in art! What's going on, Lottie, and why did you hide this from me? Should I call Chicago and tell your grandmother that you won't be coming because you'll have to be going to summer school?"

"You only go to summer school if you fail; I made C's, not F's." Lottie answered back forcefully because she was determined to go on this trip. She could tell that her mom was red-hot mad, not medium-hot, but fiery red-hot.

"You always make A's & B's; you've never made a C in your life. And in Art? Are you having bad influences in your life? I'm calling the school." Carmen headed for the phone in the kitchen with Lottie on her heels. "It's Sunday. Nobody's there," Lottie stated.

Carmen stopped, remembering the date. Absent mindedly, she flipped on the small TV on the counter and turned to Lottie. Lottie could see that she was now simmering on a low-hot mad.

"Okay, explain yourself, little lady," she said quietly.

"Well," Lottie started fidgeting. She hated explanations. She wanted to be honest, but, at the same time, she didn't want to get into more trouble. However, she knew that with her mom, it was always best to come clean.

She started again, "It's like I've told you before; Ms. Knowles wants me to draw and paint things the way she does, and I can't do that. I draw things the way I see them. I tried; I really did, Mom, but she'd get mad if I made the buildings lean over a little when she said they should be straight."

Carmen sighed again. "Okay, I realize she doesn't have your imagination. But now, what about social studies?"

This was a tough one. Lottie thought for a moment and decided to speak 'the truth and nothing but the truth,' Sophie's favorite phrase. "This last six weeks was on geography, and I figured I'd never go to any of those places, so why study about them. I read my story books most of the time in class and crammed for the tests, but I didn't cram enough."

Carmen poured a cup of coffee and sat down. "The thing that bothers me the most is that you tried to keep me from finding out about this. You hid a very important letter, a letter that was addressed to me!"

At that moment, Lottie was distracted by a news story on the TV. A picture of a boy appeared on the screen. Lottie ran over and turned up the sound.

"Charles Ray Taft was abducted from his Oklahoma City home on Friday after he got off the school bus. A neighbor said she saw him get into a big black car with heavily tinted windows. Charles Ray is ten years old, four feet ten inches, weighs seventy pounds. His father, Julian Taft is a prominent lawyer in Oklahoma City. He was the youngest and the first African American man elected to the Oklahoma state senate. The family is offering a reward for any information..."

"Ten years old! That's the same as me." Lottie gasped. Carmen came up behind her and put her hands on her shoulders and spoke in a serious tone. "Remember, Lottie, never get into a stranger's car, no matter what they say. Always run away and yell at the top of your lungs." Carmen knelt down and turned Lottie around so they were eye-to-eye. "Were you listening?" Lottie nodded. Carmen held her close, "Promise me, sweetheart, promise me." Lottie whispered, "I promise, Mama."

Lottie had thought about Charles Ray all day, even at her party, and now as they were stopping in front of their house, his picture was at the front of her mind. "Lottie, we're home. A penny for your thoughts." Her mom patted her arm. Chester barked, and Tía groaned; the rain was getting to her knees.

Four

##  Riding High

The plane was much bigger inside than Lottie had imagined. Still it made her wonder how so many people could fit into it. She and three mothers with babies got to be the first ones to board. The flight attendant took her to an aisle seat on the third row. Lottie wanted to sit next to the window, but the attendant said she needed to be on the aisle so he could keep an eye on her.

What did they think she was? A five-year-old? She already had to wear a silly badge around her neck with her name, her mom's name, their address, and phone number written in fairly large letters. It was embarrassing.

Lottie had memorized all that information years and years ago, but had stopped arguing about it when her mom firmly said, "That's enough, Lottie!" Sophie and her mom also came to see her off, and Sophie had told her that she could flip the badge under her shirt as soon as she got on board, which is exactly what she did.

A very tall man with a grumpy face stood next to her. "I need the aisle seat. You sit next to the window?" he commanded. Lottie couldn't believe her good luck as she quickly unbuckled her seat belt and scooted over. "Oh, I don't mind at all." She smiled at the man, but he didn't smile back. He just plopped down with a thump and opened a newspaper in what seemed like one movement.

Lottie could tell he was the sort of adult who didn't care for children. She knew she might as well forget about having any conversations on the way to Chicago. Across the aisle, a woman wearing a long silky dress sat down. She had a red dot in the middle of her forehead and smiled sweetly as Lottie leaned over to look at her. Now Lottie wished she had left well enough alone and had stayed where she had been placed. Dozens of questions were swarming in her head. "Why do you wear that dress? What's the dot on your forehead? Where could I get a dress like that?"

The take-off was a little scary. The plane acted as if it didn't want to leave the ground. It kept going and going and going down the runway, roaring angrily like a hundred lions. Finally, as if by magic, it floated up into the air and all the lions became tame and quiet. Lottie imagined them happily bouncing around outside the plane.

Now, she was so thankful the man had wanted her to move over. What a wonder to her to see the world as she knew it disappear. The buildings, the litter, even the colors grew fainter and fainter until there were only neat brownish squares and rectangles with some greens here and there. Everything looked so neat and clean and in place.

The two and half hours zipped by, and in what seemed like no time at all, the plane started going down. Thrilled, Lottie now watched as things got bigger and bigger. She could see that Chicago was indeed a very large city. She prodded her brain to remember everything she had learned about this city.

She was also very excited and nervous about meeting her grandmother. She grabbed her back-pack from under the seat and started putting things away: her journal, HUCKLEBERRY FINN, the gifts the flight attendant had given her.

The flight attendant had been extremely nice. He'd let her stay by the window and then later brought her an extra ice-cream when the plane did a basketball bounce and dumped chocolate sundae all over her new blouse. "I didn't know an air road had bumps in it too," she exclaimed loudly in an outside voice. This outcry curled many lips into smiles except those of the man next to her.

Disgusted, he got up and headed to the front of the plane where he stood while the flight attendant cleaned up everything. When they began to descend, the man came back only after the flight attendant told everyone they must sit down. Once again he plopped down. No sooner than his bottom hit the seat, he began to doze off with his mouth wide open. He seemed to be dead tired. Maybe that's why he was so irritable.

Earlier Lottie had noticed that the newspaper he was reading had an article she was very interested in. The paper was now carelessly stuffed in the seat pocket next to his knees. "May I please have the front part of your newspaper?" Lottie softly asked, using her polite voice. His mouth snapped shut and his eyes popped open. Lottie jumped. He looked like the big gorilla in the San Antonio Zoo.

"You want the newspaper? Have at it. Now try to be quiet for one minute, okay?" He stretched out and closed his eyes again. Lottie thought he was one of the most grumpy people she'd ever come across. Perhaps he did something where he wasn't allowed to be friendly, like maybe he was a wrestler.

One time she and Sophie had tried to watch a wrestling match, but Sophie's mom found out and switched the TV over to a children's channel. Afterwards, Sophie's brothers had told them that wrestling was all fake, just play acting, but Lottie couldn't see how that was possible. She looked closely at this man's face to see if it bore any scars or bruises. "Wrestlers have to make everyone think they're mad all the time or they might lose their job," Sophie's oldest brother, Ivan, had said.

The plane landed with a thump and made a terrific noise trying to slow down. To Lottie, it was very exciting, not at all scary like taking off. It was also exciting because she was about to meet her grandmother.

The flight attendant guided her through the busy airport. He was thumbing through the papers on a clipboard. "It says here that your grandmother's chauffeur, Samuel Carver, will pick you up in baggage claim," he said more to himself than to Lottie.

"How will we know him? Grandma didn't send any picture." Lottie was concerned. She remembered what her mother had told her about not going with strangers.

"Don't worry," the attendant said kindly, "I will make sure you're with the right person before I hand you over."

The baggage claim was a fascinating place. Lottie watched as suitcases rolled through flapping strips onto a moving circle. People stood next to the circle and picked up their luggage as it passed by. Lottie spotted her turquoise duffle bag coming through the flaps.

Someone gently tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and looked up into one of the friendliest faces she'd ever seen. He was dressed in a special kind of black suit with a black cap. Lottie learned later this kind of suit and hat were what a chauffeur wore. He held a sign that had LORETTA HARROLTON printed across it.

"You have to be Miss Loretta. You look so much like your father." His voice sounded like a melody being played on the bass keys of a piano.

"I go by Lottie, if you don't mind," Lottie said.

Deep crinkles appeared all over his dark face as he broke into a laugh. "I don't mind at all. In fact, I prefer Lottie. And I go by Mr. Carver, but I prefer Samuel."

Lottie continued, "And you have only half of my last name. It's Harrolton-Sanchez."

Samuel looked at the card like it was the first time he'd actually seen it. "I do apologize, Miss Lottie, and I will correct this mistake." He folded the card and put it in his coat pocket.

He then handed the flight attendant some papers, and after some adult talk, the attendant gave her a slight hug. "It was fun having you fly with me," he said as he pulled her duffle bag off the belt and handed it to Samuel.

"Thank you. You were very nice," Lottie waved to him.

"Shall we go, Lottie. Your grandmother is waiting in the car," Samuel said as he took her hand and led her to the automatic doors.

"Did you notice how my high-tops match my back-pack and duffle bag? Pretty neat, isn't it?'

Lottie skipped as she held tight to Samuel's hand.

Samuel's face cracked again into smiles, "I say it is. And turquoise, well, that's the best color ever made as far as I'm concerned."

Lottie was happy; she knew she'd found a new friend.

Five

##  A Cold-Hearted Grandmother

The long black limo with the dark tinted windows looked scary. Samuel opened the back door and gestured for her to get in. The trunk lid popped up, and he dropped her backpack and duffle bag into the hole. Lottie looked around at the other people getting into cars. She was feeling a little nervous. The boy in Oklahoma got into a big black car.

Then from within the sunless cave of the back seat came a voice, precise and in-charge, "Loretta, is that you? Get in the car." Lottie leaned over and squinted inside. The sun was so bright and the car was so dark that she couldn't see anything except two green eyes staring at her. A loud "hiss' greeted her. Lottie pulled back in alarm. This was like the House of Horrors at the fair. Sophie and Lottie swore they'd never take that ride again.

"Ebony, dear, be nice; that's my granddaughter," came the voice that sounded somewhat like Cruella Deville's from 101 DALMATIANS. "Loretta, it's getting hot in here. Please come in so Mr. Carver can close the door."

Samuel's reassuring hand on her shoulder gently guided her inside and shut the door. The seat was softer than anything Lottie could ever remember sitting on. Plus everything smelled so clean and nice. After a few moments, her eyes adjusted to the dim light, and she saw that a very fluffy Burmese cat, wearing a sparkled collar sat on a velvet cushion next to her. That must be Ebony, she thought. Slowly, Samuel inched the car onto the highway. It was too late now to turn back.

Lottie looked at her grandmother who sat as straight as a ballet dancer and stared at the chocolate stain on her new blouse with a stern, disapproving face. Wanting to please, Lottie attempted to hide the blotch by crossing her arms in front and smiling broadly. But the smile must have been too much because her grandmother quickly turned her head away.

Lottie studied her grandmother without looking directly at her. She was dressed like one of those manikins standing in the windows of the extremely expensive stores. She wore big rings, and her hair was dyed to make her look like a young person, but you could still tell that she was getting old. A golden handled cane rested by her leg.

"What's that?" Lottie asked, trying to make conversation.

"What does it look like?" Mrs. Harrolton snipped.

Lottie remembered what her mom had told her about making the best of any situation. "Well, I know it's a cane, but it doesn't fit with you because you're too young to need one."

The icy expression on Mrs. Harrolton's face melted a little. "You know how to flatter, don't you?"

Lottie didn't know if her grandmother was complimenting or scolding her. At this moment, she wished she hadn't insisted on coming. Perhaps this really wasn't her grandmother after all. Maybe her real grandmother was locked in a dungeon somewhere, and this lady was just pretending in order to get Lottie away from her mother. Grandmothers were supposed to love their granddaughters, and this lady didn't even like her.

Feeling quite uncomfortable Lottie began to rock back and forth on the seat. "This is the prettiest car I've ever been in." She spotted a panel with several buttons, and without thinking, pushed one. A window behind Samuel's seat began to close.

Mrs. Harrolton reached over and pushed the button again, and the window began to go down.

"It's best to ask before you tamper with things about which you know nothing, Loretta."

"Everyone calls me Lottie, and I'm sorry." Lottie inched down in her seat and prayed that she wouldn't do anything else wrong.

Ebony purred as Mrs. Harrolton stroked her back. "I don't care for nicknames. Why would anyone want to butcher a beautiful name like Loretta?" Lottie began to feel her face burn with a low-flame anger. She didn't like this lady who was pretending to be her grandmother.

They were driving past a huge body of water, and she recalled reading about Lake Michigan. She wondered if she'd get to go swimming there, but didn't dare ask. Samuel caught her eye in the rear view mirror and gave her a quick wink. She was so glad he was up front.

"Samuel, I gave a speech about a George Washington Carver during Black History Month. He was a plant genius among other things and found over three-hundred things you could make from peanuts. Are you one of his relatives?"

Samuel laughed softly, soothingly. "I don't know, Lottie, ah... Miss Loretta. My son is finding out all he can about our ancestors, and so far, the famous inventor hasn't appeared on our tree."

Lottie wondered what he meant by 'our tree', but she swallowed back the question because her grandmother seemed to have gotten stiffer, like she'd been dropped into a cube of ice. Why wouldn't her grandmother want her to talk with Samuel?

Ebony hissed as Lottie made a motion to pet her. Lottie let out a big sigh and slumped back into her seat. This was the rudest car she'd ever been in. She was already homesick.

Mrs. Harrolton noticed the deep sigh and looked over at her granddaughter. She couldn't help but be proud of this very pretty little girl who had come all this way by herself to visit a negligent grandmother. She saw that her granddaughter had a determined way about her that reminded her of a little boy of years ago.

"I'm sure you do very well in school." Mrs. Harrolton's voice was softer, kinder.

Surprised, Lottie looked at her and jumped at the opportunity to get friendly. "Well, a lot depends on the subject and the teacher. I make mostly A's, a B here and there, but I made my first two C's on my last report card. Mama got downright mad about that. Mainly, I like to learn things on my own. Mama says I'm independent like my daddy. Was my daddy like that, Grandma?"

Her grandmother's hand went to her heart. A certain sadness crossed over her face, but then, a second later, the freeze set in once again. "Loretta, I would appreciate it if you would refer to me as Grandmother. It's a more appropriate way to address me."

The car stopped before a large black gate. Samuel pressed a button, and the gate slowly swung open. As the car passed through, Lottie sat up, wide-eyed, as the gate closed behind them. Were they going into a prison? Thick trees lined both sides of the road like the dark forest that surrounded Hansel and Gretel.

Finally, they came to a clearing of blue-green grass and flowers and a large pond with a fountain that shot streams of water high into the air. Snow-white swans and some mallards glided on the glassy surface. At the far end of the clearing, sprawled a castle, like the ones Lottie had seen in her book about England. Lottie's mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe this. She was in a storybook land.

Lottie turned to her grandmother, excited, "Gosh, is this yours?" Mrs. Harrolton smiled in appreciation and nodded.

Lottie could hardly contain herself. "I knew you were kind of rich when I saw this car and your rings and stuff, but I had no idea you were mega rich. You've got to be a millionaire! Are you a millionaire?"

Samuel had to put his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Mrs. Harrolton frowned at Lottie's outburst, but Lottie was so busy looking at everything she didn't notice. Mrs. Harrolton cleared her throat. "Didn't your mother ever tell you about me?"

Lottie undid her seatbelt as Samuel stopped the car. She was ready to get out and explore. She was going to have an adventure after all. She wanted to say the right thing. "She told me you were very nice." Mrs. Harrolton's jaw dropped.

Six

##  The Vicious Maid

Lottie threw her arms wide as she ran down the sloping hill towards the pond. It felt so good to be in the open air and freed from the insides of a plane and car. The ducks started quacking, and Lottie thought about Chester and wished he could be here with her. She flopped down at the edge of the pond and thought about taking off her shoes and splashing her feet in the cool water.

She looked back and saw that her grandmother was still sitting in the car, like a statue, watching her. Lottie put up her hand in a half-wave motion, not sure if she should even do that.

Disgusted, she turned, and, in one quick movement, jerked off her shoes and splashed her toes in the pond and quickly pulled them out. "Yikes, this water is colder than the North Pole," she cried out as soon as she caught her breath.

Then the tears started crawling down her cheeks. She wished she was back in Texas with her mom and Tía and Chester and where the water, even Barton Springs, never got this cold. Even the ducks in Austin weren't as mean and angry-acting. Suddenly, from behind, Samuel's hand held out a clean white handkerchief.

"Come on, Lottie; your grandmother is waiting for you." Samuel picked up her high-tops and socks. "It'll get easier; just give her time."

Mrs. Harrolton was waiting for them on the wide-columned porch. "Put on your shoes, Loretta. You can sit on that glider. Samuel, fetch her bag." Lottie did as she was told. As she was tying up her shoelaces, she looked over a stone fence on the far side of the palace and saw that cars were parked, and people were coming and going inside the house.

"Who are those people, grandma..., grandmother?" she asked.

"Those are tourists. The north wing is sealed off from the rest of the house and is now a museum dedicated to your great, great-grandfather. Do you know anything about him?"

Lottie shook her head. Mrs. Harrolton sighed and said, "Well, I'll have to dispel that ignorance." Lottie wanted to kick herself for not saying yes, even though it would have been a lie.

When all was in place, her grandmother ushered her within. Lottie's eyes grew wide. She had never seen anything as large or fancy, and they were only in the entryway. Last year on a field trip, her class had visited the governor's mansion in Austin, but that was nothing compared to this.

Here there were polished marble floors, statues, both large and small, oil paintings that went from floor to ceiling, stained-glass windows, a winding staircase with gold outlines.

There was even an inside fountain in one corner with trees and flowers growing around it. Everywhere she looked, she saw things she had never seen before except perhaps in pictures.

"You have the most beautiful palace in the world," Lottie gasped.

"After you're settled, one of the servants can give you a tour, but for now, let's get you settled in your room." Leaning on her cane, Mrs. Harrolton walked away from the staircase and towards two paneled doors and pushed a button. She had an elevator in her house! Lottie could hardly believe this new world she had entered.

To top it off, the elevator was glass. As they approached second floor Lottie saw an Olympic size swimming pool. She burst out in delight, "You have an indoor pool, a real swimming pool inside your house?" Mrs. Harrolton couldn't keep from smiling at her granddaughter's pure delight. "Can you swim?" She asked.

"Like a fish." Seeing her grandmother's smile, Lottie went on enthusiastically, "My mamma told me that my ancestors were deep-sea divers who could hold their breath forever while they caught fish with their bare hands. She said I take after them." Her grandmother's smile disappeared like a worm down a bird's beak. Lottie wondered what she had done now.

When the elevator doors opened, Lottie jumped at the sight of a very round woman in a maid's uniform standing in the hallway, waiting for them. She had a fat face with small puffy eyes that could drill holes into cement. Her maid's hat sat on tightly wound, brown-dyed coils of hair.

"Loretta, this is Ms. Judith Veader. She has prepared your room. Judith, this is my granddaughter, Loretta Harrolton." Shaking in her high-tops, Lottie managed to say, "Happy to meet you." Judith gruffly nodded and turned down the hall. "Your room is this way," she muttered, barely moving her pencil-thin lips.

On the way down the hall, Lottie said, "Everyone keeps getting my last name wrong. It's Harrolton-Sanchez." She looked at her grandmother's face, and it was stone cold. Her grandmother acted as if she hadn't heard a word she had said.

Lottie didn't like her room. It was too large, and the furniture was too bulky and unfriendly. It had a fireplace so large that Lottie could walk into it. Whoever heard of fireplaces that could swallow up children? As she looked at the heavy dark drapes, she thought about the lacy turquoise curtains in her room at home.

As her heart was beginning to sadden up again, Samuel came into the room carrying her duffle bag and backpack. He flashed her a bright sunny smile with a wink, and the sadness dropped away.

"Is this all her luggage for two weeks?" Mrs. Harrolton asked sharply.

"Yes, Mam," Samuel replied. He mumbled on trying to iron out the situation. "Children don't need much in the summer, just some shorts and things. When my granddaughter was little..."

Mrs. Harrolton interrupted, "Never mind, Samuel, we shall go shopping tomorrow, early afternoon. Have the car ready."

Lottie undid her backpack and took out her ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN and held it to her heart. Mrs. Harrolton seemed startled. "Where did you get that?" She asked.

"From my dad," Lottie said proudly. "He called me Dewberry Finn 'cause our favorite thing was picking dewberries and reading Huckleberry Finn together. It was our favorite book of all time."

Her grandmother leaned heavily on her cane and whispered, "Loretta, in this household, you must try to use proper English. The favorite things were picking dewberries and reading Huckleberry Finn."

Judith sort of snickered, and Lottie knew that unless things changed considerably, she was not going to last for two weeks. Her mom had been so right not to want her to come. Never again will I go against what mom thinks is best, she thought.

"Was this my daddy's room?" Lottie blurted out. Judith gawked at her as if she had spouted out a whole string of bad words like her Tío Ardilio had done the day his prize rooster got run over by the garbage truck.

Finally, Mrs. Harrolton said quietly, "No, his room was down the corridor."

"I want to see it." Lottie was amazed by her sudden forwardness.

Mrs. Harrolton was also taken aback. Judith started to speak, but Mrs. Harrolton put up her hand to stop her. "Very well. Judith, unpack her things. Come along."

As they walked down the hall, Lottie spotted Ebony sitting on the base of a statue looking as if she were going to pounce her. Behind her grandmother's back, Lottie squinched up an ugly, mean face, and Ebony drew back.

Her grandmother opened a door and stood for a moment catching her breath. Lottie took hold of her elbow the way she often did with Tia, and asked, "Do you need some help?" Mrs. Harrolton pulled away. "I'm alright." Moving into the room, her grandmother said, "We've kept it just the way it was."

Lottie walked into a happy, friendly room. Crowded bookshelves covered two walls. Lottie could tell that one of the bookshelves had been built to cover an enormous child-swallowing fireplace.

There was a long desk, still containing notebooks, magazines, and pencils. A bulletin board with a Harvard flag and several pictures and notes hung over the desk. Lottie picked up a picture of a smiling, short-haired man in cap and gown. Everyone said she had his smile.

"When I knew him, he had long hair." Lottie informed her grandmother. Lottie then turned her attention to a group photo of happy young faces with packed bags, holding a sign reading, "South America, here we come! Peace Corps".

Lottie heard her grandmother mumble, "He had such a bright future, but instead he chose to go off to some..." She couldn't finish the sentence.

Lottie looked up. "I want to stay in here."

Mrs. Harrolton drew up to full statue. "That's out of the question. Judith has prepared your room and that's where you'll stay." She turned to leave. "Now go and get dressed for dinner. It's served promptly at six."

Seven

##  A Scary Hallway

Dinner was as big a disaster as the whole day had been. Lottie figured that getting dressed for dinner meant that she should put on a clean T-Shirt and wash her hands. As soon as she got to the dining room, she found out that her grandmother had expected her to wear a dress. When Lottie told her that she never wears dresses except for special fiestas and church things, her grandmother looked at her like she was dog doo-doo in the middle of a walking trail.

"Wild horses couldn't have gotten me to pack a silly dress for a fun vacation at my grandmother's," Lottie blurted out, somewhat sassy-like. This outburst kept her grandmother from saying anything else, but it didn't keep Judith from boring eye-holes in her head. Not caring anymore, Lottie crossed her eyes and looked directly at Judith.

Several months ago, Sophie had told Lottie that when she crossed her eyes, she looked scarier than anyone she'd ever seen. Judith glared back but after a while, gave up and headed for the kitchen. Only then did Lottie uncross her eyes. She had to roll them around several times to ease the strain. Luckily, her grandmother had been staring at her plate of food during this time.

"Where's Samuel?" Lottie missed him.

"Most likely, he's in his apartment over the garage," Mrs. Harrolton replied.

Lottie couldn't believe all the utensils around her plate. She had three forks, two knives, and two spoons. Which one was she supposed to use? She also had three plates - a small one on top of a larger one and then an extremely small one by her forks. She wondered if all rich people set their tables like this. It was crazy to say the least. Lottie crossed her fingers several times, hoping she wouldn't be the one washing all these dishes.

Suddenly, she got the bright idea to pretend she was playing the mirror game with her grandmother. Whatever, her grandmother did, she would follow. Pick up small fork, take one bite of lettuce, put fork down, pick up roll from small plate and take one small bite, put roll down, take a sip of wine, only in her case, it was milk, and so on and so on.

The food, fish with a yellow sauce and asparagus and weird-looking potatoes, was gross for the most part. Lottie took the tiniest of bites, and sometimes just pretended to take a bite. Even the dessert, a stiff pudding, which was served on yet another plate, wasn't all that good. Lottie had just about decided that rich people had pretty sad, boring lives. No wonder her dad had left it.

After dinner, Lottie's mom called, and they talked for a long time. Lottie didn't tell her any of the bad stuff about crying and missing home. She didn't mention a thing about her grandmother not being particularly nice because she didn't want her to worry.

She even got to talk to Chester for a few slurpy licks. Her mom told her that Chester had been so sad all day he hadn't even chased the neighbor's cat whom he disliked from his head to his tail-tip.

Afterwards, feeling really happy, Lottie was skipping back to her room when she rounded a corner and bumped into Claire, another one of her grandmother's maids.

"Oh, faith and begorah! I'm so sorry, Missy." Claire bent down to pick up some towels she had dropped. "You must be the little granddaughter. How are you? You are the prettiest ever. That wild hair is a keeper. I'm Claire O'Shea." Finally, she stopped long enough to give Lottie the sweetest of smiles. Then in the next moment, she dropped her towels and squeezed Lottie in a tight hug to her tall thin frame. It felt a little like a hug from her mom.

Claire was young, maybe still a teenager. She looked as young as Lottie's Cousin Ana who had just turned eighteen. Claire was beautiful, but in a way different from Ana. Claire had blonde hair, blue eyes, and extraordinarily white skin that looked like milk in a glass that had no fingerprints. She sort of sang her words and said them different, not the way her relatives speak English, but strange in another way.

"And what might your name be, precious? Claire held onto her shoulders.

"Lottie. But my grandma... grandmother wants me to be called Loretta," Lottie said.

"Well, then it's Lottie, except when the Grandmother is around. A deal? Claire spit on her hand and held it out for a shake. Lottie laughed and returned the spit shake.

Then Claire started down the hall pulling Lottie towards her room, talking ninety miles an hour about how she tried to dress up that dreadful room, but couldn't find much girlie stuff in this museum of a house.

When they entered the room, Lottie saw that Claire had added a couple of lacy white pillows and a rainbow striped comforter to her bed. She had replaced the large brass lamp on the bedside table with a smaller one of a ballerina with a pink shade. A step bench had also been put next to the bed so that she could climb in without having to take a running jump.

Claire pointed to the open door of the bathroom, "Well, precious, you now have pretty lavender towels. If you need anything else, my apartment is down the hall from the kitchen. It's a ways, but you can find it. All right, then, I'll be off. Sleep well and dream only of the angels. You want that I should tuck you in first?"

Lottie smiled and shook her head. "I want to read some chapters first. Will you go swimming with me tomorrow?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "Now can't you just see Grouse Judith givin' me time off for a swim?"

"I'll ask Grandmother," Lottie offered.

With that Claire gave a short laugh, "She wouldn't think it proper for a servant to play with the upper-crust."

"But I'm not upper-crust!" Lottie thought a moment. "What is upper-crust?"

"Oh you are a precious one. We'll talk tomorrow. I've got the kitchen to mop-up." Claire was out the door. Lottie could hear her humming down the hallway.

Hurrying to the closet, Lottie grabbed her backpack and made a running jump for the bed. Once up there, she kicked off her shoes and socks and rummaged through the pack. She pulled out the newspaper, her journal, and finally retrieved the bag of chocolate chip cookies her mom had baked for her. She was starving.

Before a person could count to ten, the cookies were gone, and she needed a drink. She jumped off the bed, darted to the bathroom, got a drink, and returned, jumping back on the bed. That's when she noticed the mattress had a really good spring, almost as good as the trampoline at the gym.

She started jumping, going higher and higher. Maybe she could reach the roses painted on the ceiling. While she was in mid-air, a loud knock on the door frightened her half to death. She fell flat on her stomach.

"Miss Loretta?"

Oh no, it was Judith. Lottie looked at the mess on the bed, cookie crumbs, rumpled sheets. As she was dusting off the cookie crumbs, Judith entered carrying a tray.

"Your grandmother was worried. Said you hadn't eaten much and wanted me to prepare this for you." She set the tray at the foot of the bed.

Lottie watched as her heavy black tie-up shoes clumped around the room, stopping for her to pick up Lottie's shoes, socks, and dirty blouse. Lottie knew that her mother would be disappointed that she had scattered her clothes and belongings all over the room.

"I was going to pick them up." Lottie said meekly.

"All I ask is that you don't upset your grandmother? She's been through enough, and I won't have her hurt any more." Judith warned her.

Lottie didn't dare look up. She stared at the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the apple, and glass of milk on the tray. She figured Judith was waiting for her to say something, but she couldn't think of what to say. Finally a weak "Thank you" slipped through her lips.

Judith put her hands on her hips and said, "I tried to tell her not to do this. Just dredging up memories." With a very firm voice she added, "Don't jump on the bed again. This is a respectable house." She closed the door with a bang. Lottie picked up the sandwich, took a bite, and slapped it back on the plate. Even the peanut butter tasted yucky in this place.

She looked down and saw Charles Ray's face staring at her from the newspaper by the tray. She picked it up and read about the story she'd seen on TV. He'd gotten off a school bus in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and disappeared. His bus stop was only a half-block from his home. A neighbor said she saw a big black car with dark windows in the neighborhood about that time.

Lottie really studied the picture, before putting it down. She thought about how scared he must be. She decided then and there that she wouldn't get angry or feel sad because Judith was an old grouch, and her grandmother didn't act at all like a grandmother. Compared to Charles Ray, she was lucky. Besides, she had Samuel and Claire. They seemed to like her.

Long after Lottie had turned out the bedside lamp, she continued to toss and turn. She couldn't stop thinking about Charles Ray. The paper said his nickname was Squeak. She wondered how he'd gotten a nickname like that. The light from the bathroom was making scary shadows on the walls: a Frankenstein with long stringy fingers, a baboon with two heads, a laughing crazy vampire. The hole in the fireplace kept getting closer and closer and closer, about ready to gobble her up. With a shudder, she knew she couldn't stay in this room one more minute.

Grabbing her backpack and the apple off the tray, she headed for the door. In a flash, she was out the door. The marble floor shot freezing needles into her feet. As she gently hopped tippy-toed down the dimly lit hallway, she glanced up to see the paintings of her dead relatives, all fixing their lifeless eyes on her.

Earlier, her grandmother had told her that one was her great-grandmother, another was her great-grandfather. Lottie couldn't remember who the others were, but no matter who they were, they were closely watching her every move.

Then it was as if someone had squeezed all the air out of her body. Two green eyes hovered just above the balcony rail, floating in the air. Could they be the eyes of a witch about to cast a spell on her? With a slight shriek, Lottie broke out into a gazelle run, heading lickety-split towards her father's bedroom. As she passed the green eyes, she heard the familiar hiss.

"Darn cat, scared the pee out of me." she screamed crashing through the door and flicking on the switch. A soft lamp by her dad's bed lit up. She slammed the door shut and with a flying leap, landed in his bed and pulled up the covers around her ears. Almost as soon as she hit the bed, she felt safe. Nothing bad could happen to her as long as she was in this room.

"Daddy? Daddy," she called softly. "Nighty night." She fell asleep instantly.

Eight

##

## Friendly Relief

Lottie was having a wonderful dream. She was in a field with her dad picking dewberries. They kept popping berries into their mouths even though they were supposed to be gathering enough for Lottie's mom to make a cobbler, but the bucket was still practically empty. Lottie told her dad that they should be putting the berries in the bucket. Her dad asked if she was enjoying herself. She told him, "Yes, the most fun I've ever had." He smiled and said, "Well, it's more important to have fun now than to have cobbler later." Then she and her dad ate all the berries in the bucket.

Lottie wanted to go on with her dream, but someone was patting her arm and calling her.

"Loretta, Loretta, it's 9:30. Time to get up."

Lottie opened her eyes to see her grandmother and Judith standing over her. "You gave us quite a scare, young lady," her grandmother scolded. "Poor Judith was beside herself when she went to awaken you this morning and your bed was empty."

Lottie figured the truth was that Judith had probably sung the Barney happy song when she'd seen the empty bed. That's how much she had been "beside herself." Coming back to the present moment, Lottie sat up and straightened her back, willing herself to look big.

"I'm not staying in that room." Lottie said with all the strength she had.

Mrs. Harrolton was not used to being crossed, and she was losing the little driblet of patience she had. "Loretta, stop being ridiculous and go to your room, get dressed, and come down for breakfast. I've planned a big day for you."

Judith chimed in, "And show your grandmother some respect."

Lottie was not going to back down even if it meant she would be sent back to Austin. "My daddy wants me in this room, and I'm not going back to that scary, ugly room even if you pull out all my fingernails," she blurted out.

Lottie had no idea what caused her to say such a crazy thing. She would walk back to Texas barefoot before she'd let anyone pull out even one single pinkie fingernail; nevertheless, it seemed to work.

Mrs. Harrolton stared at her for a while. She couldn't help admiring her granddaughter's spunk. Perhaps it reminded her of a strong-willed little boy who had been the center of her life for so many years. A little boy who'd grown up with so much grit that he turned his back on his family to marry someone they simply could not accept. Mrs. Harrolton wondered if she were going to make the same mistakes again?

"Very well. Judith, bring her things down to this room and have Claire freshen it up," Mrs. Harrolton said quietly.

"But, Mam, do you think it's wise to give in to the whims of a child?" Judith said in an angry, teacher-type voice. Lottie's grandmother seemed a little frightened of Judith, but after a moment, she firmly nodded her head "yes". With a disappointed sigh, Judith left the room and mumbled something on the other side of the door.

At that moment, Lottie felt such love for her grandmother that she hopped out of bed and hugged her around the waist. "Thank you, Grandma, I mean, Grandmother. You're so nice. Can I go swimming right after breakfast? My mama says it's just something someone made up that you can't go swimming right after you eat."

Then something very wonderful happened. Slowly, shaking a little, Mrs. Harrolton put her arms around her granddaughter. When Lottie felt her caress, she looked over at the picture of her dad's smiling face and gave him the thumbs-up sign. However, before they could sink into a real love-hug as her mom called it, she felt her grandmother's body stiffen and her hands were undoing Lottie's grip around her waist.

"As soon as Judith brings your things, put on your day clothes and come down for breakfast. Half the morning is already gone." Her grandmother acted like they had some big wedding or funeral to attend where you couldn't be late without everyone giving you "the look". Lottie got "the look" last Christmas when she stuck a juicy piece of barely-chewed bubble gum under Tía Eva's fancy dining room table.

Before shutting the door, her grandmother said, "Claire will have your breakfast waiting in the sun room."

"Oh great," thought Lottie, "like I really know where that is." She guessed she could ask Judith, but then realized she'd rather spend a night at May Beth's house than do that. As this passed through her mind, she could hear those ugly black tie-up shoes stomp, stomping towards her room. She wasn't about to face Judith or listen to her nagging talk.

Quickly, she dashed into the bathroom, locked the door, and turned on all the faucets full blast, drowning out all scolding talk. She wasn't going to give that crabby old woman the opportunity to ruin a day that had started out so well.

Nine

## The Hidden Passage

The sunroom was like something in Cinderella's castle. Two glass walls looked out on a blue-green yard that had more flowers than the flower section at the supermarket. The ceiling was also glass where a blue sky with white fluffy clouds peeked through. A glass wall divided the swimming pool room from the breakfast room.

Lottie was so glad she'd had the good sense to put on her swimsuit under her shorts and shirt before coming down. She didn't want to waste precious time having to go all the way up the wide stairs and down the long hallway to her room to change again.

Claire was all smiles as she served a plate of bacon, fried just right, and a short-stack of blueberry pancakes, Lottie's favorite. Lottie had a hard time remembering her manners because she was hungrier than she ever remembered being. She had hardly eaten anything since the previous morning when her mom had insisted she try to eat some granola cereal. Her grandmother wasn't around, and she didn't have to deal with a bunch of forks and things, so she dug in like this would be the only meal she'd ever have.

"Slow down, precious, there be more where that came from," said Claire, laughing. "When you finish, your grandmother wants that I take you on a tour of the mansion."

Lottie frowned, "But I need to go swimming. Just a couple of laps to get my body limber. Please."

"Limbering, now is that what the body needs?" Claire looked around, "Well, I do have to wipe down those windows, so I suppose we could put off the tour for a bit." Suddenly Claire's expression changed as Mrs. Harrolton entered the room. Claire scampered off, quickly picking up her cleaning rag.

Lottie looked puzzled, "She flew out of here like she was afraid of you. You like Claire, don't you, Grandmother?"

Mrs. Harrolton sat down abruptly. "Loretta, it is impolite to ask adults such questions. Claire is employed by me. She is not a friend, and she knows her place."

Lottie thought about this for a while. After a few more bites, she let her fork fall onto the plate. The pancakes didn't taste quite as appetizing as before. "Well, she's my friend, and I would like for her to go swimming with me."

"Out of the question, Loretta. That would put Claire in a truly awkward position," her grandmother said impatiently.

Claire was wiping down the windows from the pool side. She caught Lottie's eye and made a funny face. Lottie laughed out loud, causing Mrs. Harrolton to turn. Lottie's laugh quickly dissolved into a fake coughing fit. She grabbed her milk and started drinking as if to clear her throat.

Her grandmother looked at her and then glanced over at Claire. "Loretta, as soon as you finish, Claire will take you on a tour of the household. After lunch Samuel will be driving us into the city for shopping."

Lottie jumped up and started peeling off her shorts and tee shirt, as her grandmother stared in shock. "Please may I take just one quick dip while Claire finishes up with those windows? You can come too. Everyone says I swim excellent for a kid my age."

"Excellently," Mrs. Harrolton corrected her, but Lottie didn't notice. She was focused on the pool area. When she got to the sliding door, she turned and made a big "come-on" gesture with her arm. "You're in for a big surprise," Lottie beamed.

Mrs. Harrolton was indeed surprised as she watched her granddaughter's long slim body slice through the water with barely a ripple. She became quite concerned when Lottie swam the entire length of the pool under water, never once coming up for a breath.

Finally, after completing five laps without a break and then going through a dolphin routine, Lottie swam over to where her grandmother was sitting. As she lifted herself up onto her elbows, her grandmother exclaimed, "Yes, indeed, you are an excellent swimmer." She sounded almost happy and when she got up, she took a few steps without her cane. Samuel and Claire were standing in the background grinning from ear to ear.

The tour was almost as much fun as the swim. Claire showed her secret passages, and they made up stories about monsters and Bluebeards who'd once lived there. They chased one another, and once, even Claire got lost when she was showing Lottie how to get to the "tourist section" of the castle by walking into one of the fireplaces and pushing the third brick on the left.

Lottie had a good sense of direction and felt she, more or less, knew how to get from one end of the palace to the other. Yet it wasn't the kind of place she'd like to wonder around in, especially after dark. Lottie knew that there were no such things as monsters or Bluebeards; still her grandmother's house couldn't help but be scary because it was so old and much too big for normal-type people.

Before going to lunch, Claire insisted that she rush to her room to clean up and change clothes because she had gotten dirty crawling through the passage to the tourist section. "Your grandmother will have me head if you go down looking like that," Claire had said.

Why she had to be spick-and-span before she ate, Lottie couldn't understand at all. It wasn't as if the food cared, but that was another question she dared not ask. She was so glad her mom was one of those adults who didn't mind if children asked questions. Thinking about her mom made her heart feel sore.

They had lunch in yet another room. It wasn't as fancy or big as the first one and not nearly as fun as the breakfast room. "Wow, how many rooms do you have just for eating?" Lottie asked, before remembering the no-question rule. "Oh, I'm sorry," she blurted out.

However, when she looked up, she saw that her grandmother was half-way smiling. "Well, this is where I eat most of the time. Last night's dining room is reserved for special occasions, and since you had come, I felt it was a special occasion." Lottie felt a warm spring breeze blowing over her. Perhaps her grandmother was nicer than she thought. She just had to give her some time like Samuel had said.

As if that wasn't enough to make her feel good, Judith set a plate of spaghetti in front of her. Things were really looking up. "Spaghetti is my all time favorite," Lottie burst out. But Judith didn't say a word, just clomped out with her same old sourpuss face.

Lottie ate her spaghetti trying hard not to make a mess because she just might explode if she had to change clothes again. Maybe that was why her grandmother wanted to buy her some more. If she had to change every time she got a spot on something, she'd be undressing and dressing all day long. She might as well carry a suitcase and laundry basket around with her everywhere she went.

"Grandma, gosh, I mean Grandmother." Lottie flashed her grandmother a big smile. "It's just that you seem more like a Grandma to me." Lottie paused as Mrs. Harrolton stopped chewing her salad.

Lottie went on, "From the north wing on the third floor, Claire showed me your Doberman pens. She said those dogs were extremely mean. And that's when I noticed all their houses were exactly the same, a dull gray, and I got to thinking that I could paint their houses, you know different colors and decorate them to suit their personalities. That way maybe they would feel more comfortable and not be so mean."

Mrs. Harrolton put down her fork, "Loretta, those are guard dogs. They protect this property and those of us who live here."

"Well, Chester protects me, but he's about as nice a dog as you'll ever find. Just because they protect, doesn't mean they have to be mean. I paint the doghouses in my neighborhood, and I only charge $3, but the owners have to buy the paint. You have six dog houses, which means I could make $18, but I'd give you a special discount since you're my grandmother." Lottie took a long drink of the fruit smoothie and wondered how it was that she was getting all her favorite foods. Maybe she had talked in her sleep.

Her grandmother was looking at her as if she were studying a moon rock in the science exhibit. "There's no end to your charming, multi-faceted nature, Loretta."

Lottie didn't have the foggiest idea what her grandmother had just said, even though it didn't sound all that bad. It reminded her of a movie about olden times that her mom watched every time it came on the classics channel. Imitating the lead actress, Lottie put her nose up in the air and attempted an English accent, "Likewise, I'm sure."

Ten

##  An Amazing Discovery

Lottie was itching all over, and she looked about as ridiculous as a goofy clown in a circus. The stick lady standing next to the floor-length mirror kept saying, "Absolutely adorable, absolutely adorable!" This lady was skinnier than Tio's fishing pole and talked like she had about a hundred English peas stuck up her nose.

Lottie didn't know whether to scream or cry. She had been trying on dresses for at least a solid hour. Silly May Beth dresses with ruffles and lace and ribbons and sashes. The stick would help her get into them, tie or fasten her up to where she could hardly breathe, and then parade her to the next room where her grandmother sat on a chair that looked like the Lion King's throne.

Her grandmother would inspect her front, back, and sideways and either nod "yes" or shake her head "no". Then the stick and several other slightly larger sticks would run around like the sky was falling until they found something else for her to try on.

Her grandmother had already given the "yes nod" to about a dozen dresses. Lottie shuddered. Would she actually have to wear those things to get her grandmother to like her? Once again, Lottie thought about Austin and her home where things were so much easier; where hands were all that had to be washed before eating, and where clothes, no matter how dirty, were worn until bath time. A place where she could ask questions.

"Loretta, are you alright?" She heard her grandmother ask from the throne. Lottie pulled her attention back to the room. She threw a big happy nod her grandmother's way.

She was determined to make the best of this time with her daddy's mother even if it meant she would be choked half to death in bows and ties and frilly things. Her grandmother continued, "You looked like you were a million miles away."

Lottie had to figure out a way to avoid what could turn into a catastrophe. "Grandmother, I really think all those dresses," she pointed to the rack, "are very pretty, but I'm just worried about them fitting into my charming, multi-faceted nature." Mrs. Harrolton dropped her guard and chuckled softly.

After composing herself, she motioned to one of the sticks, "I now would like to see some sport clothes for my granddaughter." Then she turned to Lottie, "Come here, Loretta." Slowly, Lottie inched her way closer and closer. Her grandmother leaned in towards her as if she were going to tell her a big secret. She was so close Lottie could see the tiny veins under her grandmother's papery white skin.

"Loretta, I'll make a deal with you. I'll buy clothes for you that fit your nature which you can wear during the day. Then in the evenings for dinner, I want you to fit my personality and wear a dress."

Lottie looked at the clear blue eyes that reminded her of the blue eyes that had loved her so much when she was little. For the second time that day, Lottie threw her arms around her grandmother and hugged her tight. She wanted to say, "I love you," but just couldn't get it out. She knew in her heart that her grandmother was the same way; she couldn't say what she was feeling.

Later, a very cheerful Lottie, wearing new shorts, a matching shirt, and the coolest sandals ever, tagged along behind her grandmother and Samuel who was loaded down with bags and boxes. Her grandmother stopped at the jewelry counter and asked about pearls for a child.

Lottie was eyeing a watch that had interchangeable colored bands for every day of the week. Oh, how she'd love to have that, but she knew it would be impolite to ask for anything else. After all, her grandmother had already spent a fortune on her. While thinking back to a lecture on good manners which her mother recently had given her, Lottie glanced over to the Men's Department.

As she scanned the area, she suddenly caught her breath. Her heart began to pound like a snare drum. It was the boy. He was sitting on a chair in the shoe section. She knew it was him. She never forgot a face, especially a face that she'd just seen in the paper. Then a tall black man came over and showed him some basketball shoes. The boy just crouched down in his chair, and the man gave him an angry look.

Lottie looked over at her grandmother who was in a deep conversation over a strand of pearls. Loaded down with boxes, Samuel was heading out the revolving doors to put everything in the car. Without another thought, Lottie darted over to the Men's Department and hid in a rack of suits next to the shoe section and the chair where he was sitting.

"Squeak", she whispered loud enough for him to hear. The boy kind of jumped, then looked from one side to the other. Lottie knew now for sure that she had found Charles Ray Taft, the boy from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who got off the school bus and hadn't been seen since.

"Charles Ray, I'm in the suits on your right, no left side," she whispered. Charles Ray's eyes widened with fright as he glanced in her direction. "Go away! He's coming right back. He told me not to talk to anyone."

"I'm going to help you, just look straight ahead and act normal. I'll go get my grandmother," Lottie started to untangle herself from the suits.

Charles Ray sat upright, "No, you can't get help because he's a head policeman. I saw his gun and badge. He said no one would believe me because he's famous."

"But my great, great-grandfather was very famous, and my grandmother is so rich, she lives in a palace," Lottie tried to reason.

"But if I don't do what he says he'll hurt my mama and daddy." Charles Ray quickly slunk back in the chair as he caught a glimpse of the tall man coming his way, carrying an armload of clothes.

Lottie ducked down lower. A salesman approached them, but the tall man stood between him and Charles Ray. After a brief conversation, the salesman shrugged his shoulders and left.

"Now, son, I want you to go try these on. I want you to look nice when you go to camp," he said in gravel-crushing voice. Shivers ran down Lottie's back, through her legs, and into the floor.

She watched as Charles Ray timidly took the bundle of clothes from the tall man and slowly went towards the men's changing rooms. The tall man turned towards the underwear aisle.

"Miss, Miss, what are you doing in there? Can I help you?" A friendly looking lady was standing over her.

"Oh," Lottie jumped. "I was looking for something for my dad. You know Father's Day is coming up, and well, he's trying on some stuff," she points towards the fitting rooms, "and ah, well, I didn't want him to see me picking out something, but thank you anyway. I'll be going now."

A teenage boy over in the swim section got the lady's attention and off she went.

Lottie checked and saw that the tall man was still going through underwear. No one was looking. Her grandmother was now talking to two people who were holding up all sorts of necklaces. Grabbing this opportunity, Lottie raced into the men's fitting rooms.

As she walked down the aisle, she saw that most of the rooms were empty. She heard a man's cough come from one cubical, and then further down, she saw a pair of boy's jeans thrown over the door. Quickly, she dove under the door and pulled in her long legs. Charles Ray was pulling on a shirt.

"What's wrong with you? Are you crazy?" He whispered. Lottie turned her back to him. "I won't look, but you have to answer some questions if you want me to help you. Do you know him?"

Charles Ray started talking in a low murmur as fast as he could. "Never saw him before in my life. Said he was my mama's cousin and was supposed to take me to my grandma's cause my mama was going to be late. He knew my grandma's name and everything about the family. I saw the police radio in his car, and he opened the door for me to see it, and when I got in, he put something over my mouth, and I went sound asleep till I woke up in this rickety room. He says he's supposed to be my daddy, but he's a crazy liar. He's not sending me to any camp either."

"Where is this rickety room?" Lottie asked.

"How should I know? I don't even know what city I'm in." Charles answered as he slipped on another shirt.

Lottie turned towards him. "You're in Chicago. By the way, I'm Lottie, and my grandmother is Mrs. Genevieve Harrolton - I think a lot of people around here know who she is. Don't forget her name. Genevieve Harrolton. You've got to think about where you are." Lottie pressured him.

"Charles Ray, where are you, son?" Lottie froze, and Charles Ray's eyes got bigger and bigger. Then he pointed to the opening at the bottom of the wall to the next room. Quickly, Lottie rolled under it to the next cubical. Thanks to the angels no one was in there.

"I'm in here," she heard Charles Ray's low voice.

"That looks real nice on you. Your mama will like that a lot.Do the others fit you the same?" The tall man was talking in what Lottie could tell was a fake nice voice. Charles Ray must have nodded because then the man said, "Well, just leave those on, and we'll take all these and go pay for them."

Lottie heard them leave. What was she going to do now? She immediately asked her dad to come help her and then snuck out of the dressing area with no one catching even a glimpse of her.

When she reentered the men's section, she saw that Charles Ray was sitting on a chair off to the side and that the tall man was across the room in line at the cash register. Lottie quickly sat two chairs down from Charles Ray where she could talk and also keep her eye on the tall man.

Charles Ray looked relieved to see her. Once again he started talking like he was freezing half to death with his jaw bobbing up and down. "I hear trains all night long. They're real loud. We drove past a gigantic lake coming here today. The windows are all boarded up. All the houses are tumbling down and have boards over the windows. It took us about fifteen minutes to get here. I watched his clock. The police radio kept saying things, codes. After he saw that I was looking at everything outside, he made me sit down on the floor."

He paused and then thought of something else. "When he carried me in that first night, I saw the number 403 painted over the porch, and it's yellow, ugly, cracked yellow. I'm on the second floor, right next to the stairs, but it's all boarded up. He comes at night and brings me food, then goes back to being a policeman, a detective. He says he's the best in the country. Got an award from the governor."

Lottie put up her hand, "Shh, he's coming. I'll find you. Don't give up."

"Lottie, please don't go to the police," he'll know if you do and then kill me," begged Charles Ray.

Lottie started singing, "This old man, he has knick-knack on his knees" with the gestures and everything. The tall man came up and stared at her for a while.

Lottie looked up at him and smiled, "I apologize if my singing bothers you. I got bored trying to talk to that boy sitting on that chair, but I guess he's deaf, because he wouldn't say a word, and I haven't learned sign language, so I had to entertain myself somehow while my daddy is trying on one suit after another. My mother is staying with my sick grandmother so I had...."

The tall man interrupted her, "Come on, son. It's time to go home." The tall man gave Lottie a final mean look and then took Charles Ray by the arm and led him away. Charles Ray glanced at her briefly with a pleading "don't-tell" look.

Lottie turned back to the jewelry department and saw that her grandmother was surrounded by clerks and two security guards. Samuel was running down one of the dress aisles. Lottie hurried over. When her grandmother saw her, she let out a slight shriek, "There she is!"

Then there was the scolding tone, "Loretta, you nearly gave me a heart attack. Where were you? At first I thought you had gone with Samuel. But when he returned from the car, and you were nowhere in sight, well, I..."

Lottie wanted to burst out telling everyone how she had seen the missing boy from Oklahoma City and that he had been kidnapped and that his life was in grave danger, but then she remembered Charles Ray's frightened eyes and clamped her mouth shut.

Taking charge, Samuel came up to Mrs. Harrolton's side and said in his soothing voice, "Mrs. Harrolton, the car is at the curb. Let me help you to it. Loretta, take your grandmother's other arm."

Eleven

##

## Risky Schemes

On the way home, Lottie was sitting on pins and needles beside her grandmother in the back seat. She was halfway listening to what her grandmother was saying, "You must remember, Loretta, that someone, who knows of our family, might think they could gain a great deal by taking you. If that happened, I don't know what I would do."

Her grandmother moved closer beside her and put her arm around her. Then Lottie thought she heard her grandmother whisper, "My dear Lottie." She looked at her grandmother's face and saw a new softness there. If Lottie hadn't been so worried about Charles Ray at that moment, she could have been as happy as strawberry shortcake with whipped cream on top. But instead she felt like lukewarm milk.

"Grandmother," Lottie asked, "what would you do if you knew that a child had been kidnapped?"

"Why, report it to the police, at once," her grandmother answered as she unwrapped her arm and slid away a couple of inches, once again frightened. Lottie watched her clench her cane as if she were afraid she might fall into a bottomless pit. "Grandmother, I'm sorry I scared you so bad."

"Badly," her grandmother softly corrected her.

The Chicago skyline flew past, and Lottie looked out the window and wondered where that ugly yellow house marked 403 could possibly be. If only she could call her mother, but her mother had told her she was taking one of her patients to a special doctor in Atlanta and would be gone for several days. She said she probably wouldn't be able to call because this patient was extremely sick and needed her constant attention. Waiting several days to do something was out of the question.

When they got back, Mrs. Harrolton went to bed, and Lottie went to the pool. Lap after lap she swam and thought about Charles Ray and how she might be able to rescue him. Flipping onto her back, she looked through the skylight at the clouds. In every cloud she could see Charles Ray's terrified face. One cloud was the tall man, and he was chasing a Charles Ray cloud.

She knew that policemen could be very nice people, but she also remembered hearing talk in her neighborhood about policemen who weren't nice. Lottie decided she'd better not take a chance.

That evening, as Claire was helping her get into one of her fancy dresses for dinner, Lottie was tempted to tell her everything, but she knew that Claire would go to her grandmother, and then her grandmother would go to the police, and then Charles Ray would be killed.

"Lottie precious, are you a wee bit lonesome for home?" Claire asked. "You seem a bit off." Lottie didn't say anything.

Claire went on, "You're quite the looker in this emerald dress with your red hair and black eyes. You have to hand it to your grandmother, she has good taste. Now sit down and let me tame that wild mass of curls. Did you see these lovely hair clasps she got you? And these lovely pearls? I see you're already wearing the new watch your grandmother got you."

Lottie sat down at the dressing table without saying anything. Claire fastened the necklace and began doing her hair. A little exasperated, Claire raised her voice, "Lottie, has that dreadful Ebony gotten your tongue?"

Lottie looked in the mirror. "Yes, I guess I look nice."

"Oh, it's definitely more than nice. Now listen, dear, I'll be off tomorrow afternoon, so Judith will probably help you dress. Just be a good girl and cooperate with her, you hear?" Claire fastened Lottie's hair up and away from her face.

Lottie didn't want to draw attention to her far-away thinking, so she asked Claire, "What do you do on your afternoons off?"

Claire's face brightened up. "Oh I go see me boyfriend, Charlie. He's a musician, you know. He and his buddies are already playing in a big club downtown on Madison Street."

The wheels began to turn in Lottie's head. She asked enthusiastically, "Is there a zoo nearby?"

Claire thought a minute, "Yes, I think there's the Lincoln Zoo just down the street from his apartment. Why do you want to know that?"

"Just wondering, that's all," Lottie said innocently.

Claire had told Lottie to meet her grandmother in the big fancy dining room. Lottie figured that since she now had dresses, her grandmother thought the fancy room was the proper place to eat.

Last night, Judith had firmly instructed her not to sit down until her grandmother had arrived and been seated. She looked around the large room and suddenly spotted those devil green eyes. Ebony was crouched in the shadows on one of the cabinets, staring at her like a horror-movie cat. Ebony's hateful gaze was similar to the tall man's stare.

"Arf, arf," Lottie mimicked Chester's mean bark as best she could. It wasn't that good an imitation but good enough to make Ebony jump off the shelf and scramble for the kitchen door just as Judith was coming through. Judith had to jump sideways on her lumpy hippo feet to keep from squashing Ebony and nearly dropped the tray she was carrying. It was just too funny for Lottie not to laugh even though she did try to keep it in.

"What are you up to now, you little vixen?" Judith started to come towards her, but stopped when Mrs. Harrolton entered the room. Mrs. Harrolton was so excited to see Lottie all dressed up she didn't notice that anything was going on. "Oh my dear child, you are stunning. Do you know what that means, Loretta?"

She seated herself, and then Lottie sat down. "It means you will hardly be able to take your eyes off me, which isn't good because then you'll miss out on this wonderful meal Miss Judith has worked so hard to prepare." Lottie gave Judith a cherry ice-cream smile. Judith turned away so angry she was chewing her bottom lip.

During the dinner, Lottie once again brought up the topic of painting the doghouses, but Mrs. Harrolton could not be swayed. She said that gray was just fine for those dogs. Then she changed the subject and started talking about the family history and how Lottie's great, great-grandfather had come to this country with nothing but the clothes on his back and was able to make a fortune because he came up with some new idea about canning foods.

Lottie tried to listen, but she kept thinking about Charles Ray and what he might be doing in that boarded up room. Then Lottie heard her grandmother say, "Loretta, are you listening?"

Lottie paused to think, wondering if this were the right moment. "I'm not very good in history; in fact, I make my lowest grades in that class because my mind just can't get interested in that stuff. Now I love animals, like your mean dogs and the wild animals in the zoo. What my mind had wandered off to was, well, could I please go with Claire to the zoo? While she was doing my hair up, she told me she didn't mind at all if I tagged along with her tomorrow afternoon."

Mrs. Harrolton took a sip of wine and then wiped her mouth. "You've really developed a liking for Claire, and she for you. I suppose that's to be expected since there are no children for you to play with, and Claire is rather immature."

"Yes, she may be that," Lottie agreed, "but she has a very good heart. Look at how she went all over this palace...house and found me those pretty things for my room—the lamp, the dressing table, just everything. There's nothing she wouldn't do for me."

Mrs. Harrolton had to suppress a smile and the urge to correct her grammar. She observed her granddaughter and after some thought, said, "I suppose that will be alright. I will talk with Claire in the morning."

Lottie wanted to jump up and go sit in her grandmother's lap and give her a big kiss, but she knew that her grandmother could take only so much gushiness in one day.

Twelve

## Troublesome Stories

That night, Lottie waited until the house was quiet and her grandmother and Judith were asleep or at least in their bedrooms. Then once again, she ventured out into that big creepy hall with the dead relatives, always peering down, but this time she didn't so much as glance up at them.

She imagined her dad holding her hand as she walked to the wing where Claire's room was. As she came close, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the light under the door. Claire was still up. Then she heard some rock music, turned down low. Softly she knocked.

Hair in curlers and wearing silky pajamas, Claire opened the door a peep. "What are you doing, precious? Is something wrong?' Claire pulled her in. "I thought it was the old grouse. I forgot to clean out the fridge, and I thought she'd come to get me." Claire plopped on her bed and went back to painting her toenails a bright magenta. Lottie stretched out beside her on her stomach where she could watch the task at close range.

"That's really a cool color," she said. Then she went on to the main business. "Claire, you know I'm named after my grandmother's sister, Loretta. She's my great-aunt."

Claire sat back and admired her feet, "I've never heard mention of her."

"That's because she did something really bad and was kicked out of the family." Lottie started off.

"Oh I can believe that alright. Your grandmother can be a real cold fish." Claire put her hand over her mouth. "Sorry, Lottie. She can also be very nice," she added trying to fix what had slipped off her thoughtless tongue.

Lottie was silent for a moment, wondering what was going to happen to her for making up all these stories, but she knew of no other way to help Charles Ray. The truth was that her great Aunt Loretta had died before she was born. Her dad loved her very much, so he named Lottie after her. At least that part of the story was true.

Lottie went on, "She lives here in Chicago near downtown, and I really want to see her, but I can't say that to Grandmother because that would make her angry. You'll be going downtown tomorrow, and so you could just drop me off at her house. I'll take the bus back."

Claire gave her a quizzical look, "Oh, I don't know about that. Your grandmother would know. I can't afford to lose my job, Lottie."

"I've already told grandmother that you are going to take me to the zoo," Lottie quickly replied.

"You what? Aren't you something?" Claire thought for a moment. "Well, I don't suppose there's any harm in you seeing your poor old aunt. Coming back, you'll have to take the El and then a bus. Here, I've got a schedule." She shuffled through the drawer of her bedside table.

Then Claire had second thoughts, "Your grandmother would fire me for sure if she knew I let you travel on public transportation. This won't work. Sorry, Lottie." She put the schedule back.

"I'll tell grandmother you dropped me off at the gate and went back to... something." Lottie was running out of things to make up, but she couldn't give up. "Please, Claire, my poor old aunt is sick, and, and I might not ever get to see her kind face again."

That pulled at Claire's heart string. "Tell your grandma I had to go visit a sick friend. She won't care as long as you're home safe. But now let me show you how to get home. What's your aunt's address?"

Lottie yawned and stretched out, "Claire, let's do that tomorrow. I'm real sleepy and need to feel good tomorrow for my great aunt."

With that Lottie jumped off the bed and was out the door. As she took a step down the hall, she saw Ebony curled up in a corner, waiting for her. Lottie walked over, crouched down until she was eyeball to eyeball with the feline, "If you think you can scare me, think again, and you'd better stop following me around." Ebony blinked a couple of times. Lottie headed to her room.

Thirteen

##

##  The Map Dilemma

Lottie woke up very early the next morning. Butterflies were flitting all around her stomach. She had so much to do and so much to remember. First thing after getting dressed, she ran downstairs and luckily found Samuel already up and feeding the dogs. One of the gardeners was pulling weeds in one of the many flowerbeds.

"Hey, Samuel." Lottie called as she skipped over to the pens. Lester, the head dog, pointed his ears in her direction and then went back to eating.

"Why good morning, Lottie. What are you doing up so early? Look at that sun, just starting to peek over the horizon," Samuel said in his usual nice low piano-key voice.

Lottie crossed her fingers behind her back and then quickly uncrossed them. She knew that a story was a story whether you had your fingers crossed or not, and she didn't like to fool herself with feather-brained notions. She started carefully. "I couldn't sleep too well because I've been awful worried about my social studies project."

Samuel laughed as he turned on the watering system for the dogs. "I don't see a need for worrying at this time. School doesn't open for another two months or so."

Lottie pulled out a map stuffed in her pocket. "But you see, I failed social studies. Now don't tell Grandmother because she thinks I'm as smart as my dad, but the truth is, I'm not. The only reason I got to come here in the first place is if I promised to do a project while I was here in Chicago. Otherwise, I'd be stuck in summer school as we speak."

With that she unfolded a map of Chicago on the roof of Lester's house. Then she pulled a red marker from another pocket. "Samuel, can you put a red dot where we were yesterday? You know where the store was?"

Samuel wiped his hands on a towel stuck in his back pocket, took the pen, looked at the map for a while, and made a dot. Lottie continued, "Now how far could we go in any direction from that spot in say fifteen minutes?"

"That depends on the time of day," Samuel said.

"Gosh, I'm glad you're helping me. I forgot to figure that in. Let's make it around two in the afternoon." Lottie looked up at him as innocently as she could pretend to be.

"In fifteen minutes that time of day, I figure from here, to here, to here," he drew some lines.

Lottie leaned over his hand, "And here's Lake Michigan, right?" Samuel nodded.

Lottie took a deep breath, "Now one more thing, where are there lots of trains, like a real big train station?"

Samuel pointed to a spot. "No, it has to be inside the lines," Lottie objected.

Samuel stood up straight and studied her. "What kind of social studies project is this anyway?"

Lottie saw that Lester was watching her closely. He could smell that she was making up stuff. Lottie knew that dogs, especially these kinds of dogs, knew things by smelling that people could never know.

But Lottie went on, "Mrs. Graft, my social studies' teacher has a lot of problems. She can't always think straight because her husband ran off, and no one knows where he is. And I'm worse in maps than anything else, so she gave me a map problem to solve. If it doesn't make much sense to you, then you can imagine how confused I am."

Samuel laughed softly. Lottie thought it sounded like an I-know-you're-pulling-my-leg laugh, but he didn't say anything, just pointed to a train station inside the lines that was already clearly marked on the map. If only she had looked more closely, she wouldn't have had to ask that last stupid question. Now she could only pray that Samuel wouldn't say anything to her grandmother.

Just past noon, Lottie and Claire were fastening themselves into Claire's somewhat old Toyota Corolla. Lottie could hardly believe they were actually getting off. Earlier her grandmother had insisted that Samuel drive them to the zoo. Lottie's stomach almost dropped onto the floor, but after some discussion, Claire convinced Mrs. Harrolton that she had already made an appointment to get the car's muffler changed while they were at the zoo.

Claire was really a good friend. Finally, her grandmother gave in and handed Lottie seven twenty dollar bills. "That's for your entrance fees, snacks and souvenirs." Lottie had never seen so much money. Lottie hugged and kissed her grandmother. "Thanks, grandma, you're the best. I mean, gran..."

"That's okay, Lottie. Perhaps it's better not to be so formal," her grandmother said. When Lottie heard that, she felt like a black cloud had moved over her. She didn't like going behind her grandmother's back one little bit especially now when her grandmother was starting to like her. But she would explain everything once Charles Ray was safe. Now she had to concentrate on finding him.

As Lottie unfolded the map, Claire let out a big breath, "I thought we were going to get away earlier. I told Charlie I'd be there at one. He said he had something special planned." Claire giggled and acted just like her Cousin Ana did over Carlos. Lottie knew she'd never act like that over a boy even when she got older.

Lottie told Claire that her Aunt Loretta lived near Central Station which seemed to please her. Then for the next twenty minutes, Claire explained the best ways to get back home, by train and then bus, and ended with, "What am I talking about? All the money your grandmother gave you, you'd best take a cab. That's the simplest." Lottie liked that idea.

When they got to the station area, Lottie told Claire they needed to look for boarded up houses around there. "Boarded-up houses, what are you saying? Are you telling me that Mrs. Harrolton's sister lives in a boarded-up house?" Claire asked in disbelief. "It's bad enough that her sister lives over in this part of town, but no offense, this is off-the-wall, Lottie. Sometimes, everything over here in this country seems strange. Not a bit like dear old Ireland."

"I know," Lottie said as she peered out the window for an ugly yellow house marked 403. "It's number 403, but I can't remember the exact street name."

That seemed to help Claire. She turned the car around. "The four hundred blocks are this way."

Claire made another turn and Lottie saw it. There it was in all its run-down ugliness.

"Stop," cried Lottie; "it's back there."

Claire backed the car up. "On no," Claire said. "I'm not letting you go in there by yourself."

"It's okay, Claire, believe me. It's not so bad inside, and besides, Aunt Loretta is blind; she doesn't even know it's boarded up. This was her home long before it went to the dogs, and no one could get her to move. Not even my daddy." Lottie jumped out of the car.

Claire sat looking at the house with a stone face, not moving an inch. Lottie had to get her mind onto something else. "Gosh, Claire, you better get going. Charlie will wonder what happened to you. I bet he's walking the floor worrying where you are."

Claire's expression suddenly brightened as she thought about her boyfriend. "Oh yes, Charlie." She looked at her watch. "I'm already running thirty minutes late." She gave Lottie one last concerned look. "Now you be careful and get a cab right there on that corner." She blew Lottie a kiss and was gone.

Fourteen

##

##  A Terrorizing Chase

As soon as the sound of Claire's car had faded away, complete silence surrounded Lottie. There was no life here. She looked across an empty lot, overgrown with weeds, and saw the towering buildings of downtown Chicago which seemed close enough to reach out and touch, yet there were no city sounds. It was as if she were in some alien land.

Then suddenly Lottie felt like she was being jerked right out of her high-tops and flown up past the tallest skyscraper as the piercing blast of a train whistle vibrated through every part of her body.

"Daddy, Aunt Loretta, Guardian Angel, please come here, now. I need you," she prayed. She thought about the velvety turquoise blanket her daddy used to wrap around her; once she could imagine it surrounding her, she was able to go on. Slowly, she walked through the itchy weeds towards the house and up the steps. Each step to the porch had its own peculiar creak that sounded a lot like Sophie playing the violin.

After stepping over broken porch boards, she came to the front door that had a round hole where a doorknob had once been. She pushed, but the door was stuck. After several tries, she leaned on it and shoved with all her might. Slowly, it scraped open as if molasses had been spilt on the floor.

Lottie stepped into blackness. Wait till your eyes get used to the dimness, she heard a voice in her head say. She obeyed and stood perfectly still. Finally the outlines of the room began to appear. She could make out the walls of the entryway and a staircase to the side.

There was a large room just to the right. A low noise was coming from its interior. Was it bees in a hive? Or maybe snoring?

Lottie leaned in and gasped as she saw a scraggly-bearded man in dirty, torn-up clothes lying on his back, huffing and snorting through a mouth, wide-open. An empty bottle lay by his side. It looked a lot like the bottle she'd seen Tio Jorge hide in his shed. Her mama had told her it was whiskey, and that it was bad for Tio because whenever he drank it, he went crazy.

Lottie turned away from the room and started up the stairs. Oh no, more creaks! She must take her time and not awaken the snoring man.

To keep herself from tearing up the stairs, she thought about the times she'd gone to Sophie's house before Sophie had finished practicing her violin. Lottie would beg to wait outside, but Sophie always wanted to show her what she had learned, and Lottie didn't have the heart to tell her friend that her violin playing sounded worse than fighting cats. She felt certain that Chester would learn the alphabet before poor Sophie would get music out of that instrument.

At last Lottie was on the top step, and there was the door. She was so excited she could feel tingles in her neck and back.

She tapped very lightly on the door and whispered, "Charles Ray." From within, she heard someone run to the door and then Charles Ray's voice, "Lottie, is that you?"

"Yes, Charles Ray, it's me. I've come to get you," she turned the handle, but the door was locked.

"The key is on that shelf just across the hall over the second door. I've watched him through the keyhole. He always puts it there," Charles Ray said hurriedly.

Lottie saw the shelf and wanted to cry. It was way too high for her. Even standing on her tiptoes she couldn't begin to reach it. What now? She looked around for a chair or something. Nothing but emptiness.

Maybe her belt would work. Quickly she pulled it from the loops of her blue-jean shorts. It had silver studs, and Judith had told her this morning it was cheap-looking, and the voice in Lottie's head had replied, Well, your big, black, tie-up, chunky shoes are cheap-looking too.

Lottie flung the belt over her head and scraped the top of the shelf. She heard a clinking sound and then a squeak as a mouse came flying off. Lottie couldn't help it; she screamed, then quickly clasped her hand over her mouth as the mouse rolled over on the floor and scampered down the hall disappearing under a door. She thought she heard something downstairs. She froze on the spot and waited. Relief. The house was perfectly still.

Once again, Lottie jumped and swung the belt across the shelf. Nothing. After the fifth try, the key clanged to the floor. Lottie ran over to unlock Charles Ray's door. She had barely clicked the lock when Charles Ray pulled the door open.

"You came," he said in disbelief. "You really came."

"I usually try to keep my word, Charles Ray," she said as she looked around the room.

The room was cluttered with McDonald, KFC, Burger King sacks, various pizza boxes, and cups. A small TV was set up on a desk and a video game was running. There were also papers, comic books, and video games on the desk. One chair stood by the desk. A small cot was over in a corner, and a bathroom with no doors was across the room.

Lottie clapped her hands together, "Now, we've got to make this look like a kidnapping." She began flinging things around the room, overturning the mattress and strewing out the sheets.

"But he already kidnapped me," Charles Ray was thoroughly confused.

"Don't you see, he might think that someone like the snoring man downstairs came and got you? That will mix him up. I wish I had brought some fake blood, but I didn't have time to think of everything," Lottie said with a shrug.

She overturned the chair, then shoved the books, games, and papers off the desk onto the floor. She didn't pay attention to the scattered papers on the floor. If she had, she would have seen that on one of the sheets, Charles Ray had written Lottie, Mrs. Genavive Heraldton, Haroltown, Horroldon. This paper lay face up to the ceiling.

Lottie scanned the room once again, "This looks pretty good. Let's go." Charles Ray was more than ready. He was right on her heels as she dashed out the door and down the stairs.

They had gone down most of the way when suddenly the snoring man appeared at the bottom of the steps. His eyes were wild, and his hair pointed out in a million directions. He laughed like a hyena on the Animal Channel. "You vampires thought you could catch me off guard, but I fooled you," he screamed in a voice that quivered their hearts.

Lottie stopped dead in her tracks, but Charles Ray swung over the railing and dropped to the floor. "This vampire can fly, so you better duck for cover," Charles Ray yelled back at him.

The snoring man turned and with a war whoop, ran to catch him. "I'll make you sorry you ever tried to drink my blood," he lunged at Charles Ray.

"Run, Lottie, run," Charles Ray screamed as he ducked under and around the man's flying arms. Lottie jumped down the remaining steps and was out the door; Charles Ray slid under the man's widespread legs and flew out behind her.

In one giant leap, he scaled the steps and hit the ground amid a patch of weeds. In a flash, he jumped over the weeds and was speeding towards Lottie who was running to the open field. The snoring man was now on the porch, wobbling on a loose board, trying to keep his balance.

Lottie was a good runner with her long legs, but Charles Ray was more than good; he ran like a cheetah who'd been penned up for over a week. He quickly passed her. Lottie looked over her shoulder and saw that the snoring man was off the porch and running after her. She hollered, "Get to the corner and stop a cab, Charles Ray."

Charles Ray looked back and saw that the man was gaining on Lottie, reaching out with his long skinny fingers trying to grab her curls. Charles Ray stopped, picked up a long stick and headed back to help her.

Then suddenly the snoring man stopped, put his hand over his heart, and fell straight backwards onto the ground. Lottie couldn't believe what was happening. "He must have had a heart attack?" she told Charles Ray as he approached. "Don't go too close; he might be putting on an act to get us," she warned him as he inched closer to the man.

"He's not dead, unless dead men breathe. Come on, let's go. There's a cab coming." He grabbed her hand and off they ran to the corner, but that cab already had a passenger.

They bent over to catch their breaths. Lottie looked back. The snoring man was still down.

Charles Ray waved to another cab which came to a stop beside them. He opened the door and let Lottie get in first. Lottie smiled. Rescuing someone who had nice manners was a little like getting an extra present on Christmas morning.

The driver turned in his seat and studied them. Lottie reached in her pocket and took out some of the bills her grandmother had given her. Claire had told her not to let anyone see all of her money. "We need to go to the bus stop on Western Willow and Mountain Spring," she said in as grown up a manner as she could muster.

"What are you kids doing in this part of town, and what business do you have in the high rent area?" he asked, not unkindly, but suspiciously. Charles Ray slunk down in the seat, his eyes once again filling with fear. His hand was grasping the door handle, prepared for a quick escape.

What to do now, Lottie thought. She leaned forward and looked directly at the driver and said, "You don't have to worry. We're not runaways. We just got a little lost and now we need some help, Mr. (she glanced at his ID tag) Señor Espenoza. ¿Eres españole?

¿ Habla españole? ¿Dónde nació?

The driver smiled, "Si. Soy Cubano." He began driving. Lottie continued in Spanish, telling him that her mother was from Bolivia and different things about her family but was very careful not to say too much.

Even though Lottie was as sick as swamp water about making up stories, she told the driver that her mother cleaned house for a rich lady in the part of town they were going. She added that she and her cousin, pointing to Charles Ray, were supposed to meet her mom at the bus stop before going to a fiesta at another cousin's house.

As they went through town, they had to stop at several red lights. Lottie could tell that Charles Ray was really nervous. He crunched low in his seat and kept looking out the windows at all the people. At one stop, a policeman was directing traffic. In a blink, Charles Ray scooted down to the floor.

Trying to keep the driver from noticing, Lottie started chattering away in Spanish about how much she loved dogs and how she made money painting doghouses. She explained how she had painted one house a sky blue with clouds on the roof because the dog was very old, and she wanted to make him feel comfortable about dying and going up to heaven.

The driver seemed to get bored. He turned up the Latin music on his radio which didn't bother Lottie in the least. She was ready to be quiet. She was exhausted from all the planning, making up stories, and rescuing kidnapped kids.

Once they got out of the heavy downtown traffic and were speeding down a tree-lined boulevard, Lottie began looking for the bus stop, just in case the driver didn't know this part of town.

Her plans were that they would take a bus for about three miles and get off at a stop that was one block from her grandmother's gates. She leaned over and whispered to Charles Ray, "We're almost there; you're safe now." For the first time, Lottie saw Charles Ray smile. He had a nice smile that wasn't only in his lips but all over his face.

The cab stopped, and Lottie saw that the meter read $49.80. She took three twenty dollar bills from her pocket and handed them to the driver. "Keep the change," she announced like she'd heard her mom say the times they had taken a cab.

Charles Ray was already out and headed for the stand. The driver looked at the bills and then leaned out the window as Lottie got out. "How did you get this much money, Niña? You say your mom's a maid? I'll help if you're in some trouble. "

Lottie opened her mouth but nothing came out. "A bus is coming, Lottie," Charles Ray called out. Something was bothering Lottie. She decided to take a chance. "You know the field where you picked us up? Well, there's a man there who may have had a heart attack. Please call an ambulance for him." She backed up a few steps, "Don't worry about us." She turned and headed towards the bus stop.

Lottie and Charles Ray scampered onto the bus and sat near the back. Maybe a half-dozen people were riding, and not one of them seemed at all interested in Lottie or Charles Ray. Lottie took a deep breath and looked out the back window. The cab was already gone. She took another deep breath. "Now we have to get off at Lauderdale. We'll walk the rest of the way and go around the back and sneak in."

Charles Ray asked, "Don't you think your grandmother will find me in her house?"

"Wait till you see it. I could hide most of the kids in my school in that house. That's because it's a castle, I tell you. It has rooms that no one ever goes in. I've already picked out one for you. It's very safe, and when my mom gets back to Austin, I'll tell her to come get us, and she'll take you straight back to Oklahoma." Lottie relaxed. She thought that after today, there would be nothing but smooth sailing until Charles Ray was once again in his home.

Fifteen

##  The Secret Room

Lottie and Charles Ray stood before the high spiked and locked gates of Mrs. Harrolton's property. "What now?" Charles Ray asked.

"Not to worry. Follow me." Lottie walked ahead to the driveway that the tourists used. She motioned for Charles Ray to stay close behind as she looked both ways to make sure no cars were coming or going. Then she darted inside and ran to the wooded area. Charles Ray stayed close behind her.

Lottie stopped to give further directions. "You'll be staying on the third floor in the tourist side of the house. It's only used for keeping junky stuff. But we can't go through the tourist part because the guards will see us. So we'll have to climb over this stone fence and get to the section where my grandma lives. Make a step with your hands, and then I'll help you up."

With that Charles Ray folded his hands together and Lottie stepped up, put her other foot in a crack in the stone, then swung herself onto the top. Lying on her stomach, she reached down for Charles Ray's hand. Once he was up, they jumped down on the other side and ran through the woods circling around to the back of the house. When the house came into their view, Charles Ray let out a whistle, "Wow, you were telling it like it is. That's for sure."

They crawled through the clearing to the back of the house and crouched behind the hedges. Two yard men were planting bushes right next to the back door. Oh no, thought Lottie, nothing is easy. She looked at her new watch. She had promised her grandmother she'd be home by five sharp, and that was less than an hour away. Lottie sighed, "Okay, Charles Ray, I'm going to have to get them to move and when I do..."

"Wait", Charles Ray was pointing, "they're leaving." Sure enough the men had loaded up the wheelbarrow and were heading to the far side of the house. "Well, let's get to the house, but stay low and follow me."

With that Lottie started running in a half-crouch position zigzag from one flower bush or hedge to another. Finally they were at the back door. Lottie looked through the glass top of the door into the back foyer. The pantry door was open, but no one was in there, and the door to the kitchen was closed. The stairway to the servant's section was across from the pantry.

Lottie whispered to Charles Ray even though no one could have heard her on the other side of the door. "You go first and head up those stairs as fast as you can, but try not to make a sound. Let's take off our shoes. We don't want Judith to come out of the kitchen. She's..." Lottie made a face and a slashing motion across her throat.

After the shoes were off, Charles Ray opened the door and, in a second, was across the foyer and racing up the steps. When Lottie saw that the kitchen door remained closed, she took off. On the landing at the top of the stairs, they pressed themselves against the wall into the shadows and waited.

The kitchen door swung open, and Judith's army shoes clomped around. "I wonder who left this back door open? I declare, half the people working here need to be fired, but who listens to me? Even after keeping everything together all these years, no one listens to me," she growled as she went back into the kitchen.

Lottie crossed her eyes at Charles which broke his face into another big smile. Then Lottie took his hand and led him around the landing and up another flight of stairs and down a long hallway to the bedroom that had the fireplace with the secret passage to the tourist section. Lottie pushed the special brick and the back of the hearth slowly creaked open. Charles Ray let out a low whistle. "Wait till I tell the guys about this," he whispered, thoroughly impressed. He crawled through on his hands and knees after Lottie. Even though Lottie had cleared out most of the cobwebs on her previous visit, a few remaining ones stuck to their hair and faces.

At the end of the passage, a trap door opened onto a narrow dark hallway. Lottie jumped up and ran ahead to open one of three doors.

When Charles Ray entered the room, he looked around in awe. A high feather bed stood in the middle of the room. Furniture was everywhere. Trunks filled to overflowing, manikins, some dressed, some not, large cushioned chairs stacked in a corner, old lamps in another corner. Lottie turned on a lamp with a dark green shade which cast an eerie ghoulish light.

"How come your grandmother lives in such a big old house?" Charles asked.

"It was built by my great-great grandfather over a hundred years ago. He had nine children and everyone lived here and has ever since. Or something like that." Lottie answered.

Lottie pointed to the windows, "That's the front where the tourists come in. Be careful during the day and only peek out. Here's your bathroom." She turned on a light to a large tiled bathroom. "I snuck up a towel and soap and gave you the extra toothbrush my mom packed for me. She has a thing about clean teeth."

Looking at her watch again, Lottie said, "I've got to go. I'll come back tonight with some food."

She started for the door, but Charles Ray grabbed her arm, "Thanks, Lottie. You're really brave." Lottie smiled broadly. This was the first time a boy had ever said anything really nice to her. She wanted to tell him that but couldn't. "I'll be back after dark." She was out the door.

Lottie managed to get down all the stairs and out the back door without anyone seeing her. She waved at the yardmen as she flew past them on her way to the front of the house. At exactly five o'clock, she rang her grandmother's front doorbell.

Judith swung the door open, scowling. "Hi Miss Judith," Lottie said as friendly as cream pie, "I wish you could have seen those elephants. One put his snout right up to my face."

Judith looked around the yard. "Where's Claire?"

"Oh, she had to go visit a sick friend, really bad off," Lottie said it in such a way that she almost believed it herself. Judith huffed, "Is that what she told you? It's that scoundrel of a boyfriend that she's off to."

Lottie ignored the comment. "Where's grandmother?"

"You don't worry about her. She's busy, and you're filthy. Go up and take a bath and dress appropriately for dinner and fix that unruly hair. I've got things to do. Besides you're old enough to look after yourself," she turned and walked away.

"You're right about that, Miss Judith. I've been dressing myself for years now." Lottie called out to her.

Lottie figured that if Judith ever said anything nice, her head would most likely explode and brains would splatter all over the place. She shuddered. It was probably to everyone's advantage that Judith stay as mean as one of Tio's roosters.

Sixteen

## Melting the Ice

Having hurried through her bath, Lottie squirmed into another one of the fancy dresses. This one was brownish red, somewhat the color of her hair. She couldn't tie the bow in back, so she just knotted the sash.

She didn't really have time to bother with all this silliness of tying bows and fixing her hair just so. She now had to worry about getting food for Charles Ray. Undoing her braids, she quickly brushed her hair back and fastened it with two sparkly clasps her grandmother had bought.

After giving herself a quick glance in the mirror, she left her room and headed towards the servant's wing. Tiptoeing down the back stairs, she snuck into the pantry and closed the door to pitch blackness. Lottie ran her hands over the walls until she came to the light switch.

She grabbed a garbage bag and began gathering food: peanut butter, bread, jam, cookies, apples, oranges, a bag of almonds, crackers, bottled water, and apple juice. Everything else was in cans or was stuff used for baking and cooking. She stuffed the garbage bag under a shelf behind a picnic basket, then rearranged items on the shelves so it wouldn't be apparent that foods had been taken. Once everything looked in order, she turned off the light and carefully opened the door.

Rather than going back the long way, she decided she would just cut through the kitchen to get to the dining room. When she entered, Judith was standing at a counter putting the finishing touches on the evening meal. Lottie tried to pass through without being noticed, but unfortunately, Judith's head turned. "Don't bother with me. I'm just passing through," Lottie said and walked right on without another word being spoken.

Mrs. Harrolton was already waiting and seemed very happy to see Lottie. "There you are. Judith said you arrived safely, but dirty." Lottie went over and hugged her. "I have a hard time staying clean. My mom says it's the price you pay for being a kid."

"Your mother called this afternoon. She was on a short break. She'll be home day after tomorrow and will call you as soon as she gets there," she quickly informed Lottie. Lottie's heart skipped. Her mom would be home, not tomorrow, but the next day, and she would know exactly how to take care of everything. All Lottie had to do was keep Charles Ray safe for one day.

Judith entered carrying a platter of fried-just-right chicken with mashed potatoes and creamy milk gravy. "That's one of my all time favorite meals," Lottie cried out. Judith put the food down, grumbling, "Well, I don't know anything about Southern cooking, but I can follow a recipe as good as the next person, I suppose."

"Your mother gave us more suggestions about the foods you like," Mrs. Harrolton continued with a happy lift to her voice. Lottie's eyes got wide. So that's why every meal since that first one had been so good, just what she liked. Her grandmother had asked her mom what to cook. Maybe, just maybe, her grandmother and mom could be friends.

"So, dear, how was the zoo?" Mrs. Harrolton asked as she passed Lottie the fried chicken. Since Lottie felt she had made up enough stories for one day, she avoided the question. Instead she said, "We always eat fried chicken with our fingers."

Mrs. Harrolton stiffened a little. "Use your fork and knife as much as possible. Judith, fetch her two more napkins. This is rather oily." Lottie put an extra napkin on her lap and one in her collar making a bib. She didn't want to get spots on the new dress. Then she tackled the chicken with a fork and knife, reasoning that if her grandmother had gone to the trouble to find out what her favorite foods were, then the least she could do was try to eat them the way her grandmother wanted her to.

Lottie was hungry, and the chicken was perfect. As she was getting her second piece, she thought that Charles Ray probably would like some, so without her grandmother noticing, she got three pieces and dropped two of the pieces in the napkin on her lap. She also got some extra dinner rolls and dropped a couple in her lap. Unfortunately, she would make a royal mess if she tried to take him some mashed potatoes and gravy.

Something else besides Charles Ray's diet was clouding Lottie's mind. Finally she just had to ask. "Grandma, do you like my mama?"

Shocked, Mrs. Harrolton looked at her granddaughter strangely. "I really don't know her. I'm sure if Frederick, your father, liked her, she must be exceptional."

"Everyone called my daddy, Freddie," Lottie corrected her politely. "You never came to see us. I wanted a grandma so bad. My other abuela is in Bolivia and is sick. I don't know if I'll ever get to see her," Lottie's voice trembled.

Mrs. Harrolton put her head in her hands for a moment, and when she looked up, her eyes were teary. "Lottie, my sweet child, I was a weak person, easily led. I did what my mother and your grandfather wanted me to do even though it went against what my heart wanted."

She took a sip of wine before continuing, "They had strict codes, rules about everything, whom one should marry, what a person must do with his life."

She shook her head sadly and said, "I was standing on the main staircase when I received word that your father had been killed. I collapsed and fell down the entire stairway. I broke several bones in my body; that's why I have to use this cane. I couldn't even go to the funeral. Do you remember that?"

Lottie shook her head. "Even though I was almost six, all I remember is my mama laying on the kitchen floor, screaming and crying and rolling all around. Someone picked me up and took me to another room and talked to me. I don't remember another thing until I was in this doctor's office, and she did something that made me sort of wake up and start remembering again. Mama says I was like that for months."

They sat in silence for quite some time, both of them filled with a sadness that made the room feel smaller and the lights dimmer. Lottie thought she could feel the wind blowing past her ears.

She didn't want to eat any more. She carefully folded the napkin with the food and put it on the chair next to her. She would get it later after everyone was gone.

"May I please be excused? I don't feel too good," she asked softly. Her grandmother nodded, then got up and came over and took Lottie in her arms. "My darling Lottie, thank you for giving me another chance. Go up and if it's alright, I'll come check on you."

Lottie clutched her tightly and swallowed hard several times to hold back the tears.

Seventeen

##  A Ghost in the Drapes

With a flashlight in hand, Lottie scrunched through the passage dragging the garbage bag of food. It was rather heavy, and she had to stop from time to time to catch her breath. She just hoped that Charles Ray was alright. Everything had taken longer than she had planned.

First of all, when she got to her room, she changed into shorts and t-shirt, put her pajama tops over that, and crawled in her bed. While she waited for her grandmother, she looked at her daddy's picture and tightly held their polished stone. Gradually all her sadness began to fade. She could hear her mom's whispering, Niña, he'll always be with us.

Finally her grandmother came, wearing a long satin robe that made her look like a queen, not a strict, unfriendly one, but a nice one that you weren't afraid to talk to. She tucked Lottie in, kissed her cheek, and turned out the light. Before she left, Lottie whispered, "I love you." Her grandmother paused and said, "I love you too, Lottie." At any other time, Lottie would have snuggled down with her warm feelings and dozed off to dreamland. But not tonight.

After a few minutes, she turned the light back on, took off her pajama top, and headed downstairs. When she pulled out the chair in the dining room, Ebony hissed at her from under the table. Lottie ignored her, thankful that the napkin of food was still there. Then she headed for the pantry, but Judith was still cleaning up in the kitchen. So Lottie had to hide in a corner of the dining room until she had finished up.

She knocked on Charles Ray's door and almost immediately it opened. He had turned on more of the lamps so the room was a little brighter, but because it was so big, there were still lots of shadows.

"Sorry, it took me so long." Lottie began taking out the food and putting it on a round table close to the bed. Lottie saw that the bed had been used. "Did you go to sleep?" she asked.

Charles Ray was already biting into a piece of the chicken. "I can sleep good here. That bed is so soft, and there aren't any mice running around or train whistles blasting off," he said before taking a large gulp of apple juice.

"Here's a knife, fork, and spoon," Lottie held up the utensils. "I was afraid to take more. You can wash them in the bathroom."

Lottie saw that he found a wooden chess set while goning through a couple of the trunks and was in the middle of a game with himself. There were also some old books lying around. She walked over and picked up TREASURE ISLAND.

"That's a real good book," Charles Ray said. "I'm going to read it again."

"Well, I hope you're a fast reader, because my mom will be back in Austin day after tomorrow, and then she'll take care of everything. Don't worry, she won't say anything to the police when I tell her the story." Lottie could see his eyes light up with excitement.

"I wish she could call my mom and dad, but someone kept calling the house, probably that stinky breath who kidnapped me, and they changed all the numbers to unlisted ones. I had them in my school backpack, but he threw it away." Charles Ray finished the chicken and took a bite of apple and opened the sack of cookies.

Lottie reassured him, "My mom is smart. She'll know how to get hold of them."

Lottie pushed out two of the chairs from the corner, and they sat down. "So do you have any idea what his name is, the guy who kidnapped you?"

"His badge said Davis Scotland. He said his name proves that he's as good as Scotland Yard in London at finding people and solving crimes all by himself. I don't see how he can find anybody with his stinky breath. It smells so awful it almost made me throw-up. That and his brown crooked teeth."

Charles Ray offered Lottie some cookies. She took a couple and started munching on them.

"Was he going to get money from your mom and dad?"

Charles Ray dusted some crumbs off his pants. "No, he said he was going to keep me for a year, and then tell my mama that if she wanted me back, she would have to leave my daddy and marry him, and then we'd be a new family."

Lottie looked at him in disbelief, "He sounds crazy."

"I tell you. He and his stinky breath are crazy as can be. Him thinking my mama would marry him. Said she stood right in front of him in the choir at college."

Charles Ray looked over at the chess set and asked, "You know how to...?" He stopped in mid-sentence. His eyes got wide as he eased down to the floor pulling Lottie down beside him. "Lottie, is this place haunted?" he gasped in a whisper.

"I'm not sure. Probably is, being as big and old as it is," Lottie said softly.

Slowly she turned her head, afraid to see what Charles Ray was watching. The drapery on the window that looked out on the tourist courtyard was moving back and forth all by itself. Nothing was there, and the window was shut, so it couldn't be the wind. A phantom hand moved it to and fro, to and fro, as if it were a hammock swinging in a tropical breeze.

Charles Ray whispered again. "That sure looks like something a ghost would do." Terrified, the children crumpled down flat onto the floor. Lottie reached out for Charles Ray's hand. They clasped each other's hand tightly and prayed that the ghost would leave soon.

Then Charles Ray did something that frightened her even more. He let go of her hand, jumped up, and ran towards the window. "What are you doing?" Lottie screamed out.

He violently flung the curtain around, "I thought I saw, yes, I did." Ebony was hanging on with her fierce claws. She had been swinging the drapery back and forth.

"I saw a black tail, and I don't know of any ghosts who have black tails," Charles Ray announced triumphantly while Ebony stared at them with her wicked green eyes, looking much like a strict school principal at a Monday morning assembly.

Lottie had had her fill of that bothersome cat. "She follows me around everywhere. I think Judith has her spying on me. I wish I could get her off my trail."

Charles Ray let go of the curtain and ran to a small door in the wall and pulled it open. Inside was a shelf with pulling ropes. "We can put her in here."

Lottie went to examine it. "What is it?"

Charles Ray yanked on one of the ropes, and the shelf started going down. "It's one of those things where they could pull their food up, you know like on a tray, so the slaves wouldn't have to carry it all the way up."

"Excellent idea, Charles Ray," Lottie said as she rummaged through a trunk and pulled out a large woolen shawl.

"Okay, Charles Ray," she instructed, "shake that curtain as hard as you can."

After several hard flops Ebony lost her grip and dropped into the shawl. Quickly, Lottie stuffed her in the shelf and slammed the door shut. Charles Ray began working the ropes, while Ebony screamed her fool head off.

Then something really bad happened; a rope broke, and they heard the shelf skidding down and finally landing with a thump. Lottie clasped her hands to her head. A rock in her stomach began to form. They had killed her grandmother's cat.

Charles Ray opened the door and looked down into the blackness. He took a flashlight, leaned over the opening, and shined the beam. "Do you see her? Is she hurt?" Lottie cried.

Several low, exceedingly angry meows echoed up through the tunnel. "It's sure true what they say about cats having nine lives," he said as he moved over for Lottie to take a look. Below Ebony was in fine shape jumping around looking for a way to get out. She leapt off the shelf and disappeared.

Lottie sat down in the chair, still a little worried, "I just hope she doesn't get lost trying to find her way to the other section."

Charles Ray laughed, "Are you kidding? Cats can find their way home from hundreds of miles away. They had it on the Discovery Channel." He grabbed a handful of almonds from the sack. "You know how to play chess?"

"I play some with my older cousin, but he always beats me." Lottie didn't feel much like playing chess or any game. She was tired, but she figured since Charles Ray had been by himself for over a week now, she could stay a few more minutes to keep him company.

As the children gathered around the chessboard, outside Lester jumped up on his house with his ears straight up. He looked towards the gates and sniffed the air suspiciously. He sensed the black car with the dark windows waiting outside the gate.

He also sensed the tall man in the car, who was looking up at the barely visible light coming from the third floor. Earlier, the tall man had spotted this light as a drapery was pulled away and never put back.

Eighteen

##  The Crazed Cat

The next morning Lottie woke up late, feeling so happy. Charles Ray was safe, and her grandmother had said she loved her, and her mama would be in Austin tomorrow.

Lottie put on one of the new short sets her grandmother had gotten. She had to admit that it felt quite comfortable. Then she made her bed even though Claire had told her she didn't have to. "That's my job, precious," Claire had said, but her mama's words kept echoing in her ears, "Your bed and your room are your responsibilities."

On her way downstairs, the happy sensation began to shift to one of apprehension. Judith went puffing through the foyer with her hand in a bandage. As Lottie approached the main living room, she heard her grandmother say, "Did you call the vet, Samuel? I've never seen anything like it. She's acting as if she's lost her mind."

When Lottie entered, she saw to her dismay, Ebony, covered in cobwebs and soot, stalking from one side to the other of the marble mantle piece over the fireplace. Every now and then, she would stop and scratch at the oil portrait of Lottie's great-grandmother with the stone face and bird eyes. Occasionally, she would hiss and shriek at everyone.

Samuel stood beside the fireplace with a cage. "I can try getting her in here, Mam."

"Don't you dare," Mrs. Harrolton commanded. "This morning she bit Judith, whom she adores. Can you imagine? Judith was just trying to give her something to eat."

Lottie didn't feel too sorry for Judith, but she did feel badly about driving her grandmother's cat to looney tunes. "Where did you find her?" she asked.

"Oh, good morning, Lottie. We have a crisis on our hands." Lottie's grandmother continued. "Go to the breakfast room. Claire will make something for you."

Lottie asked another question, "How did she get so dirty?"

Judith leveled her with her bullet eyes, "Don't you know? She came in this morning from the outside. That's the first time she's ever spent the night outside. You tell me how she got there, Missy."

Mrs. Harrolton looked at Judith in utter amazement. "Judith, please be careful how you address my granddaughter. I know this has been extremely stressful for you, especially since you are so very fond of Ebony; nevertheless, I won't condone venting your frustrations on Lottie."

Judith's fat round face turned as red as a Fourth of July banner. Yet she continued in a defiant tone, "Strange things are going on around here. Yesterday, I found the back door wide open, and then this morning, I noticed that food items have been taken from the pantry." Once again she pierced Lottie with a look as hard as steel.

Lottie thought about the spider she had once trapped under a glass. She felt like a large glass was being pulled down over her. Was she going to have to give away the big secret on the third floor before her mom could get here to help her?

Samuel put the cage down and said, "Mrs. Harrolton, the dogs, especially Lester, were very restless last night between eleven and twelve. I got up to check on them, but everything seemed in order. Lester kept looking and barking towards the gates."

Mrs. Harrolton let out a frightened gasp. "Check the security cameras, and then let the dogs out to take a run of the place. If there's an intruder, they'll find the culprit. Also check the security at the museum. Perhaps call in an extra guard today and have him give both sections a thorough going over."

Lottie's knees got so weak, she had to sit down on the giant sofa. She was about to decide to tell her grandmother the whole story when Claire rushed into the room followed by a woman in a white doctor's jacket.

"Mrs. Harrolton, the vet is here," announced Claire. She looked over and saw Lottie. "Morning, precious! My dear, you look like you're about to pass out. Come on, let's get you some breakfast. You mustn't let all this upset you." Claire took Lottie by the arm and led her out.

Even though Lottie loved the Pigs 'n Blankets, which is pork sausage baked in rolls, she was having a hard time swallowing them this morning. Her head hurt. She couldn't come up with any more plans.

If the guard found Charles Ray, then he would get on his police radio, and the tall Scotland with the stinky breath and rotten teeth would come get Charles Ray, and there wouldn't be a thing she or her grandmother could do. Besides when they checked the cameras, would they see her and Charles running through the gate at the tourist section? She had forgotten all about the cameras.

Claire leaned over her and whispered in her ear. "How was dear ole Aunt Loretta?"

Lottie's face was a giant question mark. At first she didn't know what Claire was talking about. That elaborate story had been temporarily forgotten. When Lottie remembered, she decided to tell the truth without telling the truth. "Everything was perfect. It was very exciting."

"That's so good. I know that meant a lot to her. Charlie and I had more fun than a roller coaster ride. I got in pretty late, and this morning, the grouse has had me on the run." Claire flopped down beside Lottie and gave her a tight squeeze. "Charlie's the best."

"Claire, my stomach hurts." Lottie couldn't listen to Claire talking about Charlie with all these new problems she had. "Can I take about three of these Pigs along with some milk up to my room? I may feel like eating a little bit later." Lottie's voice was feeble.

"Of course, precious. You're not looking too good. You go get in the bed. Maybe we should have the vet see about you when she finishes with Ebony." Claire laughed like that was the funniest thing ever.

Then she got a paper plate and piled some Pigs on it along with a banana and cinnamon roll. Last of all, she got a big plastic glass and filled it with milk. "Now, you take the back stairs, so your grandmother and the grouse won't see you. They don't like food going out of the dining room. I'll be up in about an hour or so to get you ready. Your grandmother's taking you out to lunch at this very fancy place and then to an art museum."

Lottie looked bewildered. "What?" she asked, not believing. An art museum was the very last place she wanted to go today. Claire had already disappeared into the kitchen.

Lottie hurried upstairs and went straight to Charles Ray's room. Charles Ray opened the door on the third knock. Lottie handed him the plate of food and glass of milk and began talking without even a 'good morning'.

"Charles Ray, a security guard will be checking the house today, so you've got to hide all this food and stuff and make up the bed and put stuff back. Let's empty one of these trunks so you can hide in it when he comes." Seeing that the 'Ebony' drapery was still partially open, she put it back.

Charles Ray was more interested in the Pigs and milk. "Why are they checking everything?"

"Because we left the back door open, and food is missing, and the dogs were acting up." Lottie didn't feel like going into all the details. "Furthermore, we made Ebony go nuts."

Charles Ray went over to a far wall and removed a picture, revealing a small peephole. "Look what I found this morning. I can see just about all of the front part of the museum. Like a spy of long ago, I'll watch everyone, making sure, of course, that no light is on. That way no one can detect the hole, like they did in this movie I saw."

Lottie looked through the hole and sure enough, there was the main part of the museum that she and her grandmother had gone through the previous morning before it had opened for visitors.

She pulled the picture back in place and turned to Charles Ray impatiently. "Were you listening to what I said about a guard searching this whole place? I have to be gone most of the day with my grandmother, so don't get so interested in spying on the tourists that you get yourself caught in broad daylight. I won't be here to help you."

Charles Ray put his hands up, "Okay, okay. I heard you. I'll put some big chairs in front of the door, then if I hear someone coming, I'll jump in the trunk."

"And put away the soap and everything." Lottie commanded.

It was Charles Ray's turn to be a little impatient. "I heard you the first time." He paused, "What makes you think Ebony went nuts?"

Lottie was thoroughly exhausted. It was as if she'd never gone to bed the night before. "I'll tell you this evening when I come back. I've got to go. Let me have that empty glass and the paper plate. Claire thinks I'm eating this. Well, I'll see you later."

Charles Ray held the door open for her. "Lottie, don't worry about me. I'll be on the lookout and not let anyone find me. I'll crawl in the clothes hamper and put some old clothes and things over me. I tried it this morning, and I fit perfectly. I was already thinking ahead." After he shut the door, she heard him dragging a chair in front of it.

When Lottie got back to her room, she fell on the bed, clothes and all, and went straight to sleep.

Nineteen

## The Threatening Tourist

When Lottie woke up, she knew she had been asleep a long time because the sun was no longer shining into her window, and when she checked her watch, she saw that it was already after lunch. Someone, probably Claire, had come into her room and thrown a light blanket over her.

After stopping by the kitchen and having a snack that Claire had left out for her, she found her grandmother soaking her legs in the hot tub next to the pool. "There you are," her grandmother seemed very happy and relaxed. Maybe the guards or the cameras hadn't found anything.

Her grandmother continued, "Does your stomach still hurt?" Lottie shook her head. Her grandmother continued, "I told Claire to let you sleep. You probably overdid it yesterday at the zoo. It was so hot. We can go to the exhibit tomorrow."

"Did the guards find anything?" Lottie asked hesitantly.

"Nothing so far. Vandals sprayed the camera lens with black paint. Samuel is overseeing the replacement of those this very minute." Lottie felt the glass cover being lifted, and like the happy spider, she wanted to scurry off and rejoice.

Her grandmother pointed to the dressing room. "Put on one of your swimsuits and join me. I'm going to swim a few laps." Lottie marveled at how much her life had changed. A week ago, she had one swimsuit to her name. Now she had at least a half-dozen. She wasn't even sure how many her grandmother had bought for her.

Lottie remembered Ebony? "And how is Ebony?" She asked genuinely concerned.

Her grandmother laughed, "She's been sleeping the whole day. The doctor gave her some medicine to calm her nerves. She's so high strung, she probably needs to be on it all the time."

Lottie started for the dressing area to put on her swimsuit. "Lottie", her grandmother called, "I've made arrangements for us to take the yacht out on Saturday for four or five days. Some close family acquaintances will join us."

"That's a real big boat, right?" Lottie wasn't sure.

Mrs. Harrolton flinched at the incorrect grammar, and for a moment, the old grandmother emerged. "Yes, it's a really big boat."

Lottie noted the correction and smiled. "Sorry. I mean a really big boat." She headed off for the dressing room, her mind churning. By the time the weekend came, everything would be settled and Charles Ray would be home, so nothing should interfere with going on the really big boat.

Lottie was excited. She'd never even been on a boat. A few times, she and her mom had rented a canoe on Lady Bird Lake, but a canoe was nowhere near a big boat. She almost wished Charles Ray could go with her. Or at least Sophie. Maybe next summer if her grandmother invited her to come back, she would ask if Sophie could come too. But first, she'd ask her mama if that would be a polite thing to do.

Lottie had a wonderful time even though her grandmother wasn't a very strong swimmer and couldn't begin to keep up with her like her mom could. It seemed to Lottie that her grandmother looked and acted younger now than she did when Lottie first arrived, but still she tired out quickly like an older person. This was a disappointment. Lottie liked having someone swim along right beside her.

Once again she asked her grandmother if Claire could swim with her. "No, Lottie, she has work to do, but she will be going with us on the yacht." That will be fun, Lottie thought and wanted to ask if Claire would have to work while they were on the yacht.

After doing a few laps, Lottie decided she'd had enough. Her grandmother had gone back to her studio where she painted pictures of flowers and vases. Lottie decided she'd join her before dinner time, but first she wanted to check on Charles Ray again. Then maybe she wouldn't have to go see him tonight. She had to get to bed earlier than last night. Tomorrow would be a big day. She'd get to tell her mom all about Charles Ray and get everything settled so he could go back to Oklahoma City.

She went back to the kitchen, relieved to find it empty. She got some lunch meat from the refrigerator and made Charles Ray two big sandwiches then headed for his room. When she got there, she knocked several times, but no one answered. She started to panic, then remembered that he was being very cautious. "Charles Ray, it's me, Lottie," she said in a low voice. Then from the other side of the door she heard, "Are you alone?"

"Why, of course, I am. What's wrong with you?" She thought he was being much too careful, and besides, if she weren't alone, what was he going to do anyway?

Then from the other side, she heard something heavy being shoved along the floor, then something else, and then a third object. What was going on with Charles Ray?

When he finally opened the door, Lottie saw sheer terror in his face.

"He was here," he said barely over a whisper. "I saw him through here." He pointed at the picture that hid the peephole. "He looked right at me; at least it seemed that way. I could almost smell his stinky breath."

Lottie recalled the dogs barking towards the gate and the painted camera lens. "How could he have found you so quickly?"

"I told you he was good, didn't I? He said he was the best." Charles Ray kept walking back and forth just the way Ebony had paced the mantle. Lottie didn't know what else to do. "The only thing left is tell my grandmother and convince her not to go to the police."

Charles Ray raised his voice almost to a shout. "He might do something bad to her. I heard him talking right after he captured me. I don't know, maybe it was to the snoring man downstairs, and he was yelling at him real loud that if he didn't keep an eye on me, he would cut him up in little pieces and feed him to the vultures."

This made the hairs on Lottie's neck bristle. She thought for a while, "If he comes here and doesn't find you, then he'll think he has the wrong place and will leave everyone alone."

Charles Ray thought for a moment. "That could be right, but I think he knows I'm up here, just by the way he was looking all around, and then how his eyes stopped right where the peep hole is. He came in looking up like he knew I was up here. He even tried to go past the red ropes on the stairs, but when the guard came, he stepped back down and acted like he didn't know he couldn't go there, real stupid like."

He unwrapped one of the sandwiches and took a bite. Lottie stared in disbelief. How could he possibly eat at a time like this? She calculated that his stomach wasn't connected to his brain.

Lottie sat down to think. If Scotland had been at the gates last night, he would more than likely come back tonight. Since he was so smart, he would know how to get in without anyone noticing.

Lottie made up her mind. "We'll leave here tonight. Then if he comes and doesn't find you, he'll start looking someplace else, and we'll come back."

Charles Ray shook his head in agreement, "That sounds like a great plan."

Twenty

## Midnight Escape

Lottie planned for them to return early the next morning before anyone had gotten up and found her missing, yet, for some reason, a nagging voice kept telling her to leave some clues, obvious clues her mother would be sure to solve.

First of all, she stuffed pillows in her bed with the covers pulled over, so that the bed looked like she was there. When they discovered her deception, they would know she had left on her own. That would get her mother's wheels turning for sure.

Then she took the article about Charles Ray and wrote above his picture, Nowhere in Oklahoma will he be found. Never ever the police. Calling home for direction. Then she put the article inside her Huckleberry Finn book and put the book under her Dad's picture.

Next the journal. She knew her mother would check that right after checking the book. So she entered the date and wrote, I love my mama and Grandma Harrolton more than any people in the world, and I don't want them to ever worry about me, especially when I'm out doing good causes. The big expensive store had so much more than fancy dresses. Claire is a loyal friend. A tourist came and went.

That evening during dinner, Lottie and her grandmother talked about the art exhibit the next day. Lottie explained how her art teacher had wanted her to paint things one particular way and how upset she got because Lottie couldn't. "Well, she has no imagination," her grandmother snapped. That was almost exactly what her mother had said. Lottie felt happy about that. Maybe her grandma and mama were more alike than it seemed at first.

"I'm going to see to it that you receive private art lessons this coming year," her grandmother announced with determination. "It's obvious, you have talent. That sketch you did earlier was impressive."

"I don't know if they have such things in Austin," Lottie replied. She had never heard of anyone taking art classes outside of school. Several of her classmates took piano, and then Sophie took violin, but no one took art classes.

Her grandmother laughed good-naturedly. "I'm sure I can find one, even in Austin."

After dinner, they sat on one of the second story verandas and watched the sun sink behind the apple trees in the orchard. A cool breeze was blowing, and Lottie felt two different ways. One part of her was so happy because she was with her grandmother and feeling very close to her. Yet another part of her was worried and afraid of what might happen to Charles Ray and everyone in the palace if Scotland came back.

Her grandmother broke the silence. "After the sun sets, would you like to go to the theater room and watch a movie? I bought some current ones, but I still have those your daddy watched when he was your age."

"I'd really like to go to bed early, Grandma, so I can appreciate all the good paintings tomorrow," she replied, praying that everything would be in order by the next day.

"Very well, dear," her grandmother said happily.

Lottie kissed her grandmother good night and hugged her a long time.

"Grandma," she wanted to tell her that some mean man might come tonight and get in her house, but then she knew that there would be questions—more questions than she could answer.

"What is it, dear?" Her grandmother watched her.

Lottie leaned over the veranda and looked down at all the gardens and fountains. There were lots of places she and Charles Ray could hide for the night and not be too far from the house.

Lottie sighed, "Everything is just so perfect here."

"Now that you're here, it is," her grandmother said very softly.

Hours later, when Lottie knocked on Charles Ray's door, it opened immediately. Lottie looked around. He had put everything back perfectly and had all the trash in a bag by the door. No one would be able to tell that someone had been staying there. Then Lottie looked at Charles Ray, "I'm really glad you're wearing a navy shirt."

"Why?" Charles Ray asked.

"Because light colors show up at night. I put on dark clothes too." Lottie answered.

She held a flashlight she had gotten from Samuel's workbench and motioned for him to turn off the lamp. Then Charles Ray picked up the garbage bag, and they were out the door and in the hallway. Lottie had stashed a couple of small blankets and a brown sack with peanut butter sandwiches and water just inside the secret passage area.

Lottie was afraid to go down the back stairway since Judith or Claire might still be up. The main stairway was brightly lit all the time. So she chose a third staircase which was much farther away, but which came down into the music room that opened to one the gardens and a greenhouse. This would make an ideal place for them to hide. Lottie had unlocked the music room right after Samuel had made the rounds checking all the doors.

As they walked into the crisp night air, Lottie realized she couldn't re-lock the door, which was just as well because they could come back that way and not disturb anyone. They crept along the flowerbeds and over the stone walks until they came to the greenhouse and discovered that it was padlocked with no way to get in.

"What do we do now?" Charles Ray asked in a whisper. He saw a light come on over the garage. "Quick, turn off the flashlight," he told Lottie.

Lottie looked at the distant window over the garage and knew that the light was coming from Samuel's bedroom. He was probably going to bed. Sure enough, just a minute or two later, the light went out. They were in total darkness except for the muted lights from the fountains, and soon the timers would turn them off. Those were the last of the outdoor lights to go off. It was close to twelve o'clock.

"We'll just stay here by the greenhouse," Lottie said as she spread out the two blankets and handed Charles Ray the sack with his dinner. They leaned up against the greenhouse while Charles Ray ate.

While munching some cookies, Charles Ray started talking about his school and playing basketball and running track. He went on and on, but try as hard as she could, she just wasn't interested and soon dropped off to sleep.

Charles Ray noticed she wasn't saying anything which was unusual for her. "Lottie, Lottie, are you asleep?" When he got no response, he wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and was soon fast asleep also.

About a half hour later, Lottie's eyes popped open. She looked around. All the lights were off. She heard movement, a scraping sound somewhere around the palace. As she sat up, she saw a dark form spread out flat on the ground, crawling on its stomach with long legs doing a kind of frog kick, moving forward. After reaching the wall of the palace, it stood up. It was a tall man with a looped thing over his shoulders. He fastened something in the wall. The looped thing was a rope. He was climbing up the side of the house.

Lottie shook Charles Ray and whispered, "Charles Ray, he's here. Wake up, he's here."

Charles Ray sat up with a start. She continued, "See him over there, going up the side of the house?"

"He's going straight up to the room where I was, isn't he?" Charles Ray asked, his voice trembling.

Lottie nodded, "Yes, he is. We have to do something before he gets inside the house."

The tall man was fast. He was almost to the second floor. Lottie started crawling. "Follow me." Charles Ray had never seen anyone crawl so fast especially over the rough rocky parts of the gardens.

When Lottie got to one of the large lights by a fountain, she motioned for Charles Ray to hide behind the tall hedge. Then she stood up and waved her arms in front of the light.

All of a sudden, everything went crazy. All the lights in the gardens, in the fountains, and along the outside of the house turned on. A faint siren wailed. The gates to all the dog pens opened, and Lester led the charging pack towards the house.

The tall man was in a spot light, hanging onto the side of the house. He dropped to the ground and began running with all his might, running, running towards them, towards the hedges where they were lying. He was getting closer and closer.

Lottie knew that he was heading for the nearest fence which was just behind them, but Charles Ray didn't realize that. Terrified he stood up halfway and began running in a half crouch.

"Charles Ray, where are you going?" she asked as quietly as she could. But when she looked back, she saw the tall man looking right at her. It was the man in the department store. It was Davis Scotland with his pirate-savage stare which made icicles form around her chest.

Panicking, she began running after Charles Ray who was already crawling up the fence and pulling himself over. When Lottie got to the fence, she heard Scotland scream.

Turning, she saw Lester's teeth sink into his forearm. Another dog, Cindy, was biting his behind. Just before Lottie dropped over the fence, she saw Scotland holding a can and spraying the dogs. Reluctantly, Cindy unclenched her hold and whined in pain. Lester, however, continued to clamp down even though his eyes were as red as blood. Finally, Scotland pointed the can's spout right into Lester's nose and sprayed. Lester staggered to the ground. Scotland's entire arm was covered in blood.

In the distance, Samuel was running down the steps from his apartment. Lottie dropped onto the other side. "Charles Ray, where are you?" She called as softly as possible. In the distance ahead, she heard, "This way. Run. I'll stop to wait."

She ran in the direction of Charles Ray's voice. She wished she had brought the flashlight. On the other side of the wall, it was as dark as the inside of a bat cave. When she caught up to Charles Ray, he took off again.

"Follow me. We have to get away from here now," he said firmly.

"But, Charles Ray, the dogs got him, and Samuel was coming. We're okay," Lottie said. Charles Ray stopped and firmly held her by the shoulders. "He's not getting me again, you hear. Now run."

Lottie took off into the blindness. She couldn't see anything, but still she stretched her legs as far as they would go in high gear. They ran until her side began to hurt, which meant they had run a very long way.

Then something really strange happened. Lottie's feet weren't touching the ground any more. She was running on air, or was she was flying? Oh no, she wasn't flying. She was falling and falling and falling. She must have run off a cliff. Where was Charles Ray? Was he falling too?

She landed rather softly on the ground as if someone had caught her and gently put her down. But then she started rolling and rolling. When she finally came to a stop, she was lying on her right arm, and it was hurting badly. The pain made her feel dizzy, like she'd been on a small merry-go-round for hours.

"Lottie, Lottie, where are you? Did you fall?" She heard Charles Ray's voice nearby. "I heard you rolling past. Where are you, Lottie?"

She didn't know if she could speak. Eventually, she mustered the strength to say, "I'm over here, and I'm hurt. Are you hurt?"

Charles Ray was soon by her side. "My foot came down on the edge, and so I sat down and scooted, rolled a couple of times, that's all. I'm okay," he said, out of breath.

"Lottie, just lay there, don't move." He spoke so nicely, comforting her. "I'll stay right here, and as soon as the sun starts to come up, I'll go get help. Don't cry, Lottie. Everything will be alright."

Twenty-One

## The Path of a Planet

A gleaming van, painted varying shades of purples, oranges, and greens, came slowly down the dirt road minutes before sunrise when the world is wrapped in a golden sheet of silk. The van pulled off to the side of the road and stopped with a slight screech of the brakes.

Charles Ray opened his eyes. He saw a figure in a long skirt coming towards them. The rising sun veiled the figure in light. He nudged Lottie a couple of times.

Lottie awoke to find herself lying on a giant quilt of wild flowers of every hue and type. When she glanced up, she saw the tall cliff far above her. She couldn't have fallen from that height and still be in one piece. Someone must have caught her and gently laid her down on the ground. "Thanks Daddy," she whispered. The arm that had been jabbing with pain, felt sore, but was no longer jabbing.

"What do we have here?" Lottie turned her gaze to a figure standing over them, close, but not too close. Lottie squinted her eyes because the figure was surrounded by the morning light. Maybe it's an angel, Lottie thought.

The figure spoke again with a nice woman's voice, "Something told me to stop and look at the flowers. Now I know why. The heavens just dropped down two more magnificent ones." The figure moved a bit out of the sun's direct light to where Lottie could see a very sweet-looking woman, about her mama's age.

She had a warm-bath voice like someone in a dream, and her face was calm like the Mona Lisa's. Lottie had seen the Mona Lisa painting in one of her grandmother's art books. "Next summer, I will take you to Paris to see the original," Grandmother had promised. Thinking of her grandmother pierced her heart. Lottie hoped that she was okay.

"I'm Saturn," said the lady in the long skirt, as she sat down opposite them, on their level. She was close, but not too close.

Every Halloween, Cousin Ernestine dressed up like a gypsy and told everyone's fortunes by looking at their palms. Saturn was dressed like that: a long flowing skirt, a white blouse with lace and long full sleeves, a wide belt, and a vest. She had a kerchief tied over her brownish-blonde hair and golden loop earrings jangled at her shoulders.

"That's a planet," Charles Ray piped up as if a person shouldn't have a planet's name. But Saturn just nodded her head and said, "The one with all the beautiful rings."

When Saturn said that, Glinda, the good witch of the South from THE WIZARD OF OZ, popped into Lottie's mind. There were some resemblances, not so much in the way they looked, but in the way they acted and talked. "How did you get here?" Lottie asked.

Saturn pointed towards her van, the colors dancing in the baby sunbeams. "I'm on my way to the farmer's market just down the road. Would you like for me to drop you off somewhere?"

Lottie liked how she didn't act like it was really weird to find two children on the side of the road at this time of the morning. It was like she knew things without asking. Like she knew they needed help. Like she was a Glinda.

Charles Ray and Lottie looked at one another, not sure what they should do or what they should say. Charles Ray kept looking towards the top of the cliff like he was half expecting Scotland to appear at any minute.

Finally Saturn came up with a perfect solution. "Why don't you go with me to the farmer's market? I'll pick up my vegetables and fruits, and we can also get some breakfast there. Then, if you like, we'll go over to my house where you can clean up. Eating and getting cleaned up will help you decide what you should do next,"

Lottie liked these suggestions. They made perfect sense, and Lottie knew deep down that Saturn was a Glinda, someone they could trust. Things felt calm and safe with her. Plus she knew they needed some breakfast. Lottie's stomach wasn't nervous now, so she'd be able to eat something. Of course she knew that Charles Ray could eat. He could eat no matter what was going on.

Lottie reached down in her pocket. She still had the eighty dollars left over from the zoo. Her grandmother told her to keep it when she had tried to return it. Lottie was so glad it hadn't fallen out of her pocket on her tumble down the cliff. Quietly Saturn got up and walked towards her van in no particular hurry. She opened the side door and stood to the side while Lottie and Charles Ray got in.

Twenty minutes after the van had pulled away, a long black car with dark tinted windows came driving down the road, very slowly. The car stopped and Scotland got out. His entire right arm was bandaged and in a sling. He walked with a limp, and the bandage on his behind made his pants stretch way out.

He walked up to the place where the wild flowers were crushed down, evidence that could indicate two children had been lying there for several hours. He then walked over to where Saturn's van had been parked and studied the tire marks.

At the Harrolton palace, before Samuel could bring the Mercedes to a complete stop, Carmen and Chester jumped out of the car and ran up the steps. An unmarked police car was parked in front.

Twenty-Two

##  Puzzling Disguises

The farmers' market was something like a county fair. There were open-air tents with long tables loaded with fresh vegetables of every color and shape, just-picked fruits, farm eggs, canned foods in glass jars, and other things that Lottie didn't bother to notice.

She and Charles Ray did take a few minutes to admire the baby chicks and goats that were in small pens. They were not for sale; a farmer had brought them just for the children to see. In the middle of the field, a large band was setting up to play what Saturn called polka music. She said that sometimes people will dance on the ground stirring up big rings of dirt. A tent with costumes, wigs, and fake jewelry sat next to a tent where a woman was drawing portraits of anyone who was willing to sit for several minutes.

Many people knew Saturn. She was constantly being stopped and hugged. If anyone asked whom Lottie or Charles Ray were, she would simply laugh and say, "Oh, these are two flowers I picked this morning." Everyone accepted her answer like it made perfect sense. Saturn had never even asked them their names. In fact, during the ride over, she didn't ask them anything, like she knew they didn't want to talk. She'd spoken a little, telling them the names of the wild flowers growing by the side of the road and which ones were used by the Native Americans to heal certain sicknesses. That was about it.

When they got to the food tent, the wonderful aromas made Lottie's stomach feel like it was going to have a temper fit if it didn't get food immediately. "There are so many people here, and the sun is hardly up," Lottie commented. "Yes, everyone wants to get the best produce," Saturn explained.

Just inside the food tent there was a large menu board. Charles Ray said he wanted two egg wraps, some country potatoes, cherry pie, and a large chocolate milk shake. Lottie almost lost her appetite just thinking about that much food. She couldn't figure it out. Charles Ray was not one inch taller and didn't look one pound fatter, yet he could eat circles around her.

Saturn told them to go find a place at one of the tables while she went through the line. Lottie tried to give her some money, but Saturn hugged her slightly around the shoulder and told her she might need it later.

After looking through several rows, Lottie and Charles Ray finally found three seats together and sat down. Lottie noticed that most people's plates were filled only with vegetables.

"That's cause they're vegetarians," Charles Ray explained to her. "My aunt and uncle are vegetarians," he went on, "and last Thanksgiving, when we went there, they had a vegetable turkey."

"No way. There's no such thing," Lottie was insulted. "That's ridiculous. I'm smarter than you might think," she declared.

Charles Ray sighed out loud. "I know you are, but that's the truth. It's made out of something called tarfu or toofu, and it tasted okay, but my dad said that would be the last time we'd have Thanksgiving over there."

Lottie changed the subject. "Why do they call you Squeak?"

"In second grade, I got a real bad sore throat and couldn't talk except for little squeaks, so my friends started..."

Lottie yanked on his shirt, "Charles Ray, look over there, at that table by the seed rack."

Sitting alone with his head bent low over a tray, shoveling food in as fast as he could, was a man who resembled the snoring man in the kidnap house. He'd had a bath, his hair was combed, and his beard was trimmed, but to Lottie, he looked like the same man.

Lottie spoke softer, "Isn't that the snoring man who chased us from the house?"

"I'm not sure. It looks a little like him," he said. Then the man glanced up and saw them looking at him. He blinked his eyes several times like he couldn't focus. Lottie was now convinced it was the same man. Eerily he lifted his hand and waved.

"That's him alright. Let's get out of here," Charles Ray said as he jumped from the table and headed for the exit. Lottie saw the snoring man get up and take a step like he was going to come in her direction.

As he came around the table, he bumped into Saturn with a full tray of food causing her to spill everything everywhere. "Gosh, I'm sorry," the snoring man said as he looked at her. "Why, Saturn! Listen I know I was suppose to come in, but..."

Lottie didn't wait to hear anything else. She split out faster than a windstorm. Not too far away, Charles Ray was running towards the back of one tent. He slid to a stop at the very edge like some major league baseball player stealing second base. In a minute, Lottie skidded down beside him.

"Quick, crawl under," Charles Ray said as he pulled up the bottom where the stake had come loose. Lottie scooted under and then held it up for him. Once in, they held the flap down tight, so the snoring man wouldn't see a flapping bottom.

They sat still for a moment, catching their breath and giving their eyes time to get used to the dim interior. Once they could make out things, they realized they were at the back of the costume tent. They were behind a large crate containing old clothes, dolls, and puppets. One of the puppets was hanging over the edge and looking directly at them. It gave Lottie the creeps.

A rock was near Charles Ray's feet. He put it on the tent flap, so they could move away. They spoke with signs, too scared to even whisper. They peeked around the crate and saw a large woman sitting at a table near the entrance reading a paper. A carved sign on the table said, Fiona's my name, and pleasin' you's my game.

Lottie looked at the racks of clothes and the shelves of wigs and shoes and hats–everything a person would need for dressing up. She then realized a disguise was something that she and Charles Ray needed. They could escape much easier if they were not recognized.

Seeing that the large woman had dropped her paper down and was starting to doze, Lottie leaned over to Charles Ray and whispered, "We need disguises. I'll dress up like a boy, and you can be a girl."

"Oh no, I'm not leaving here as any girl." Charles Ray was determined.

"Well, if it was good enough for Huckleberry Finn, then it's good enough for you too." Lottie whispered impatiently.

"Who's Huckleberry Finn?" Charles Ray whispered back.

Lottie let out a low groan. "Think about it for a minute, Charles Ray," Lottie said, whispering a little louder, "if the snoring man is helping Scotland, then he's looking for an African American boy and a Hispanic girl with red hair. But what will he think if he sees an African American girl and a Hispanic boy?"

Charles Ray thought about this and realized she had a good point. "Okay," he said, "but as soon as I'm safe, I'm going back to being a boy. Now, how do we get these disguises?"

"We'll buy them." Lottie reached in her pocket for the money and then pointed at the racks of clothes.

"Shouldn't we try to find Saturn?" Charles Ray asked.

"No, the snoring man knows her. I heard him call her name. She may be working for Scotland too. I can't believe it, but we'd best not take any chances," Lottie explained. With that Lottie got up and started going through a rack of clothes. She motioned for Charles Ray to follow her. "Now act natural," she instructed him.

Lottie had found a green skirt with shorts underneath, a flowery blouse, and white sandals for Charles Ray. Suddenly Fiona woke up with a start. She gazed around and saw the two children. "Goodness, you children must have slipped in while I was taking my cat nap," she said.

Fiona flashed a big toothless smile at them. The children were speechless. The wrinkled-up face along with the gaping red gums made Lottie wonder if maybe they had walked into a fright tent. Then Fiona spoke in such a kind, helpful way, "I'm Fiona, like the sign says. Make yourself at home." Lottie heard Tia's voice, "It's what's on the inside that counts".

When Fiona got up, her head almost touched the top of the tent. She was not only the most toothless woman Lottie had ever seen, she was also the tallest. "Say aren't you those kids that were tagging after Saturn a while ago? That's one nice lady," she said.

Lottie thought quickly, "Well, I don't know, but some nice lady did show us where we might find green lettuce for our aunt who had to stay in the car because her leg's in a cast. We didn't get her name though."

Charles Ray gawked like an ET creature just found in the closet. Lottie lightly jabbed him with her arm. He closed his mouth and said, "That's right."

Fiona stretched her mouth in a little suspicious smile. After studying them for a while, she sat back down and said, "Well let me know if I can help you with anything."

Lottie hurried through the racks until she found a pair of boy's pants that looked long enough for her legs and a boy's cowboy shirt. Charles Ray had been going through the wigs and found a girl's black wig with pigtails tied with yellow bows. It fit him perfectly, and he laughed when he looked in the small mirror nailed to the wall. He was beginning to like the idea of a disguise.

Most of the wigs were for girls. Lottie was about to give up when Charles Ray pulled out a blonde one styled in a boy's haircut. It fit okay once Lottie stuffed all her hair under it, but when she looked in the mirror, she didn't like it at all. But time was running out. She was afraid that Saturn and the snoring man were searching for them. They had to get out of there.

At the checkout table, Fiona told them they owed fifteen dollars. Lottie handed her a twenty and asked, "Are there restrooms out here?" Fiona laughed. "Sure, darlin', but I call 'em out-houses. They're just this side of the parking lot."

"Thank you," Charles Ray said as he took the sack containing their disguises.

"Let's stay close to the side of the tent until we make sure Saturn and the snoring man aren't around," Charles Ray said as soon as they were outside.

Lottie said, "Let's see, the parking lot was right across from the little petting area, and that's this way." She pointed in the direction. Slowly they inched their way from one tent to the next, trying to stay out of the open areas as much as possible.

Finally they saw the parking lot. Saturn's van was still there. To one side were two wooden structures, so small only one person could fit in. A big angry bull was carved on one of the doors and a silly smiling cow on the other.

A few minutes later, an African American girl with pigtails and a blonde-headed Hispanic boy came out, took one look at one another, and broke up laughing, bending over and holding their sides. This disguise business was more fun than dressing up at Halloween.

"So what will our undercover names be?" Charles Ray asked. "Every spy has one."

Lottie thought that was a brilliant idea. "Okay, since you're the girl, you'll be Dewberry Finn and I'll be Tom Squeak." With that they laughed some more. In the distance lively music started up amid lots of shouts and then a cloud of dust began to ascend over the grounds.

"Okay, so now we're in disguises, but we still need to find a phone to call your mom. We're out here in the middle of nowhere." Charles Ray said.

Lottie thought for a minute. "The only thing I can think of is to hide in Saturn's van. When she parks at her house, we'll wait till she goes inside, then we'll run to a neighbor's and ask to use their phone."

"That's good, real good," Charles Ray said, "and I remember she didn't lock the door. She didn't even take her keys."

Saturn's van was only a short distance from them, but the distance was a wide-open clearing with no tents to run to for protection. They looked around. Neither Saturn nor the snoring man were anywhere in the area. "Just act natural," Lottie said as they began walking towards the car.

"Stop telling me that," Charles Ray said feeling grouchy. He was getting too hungry to be nice.

"Hey kids," a voice called from behind them. When they turned, they saw a teenage girl with braces and black fingernails. "Listen, I'm going to be doing face painting by the fruit stand. Come over and I'll fix you up." After her bubble-gum bubble popped, she turned and walked away.

Lottie sighed, "Well, our disguises must be pretty good because she didn't act like anything was out of the ordinary. She didn't laugh or anything."

Charles Ray nodded as he pulled open the sliding door on Saturn's van. After closing the door, they climbed over the back seat to the very back section where there was a bed spread and some sacks of books.

They crouched down and Lottie flung the bed spread over them. The fabric smelled like the lilac bush in Lottie's front yard in Austin. This smell made her feel safe, like everything was going to be okay.

Twenty-Three

## An Undercover Journey

They had no more than gotten the spread over them when the front doors on either side of the van opened. They heard a man's voice say, "What were we waiting around for?"

Then Saturn's voice, "The time wasn't right, that's all, Jake."

Lottie and Charles Ray moved closer to one another. The motor started, and they began to move. The aroma of hot food was coming from somewhere.

After a minute or two down the road, Saturn said, "Now Jake, tell me again what happened?"

"I was chasing these kids in a field and suddenly my head exploded and I woke up in a hospital," the man answered. "I saw them again in that food tent, but you wouldn't let me go. You kept talking like you always do at the clinic, telling me if I took my medicine, I wouldn't see things that aren't real."

From under the covers Charles Ray mouthed the words, it's the snoring man. Lottie nodded.

"Why were you chasing them, Jake," Saturn's voice was so sweet.

"Scotland hired me to guard his son. You see someone's been trying to take his son away from him." Jake's voice was getting awfully loud. "I think it's vampires because there was a mutation and now, there's two, his son and a girl with electricity hair."

"It's okay, Jake. No need to shout." Saturn continued, "Other patients at the clinic have talked about Scotland."

"That's because he uses us poor sick people. But he pays us good." Jake shouted.

Saturn waited a few minutes, then continued. "He's pretty mean, isn't he? Some have told me he's a policeman?"

They could hear Jake undoing his seatbelt and jerking it one way and another. He now spoke in a regular voice. "He was fired off the police force two years and four months ago. Officially, he's no policeman. But he still has lots of connections, men on the force who take orders from him."

Now they could hear Jake trying to fasten his seatbelt back up and talking loud again. "Besides vampires, he's the only thing I'm totally afraid of. Even when I take all my medications, he scares me to death. He's meaner than a dark alley. And he stinks, especially his breath."

Charles Ray shook his head in agreement causing the spread to move up and down.

Saturn hummed the first few bars of "Over the Rainbow", then asked as if she were only half- interested. "So he's looking for this boy and girl now, and you're helping him."

Jake was undoing his seatbelt again. "I messed up, don't you see because the boy got away with the electric girl. I can't let him find me because he'll cut me up, like he did Frank. Beside, down deep in my heart, I like children. I never did like keeping that kid locked up like that."

Charles Ray poked Lottie and rolled his eyes.

"Jake, I'm going to drop you off at the clinic," Saturn was saying. "I'll call Marian to get a room ready. You'll be safe there."

"Thanks, Doc," Jake said.

Then Saturn was talking on a cell phone. "Hello Marian, this is Saturn. I'm dropping Jake Dunnely off in about five minutes. Have someone waiting to take him in. That's fine. Thank you."

Lottie and Charles Ray looked at one another. Charles Ray whispered. "We've got to get that cell phone,"

When the car stopped, there was a wait. Then they heard the passenger door open, and Saturn say, "Jake, go with Marian. I'll be back later to see you. Thanks, Marian."

Jake was talking again, "Listen, Doc, don't go near that Scotland, you hear." The car door slammed shut.

Then they started moving again. After a mile or so, the car stopped. The children heard Saturn turn in her seat, "Okay, dear children, it's okay to come out from under the cover now. I have a couple of bags of food, waiting for you. I know you must be starving."

Slowly the children emerged and looked over the back seat at her smiling face. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, "the wrong children must have gotten in my car. Now who could you be?"

They knew she was teasing, but still it was nice that she had paid attention to their disguises. "Fiona told me to expect some changes, but you outdid yourselves."

"I'm Lottie, and this is Charles Ray. I was visiting my grandmother. We need to call my mama in Austin, Texas."

"We're the kids he was talking about." Charles Ray paused, then turned his talking faucet on to full force. "Lottie rescued me and hid me in her grandmother's mansion, and then I saw Scotland through the peep hole, and I knew he was coming to get me and most probably hurt her grandma, so we ran, and then fell down a cliff and went to sleep till you found us."

"I'm going to help you, but first, you need to eat." Saturn handed them each a sack containing something that smelled delicious like juicy hamburgers along with two small jars of milk. "Just relax and eat while I drive us to my home."

Twenty-Four

## Panic and Dread

When Lottie saw Saturn's home, she thought that if ever a tornado had transported a house from OZ, it would have been this one. The tiny A-frame, perfect as a miniature china tea set, was painted a vivid turquoise with a buttery-yellow gingerbread trim, highlighted in purple. Window boxes were exploding with tulips, and the dark green grass was surrounded by a sunny yellow picket fence.

The strangest sensation entered Lottie's mind. She wondered if Saturn could have been Glinda at another time and in another place. If Sophie were there, she would say, "Sure it's possible. Just about anything is possible."

As they got out of the car, Saturn looked around and said, "Please hurry, children." Lottie and Charles Ray scampered up the steps behind her and waited as she unlocked the front door. The phone in her purse started ringing. She had the "If You're Happy and You Know It" tune on her ring.

Lottie thought how much easier all this would have been if her mama could have afforded cell phones for them. She thought that maybe, if things were still okay with her grandma, she might drop some hints around Christmas.

When they got inside, Saturn dropped her bags on the kitchen table and switched on her phone. "Oh, dear," she said ever so often as she listened. The person talking to her was saying a lot.

"Yes, I'll need your help, Fiona. Could you meet us at Randy's store in about an hour? I'll explain everything then." When Saturn hung up, her face was all white, with no pinks anywhere, not even on her neck. She went to the couch in the living area. "Come here, children, sit down beside me."

Once they had settled on either side of her, she put a protective arm around each of them. "That was Fiona," she began. "Right after we left the farmer's market, Scotland showed up. He flashed around a badge and said he was looking for two missing kids. Some woman told him that she had seen me with two strange children. He found out that Fiona was a friend of mine and questioned her, but she told him she hadn't seen me with any kids."

Springing up like a Jack-in-the-Box, Charles Ray ran to the adjoining bedroom, and scooted far underneath the bed. Lottie and Saturn hurried after him. They knelt down beside the bed and looked under. Charles Ray was curled into a ball. He was shivering so badly his teeth were clicking. "He's going to get me, and he won't let me go till my Mama marries him," he stammered over and over.

"Come here, dear boy," Saturn pulled him out and held him in her arms, gently rocking back and forth. "No one's going to get you. Listen to me, no one is going to get you ever again." Saturn put her cheek on top of Charles Ray's head. He seemed to calm down a little. Saturn continued in a very relaxing voice, "You have every right to be terrified of this man. Several of my patients have told me horror stories about him. I never knew how much to believe."

"Are you a doctor?" Lottie asked.

"A doctor of sorts. I can't give you shots or medicine. I listen and talk to people and try to help them make their lives better." She continued to rock Charles Ray.

Lottie stroked his arm up and down. "We've made it so far, Charles Ray, and we're going to make it all the way back to Oklahoma City. You know we are."

Charles Ray kept on shaking. Seeing her new friend so frightened made Lottie really angry. She stood up and stomped her foot, shouting, "I'm gonna kick his chewed-up butt till the soles of my shoes fall off." Charles Ray stopped shaking and looked at her.

The next moment he was giggling. "I bet you could too. You're one cool girl," he said. Lottie blushed in spite of herself. "Yeah, well, the boys at school don't think so. They call me Bush Head."

Charles Ray slid off Saturn's lap, a little embarrassed that he had been there in the first place. "Your hair is the coolest thing about you, especially when it's sticking out. I like hair like that."

When he said that, Lottie remembered the nice things Claire had said about Charlie. Claire had told her that having a friend who was a boy could be nice, as nice as having a good girlfriend. Up to this point, Lottie had thought she was out of her head even to think such a thing much less say it.

Saturn went to the kitchen and stuffed her sacks of vegetables and fruits in the refrigerator. "Children, we have to leave now."

"What about calling my mom?" Lottie asked.

"We'll do it on the way to Randy's. It's not safe to stay here since Scotland knows that you're with me, and I'm sure he can find my address," Saturn said as she scooted them towards the door. "We're walking. When he sees my van in the driveway, he might think we're inside. That will give us a little more time."

Once they got outside, Lottie saw that Saturn's house, like the kidnap house, was near the skyscrapers. The difference was that her house was in a neighborhood with living people. Saturn wanted the children to walk in front of her so she could keep her eye on them.

Now she asked them lots of questions about names, her grandmother's name which she recognized immediately, her mama's name, Charles Ray's parent's names, their addresses in Austin and Oklahoma City, and stuff about the last few days.

Finally she flipped open her phone. "Lottie, what's your mama's number?"

"512-686-15..." Exasperated, Lottie stopped, "If Tía answers the phone and you're talking English, she'll hang up. She won't speak English on the phone to anybody. Let me talk."

"Don't worry, dear," Saturn said while dialing. "I speak Spanish. What are the two last numbers?"

"23", Lottie said.

Saturn could definitely speak Spanish. Lottie was amazed that she barely had any accent. Her dad had been able to speak that well also.

Saturn asked for Señora Carmen Harrolton-Sanchez, sounding like she was someone very important. She listened, then asked in Spanish, "What time did she leave?" Lottie's heart almost dropped to the floor. Her mom had left? Where could she have gone?

Saturn hung up the phone and turned to them. "Lottie, your mother took a plane to Chicago very late last night. She's at your Grandmother's."

Lottie jumped up and down for joy. "Mama's here! Now all we have to do is get back to Grandmother's. It won't matter now if policemen are there or not," she told Charles Ray.

Charles Ray wasn't quite so sure. "Stinky Breath may have someone watching the gate, and they'll grab us if we try to get through."

"That's a good point, Charles Ray," Saturn said as she looped her bag over her shoulder. "At this point we're not sure whom we can trust besides Fiona and Randy."

Saturn walked very fast, almost stepping on their heels several times. "Pick it up, flowers," she would say. Lottie and Charles Ray were almost running. They passed a yard packed full of toys, a yard being watered by a man so old he was bent in half, a yard of iron sculptures, and just your everyday regular type yards.

Twenty-Five

##  Stinky Breath Emerges

It wasn't long at all before they were in the middle of the noise and crowds of downtown Chicago. Saturn led them into a corner store, named Randolph's, which sold wine, newspapers, cigarettes, and cigars. The man behind the counter looked up from the guitar he was strumming and smiled at Saturn. "The most beautiful woman in the world," he said, winking at her. "Are you adopting kids now?"

Lottie thought that Randy was really cute for someone who was probably thirty or more. He seemed to like Saturn a lot, like in a boyfriend kind of way. She saw that Saturn's face got all bright and shining when she looked at him, in a girlfriend kind of way.

"Randy, these children are in danger and I have to find a place to hide them until you, Fiona, and I can get word to their parents," Saturn said in one breath.

Randy was concerned, "What about the Rising Sun?"

"What's that?" Charles Ray asked.

"It's my house boat, docked behind the Hyatt Hotel," Randy told him then turned back to Saturn. "Why aren't you going to the police?"

"Let's wait for Fiona. She'll be here in a minute, then I'll explain everything," Saturn said just as an old, beat-up, white pick-up parallel parked across the street. Fiona got out.

"Why, there she is now. She must have broken the speed limit to be here by now," Saturn said, then turned to the children. "Listen, there's a room to the left just down the hall with checkers, dominoes, and puzzles. Go play some games while I explain everything to Randy and Fiona."

The bell on the door jangled loudly as Fiona stormed through. She saw the children and gave them a toothless smile. "You sure look different in those get-ups. Smart idea."

Lottie gave Charles Ray an I told you so look as they started down the hall. Before they got to the room, they heard Saturn say, "There's this ex-cop who kidnapped..."

After Charles Ray had beaten her at some silly domino game, she stretched and asked him if he was thirsty. Of course, he was, so they decided to go ask Randy if he had some bottled water. The three adults were hunched over the counter looking at a map. Fiona was saying something about the best plan.

"Excuse us," Lottie said. "May we please have some water?"

"Sure thing," Randy said, but before he could open the refrigerator, Charles Ray yelled out, "Look!" Through the glass door, they saw Scotland limping towards the store. The bandage on his arm had blood all over it.

Fiona yelled, "We all got to get out of here, Randy. He'll recognize me for sure."

"There are restrooms and a broom closet at the back. I'll get rid of him," Randy said.

Lottie and Charles Ray sped into the broom closet which was only large enough for the two children. "Never mind," Saturn said. "Fiona, we'll hide in the Ladies Room. Now don't make a sound children," she mumbled before quickly closing the door.

Lottie slipped the deadbolt in place wondering why someone would put a deadbolt inside a broom closet. "As strong as he is, he can smash right through that," Charles Ray said. He looked up at the small narrow window close to the ceiling.

Lottie knew what he was thinking and whispered, "Let's wait, Charles Ray. Randy will take care of him."

Scotland entered the store and, as usual, surveyed everything. He noticed the crumpled map just on the other side of the counter, like someone had thrown it down in a hurry. He also noticed that the man behind the counter was tense. He kept tapping his fingers on the counter. Scotland also knew that these were typical reactions to seeing a big man covered in blood.

Randy cleared his throat before asking in a fake calm voice, "How can I help you?"

"I need a bottle of your strongest aspirin, some cotton or gauze for my arm and tape. It don't matter what kind. Oh, and about four bottles of water," Scotland said as his eyes glanced down the hall. "I need to use your restroom."

"Yeah, sure, help yourself," Randy said as he reached under the counter to make sure his baseball bat was exactly where he thought it was. He breathed easier as his fingers made contact with the handle.

"But, listen, I don't carry any cotton or gauze. There's a drug store just down the street. I do have aspirin though," Randy said, his voice stammering.

"Man, you sure seem nervous," Scotland said as he headed down the hall. "Don't worry, I was injured in the line of duty. Help me out, and I'll see that you're decorated."

When Charles Ray heard his voice and his footsteps coming down the hall towards the broom closet, he climbed up the buckets and soapboxes, forced open the window, crawled out, and held out a hand for Lottie. She pulled up and was quickly out.

Twenty-Six

## Desperate Departure

Scotland hid in a doorway across from Randolph's. He was determined to wait because a pick-up like Fiona's was parked across the street, and even though he hadn't been able to verify the license number, he felt certain it was hers. He waited. After fifteen minutes, Fiona, the nervous man behind the counter, and another woman, whom he guessed to be Saturn, came out.

But where were the children? No children! Scotland angrily kicked the side of the concrete building sending a piercing pain all through his injured leg. Once he refocused, he saw that the three people seemed very disturbed. The woman, who was probably the Saturn lady, was crying. The man locked the door and put up a Closed sign. Scotland laughed. A locked door had never kept him out of a place. There could be clues in there, and he would find them.

When the children rolled out of the broom closet window, they saw that they were in an alley. Not knowing where to go, they just ran, dodging garbage cans and jumping over nasty puddles of water. At the corner, they turned onto a busy street. Lottie grabbed Charles Ray's arm and instructed, "Now don't go too fast. We don't want to draw attention."

So they strolled down the street, keeping their eyes alert for Scotland. Lottie tried to stop several times and look in the store windows, not that she was interested in anything, but just to make it look like she was some regular tourist. However, Charles Ray pushed her along, saying, "We have to come up with a plan, and you're not going to find it looking at some dummies."

Lottie didn't agree with him. Sometimes her best ideas just popped into her mind when she was thinking of something entirely different. She stopped again. Something was churning around in her brain.

Charles Ray got impatient and starting walking ahead of her. He knew she'd catch up once she got her head out of the clouds. In the meantime, he was ducking in doorways, searching the crowds for the fool who imagined he was a Sherlock Holmes of Scotland Yard because of his last name. Yet, Charles Ray realized that Scotland wasn't actually a fool. He was smart like he said he was, and he was very dangerous. He and Lottie had to be very careful.

A few feet back, Lottie happened to glance up at the tall, tall buildings over her. She felt like a tiny pebble surrounded by these massive iron giants. Slowly she began turning around and around just like she did every year under the Zilker Park Christmas tree, looking up at the lights. Soon her head was swooning like a toy top, and her legs were stumbling around every which way.

She bumped into a boy, thinking it was Charles Ray, but then remembered that Charles Ray was now a girl. This boy shoved her away, really hard, and yelled, "Hey, watch where ya goin?"

As soon as her eyes stopped swimming, she saw not one, but three boys standing close to her, looking like they were itching for a fight. They were close to her age, but she knew they were what people call tough, street kids who didn't take anything off anyone.

"I'm," Lottie cleared her throat and spoke lower, trying to sound like a boy. "I'm sorry."

With that, the middle boy, who seemed to be the leader, butted his shoulder against hers and said, "Yeah, you're sorry alright. You're a sorry chump." Then he shoved her again.

Lottie stood firm and tried to look mean. "You leave me alone."

The boy laughed, "And who's gonna make me? Where'd you get those dork clothes. You a hick from the farm?" The boys started jabbing her with their fingers. She kept stepping back because they were poking hard.

Thinking that Lottie was fairly close behind him, Charles Ray turned around to tell her something. When he didn't see her, he started walking back, and then when he caught sight of the confrontation, he broke into a run.

His pigtails with the yellow ribbons were flying high when he landed in the middle, between Lottie and the three boys. He squared up with the boy closest to Lottie, and eyeballed him with clinched fists. "Now you try shoving me, ya hear? Come on, just try it." He yelled at them.

The boys were taken off guard by this funny looking girl who was suddenly in their midst, threatening to take them down. Charles Ray and the leader circled around a few times.

The boy stopped pacing and threw up his hands. "Listen," he said, "I ain't hittin' no girl. You go on now and let me take care of the farmer." He spat on the sidewalk.

A policeman across the street had been watching the encounter and was now crossing over. Lottie saw him coming their way. "Look, a policeman is coming. Dewberry, we got to run. Quick," she said.

The attitudes of the street boys changed immediately when they saw that Lottie and Charles Ray might be in trouble. The leader said, "Don't worry; follow us. We'll lose him." With that the three boys started racing with Lottie and Charles Ray following closely. They dodged people on the sidewalks as best they could. Several pedestrians raised their voices at them, and some said things that weren't very nice.

The policeman had a huge stomach and toothpick legs. With every movement, he huffed and puffed like the little red steam engine. "Hey, you kids, stop. Do you hear me? Stop!" He gasped for breath.

The children turned off the main street and ran up a stairway to a large parking lot over one of the buildings. As they darted in and out of the cars, the street boys tapped each and every car, so that those with alarms were set off. It wasn't long before the walls and floor of the garage were vibrating with shrill beeping sirens.

They did this on the second level of the garage as well. People were coming out from buildings onto the streets, holding their ears, waving their hands, hollering. Lottie looked over her shoulder and saw no sign of the policeman. She began to breathe easier. The boys led them down a narrow alley between two buildings, then down three flights of stairs, across an underground mall that went on forever and up some steps to the street level.

Directly across the street was a very large church named St. Michael's. Lottie thought that was a good sign. She looked at the group of boys standing together, "Thank you for helping us. We've had to be very careful since last night because..." she stopped, realizing these boys weren't interested in any explanation.

The leader shrugged his shoulder like it was nothing. "Anytime," he said. "You're okay, and so's that girl, you're hangin' with. Weird, a real trip, both of you, but okay." With a final shrug, the trio turned around and descended back down to the underground mall.

St. Michael's cast a shadow over them like the protective wings of the great angel himself. By the sun's position, Lottie knew it was well after lunchtime. She thought about her new watch that she'd left on the bedside table.

Reaching into her pocket, she felt the dollar bills and was so glad that her little inner voice had reminded her to switch the money when she changed into the disguise.

A hot dog vendor was just across the street on the sidewalk in front of the large plaza of St. Michael's church. "Come on," she said to Charles Ray. "I bet you're one hungry girl."

Charles Ray grimmaced. "Getting around in girl's clothes sure ain't easy."

"Tell me about it," Lottie said as they approached the stand.

They sat on the steps leading up to the plaza eating Coney Islands, two for the girl and one for the boy, and drinking lemonade. When they finished, Charles Ray went back and got each of them an ice cream.

A mime was performing on the plaza, creating things, like flowers and dogs out of clear air; he was so good that it took very little imagination to see what he was creating. Then he started passing out balloons, real ones, to all the children. Lottie got a turquoise one, and Charles Ray, a green one.

"Lottie, what are we going to do now?" Charles Ray asked as she was bouncing her balloon up and down. As she glanced up, she caught sight of someone familiar in the corner of her eye. She turned to look closely and saw the limping man coming up the steps from the underground mall.

"Right now, we're going to pray," Lottie said as she began walking towards the church.

"Pray? You saw him? Where?" Charles Ray asked, looking around.

"Don't look. Our disguises might throw him off. I think it's against the rules to hurt or grab someone inside a church, so we'll be safe." Lottie said.

Charles Ray sighed, "I've never heard of any such rules, but I hope you're right."

As they entered the church, Charles Ray let go of the door much too soon, and Lottie's balloon got caught in the jam and popped so loudly that the people who were praying either ducked their heads or turned around and gave them looks that don't quite belong in a church. Even the priest at the main altar turned and glared at them.

Suddenly terrified, Lottie ran along the back of the church. In the excitement, Charles Ray had let go of his balloon which was floating up to the high dome in the middle. Praying people were looking up at it, like maybe it carried a message from heaven.

Charles Ray caught up with Lottie and whispered. "He's in the church. I saw him come in the side door, but he didn't see me."

They ran down a side aisle to the altar of St. Joseph. Lottie whispered, "My daddy's middle name was Joseph. This is a good place."

Even though no one was sitting or kneeling at St. Joseph's altar, Charles Ray glanced around to make sure they weren't being watched. Seeing it was all clear, he grabbed Lottie's hand and pulled her behind the altar.

"What are you doing? Losing your mind?" Lottie gasped.

"This is the perfect hiding place," Charles Ray told her.

After looking around, Lottie realized it was. It was clean, cool, and well protected by St. Joseph's statue. The flickering candles by the saint's feet provided just the right amount of light for them. They sat down and tried to calm their fears.

To keep them from being so nervous, Lottie told Charles Ray about the clues she had left for her mother. She spoke in a soft voice that blended in with the organ music in the background. "I bet you anything your mama and daddy are here in Chicago too. Because as soon as my mama saw that article about you and read my journal, she would know I'd helped you, and that I found you at the department store, and that you had stayed in the tourist section. I bet they even found the room."

She stretched out her long legs and went on, "Mama called your parents alright and told them to come up here immediately. She would know exactly how to get their number."

Charles Ray's face brightened. "I know my mama would come right away too. She's like your mama, always knows what to do."

"I left the first clue in my favorite book which is always the first place we leave clues," Lottie continued. "You see on my birthdays and Christmas, we have scavenger hunts for our presents. It's really fun, and it makes me figure out puzzles. My daddy always did that."

"Lottie," Charles Ray's voice got really low. "I hate it a lot that your daddy got killed in a car wreck. If something happened to my dad..." He swallowed hard, unable to speak.

"You're nice. I didn't know boys were so nice." Lottie winced as soon as she had said that. It sounded so dumb, and she felt funny saying something like that to a boy. Not giving him time to respond, she continued on as if nothing at all had been said.

"I also left a clue about Claire, and I know as soon as they start asking her questions, she'll spill all the beans. She's not the kind that can keep from talking, and she can be fooled real easy. I reckon she took them to the kidnap house where they found all your things."

Lottie laughed, "I bet Mom laughed when Samuel told them about my social studies project. You see, he sort of showed me how to find you."

"And don't forget," Charles Ray added, "they probably found those two blankets and food out by the greenhouse."

"That's right," Lottie remembered. "And since I said that about the police, my mama won't let grandma tell them anything."

Back at the Harrolton estate, events were unfolding just about the way Lottie was describing them to Charles Ray. Carmen had figured out the codes. Mrs. Harrolton remembered that Lottie had disappeared in the department store. Charles Ray's parents arrived just before noon. They found the tourist room and a cookie bag Charles Ray had overlooked, which accounted for the missing food.

Claire had taken them to the kidnap house where Charles Ray's parents had identified his clothes and the handwriting where he'd written out Mrs. Harrolton's name several times which had led the kidnapper to the Harrolton estate and caused the children to flee.

The only things that could be added to Lottie's summary was that the police and FBI had been called. The tapes from the surveillance cameras had been processed and showed Lottie and Charles Ray entering the property, followed by a man's gloved hand spraying the lens.

Nevertheless, Carmen had kept insisting to the special FBI agent, named Ben, that some policeman was involved. She convinced him that otherwise, Lottie would not have taken the steps she had. Mrs. Harrolton totally agreed with Carmen, and because of Mrs. Harrolton's being who she was, the FBI had started looking through the files of the Chicago Police Department. Finally, the most important and breaking development was a call the FBI received from a Fiona Piehuder.

Twenty-Seven

## The Rising Sun

Maybe it was the organ music and the flickering candles or maybe it was St. Joseph who lulled Lottie and Charles Ray to sleep. After just a few minutes, they awoke, feeling rested and unafraid. Then the idea sparked into Lottie's mind like a bolt of lightening, "I know what we'll do."

She reached in her pocket and counted out the fifty-six dollars they had left. "We're going to take a cab to that Hyatt and..."

"Find the Rising Sun!" Charles Ray sputtered out. "Yes, they're probably there because that's what Randy said."

Charles Ray looked out from behind one side of the altar, and Lottie looked out from the other. There was no sign of Scotland. One nun sat on the third row with her head bowed in prayer. She looked up and saw the two heads sticking out either side of the altar and gasped, "Children, you shouldn't be back there."

She was saying more, but Lottie and Charles Ray were already walking down the aisle towards the back door. When they got about halfway to the rear exit, they saw a large funeral procession coming in.

They tried to slip through the mourners, but that was impossible because they were packed together too tightly. They could have shoved and elbowed their way through, but that would not have been a proper thing to do at a funeral.

Across from the main aisle, Scotland stepped out from around a pillar, scanning the interior of the church. Charles Ray saw him and immediately dropped to his hands and knees. Lottie crouched down beside him. "What's gotten into you?" she asked perturbed.

Charles Ray pointed, "He's over there, just past these funeral people. Ouch," he grimaced as someone stepped on his hand.

"What are you doing?" One of the mourners was bending down with his face next to theirs. He had bushy eyebrows and hairs growing out of his ears. "Get up from there," he commanded. "The casket is coming."

They looked up and sure enough there were eight pallbearers carrying a coffin, headed straight for them. "Let's go under," Lottie whispered flattening down to her stomach and crawling. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about the dead body passing over her. She felt pretty sure that the dead person's spirit understood why they were doing such a creepy thing.

The pallbearers marched in step to the bagpipes and kept their eyes focused straight ahead, never noticing a thing, even though the man with the hair-growing ears kept pointing and gesturing.

Once the coffin had passed, there was a clearing in the crowd, so Lottie and Charles Ray stood up. However, Scotland was still surveying the crowd. His eyes passed right over them without recognition. The children let out breaths of relief.

Yet before they could inhale, Scotland's pirate-savage eyes riveted back towards them. This time he recognized them. Lottie and Charles Ray were so nervous they could barely get their legs moving towards the back door.

Scotland started lunging for them, shoving the funeral people. This made several of the mourners angry. "Hey, show some respect. What's wrong with you?" But Scotland kept pushing until finally some of the men grabbed hold of him. He cried out as his right arm was tightly clutched, but still he struggled.

Finally one of the men knocked him to the floor, and some church ushers rushed over and picked him up. He looked like he had been knocked out.

The church was in chaos. People running here and there. A balloon flying around. Pallbearers looking under the coffin. Lottie gazed up at the dome and for an instant, thought she saw St. Michael, the great warrior angel, laughing his wings off.

Impatiently, Charles Ray pulled Lottie out of the church, down the steps, and hailed a cab. When the cab stopped, he told the driver to take them to the Hyatt on the water near the boat docks. The driver had a shaved, tattooed head with a cell phone headpiece connected to it. He didn't once look at them. He drove very fast and waited until he was almost on top of a car before slamming on the brakes. Lottie and Charles Ray bounced and jerked all over the back seat.

Within fifteen minutes, they were pulling up to the Hyatt. The meter read $24.60. Lottie gave him a twenty and a ten and jumped out while the driver continued talking on the phone.

Charles Ray led the way around to the back of the hotel. Soon they were on the pier, looking up and down at the hundreds of boats. I wonder if grandma's yacht is parked out here, Lottie thought.

"Man, this is going to be like looking for the needle in the haystack," Charles Ray said.

"Let's just work our way from right to left. Come on," she said as she ran to the first row on the right.

"Don't pay any attention to anything except house boats," Charles Ray instructed her.

"What does a house boat look like? she asked.

He pointed to one. "It had a flat deck with a little cabin on it."

After no more than five minutes, Charles Ray spotted it. "There it is. The Rising Sun."

It wasn't at all like the other houseboats. It was built something like the little Japanese restaurant where Lottie and her mama would go sometimes. Her mama loved Sushi. Like the restaurant, this boat was made of dark wood with lots of carvings, mainly of dragons.

Excitedly, they ran up the plank and jumped on the deck. It was very quiet. Charles Ray tried the door, but it was locked. He immediately went around and tried the windows. Luckily, the bathroom window was open.

He pulled over a deck chair and climbed in. "I'll unlock the door." Lottie put the deck chair back and made a mental note to lock the bathroom window once she got inside.

"You coming," she heard Charles Ray call. She ran around and entered a large room, smelling of incense. A small water fountain in the corner, the big floor cushions, and the low furniture made Lottie feel peaceful like the first cool breeze of autumn.

Charles Ray locked the door and fastened the dead bolt and chain. "My grandma had a house boat so I know about them," Charles Ray announced. He pointed to an area of the room that was a small kitchen. "On a boat that's called the galley, and this part of the room is the salon and eating area. And through that door is what's called the cabin where the engine is and where you drive the boat."

Lottie was impressed by his knowledge. She really liked the idea of living on the water.

"I've got to close and lock the bathroom window," she remembered.

"It's this way." He led her to the next room. "Here's the bedroom and there's the bath," he said scanning the room. "And alright, there's a phone!" He yelled out.

Lottie went into the bathroom, "What good will that do? I never memorized my grandma's number and my mama's at her house."

Charles Ray was pushing numbers on the phone. "I bet you my bike that Randy has Saturn's number listed on here. Yep, there it is!" He jumped up triumphantly then hit the speed dial number.

"Hello, Saturn," he flashed a big smile at Lottie. "Yeah, it's us. At theRising Sun.. Okay.. Okay. Okay. Okay."

Lottie thought she might scream if he said 'Okay' one more time. "What's she saying?"

Charles waved his hand for her to keep quiet. "Great...Okay...Bye." He hung up. "The FBI has an all-points bulletin out for Scotland. His picture is all over the TV. Saturn's coming here right now, and Randy's bringing your mom and grandma and my mom and dad!"

Charles Ray couldn't contain himself. He grabbed Lottie and hugged her around the neck. They jumped around the room so hard that the water outside the boat was lapping up on the sides.

Twenty-Eight

##  Facing the Monster

After settling down and pulling off his wig, Charles Ray got a jar of punch from the small refrigerator and a bag of natural corn chips from the cabinet. "Saturn said for us to make ourselves at home," he said as he sat down on a cushion by the low table.

In the middle of the table was a very delicate hand-carved chess set. "Wow, I know that cost a lot," he said putting some chips in his mouth. "You want to play?" he asked Lottie.

Lottie had also taken off her wig and was scratching her head; it felt good to let her scalp breathe.

"I don't think we should. You might get corn chip oil and punch all over the pieces," Lottie replied. He was like the boys at school, never thinking about consequences, but still he was nicer than the boys at school.

"You're right," he said getting up and putting the punch and chips away. He then washed his hands at the sink. Lottie rephrased her last thought, He's a lot nicer than the boys at my school.

Even though, Lottie wasn't great at chess, she was playing much better than the night-before-last when she and Charles Ray had huddled in that junk room under the light coming through the green lampshade. She was sure she was doing better because Charles Ray would say, "Good move," from time to time, while the other night, he kept saying, "You need to think ahead."

A loud bump on the deck startled them. "What was that?" Lottie asked, alarmed.

They listened. There was no other sound. Charles Ray said, "Probably the wind knocking over a deck chair."

They went back to playing, but then they felt the boat start to move. Charles Ray jumped up, ran to the window, and pulled up the shade. "The mooring rope's been cut. We're moving out into the lake."

Then they heard clicking noises at the door lock and watched in horror as the handle turned. A powerful kick tore the bolt and chain apart. They screamed and ran behind the futon as the door flew open.

Scotland stood in the doorway clutching Saturn in front of him. A dirty rag was stuffed in her mouth, and her arms were tied behind her back; her legs were also tied so tightly she couldn't walk. Scotland carried her into the salon and dropped her on the floor. Lottie ran to her side.

"Don't you touch her, you meddling little brat," Scotland screamed so loud that the pans on the stove rack shook. Lottie clutched a pillow in front of her chest.

Scotland opened the door to the cabin. "You need to tell your helper there on the floor that she should drive a less noticeable van. I've seen fools in my time, but..." He started laughing as he went into the cabin and started the engine.

After a few revs, the boat was moving. He pointed the boat towards the middle of the lake and pushed the throttle to full speed. Then he secured the steering wheel with a rope and placed a toolbox on the accelerator. He opened the outside cabin door going out onto the deck.

When he came back into the salon, he looked behind the futon at Charles Ray, "Hello, son. I told you I was the best, didn't I? The governor of this state gave me an award for solving one of the biggest cases of this century."

Charles Ray stood up and yelled in his face, "You were fired because you were so bad. You're no more a policeman than I am. And I'm not your son. You're nothing but a criminal."

Scotland raised his hand to hit Charles Ray, but he darted out of his reach. Scotland moved forward and pinned him against the wall.

"Your mama never showed me any respect either. Wouldn't talk to me, hung up on me, moved away without saying a word. But I took my time and I planned, and now I have you," Scotland said low and threatening. When he released his grip, Charles Ray slumped to the floor, gasping for air.

The bandage on Scotland's arm was now soaked in blood, and his eyes were feverish looking, red and glassy. Every now and then, he'd squeeze his eyes shut and clench his teeth, battling the pain.

Scotland walked over to the door and looked out, "In about an hour the sun will be down, and we'll be in the middle of the lake. Sunset, good fish-feeding time. I bet those fish have never eaten so well, a meddling girl and a planet lady."

He looked back at Charles Ray. "We'll cut 'em real good and then son, we'll go back home, get you out of those girl clothes, and wait for your mama." He smiled at Charles Ray who was focusing on a statue by the fountain. Scotland walked back into the salon and started for the galley. "I need me a drink," he said.

With athletic swiftness, Charles Ray picked up the statue and heaved it with all his might at Scotland, hitting him right square in the hip that Cindy had chewed up. Scotland threw back his head and winced in pain. After several moans and deep breaths, he swept his eyes from Lottie to Charles Ray. Fury was seeping out of every pore of his body. He reached behind his back and pulled out a long serrated knife.

"Now, there will be no mercy for anyone, including you." He started after Charles Ray. Springing to action, Saturn rolled over and swung her bound legs in his path. He smashed head first onto the low table. Sounds of splitting wood and flying chess pieces echoed throughout the salon. He dropped the knife which skidded no more than twelve inches from Charles Ray's feet.

Saturn jerked her head in the direction of the open door and, with her eyes, told them to go outside. Charles Ray picked up the knife, ran out, and hurled it into the lake.

Lottie hesitated because she would have to jump over Scotland in order to get to the door; furthermore, she didn't feel right about leaving Saturn alone with this monster. However, Saturn kept motioning with her head and eyes for her to get out.

Scotland was beginning to pull himself up from the splintered table. Terrified, Lottie knew she couldn't help Saturn in that room. Maybe once she was outside with Charles Ray, they would find a way.

She left through the bedroom and fled into the bathroom, locking the door. Quickly, she crawled on the sink, unlocked the window she had just locked, and pulled herself out. As she landed on the deck, she heard the sound of a helicopter. Looking up, she saw not one, but two helicopters coming in her direction. Was that help?

Suddenly, the boat's motor made a horrible screeching noise, then died. Charles Ray has turned off the engine, Lottie thought. Smart move.

She fell down as the boat violently lurched forwards and backwards several times. As the boat was settling down to a wavy float, Lottie saw three boats, police boats, coming towards them at high speeds.

She ran around the back of the boat and then up towards the cabin, staying close to the outside walls. As she approached, she cringed in fear as she saw Scotland pull a kicking Charles Ray out of the cabin and heading towards the edge, as if he were going to throw him overboard.

In the same moment, Lottie noticed that Scotland's right foot was standing inside the knotted loop of a nylon rope. The end of the rope was near the cabin door. Without hesitating, she leaped over a railing and yanked the end of the rope with all her might, catching his ankle. Scotland fell like the side of an imploding skyscraper. His grasp on Charles Ray was broken.

Lottie began winding the rope around the railing. In a second, Charles Ray was at her side, helping her tighten and secure the rope so that Scotland couldn't get away.

"Police boats and helicopters are coming, Charles Ray," Lottie said loud enough for him to hear.

"I saw 'em," he answered as he picked up a long steel rod from the deck and held it in mid-air over Scotland. "If you move a hair, I'll whack your hurt arm, and I mean it. Just try me."

Considering all that he'd been through, Lottie really admired Charles Ray for not clobbering the daylights out of Scotland with that rod. Since things were under control on deck, Lottie rushed back towards the salon.

Saturn had rolled to the door. Lottie pulled the gag from her mouth. Saturn coughed several times and then spoke in a cracked voice, "You are the bravest children in the world." She coughed again. "Please get me a drink."

Lottie removed one of the steak knives from its stand and got a glass of water. The police boats were now close enough to hear.

She cut through the ropes fastening Saturn's hands and legs, but Saturn's arms and hands were so numb from being tied up she couldn't hold the glass, so Lottie held it to her mouth while she drank.

On the deck, Scotland attempted to sit up, but Charles Ray struck him solidly on his injured arm. He cried out before falling back.

The approaching boats were drowning out all sounds. Lottie could see people crowding all three boats. Two dogs were riding at the bow of the first boat. As soon as Saturn was able to stand up, they walked out on deck.

Two minutes later pandemonium broke out. A voice from a megaphone said, "Davis Scotland, you are under arrest. Do not resist. You are surrounded." The boats circled their boat before stopping on three sides.

Chester and Lester were the first to leap high in the air and land on the deck. In a flash, they were on top of Scotland, growling and showing their teeth, but, fortunately for him, not biting. Scotland was screaming, "Keep them dogs away; keep 'em off me."

Charles Ray was grinning from one side of his face to the other. Lottie imagined how good it must feel for him to see Scotland now as terrified as he had been for the last six days.

Suddenly, the deck was teeming with uniformed policemen and policemen wearing regular clothes. Lottie could see her mama and grandmother and a man and woman who looked like Charles Ray's parents. Behind them were Samuel, Claire, Randy, and Fiona. A policeman was holding out his arms so they couldn't come onto their boat.

Several policemen came up to Charles Ray. One took the rod from him. A couple of them patted him on the back. Yet another shook his hand. Lottie wished she could hear what they were saying.

Finally they got Lester and Chester to stand to the side while they pulled Scotland up to his feet, handcuffed his hands behind him, and after undoing the rope around his foot, led him off to a boat on the far side. The dogs stayed right on his heels until he was secured in a special cage on the boat. That boat took off. Davis Scotland was gone for good.

Then and only then did the police let the families and friends come on board. The first to jump on was Charles Ray's mom. She flew through the air and hit the deck running, crying out, "My baby, my baby!" Charles Ray ran to her, and they hugged so tight, Lottie thought they might squeeze the breath out of one another.

Lottie's mom was next, then everyone. The police helped her grandmother and Fiona get on board. Lottie was bunched between her mom and grandmother with Claire and Samuel hugging around them. Chester scooted in and licked every inch of her face he could get to.

Charles Ray's dad held him tight and turned around and around. Randy, Saturn, Fiona, and some of the police were waiting their turns to hug the children.

Everyone was crying and hugging and hugging and crying. That went on until sunset after everyone had made the rounds of introductions and hugs.

Twenty Nine

##  The Special Visitor

The next morning Lottie woke up with her mom's sleeping face right next to hers. She hadn't slept very well because all night she had been sandwiched between her mom and Chester.

In fact, she was so squished that all she could comfortably wiggle were her fingers. Lottie looked over at her dad's smiling picture and blew him a kiss.

Charles Ray and his parents were just down the hall. She imagined that probably he was squished between his mom and dad on that high bed. His parents had pretty names, Laurna and Julian, and they were as nice as parents could be.

Lottie studied the woodcarvings on the ceiling. The night before had been so much fun. Her grandmother had insisted that everyone come back to the palace for something called a debriefing. She said that the children had been through enough and that they were not going to any police station.

Lottie found out that the policemen who wore regular clothes were actually FBI men. They asked Lottie and Charles Ray lots and lots of questions about everything that had happened. This one FBI man, named Ben, told them they were remarkable children, which made everyone in the room applaud. Lottie felt so proud, just like the day she got the blue ribbon for reading the most library books.

Charles Ray's mom, Laurna, told the FBI that Scotland had gone to Junior College with her and had asked her to go out with him several times, and even though she always refused, he wouldn't take no for an answer.

"That's because he's a block head," Charles Ray said, and everyone laughed.

Laurna explained that after she went off to the state university, she never heard from him again and totally forgot about him. She said it was shocking to think that all this time he was following the events of her life. Ben then told her some facts which Lottie really didn't understand about types of people who are mentally ill, and what they will do in different situations.

Next a policeman talked to both of them, but especially Charles Ray, about never, ever getting into the car of someone you don't know. Charles Ray explained that Scotland said he was his mom's distant cousin and that he was supposed to take him to his grandma's. "Besides," he added, "he told me I could work his police radio."

The policeman then added that no matter what anyone says, don't get in the car with them.

Charles Ray got a little embarrassed, but his dad put his arm around his shoulder and told him that he had been very brave and added, "Besides getting to operate a police radio is a very powerful temptation." Lottie loved Charles Ray's dad with all her heart at that moment.

Then another policeman told them that they should trust the police and go to them for help. He said they should have known Scotland was not really a policeman.

Lottie's mom and Charles Ray's mom stood up at the same time. Carmen was the first to speak, "Even adults are fooled by the Scotlands of the world."

Laurna added, "That's the truth. He had a badge, a gun, a police scanner."

Ben smiled but didn't say anything. Lottie had noticed that Ben kept looking at her mom like he thought she was pretty or something. Lottie didn't care for him or his look, even though he was really a very nice person.

Mrs. Harrolton joined in the discussion, "They did what they thought was best to keep everyone out of harm's way." She then pulled Lottie close to her and said, "Thank you, darling, for trying to keep that horrible man away from me. You were taking care of your grandma, and I shall never forget that."

The policeman whose face was turning red, started again, "Yes, but still." Before he could say anything else, Saturn rose from her chair in the corner and sweetly said, "I'm sure the children are aware that the majority of policemen can be trusted. However, in this situation, even an adult like me wasn't sure what to do."

Since they were finished questioning Lottie and Charles Ray, Mrs. Harrolton told them to go to the kitchen for a special treat. They gladly ran out and discovered that Claire had made each of them a Mount Everest banana split. Naturally, Charles Ray ate all of his and then finished off hers. Afterwards, they went swimming along with Chester. Chester adored the pool even though he needed help getting out.

Their moms had said they could stay up as long as they wanted, and it was already past midnight, the absolute latest Lottie had ever been up. Charles Ray said he had stayed up that late lots of times, but Lottie wondered if he just had eaten too many banana splits. Her science teacher told her that too much sugar could make a person talk and act silly.

Lottie gently tried to uncurl her mom's arm from around her. Suddenly, her mom's hand was tickling her all over. "Don't you try to get away from me, little girl," Lottie's giggles woke Chester who had to get in on the fun. The wrestling and tickling continued until Lottie noticed the wrinkled bed sheets and Chester's hair all over everything.

She sprung up, "Judith will be so grouchy when she sees this bed. Where was she last night?"

"She's been retired," her mom said happily. "When I got here yesterday morning, Judith was very bossy and rude, even to your grandmother. She made the mistake of saying you were nothing but trouble just like your dad." Carmen got a brush from the side table and began to brush her hair.

"Well, you can imagine how angry that made me. I was about to let her have it, when your grandmother, bless her heart, stepped forward and firmly told Judith that it was time for her to retire, that she could no longer handle the job."

Lottie's mom began to mimic the way her grandmother talked. "Your grandmother said, 'You worked well with my mother because you were both such mean-spirited people, but now things are different. I want you off the premises by nightfall; my mother made ample provisions for you. Oh, by the way, please take the cat'."

Gosh Lottie wished she had been there for that. She was a little disappointed. Chester would have had a field day with Ebony, and she and Charles Ray would have had so much fun making life miserable for Judith.

Carmen put down the brush. "You hear those hammers? Your grandmother is having all sorts of things put up for a huge celebration later this afternoon. She has lots of surprises in store. I guess we better get up."

Surprises was not the word for all the things Lottie's grandmother was having done. Workers were putting up tents and platforms in the back yard. A children's playground was being constructed just across from the greenhouse. Chefs were in the kitchen preparing all sorts of foods. Claire acted like she was the supervisor, but Lottie could tell that most of the chefs weren't paying any attention to her.

Claire spotted Lottie and said, "Did you hear the good news? No more grouse." Lottie nodded with a big smile. Then Claire got serious, "Your Aunt Loretta's been dead for twelve years, shame on you." Then she started laughing, "You really fooled me, precious. You're just too smart."

Lottie looked through the window and saw her grandmother directing the workmen. She looked so much younger, and she was walking, almost running, around the whole yard without a cane.

"Hi, Lottie," said a familiar voice behind her. When she turned she couldn't believe that Sophie was standing there with a suitcase in hand. Sophie's mom and two brothers and Tia, dear Tia stood in the background. "Your grandmother brought us here on a private plane. It was awesome," said Sophie as they hugged. Then Lottie hugged her dear Tia. "You're a big time hero," Tía said over and over in Spanish. "Eres un gran héroe. Eres un gran héroe."

Lottie heard a squeal and Charles Ray came running in the room followed by an older woman and a boy Charles Ray's age, "Lottie, your grandmother got a plane for my grandma and my best friend. His name is Derrick." His grandmother hugged her, but Derrick just said "hi", like he was shy.

That afternoon, Lottie tried to count how many people were at the party, but they kept moving around, and she'd have to start over, and before long, she just gave up. Standing by her grandma's side, she felt like she had shaken hands with about a thousand people.

Her grandma kept her arm on Lottie's shoulder and said to everyone, "This is my wonderful, very smart, and beautiful granddaughter, Lottie." Lottie was so happy in spite of the fact that she was wearing a fancy dress with the pearls and hair clasps.

A feast of every kind of meat, vegetable, sauce, pastry, salad was served in the long tent. After everyone had finished eating, Lottie's grandmother went to the microphone on the platform and began speaking:

"Night before last, when at two in the morning, I realized that my granddaughter, Lottie, was not in her room or anywhere on the premises, I felt once again that my life was over. Only days ago, Lottie walked into this palace, as she calls it, and breathed life and joy back into these ancient walls and put a zest for living into these rigid bones of mine."

Her grandma paused to catch her breath. "Lottie is a spirit of light and love, and I found myself admiring her more every day. The other night, as that old part of me wanted to give up, my granddaughter's spirit overcame me, and I knew that I wasn't going to give up for anything. I also knew that she had changed me. Now I want to add that I realize Lottie could not be the wonderful child she is without the great mother she has. At this time I would ask Lottie and my lovely daughter-in-law, Carmen, to come forward."

Lottie couldn't help it; she started crying when she saw her mama and grandma hug for a long time. Then her grandma pulled her in and they had a three-way-love hug. Everyone started clapping. After a few moments, Lottie's grandma gave Carmen an envelope and then spoke into the microphone again. "After several of our families get back from an extended cruise, I've made arrangements for Carmen and Lottie to go to Bolivia to bring back Lottie's other grandmother, her abuela."

Carmen grabbed hold of Lottie like she was going to fall. Ben, the FBI man, was there in a second to help hold her up. Lottie became a little irritated. She could hold up her mom all by herself.

After Lottie and her mom got back to their chairs, Mrs. Harrolton called Saturn, Randy, and Fiona up to the stage. "For helping my Lottie and her friend, Charles Ray," she said as she gave each of them a check. It must have been a lot of money because all three of them gasped when they looked at it. Fiona turned out to everyone with her big gummy smile and hollered, "Now I can get me some teeth, that's for sure."

There were other people who got up to speak. The Chicago Chief of Police told everyone that Lottie and Charles Ray would be honored at a gala dinner and made honorary members of the Chicago Police Force for their work in apprehending a dangerous criminal.

Then Charles Ray's dad, Julian, got up and said that Lottie would be honored at a special event in Oklahoma City for rescuing his son. Laurna tried to speak but kept crying and had to sit back down. Charles Ray had told Lottie that she had been crying on and off every hour since she first saw him. He said it was getting to be embarrassing, but Lottie told him that was the way moms were, especially when their kidnapped children are found.

Afterwards, there was dancing. Lottie watched her grandma and Samuel glide across the floor, like a couple of dancers you might see on TV. Samuel was in a regular kind of suit and looked really nice. Claire and Charlie stood in one place and kind of moved a little. "Is that what they call dancing?" Sophie whispered in Lottie's ear, and they both giggled.

A lot of people watched Saturn and Randy dance because they were so pretty together, like turquoise and pink. Then there was the FBI man, Ben, dancing with her mom. Lottie pulled Sophie aside and said, "Do you see that FBI man dancing with my mom? He looks all goo-goo at her all the time, and I'm sick of it."

Once again her best friend made everything okay. "She'll be going back to Austin right after our cruise. He lives all the way up here. After today, she won't see him again." Lottie wondered why she hadn't thought of that.

Charles Ray came up beside her and asked her, of all things, to dance. Lottie rolled her eyes, but Sophie shoved her out to the floor. They didn't really dance just stepped around from one side to the other and not all that gracefully. Soon Derrick and Sophie were beside them also stepping clumsily around and pretending it was dancing. Sophie's brothers stood on the sidelines and whistled and acted like complete idiots.

It wasn't long before the children decided to leave the dancing to the adults and head out to the new playground. Lottie was following behind the others, walking slowly, deep in thought. She was thinking about how much her grandmother had changed. Then Lottie realized that she had changed too. She and her grandmother had learned a lot from one another.

She giggled in delight thinking about being on a big yacht for seven days with her mom, Tía, and her grandmother, as well as Charles Ray and his parents, and Claire, Samuel, Sophie, Derrick, Saturn, and Randy. She couldn't even imagine how much fun they would have. Fiona also had been invited but declined because she said she didn't trust boats.

Talk about having an adventure. This summer was turning into one continuous adventure. Her back to school essay on "What I Did This Summer" would take up an entire book, and she still had eight weeks to go. She realized she'd better start making lots of entries into her journal or else she would forget some interesting and important facts.

When Lottie looked up, she saw him standing by the blooming azaleas. "Daddy!" she silently said. He was looking right at her, smiling that wonderful smile of his. Without speaking, he let her know that now everything was just the way he wanted it. He nodded and then blew her a big kiss. As she reached up to catch it, he was gone.

She held the kiss against her cheek a long, long time.

THE END

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