Marilyn Kaye - Finders Keepers

Amanda was perfectly willing to go along with that.

Serena had a key to the front door. They walked into a foyer which led into a bland, ordinary living room.

‘Hello?’ she called out.

‘We’re in here.’ The voice was masculine and deep. Amanda thought it sounded vaguely familiar.

She followed Serena into another room, where three people sat at a dining table. And none of the three was a stranger to Amanda.

The first one she recognized was Clare. Her hair was blonde again, the way it had been when Amanda-as-Sarah had been kidnapped by her.

Next to her was the man she knew as Stuart Kelley, who had claimed to be Jenna’s father.

And on the other side of Clare sat Mr Jackson, the principal of Meadowbrook Middle School.

None of them looked at her with any particular interest. Why would they? They’d never seen her before — or so they thought.

But Amanda had seen all of them before, in different places, and in circumstances that were completely unconnected. Or so she’d thought. And the realization of what she was now seeing stunned her. She was dizzy, her head was spinning. Reeling actually. She didn’t think that she’d ever had a greater shock.

Which could explain why she suddenly found herself lying in her very own bed with a very sore throat.

WHEN HE WOKE UP the next morning, still dressed in the clothes he’d worn the day before, Ken’s first action was to check to see if an open notebook lay on the nightstand by his bed. With enormous relief, he found it.

So it hadn’t been a dream. And he’d done the right thing — he’d written the instructions down. He read them over and over, until he committed them to memory.

It was early — his alarm wasn’t set to go off for another two hours. This was good news, as he had a lot to do before the start of school. As he took a shower and changed his clothes, he went over the plan. He would go back to the Fisher house and catch Stevie before he left for school. He’d tell the boy how he’d had a message from his father, and he’d show him where his father had left the lottery ticket. He bet Stevie would be really surprised to know that his father had a secret place where he kept important things — under a loose floorboard in the back of a rarely visited cupboard full of old junk.

Stevie’s mother could cash in the lottery ticket and save the family home. Little Dena could see a real doctor about her rash, and Cindy could have a new pair of shoes. And best of all — for Ken at least — Stevie would know that Ken was a good guy, that he had never been a part of Serena’s scheme to steal the ticket. Maybe he and Stevie would remain friends and Ken could be like a big brother to him.

There was only one small problem. Two, actually. First of all, Stevie wasn’t going to be very happy to see Ken back at the Fisher house. Ken was going to have to do a lot of fast talking to persuade Stevie to let him in.

But it was the second problem that really made him nervous.To accomplish this task, he would have to let Stevie know about his gift.

He’d argued with Madame and others in the class about this. He hadn’t believed that his gift had any value to whatever enemies the class had, and he’d been sure that none of the others in the gifted class would be in danger if he revealed his gift.

Well, events of the past week had proved he was wrong about the first part of his assumption. Bad people had tried to use him. And if he could be wrong about that, he could be wrong about putting the class in danger.

But Stevie needed that ticket. And now that Ken knew where the ticket was, how could he do nothing? How could he let Stevie and his family suffer — lose their home, live in poverty — when they didn’t have to?

His mother was in the kitchen when he came downstairs.

‘What are you doing up so early?’ she asked him.

At that moment, Ken learned that he wasn’t such a bad liar after all. ‘I’ve got a meeting at school with my science project group.’

His mother was impressed. ‘Well, you kids must be excited about this project if it’s getting you out of bed. What is your group doing?’

He couldn’t lie that well. He looked at his watch. ‘Oh wow, I’m late. I ’ll tell you about it later, Mom.’

‘Don’t you want something to eat?’ his mother called after him, but he just yelled back another whopper.

‘No, thanks, I’m not hungry.’ And he was out the door.

But now what? He still hadn’t worked out how he was going to fix Stevie’s problem.

His mobile rang. He flipped it open and held it to his ear.

‘Hello?’

‘Ken, this is Tracey. I hope I didn’t wake you up.’

He scowled.What did she want? He was still very much annoyed by the way the three girls had behaved. ‘No, I’m up. What do you want?’

‘I couldn’t sleep, I felt so bad about yesterday. We shouldn’t have made those plans without telling you.’

‘It was Jenna’s idea, wasn’t it?’

‘Yeah, but Emily and I went along with it, so we’re just as guilty.’

Ken doubted that. He knew how pushy Jenna could be. And Tracey sounded really sorry.

‘It’s OK,’ he relented.

‘I wish I could make it up to you,’ Tracey said, sounding sincere.

Ken stood very still. A brilliant idea had struck him.

‘Actually, Tracey, you can. If you’re really sorry, you can help me do something right now.’

He told her all about his visit to Stevie’s house the night before, and explained that he now knew where the ticket was. Then he told her his new idea. Ten minutes later, they met up at a corner halfway between their two homes.

Tracey was nervous. ‘It doesn’t always work, you know. I mean, I’m getting better, but sometimes I just can’t do it. And even when it does work, I never know how long it will last.’

But she completely understood why he’d come up with his plan. And she was willing to try as hard as she could to make it happen.

When they arrived at Apple Creek Road, Ken pointed out the house.

‘I can’t walk through walls, you know, ’ Tracey reminded him. ‘I’m going to have to wait for someone to come in or out.’

Ken looked at his watch. ‘Stevie should be leaving for school pretty soon. Can you get ready now?’

He told her about the cupboard and the loose floorboard. Tracey nodded.

‘OK. Here goes,’ she said. She stood very still and closed her eyes.

‘What does it feel like?’ Ken asked curiously.

She opened her eyes. ‘Be quiet. I have to concentrate.’

‘Sorry,’ Ken said.

He’d never seen the process in action before. Tracey had developed her gift back when her parents ignored her and she felt invisible. She was a much happier person now, and Ken knew it had to be difficult for her to recapture the feeling of being a nothing, a nobody.

But she did it. Right there, before his eyes, she began to fade. It was positively eerie, like watching a special effect in a science fiction movie. And then she wasn’t there.

‘Tracey?’ he asked.

She must have already taken off. He looked at the house across the street. He couldn’t see her, ofcourse, but if she was following the plan she was waiting just by the door.

Something could still go wrong, and Ken knew it. Maybe Stevie had already left for school, or maybe he wasn’t going to school today. Maybe nobody would go in or out of the house at seventy-two Apple Creek Road all day. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

But he could stop tormenting himself. The door of the house opened. Ken ducked behind a tree and peered through the branches. A woman stood there — Stevie’s mother, Ken guessed. She had a small child in her arms. That had to be Dena.