The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past (14 page)

Binny tried to think of ways she could
restrict entry to her hideout from teenager and dog alike as she
deposited the can in Caleb’s trash bag. Caleb interrupted her
thoughts, “What’s on your mind, Miss Jordan?”

Binny liked it when Caleb called her
that. It sounded so formal. Binny remembered being called “Miss
Jordan” by Caleb when he worked in his flower shop. She would sit
on the counter while Jay would pick out flowers for her mom.
Invariably, Caleb would offer her a free blossom and call her Miss
Jordan like she was one of the adults. But since Caleb had closed
his shop, her Dad hadn’t taken her to buy any more
flowers.

“
Oh nothing.”

“
Something’s on your
mind.”

“
Just regular
stuff.”

“
Oh, just ‘regular’
stuff,” Caleb responded gently, teasing her. “Don’t be too hard on
your parents, they’re doing their best.”

How did Caleb know she was angry with
her parents? It didn’t occur to Binny that most ten-year-old girls
are angry with their parents on a regular basis, so this line of
thought wasn’t that difficult for Caleb to divine. Binny closed up
a bit worried about what else Caleb knew.

“
Taking care of someone,
or something, is hard. You can’t always protect it from getting
hurt.” Caleb motioned with his head to the boys who had been
leaving their trail of destruction and garbage throughout the
woods.

“
You don’t have kids to
take care of. Kids aren’t the same as trees.”

If it bothered Caleb to be reminded
that he had no children, he didn’t show it. “That’s true Binny. But
don’t underestimate how hard it is for your parents to see you
hurting, or how much they wish they could spare you every cut and
bruise.”

As if sensing that Binny didn’t want
to dive into the embarrassing details of how dysfunctional her
family had become, Caleb went in a different direction. “But
something else is bothering you right now. You look like you just
had a fight with your best friend.”

At that Binny really was taken aback.
“She’s not my best friend. She’s not even a friend! I was just
trying to find out what had happened.”

“
Who are we talking
about?”

“
Penny. She lives across
the street from me.”

“
Ah yes. Miss
Yang.”

“
Yes.”

“
Miss Yang who is most
certainly not your best friend.”

“
Right.”

“
Or a friend at
all.”

“
Exactly.”

Caleb grabbed for a small shovel and
pick and tried to dislodge a stone that could be a tripping hazard
in the path. This felt like disapproval to Binny.

Binny didn’t have a lot of interaction
with her grandparents, who lived far away. Caleb had been sort of a
part-time grandparent figure when she would see him at his shop, or
in more recent times in the woods. And while he wasn’t family
proper, she did want his approval.

“
She was upset, about the
broken typewriter, and I was just trying to help.”

Caleb kept working.

“
It’s not my fault that
she ran off.”

“
I’m sure you did your
best.”

“
Yes. I did. My best.
Wait. What are you sure I did my best at?”

Caleb answered slowly, “Well, I’m sure
you did your best to let her into your ‘fortress of solitude’, so
when the time came, she knew she could trust you with her feelings
as well.”

Binny had to chew on that one for a
moment. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Caleb had a point.
She hadn’t been very welcoming to the girl, who didn’t seem to have
anyone else.

Before she could reflect on that more,
she heard someone running up the path towards them. Worried it was
those boys coming back, she instinctively took a step behind
Caleb.

It was Zach. He was out of breath. In
between gasps for air he said, “Binny, I need your help, Cassie’s
missing.”

10

“
What?” Binny stepped out
from behind Caleb.

Caleb remained silent but his eyes got
a little wider as he paused his efforts for a moment.

Zach noticed Caleb’s concern, “Uh,
well, not missing exactly, she’s just gone out to play somewhere in
the neighborhood and I’m not sure where.”

“
Sounds like she’s missing
to me.” Binny’s hands moved to her hips.

“
Mom and Dad asked me to
watch her before they went out on errands, and I was playing my
game, and all of a sudden she’d disappeared. Can you help me find
her before they get back?”

“
You want me to help you
find her so that you don’t get in trouble?” Binny recalled her
anger at her brother from earlier.

“
I need your help Binny.
Please?” Zach was desperate, the apology she hadn’t allowed him to
make earlier now clearly visible in his eyes.

“
Fine. I’ll help
you.”

The older Jordan siblings were about
to leave the woods in search of their sister when they heard Caleb
clear his throat, indicating he’d like their attention. They
stopped in their tracks and looked at him expectantly.

“
I’m sure your baby sister
is fine and just found something that caught her interest,” Caleb
said slowly and deliberately. But, if you don’t find her in
fifteen
minutes, I
expect you to call your parents and ask for their help. Even if it
means you’ll get in trouble. OK?”

“
Yes.” They answered in
unison. Then they turned on their heels and sprinted out of the
woods.

§

“
I know you made it seem
like you were less worried in front of Caleb, but… you’re scared…
aren’t you?” Binny got the words out between the big breaths she
was drawing as they ran.

Zach wasn’t sure how to answer her. He
didn’t want to make her as nervous as he felt, and he didn’t want
to confess to being worried about getting in trouble with their
parents either. “Let’s just find her, ok?”

“
Do you think
he
has her?” Now it was
Binny’s turn to sound nervous.

“
Knowing her, she wandered
over there to play with that dog. ‘Cause she felt like
it.”

The man’s house was close by. They
crept up to their familiar spot behind the man’s back fence in time
to witness him entering the yard with that large dog and their
little sister in tow. Binny was about to stand up and call out to
Cassie when Zach shushed her.

“
What?” She hissed at
him.

“
First of all, we’re
spying again and I don’t want to get in trouble for that too.
Second of all, you wanted to know what the man wants with her, now
we’re going to find out.”

“
You’re, you’re,” Binny
stammered, “you’re using her as bait!”

“
Binny, we’re right here.
We can see her. She’s not going anywhere. And if anything looks
fishy we can grab her up.”

“
You don’t think a strange
man inviting a seven-year-old girl into his house is already
fishy?”

“
Of course it is, but we
need to know why.”

Binny chewed on this for awhile. She
definitely did not like the idea of leaving her sister in potential
harm’s way even for a brief moment. But Cassie certainly looked in
good spirits.

“
I still think you’re
afraid of getting in trouble with Mom and Dad.” Binny’s whispered
admonition hung in the silence between them.

The man took the leash off his dog so
the big creature could run around the fenced in back yard freely,
and then turned his attention to the back door. The man used his
key to unlock the sliding glass door. There was a keypad just
inside the house. They could see the man pressing a sequence of
keys presumably to turn off an alarm.

And then it was done. Cassie was now
in the man’s house. Binny’s heart jumped.

As if he could tell that she was
nervous over the missed opportunity to rescue their sister, Zach
put his hand on her arm to keep her calm.

Their view from the fence was such
that they could see into the man’s living room and kitchen. The man
had disappeared for a moment into another room and come out with
what looked like a stack of paper and some colored markers. He laid
them out on the coffee table and Cassie started coloring dutifully.
The man then prepared a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for
Cassie and placed them next to her. Cassie didn’t miss a beat and
started chomping away, not pausing her coloring as she
ate.

Zach and Binny both seemed to breathe
a sigh of relief, but they still weren’t sure they could trust the
man. Zach said, “Well, I guess at bad guy school they showed him
how to serve up a mean plate of cookies.”

Binny caught herself laughing but
interrupted it abruptly with a less charitable thought. “I still
think he’s up to no good, no matter how nice he’s
being.”

“
Let’s just watch for a
few minutes. Maybe we’ll get a clue as to what he’s up
to.”

§

After a few minutes it became clear
that other than entertaining their sister with milk and cookies and
coloring materials, the man spent a lot of time talking on the
phone in what must have been a home office of sorts. But unlike the
last time, he stayed inside not coming out on his wraparound deck.
There would be no eavesdropping this time, but Binny was already
sure she knew what he was doing.

“
He’s calling his boss at
the government – Sam – and asking him for instructions on what to
do next now that he’s lured Cassie here with junk food.”

“
Or he’s just being nice.”
Zach countered.

“
Or he’s telling the
people he works for to come and pick her up and take her to their
secret lab.”

Zach tried to reassure her before she
spun out of control. “Maybe, but we’re here. We won’t let that
happen.”

“
Mom and Dad told her not
to go anywhere with strangers.”

“
How do you know he asked
her to go somewhere? Maybe Cassie she just showed up here looking
for snacks and some time with the dog.”

Binny thought about how impulsive her
sister could be. “I guess.”

“
Remember last year at the
park playground. Cassie was playing with that little boy she met,
and then suddenly he was crying? Cassie had kissed him. Right on
the mouth! Dad had to explain to her not to give ‘uninvited
kisses’.” Zach did his best impression of Jay being
stern.

The corners of Binny’s mouth turned up
temporarily as she remembered one of her sister’s more outrageous
acts of impetuousness, but it still didn’t make her feel much
better about Cassie’s current predicament. “When can we get her out
of there?”

“
Now, but…”

Binny was rising about to march
towards the house when Zach grabbed her by the arm and brought her
back down behind the fence. And then in a low but urgent whisper he
continued, “now, but I want to get her out of there without seeing
the man. I don’t want him to know we’ve been watching.”

“
Why not?”

“
If the man is just a nice
guy, I don’t want him to know we were spying. And if he’s
dangerous, I don’t want to have a confrontation with him. Why not
just sneak away and leave him wondering what happened?”

Other than the urgency Binny felt,
Zach’s logic seemed to make sense. Except for one thing. “What
about the dog?”

Rembrandt had curled up, chewing on an
old tennis ball, just outside the sliding glass door that led into
the house where Cassie was doing her coloring and polishing off her
dwindling supply of cookies.

“
Ugh. We need a
distraction.”

“
How about a steak?” Binny
joked.

“
That’s not a terrible
idea actually.” Zach sounded surprised.

“
I was
kidding.”

“
No, it’s not a bad idea
at all. I’ll run home and get one.”

“
And leave me here? What
if something happens?” Binny was getting very stressed.