Whales on Stilts! (8 page)

Several men came in. They were thin and nervous.

“Oh no,” said Katie. “It's the writers from Simon & Schuster. They're here to find out what happened so they can write the next Horror Hollow book.”

“Miss Mulligan?” one said. “We'd like to find out a few details to use in the upcoming book.”

“Hi,” Katie said. “We're kind of in the middle of a conversation right now.”

“We'd like to get started writing,” said the writer. “Could you just fill us in on a few details?”

“Miss Mulligan, how did you fight off the whale?”

“Miss Mulligan, why are whales out to get you?”

“Miss Mulligan, when you crept up the stairs, was it
timidly
or
intrepidly?”

The writers waited. One had his laptop computer open and turned on. His fingers quivered over the keys.

“It wasn't me who figured out how to chase off the whale,” said Katie. “It was my friend Lily.”

The writers looked from one girl to the other.

“Okay,” said one. “That's fine. But a little bit confusing for the reader, because you're the hero. So for the purposes of the series, we'd like to make it be you. And Lily helped. But was carried away by the whales to their secret underwater hideout.”

“In the ruins of the
Titanic,”
said another writer. “Where there's a room full of gold bricks.”

“Stolen from the Duchesse de Désastre,” said the first writer.

“And the whales are in cahoots with the killer bees coming up from Mexico,” said the third writer. “Because of the Aztec curse.”

“The Curse of the Jaguar,” explained the first writer triumphantly.

“But this whole thing started with Lily!” said Katie. “Tell them, Lily!”

But Lily just looked uneasy and shy

“Go on!” said Katie. “Tell them about going to work with your dad!”

“It's fine,” said Lily.

“Great,” said one man.

“Super,” said another.

“Exactly,” said the third.

And the one with the laptop started typing quickly.

One of the writers explained to Katie, “Your friend Lily doesn't have the pizzazz you do. The presence.” (Lily turned her face away from them. She suddenly didn't want to be in the room.) The man continued, “She doesn't have that special
oomph.
She doesn't have that glossy girl-glamour that's important for our readers. For example, when a writer, a good writer, wants to write a description of his main character, he wants to be able to say something like, ‘She looked in the mirror at her pretty brunette hair and her thin five-foot-one-inch
frame.'
Not
‘She looked in the mirror at her squat five-foot-one-inch frame and her flat brown hair that completely covered her eyes, except when she blew on it diagonally.'”

“Tell you what,” said one of the writers. “We could maybe work in your friend Lily if she could be a comic sidekick. You can have a squat, flat-haired comic sidekick.” He asked Lily, “Can you tell jokes?”

(Lily wanted there to be a hidden place under the rug where she could lie without moving and just listen, unseen by anyone—ever.)

“That's insulting,” said the third writer angrily. “I can't believe he even said that. I apologize. Here's a better idea: How about we have Lily have some kind of makeover partway through the book. Like, after everyone thinks that she's just quiet and her hair is always over her eyes, somehow her hair gets pulled back— and suddenly she's really sexy, and everyone's like, ‘Whoa, Lily! When you completely change your look, you're beautiful!'”

“Gotcha!” exclaimed one of the writers.

“There's the ticket!” cried another.

Katie stood up and pointed at the door. “Get out!” she yelled. “We have just been attacked by a whale with laser-beam eyes, and I do not need you saying stupid things about my friend who just saved my life!”

“Touchy, touchy,” said one of the writers.

“Werewolves getting to you?” said another.

“Someone's tangled with one too many mindsloths,” said the third, closing up his laptop.

“We'll be in touch,” they said, and left.

Lily was sitting on the coffee table, shuffling her tennis shoes in the pile of the rug.

“Don't let them bother you,” said Katie.

“I'm not bothered,” Lily said. She turned her face away.

“Yes, you are.”

“I'm okay.”

“You're crying.” Katie reached over and tugged gently on Lily's hair. “Hey.”

Lily turned back around. She shrugged without words.

“They don't know what they're talking about,” said Katie. She put her arm around Lily. “You're the hero. You're the one who figured out this whole plot against the world by Larry. You're the one who figured out that Larry was a half-whale, half-human whatsit.”

“Hybrid.”

“Yeah. You're the one who figured out what his teeth really mean. And you're the one who just saved my life by figuring out what to do with the mirror.”

Lily looked in the mirror at her squat five-foot-one-inch frame and her flat brown hair that completely covered her eyes, except when she blew on it diagonally.

“That's okay,” she said. “It's your story.”

“
No
—” said Katie. “It's
your
story. You have to realize that it really is. It's only when people realize that the story can be about them that they can start to change things.”

Lily said glumly, “We have a lot to change. By three days from now.”

“Exactly,” said Katie. “And if you keep believing that this is Jasper's story or my story, you won't be ready to give everything to the story and save us all from the stilt-walking laser-beam whales.”

Lily nodded. “What are we going to do?” she asked.

Katie flicked her hard on the arm. “It's
your
story. You decide.”

“Well,” said Lily. “We should learn about the weaknesses of whales.”

“Yeah,” said Katie. “We can go to the library.”

“Or to an oceanographical institute.”

“A what?”

“A place that studies the sea.”

“Yeah!” said Katie.

“And we should ask my dad for more details about the stilts and the accessories. He might have heard other things that we can use against the whale army.”

“Good idea!” said Katie.

“And we should figure out where they're going to come onto land first. If we can pinpoint that,” said Lily, getting excited, “we could be there waiting for them...”

“Now you're planning!” said Katie. “See? This is great!”

Lily smiled shyly. “So you'll share the story?” she said. “Not that I need my own story.”

“Everyone needs their own story,” said Katie. “This one is yours.”

Lily nodded awkwardly. “I'm glad I have someone to share it with,” she said.

“Thanks,” said Katie, grinning and resting her head against Lily's. “I'll remember that when we're both being fried by a humpback whale with ray-gun eyes.”

The next day, when Lily's father was driving her to a dentist's appointment, she asked him, “Do you remember when I talked to you about the stilts for whales? How you told me that there were other accessories that went with them?”

“Lily,” said her father, “this isn't about this whale ‘invasion' again, is it?”

Lily didn't answer.

Her father sighed. He took his hand off the gearshift and patted her on the neck. “I realize that it must be hard being friends with Jasper and Katie, because they're so famous for their adventures. But that's no reason to make things up. That's no reason to start seeing conspiracies in everything. Okay, honey toad?”

“Just.. . what are the other accessories?”

“Nothing big, honey. Nothing worth talking about. Just laser implants in their eyes and a spray bottle that keeps them wet. That's all. And a kind of metal hat with an antenna that controls their thoughts from a remote location.”

“What remote location?” asked Lily quickly.

“I don't know, Lil. Probably the laboratory. It's all perfectly straightforward.”

“Have you heard anything about where whales are getting these things, uh, put on them?”

“I think over near the factory, out somewhere in Smogascoggin Bay. That's where they hitched up the prototypes. You know who you should ask about this? My pal Ray, who works with me. He could tell you all about this.” Lily's dad nodded. “Except he was taken out of the office a few days ago with his hands tied behind his back and a bandanna tied as a gag on his mouth.” Her father thought for a second. “Huh. He hasn't been in to work since. I wonder if he has the flu.”

Lily felt like her hands were freezing to the seat. “Dad,” she said, “could you not go to work today?”

“This is ridiculous, Lily. I'm not in any danger. We're going to have our launch in two days.”

“It's not a launch; it's a whale invasion.”

“Not another word!” said her father. “I'm sick of this! Okay, Lily?
Enough is enough!”

Lily didn't know what to feel—terrified or angry. Being yelled at always made her shrink up inside. She sat there playing with the lock on the car door, frowning, trying not to cry.

But there was one thing she'd gotten out of the conversation, she realized. She had to tell Katie and Jasper about what she had found out. This new piece of news—that the whales were remote controlled—might be the key to defeating them. If only they could break that remote control's power over the whales' thoughts and actions ...

When Lily got to the dentist's, she immediately asked where there was a pay phone. She ran to the corner and dialed Jasper's number.

Jasper picked up the phone in his laboratory. He was trying out some new springed shoes.

“Jasper?” said Lily. “The whales have metal hats put on them to control their minds, and lasers for eyes. I think that these things are being put on them someplace out in Smogascoggin Bay.”

Jasper said,

“Ah, that's better. Now, as you were saying.”

Lily told him what she'd discovered.