The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past (18 page)

“
I just know that he’ll
believe us.”

“
What’s his name again?”
Penny asked. Binny and Zach had been briefing her on the events of
the previous night.

“
Caleb.”

“
Oh yeah. My Mom asks him
for gardening advice. She’s trying to grow vegetables.” And then
she added “
Organically
.” It was clear her mother had said the word way too often
for Penny’s taste.

“
Aren’t you worried he’s
going to tell someone? Someone else who might be interested in what
Cassie can do?” Zach had a look of concern on his face as he
wondered aloud.

“
I just know we can trust
him. He’s different than other adults.” Binny answered in a way
that indicated the discussion was closed.

The kids wound their way down towards
the woods, with Binny insisting they stay as far across the street
as possible as they passed Huitre’s “modern” house.

It only took a few minutes for them to
find Caleb. He was crouched over the stones on the edge of a path
that had become disorderly through constant traffic. “Hello
children,” Caleb said, remaining in his crouch with his back to
them. How did he do that?

Binny took the lead in the discussion,
“Caleb, we need to talk to you about something.”

“
Is that so?” Caleb stayed
put.

“
Caleb,
please.”

Caleb stopped what he was doing, rose
slowly, and said, “OK”. His smile put them at ease. Even though he
was grandfatherly, he never talked down to them or treated them
like children.

“
We need your
help.”

Caleb insisted that his legs were
tired and led them to a bench a little further down the path, sat
down with his palms on his legs and the children arranged in front
of him and said “How can I help?”

The kids looked nervously at each
other for a moment, but Binny quickly took the reins. “We need to
tell you something. Something you might not believe. And we need
you to keep it a secret.”

“
Sounds like you’ve got
something important on your minds,” Caleb said
earnestly.

“
Do you promise? Promise
to believe us, and promise to keep it a secret?” Binny started to
plead a bit.

“
That’s a lot to ask, you
know,” Caleb paused briefly to let his words sink in. Just as the
kids started to look a bit nervous, he continued, “but I think you
children are clever, and more importantly, I believe your hearts
are in the right place. So, you have my promise.” The fact that
Caleb had expressed confidence in their character made Binny feel
more grown up than she’d expected. Caleb’s trust in her credibility
was exciting but scared her a little at the same time.

After a breath, Binny dove in. “Cassie
can turn herself invisible.” With that beginning, the whole story
came spilling out just as it had the day before with Penny. Details
of Cassie’s power, Doctor Huitre’s interest in Cassie, his
mysterious phone call, their parents not believing her, and the
most recent information that their mother had participated in an
experimental study that was very likely responsible for Cassie’s
power. Binny concluded with, “Do you believe us? You
promised.”

For his part, Caleb had sat silently
listening, nodding, but not giving away any of his thoughts on what
he was hearing throughout Binny passionate retelling. He was
polite, but it wasn’t clear whether he believed them or not. Binny
found herself trying to stuff more words into her descriptions
hoping that sheer quantity of detail would stop Caleb from thinking
she was crazy, or even worse, from telling other adults about
Cassie.

Finally, when the kids were all
holding their breath waiting to hear Caleb’s reaction. Caleb
inhaled and asked, “You’re saying she still can’t do it on
purpose?”

The kids were momentarily confused.
Zach seemed the most surprised, “So that means… you believe
us?”

“
Of course I believe you.
Why wouldn’t I?”

“
And you won’t tell
anyone?” Binny asked.

Caleb slowly looked up at her and gave
her a long look. Binny felt bad for a moment for having doubted
him. Caleb continued anyway, “adults don’t like hearing things like
this. They get agitated when the rules of their world don’t seem so
certain.”

“
But you’re an adult. Why
aren’t you agitated?” Penny picked this moment to jump into the
conversation with one of her penetrating observations.

A big smile slowly crept over Caleb’s
face. “My dear, I’m an old man, not an ‘adult’. Children and old
people exist to make adults feel useful. After all, who would the
adults boss around if we weren’t here?” Caleb’s eyes were
mischievous. “So you see, us old folks are a lot more willing to
take the time to believe in things that adults are too busy to
notice.”

The kids laughed at this, but Zach
kept a slightly puzzled look on his face. “What did you mean when
you said that Cassie ‘still’ can’t turn invisible on
purpose?”

“
Did I say
that?”

“
You did. You asked
‘You’re saying she
still
can’t do it on purpose?’ Those were your exact
words.”

Caleb’s eyebrows were raised in
amusement. “So they were. Well Mr. Jordan, one thing old people
don’t share with children is excellent memories. If I said that, I
misspoke.” Caleb finished his statement letting it hang in the
silence, making it clear that he had nothing else to offer on the
topic. Then he turned to face all three of the kids, “you said you
needed help.”

Binny jumped in, “I’m worried that the
doctor knows what Cassie can do. I’m worried that…” Binny lowered
her voice, “he’s told other people and they will take her away and
try and see how she does it.” Binny was almost afraid to say the
words aloud for fear they would come true.

“
I don’t mean to scare you
kids. But I think you’re right to be nervous. Not only do adults
not like it when the rules of their world are bent, but their
immediate instinct is to try to find and control whoever’s bending
those rules.”

Binny eyes started to tear up a bit at
this thought. Everything she’d been afraid of was now being
confirmed by an adult – well, at least by someone who wasn’t a kid.
Zach noticed how upset Binny was getting and put his hand on her
shoulder. This seemed to give her the strength not to
cry.

“
Tell me more about the
drug the doctor gave your mother?” Caleb asked rubbing his chin in
thought.

“
It was a new fertility
drug. She was part of a study. The drug was from Luce
Laboratories.” Zach responded calmly.

Even Caleb, who was usually so even
tempered, had a look of surprise on his face at that.

“
How did you know that?”
Binny was surprised Zach knew who’d made the drug.

“
The doctor mentioned it
yesterday when he was talking to Mom and Dad. He said ‘Luce
Laboratories has a lot of studies out there’ when Dad asked him if
the drug had been approved by the FDA.”

Penny and Binny were just staring at
Zach.

“
What? What?” Zach didn’t
understand the fuss.

Binny shook her head at Zach but
continued the discussion with Caleb, “I don’t trust Dr. Huitre. At
all. But my parents are convinced he’s this great guy. At this
point I think my Mom would hand Cassie over to him if he
asked.”

Binny thought for a moment and then
continued, “Do you think that the fertility treatment they gave my
mother is why Cassie can turn invisible?”

Caleb replied in a low voice “I don’t
know what effect that drug had on your mother or your sister. But I
do know that pharmaceutical companies test drugs all the time. The
government makes them keep records. Lots and lots of records. And
even in this age of computers, they usually have lots and lots of
information on paper in their archives. I think the answers to your
questions, perhaps how to discredit Dr. Huitre, and find out what
that fertility drug really was, can be found in archives of Luce
Laboratories.”

Absorbing this, Zach with his
characteristic sarcastic smirk interjected, “Oh great. I’m sure we
can just hop on a plane to wherever Luce Laboratories is and find
out.”

Now it was Caleb’s turn to smirk: “As
a matter of fact, you can. But you won’t need an airplane. Your
bicycles will do.”

14

The weather was beautiful yet again.
The sun was high above Madrona by mid-morning when the kids mounted
their bikes. The kids crested the top of the hill on their bikes,
passing an enormous dilapidated white mansion. The abandoned
building was surrounded by years of untended vegetation. Only the
bright teal roof tiles were visible for short stretches above the
overgrown shrubbery.

The old structure and the lot on which
it was situated stretched behind a small number of retail
businesses that made up Madrona’s cozy commercial district. The
kids biked past all of them without stopping pedaling hard towards
their target.

Caleb had been right. While Madrona
was mostly residential, the Central District – the neighborhood
adjacent to Madrona on its western border – had several patches of
what qualified as commercial property including the shiny corporate
campus of Luce Laboratories. A dozen modern buildings housed
several hundred employees, located just a couple of miles away from
the spot where Caleb and the kids had formulated their
plan.

Zach and Penny had big smiles on their
faces enjoying the ride. But Binny’s jaw was set in a more
determined state – like she was about to do something distasteful
but necessary. The wind whipped her long and haphazard
ponytail.

As they’d gotten their bikes Zach had
posed the question that Binny now considered – what would they do
once they got there? And to be quite honest, Binny had no real
idea. But she knew that it was better than doing
nothing.

The paralyzing confusion of the
previous night’s news had been transformed into a series of
concrete actions. Caleb’s acceptance of their story had only
strengthened Binny’s resolve to find out what was really going on.
The idea that going to Luce Laboratories could somehow answer all
of her questions: What drug did he give their mother to get
pregnant? What did it have to do with her little sister’s power?
Who was Huitre talking to on that phone call? erased all – well
most – of Binny’s fear.

The kids rode to the top of a small
hill and picked up speed on the descent. For a brief moment Binny
felt like she was flying. Flying, not quite like a bird, but like a
superhero. Like a superhero on a mission.

Binny had to laugh. Her father had
spent so much time talking about superheroes and their various
activities that it had now infected her imagination. She wasn’t
just a superhero, she was on a superhero team with her brother and
her new friend Penny. But what good were superheroes with no
powers? That honor had been reserved seemingly for the person who
least deserved it — her baby sister Cassie. Cassie who was
oblivious to the amazing ability she had and the danger it
posed.

It sure would be nice to have Cassie’s
power right now, actually. Invisibility would come in handy if they
were going to try to find out any information about what Luce
Laboratories was up to. But Cassie’s power still showed up only
when it felt like it. Even if Cassie could control it, Binny was
pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to control Cassie. They were going
to have to investigate with just their basic, normal kid skills.
Not much of a superhero team after all.

Just then the three of them arrived at
the well-manicured edge of Luce Laboratories’ headquarters. It
looked more like a park than some sort of business. But the sign
with the Luce Laboratories logo made it clear they’d reached their
destination.

As if he’d been listening in on her
inner monologue, Zach posed a question to Binny just as their bikes
all came to a stop: “What now?”

What now indeed.

§

Lots of diagonals, slopes, and curves,
made it look like the buildings where Luce Laboratories employees
spent their time inventing new pharmaceuticals were growing at odd
angles out of the ground, reaching for air. Certain edges of
buildings merged into paths, which then connected seamlessly with
the low slung edges of other buildings. Some of the buildings
connected above ground with suspended walkways that curved or
followed inclines of their own. There were almost no right
angles.