Cragbridge Hall, Volume 2: The Avatar Battle (26 page)

“But why would he give away his key?” Mr. Trinhouse asked.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Mrs. Trinhouse said.

“I am well aware of the reason,” Grandpa said.

“And you aren’t going to share it?” Coach Horne asked.

“I’m sorry,” Grandpa apologized. “I’m not at liberty to say. I cannot break confidences. Again, you will have to trust me that Dr. Mackleprank’s reasons are valid, and that I trust him.”

“We also checked all of the avatar logs to be sure no one was using them to enter in through the ducts,” Abby said. “Dr. Mackleprank was not listed. No one was.”

“We need to know why he can’t come sit in the Chair like the rest of us!” Mr. Trinhouse demanded, standing tall.

“He is otherwise engaged,” Grandpa said.

“What could he possibly be doing that is more important than this?” Coach Horne asked, now on his feet as well.

Grandpa just shook his head.

Coach Horne threw his arms in the air. “We are never going to figure any of this out with all of these secrets.” It felt like Coach Horne was right. “If he will not come to the Chair, there has to be another way to prove if he is guilty or innocent.”

“There is,” Mrs. Trinhouse said. Everyone turned to look at her. She paused and spoke more quietly. “Put him in a cell. If there is another incident while he is locked up, we know that he is innocent. If nothing else happens, we are protected and have our man.”

Put him in a cell? That seemed cruel. She was proposing to treat him just like Muns’s soldiers who had tried to change time.

Derick and Grandpa both fought against it, but in the end, the majority agreed. It was the best way to test his innocence. As Derick was logging off, he heard his grandpa’s voice. “It has come down to locking my friends in cages.”

26

The Answer

I can’t believe they put him in a cell.” Derick shook his head. “There is no way he did it.”

“I have no idea what to think anymore,” Abby admitted.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Carol said. “I know. I know. It’s your secret club stuff.”

They climbed down one more ladder headed to the basement where the simulator waited behind a thick door. “Are you sure we should even be down here?” Carol asked. “I mean I know we can be, but whoever it is has been trying to get keys, and wouldn’t this be one of the first places he would look?”

Abby didn’t answer. Carol had a point.

Derick knew Abby was nervous. She was more than nervous. She was scared. But he also knew that she wouldn’t back down. That wasn’t Abby. He admired that about her.

“We have to figure this out,” Abby finally said. Derick thought he heard a bit of a tremble to her voice.

“Yes, we do,” Derick agreed, stepping down the ladder. “Plus, whoever it is only seems to attack at night.”

“I hope he doesn’t decide to venture out into new territory today,” Carol said.

Derick dropped from the bottom rung on the ladder to the floor below and walked toward the simulator door. The silence of the place was eerie. If someone jumped out right now, he would definitely scream and try to attack him. Or run away.

“Did you just get a message from Grandpa?” Abby asked. “He wants us all to be inside in one hour. And he’s going to change up the rooms where we sleep just to keep us safe. He’ll tell us where soon.”

“Got it.” Derick didn’t stop walking further into the room. “That sounds like a smart idea.”

“That means we only have time for one of us to go in,” Carol said. “Unless it’s like super quick, but knowing your grandpa, this is going to take a while. He doesn’t go for those Quicknote versions of lessons.”

“I need to do this.” Derick approached the lockers. He knew a suit hung inside much like those he used in the avatar labs. And like with the avatars, when he stepped inside the simulator, he could feel whatever the person whose life he was simulating felt.

“No, I can,” Abby volunteered. She took a few steps forward and grabbed Derick’s arm.

“No.” He didn’t look back at her. “I failed last time. And I need this.”

“But you tried again and you made it. You got a key,” Abby tried to encourage him.

“Barely,” Derick said. “I need to completely succeed.”

Abby and Carol agreed to let him go. He put on his suit and approached the large door with gears and bars that guarded the simulator. When he was less than two feet away, his pocket started to glow. No—it wasn’t his pocket, it was the sphere inside.

“Looks like it knows you’re here.” Abby pointed at his pocket. “Some location technology, no doubt.”

An image of Grandpa almost immediately appeared. “It looks as though you truly want to know the answer to your question. You have been determined and hopefully have learned lessons that have prepared you for your answer. But I’m afraid I must put you through one more simulation. Unlike what you have done before in this particular location, it is not a simulation through an event in the distant past. This one is closer to you. I warn you, it is very difficult. It will bring up questions in your mind that will only be answered after the test.”

So he wasn’t about to step into the past. What was he about to step into? And what kind of questions would this experience raise?

The image of Grandpa reached out a bony finger, his beard shaking with his jowls as he spoke, “Know that I do this with a purpose. Pay attention. It will not be easy. In fact, it may wrench at your very heart. In some ways, it may require you to want your answer more than air.”

Derick thought of the young man who learned from Socrates. He began taking heavy deep breaths—just in case.

“What you are about to go through,” Grandpa explained, “is very real to someone. It is a piece of their life. If at any moment you cannot take it anymore, simply press the button on the back of your neck. You will return to the simulator and can leave. But if you want the answer to your question and the power and opportunities that come with it, you have to see the experience through to the end.”

The words “cannot take it anymore” rang in Derick’s ears. He took another deep breath and approached the door. He held his glowing sphere in one hand as he retrieved his key and opened the door with the other. The gears and bars twisted and turned and the heavy slab swiveled open. Derick stepped inside.

When the door closed behind him, it sounded extra hollow, as if it was sealing him in a vault. Derick expected his world to change, to see the situation of his challenge, but nothing happened. He stood alone in the dark with a glowing sphere. In a moment, ripples of light shot through the orb.
It must be processing some sort of code or sending a signal—maybe both.
A light on the wall of the dark room lit just enough to show a mechanical arm reaching out. It was similar to the arms in the virtual booths in the Portuguese and Math and Engineering classrooms. Derick placed his glowing sphere inside.

The darkness changed quickly. Soon Derick stood in a room that was mostly white, with bright lights above him. He immediately felt terrible. He wheezed and choked. His mind felt slow, like it was pinched, with not enough space to do its work. His body felt weak, drained of everything it had. He collapsed to the ground.

He heard voices and felt hands lifting him up and setting him down on a bed.

“Are you okay?” a man asked. Derick opened his eyes, but the light hurt. He saw a man, not very old, wearing clothes covered with a cartoon goose in several different poses. Weird clothes. The man checked him all over, asking if certain places hurt. Derick answered that most everything hurt. He could hear other voices, but he gave them similar responses.

“You’re going to be just fine,” the man said. “You’ve been quite a trouper.”

Derick felt a squeeze on his hand. He turned to the other side. This time he managed to open his eyes a little wider. The pain had subsided a little. He saw a woman.

“Don’t worry, honey.” She placed her hand on the side of his face. “The doctor will be back in to tell us how to help you get better.” Was this the mom of the person whose situation he was in?

Another surge of pain. He closed his eyes and let out a groan. Someone had really felt this? Derick wanted it to stop. He could press the button on the back of his neck. No. That wasn’t an option. How could anyone feel like this all the time?

Someone moved. A man. The dad? He paced at the foot of the bed a couple of times, moving his fingers quickly. Wait. He was using rings! This wasn’t the past. This was modern. It couldn’t be older than a few years. It might even be now.

The man in the cartoon outfit checked his vitals with a small rod that scanned him from head to foot. He must be a nurse.

The mom squeezed his hand, then brought her head down and kissed his forehead. “You’re going to be just fine.” Her voice shook, and he could feel her hand tremble.

The dad pressed one of his rings, turning them off. He approached Derick. “There are a whole lot of people cheering for you, Son. Aunts and uncles, cousins, neighbors—the works. We’ll figure this out.” He sounded strong and confident. He knew everything would be fine. And then, for just a flash, the man’s eyes filled with tears. He blinked, and they were gone. He was terrified too.

Another wave of pain. Another groan. Derick’s eyes watered. He tried to open them again, but had to hold them closed.

He felt a pinch in his arm. And then, slowly, the pain lessened. They had given him some sort of medicine.

He opened his eyes and saw a woman enter. She wore a light blue shirt with a long white coat over it. She also wore a mole—a small black dot on her cheek, so she could talk hands free on her rings, commanding them what to do. She must be the doctor. “I’ve looked over the scans,” she said. “And . . .” the doctor’s voice broke. “And it’s a new thread of cancer.”

Derick watched as the mom burst into tears. The dad turned away, turned back, and then away again.

The doctor bit her lip, waiting for the parents. She touched Derick’s arm lightly. “This never gets any easier. But I’m going to have to recommend emergency surgery.”

“Wait,” the dad said. “What kind of surgery?”

Derick tried to listen as he heard about the cancer. Though a cure for the grand majority of cancers had been discovered years ago, several new threads were becoming more and more common. They hadn’t been able to determine why. The doctor recommended they go in and remove a tumor on his brain. She would use small tubes to enter the brain and dissolve the tumor, “but any time we do surgery on or near the brain there are heavy risks.” The doctor discussed Derick—strike that, the person whose life he was witnessing—becoming mentally handicapped, losing eyesight, or even dying.

Heavy risks. “But what will happen if we don’t?” Mom asked.

The doctor pressed her lips tightly together. “The tumor will grow and then you’ll lose him. You might have a few good years. You may only have months.”

Derick’s dad turned to him and took his hand. “This isn’t easy, bud. We’re going to need you to be strong.” He brushed his arm along his own eyes. “I’m going to need to be strong.” The mother grabbed his other hand. “Do you think you can do this? Can you be amazingly brave and go through with the surgery?”

All words were gone.
Kids
had to face this? Shouldn’t they just be worried about homework and friends and the next thing they were going to do for fun? But there he was, looking up at a dad and a mom, both terribly concerned, both waiting for an answer. His answer.

“It’ll be all right,” the mom reassured.

Derick could see the doctor in the background, waiting. The whole room felt heavy—not how rooms are supposed to feel. This was so different from being in the Civil War and choosing to rush down the mountainside with only a bayonet. It took at least the same courage, maybe more. It was something Derick had never felt before. He still felt pain, and fear, but the idea that the surgery might go wrong and he might die shook him. If this were really him, he wouldn’t have enough time to graduate from Cragbridge Hall. He might not even live to start the next year. Suddenly he didn’t care so much about avatars or the avatar club. He didn’t care about failing every now and then. All he cared about was family and the time he had left. If this were real, he would gather his mom and dad around him, Abby and Grandpa too. He would spend as much time as he could with them while he still could.

“I can do it,” Derick managed to say. He wished saying it aloud would have brought some sort of assurance that it would be all right.

Soon Derick was being transported down a hall. A nurse was escorting him with his parents by his side. Then they stopped. “All right, Mom and Dad,” the nurse said. “You’ll have to wish him luck here, and then leave him to us.” The nurse was surprisingly cheery for the situation. He must have to deal with similar circumstances all the time. He explained to Derick that they would be going into a sterilized room for surgery and his parents would have to go to the waiting room.

Too much. They couldn’t even be with him? His mom bent down and hugged him. He could feel her tears on his neck. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t even try. He hugged her back. Soon his father joined, all three of them in one teary embrace. And they stayed that way for a long time. This was different than pain. It felt like blackness covered over Derick. He knew it wasn’t real. He knew he was just in a simulator, but it felt real. It felt like something had taken all hope and left him with nothing.