Tales from the Hood (8 page)

“Does anyone else see where this is going?” Sabrina sighed. She remembered seeing the movie
The Wizard of Oz
when she was a child. The Scarecrow was such a klutz, Sabrina would giggle whenever he was on-screen. The real flesh-and-hay Scarecrow wasn’t much different, but the pratfalls weren’t as endearing. Perhaps she was getting older and had less patience for such silliness, or maybe, she suspected, the Scarecrow was just annoying. “I think I know why Dorothy wanted to go back to Kansas,” Sabrina muttered to herself.

Despite the Scarecrow’s weight, the shelf did not topple over, but that didn’t mean Sabrina and Daphne were safe. The Scarecrow kept tossing down the books he didn’t need. The tumbling volumes were encyclopedias, and the children darted around like they were trapped in a whack-a-mole game.

“Here it is,” the Scarecrow cried, just before he fell off the shelf and landed in a heap on the floor. Without missing a beat, the librarian sprang to his feet and opened the book. Inside were pictures of flags from all over the world. He flipped through the pages until he found a flag that looked just like the one the girls had seen hanging from the Hotel Cipriani’s banister. “Is that it?”

Daphne and Sabrina nodded.

“That’s the flag of a city called Venice,” the Scarecrow said, quite proud of his discovery. “It’s a lovely place built on one hundred seventeen islands connected by one hundred fifty canals. In Venice, you don’t hail a cab, you hail a boat called a gondola, because many of the roads are actually waterways. The population is roughly two hundred and fifty thousand people. The average annual rainfall is thirty-four inches. The major industry is tourism, and the region’s biggest exports are textiles, clothing, glass, paper, motor vehicles, chemicals, minerals, and nonferrous metals.”

Sabrina prepared for Daphne to ask for the definition of
nonferrous
; she herself had no idea what it meant. But much to Sabrina’s surprise, the little girl took a pocket dictionary from her purse and looked up the word on her own.

“
Nonferrous
is a metal containing little or no iron,” she announced.

Sabrina grabbed the dictionary. “What’s this?”

“What does it look like?” Daphne said, rolling her eyes.

Sabrina could feel her face tighten up. How dare Daphne roll her eyes at her!

“Now, how about that hotel?” the Scarecrow asked, interrupting the argument.

“It’s called Hotel Cipriani,” Daphne said, since Sabrina was still too angry to talk.

“Sounds like that language they speak over there,” Scarecrow said. “What’s it called? You know, the language they speak in Italy?”

“Uh . . . Italian?” Daphne asked.

“Bingo!” Scarecrow raced back through the library to where travel books for places all around the world were kept. Soon the girls were caught in another hailstorm of books. Copies of
Fodor’s Guide to Oz
,
Frommer’s Lilliput
,
Lonely Planet’s Narnia
, and
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Neverland
flew at them. After some very close calls, Scarecrow snatched a book off a shelf and held it triumphantly above his head. “Here it is!” In his excitement, he lost his balance and nearly fell off the bookcase. He managed to hold on with one hand, but he struggled to regain his footing.

“Oh, yeah, that’s a secondhand brain, for sure,” Puck said, flying down to the girls’ level. “Oz was such a prankster.”

“Have you forgotten that Oz tried to kill us?” Sabrina said.

“You can be a homicidal madman and hilarious at the same time, you know,” Puck said—right before the bookcase tipped over and came crashing down, burying him in a mountain of books.

“Boy, am I accident prone today,” the librarian said.

“The books! They’re touching me,” Puck groaned. “They’re all over me!”

“We’ll get this off you in no time,” the Scarecrow said. Working together, he and the girls lifted the heavy shelf off Puck. When he got to his feet, Sabrina noticed he had blotchy red marks on his arms and legs, and his face had swollen to the size of a pumpkin.

“I’m allergic!” he cried as he scratched his arms and legs furiously. He reached for the wooden sword he kept at his waist. Sabrina was sure Puck was going to attack the clumsy scarecrow, but instead, he used his weapon to scratch the areas of his back that he couldn’t reach. “Whoever had your brain before you was evil!” Puck muttered.

Scarecrow frowned, but then he spotted a book on the floor and his burlap face lit up. “Hey! Here’s the book.” He grabbed a large volume off the floor, then opened it and flipped through the pages. “This is a travel guide to Italian hotels. Travel books don’t get checked out much. There aren’t too many vacationers from Ferryport Landing. Oh, here it is—the Hotel Cipriani. It has a five-star rating—very swanky.”

“Is there an address for the hotel?” Sabrina asked, remembering her uncle’s specific request.

“Absolutely! The listing says it’s at Giudecca 10 in Venice,” Scarecrow said. “They put the building number after the street name in a lot of European countries. Is there anything else you need to know?”

“I’m not sure we’d survive any more of your help,” Daphne grumbled. “Thanks a lot.”

“No thanks is necessary!” Scarecrow said, ignoring Daphne’s comment. “Learning something new is thanks enough. Though I could use a hand reshelving some of these books.”

The Scarecrow strolled away, leaving the shelf and the books where they fell. Puck fired insults at him as the librarian walked away. “I know Oz. He’s a liar. I wouldn’t be surprised if your brain wasn’t made out of an old sock and some butterscotch pudding! I’m talking to you, Mr. Genius. You should call Oz and get the receipt for your brain. I’m sure the warranty has expired.”

“We tried to warn you,” Daphne said as she picked up a travel guide to Camelot and put it back on a shelf.

“
We tried to warn you
,” Puck mocked as he scratched furiously. “Oh, I can smell the books on my skin!”

Though Puck refused, Sabrina and Daphne decided to help the Scarecrow with the mess he made. After an hour they were regretting their decision.

“Books are heavy,” Daphne grumbled as she reshelved a series of increasingly thick novels about a boy who went to a school for wizards.

“I know. Can’t they write these things smaller?” Sabrina said.

“Excuse me,” a voice said from behind them. Sabrina hadn’t heard anyone approach and nearly screamed when she turned around. Standing before her was the strangest-looking man she had ever seen. He wore an expensive-looking white suit and his fingers were adorned with silver and ruby rings. On his wrist was a diamond-studded watch and in his ears were small silver hoop earrings. But what really made him stand out was his hair. His long curly beard and bushy eyebrows were an unnatural shade of blue.

“Do you work here?” he asked.

Sabrina shook her head, speechless.

“No, we’re just helping out the librarian,” Daphne said. The little girl stammered a bit, obviously disturbed by the man as well.

The man with the blue hair frowned and looked about. “That fool will be no help. I don’t suppose you can point me to the law books?”

Sabrina shrugged. “Sorry.”

“I’ll find them myself,” the man huffed and walked farther into the library.

Sabrina looked after him. There was something troubling about this stranger. She felt as if there was evil rather than blood pumping through his veins. His hair and glaring eyes seemed inhuman, like he was the devil made flesh.

“Do you know who that was? That’s Bluebeard,” Puck said as he pulled the girls behind a shelf. “He’s got to be the most villainous Everafter in this town.”

“I thought you were the most villainous Everafter in this town,” Sabrina said.

“Besides me,” Puck said as he peered around the corner. “He’s a recluse. I hear he has a mansion up on Mount Taurus, but no one has seen him in years. I heard Charming told him to stay out of town. I guess now that there’s a new mayor, he’s doing what he wants.”

“So what? Who’s Bluebeard?” Sabrina asked impatiently.

Puck wrapped his hand around her mouth. “Shhhh!” he whispered, then turned back to watch the man. “Bluebeard is famous for being married almost fifty times, and each of his wives had a nasty habit of losing her head.”

“You mean he drove them crazy?” Daphne asked.

“No, I mean he chopped their heads off with an ax, duh!” Puck snapped.

“Gross!” Daphne said, peering around the corner to get a better look at the man.

“That’s only half of it,” Puck said. “He stored his wives’ bodies in a secret room in his home. He used the room to test his new wives. He forbade them from entering it and if curiosity got the best of them, he added them to his collection.”

“If he’s so evil, why are we standing here watching him?” Sabrina said.

“’Cause I’m trying to get up the courage to go over and ask him for an autograph,” Puck said.

Sabrina watched Bluebeard study a shelf holding several leather-bound books. He took a few large volumes off the shelf and put them on a nearby table. When he had a big pile, he sat and started flipping through them and taking notes.

“What do you think he’s doing here?” Daphne asked.

No one knew, and it was clear that they shouldn’t stick around to find out. The man made Sabrina nervous. Even from across the library she could feel the darkness inside him. It felt hot and angry.

Unfortunately, before they could leave, they were stopped in their tracks by a familiar face. Snow White had several books in her hands and she set them down at an empty table near where Bluebeard was studying. Snow White was stunning, with creamy white skin, coal-black hair, and twinkling blue eyes. Her beauty was so profound it seemed unnatural, as if she didn’t belong to the human race.

“Should we say hi?” Daphne whispered.

Snow White had been a good family friend, but none of the Grimms had heard a peep from her in more than a month. She was very angry with Granny Relda, so angry that their friendship was in ruins. Granny had let Snow’s former fiancé, Prince Charming, sleep on the family couch when everyone thought he was missing and maybe dead. Snow, heartbroken with fear and worry, felt betrayed when she discovered he was safe and sound and hiding in her best friend’s home. Sabrina couldn’t blame Ms. White. Charming should have told her where he was, but he claimed Snow’s life was in danger. He wanted to save her without her knowing it, but his plan blew up in everyone’s face when Snow dropped by unexpectedly and discovered him alive and well.

Unfortunately, the beauty’s arrival at the library was noticed by Bluebeard as well. Snow White’s presence tore his attention away from his books; he seemed hypnotized by her. He studied her the way an art collector looks at a rare painting. His gaze didn’t fall on her so much as it seemed to reach out for her, coaxing her to come closer. Sabrina was reminded of a film she had seen in school about spiders catching flies in their webs then eating them from the inside out.

“Snow White?” Bluebeard said, standing up from his table.

Snow turned to face him, her ever-present smile lighting up the room. When she saw him her grin faded. “Oh, hello, Mr. Bluebeard.”

“Snow, I haven’t seen you in years. You’re looking wonderful,” Bluebeard said as his eyes darted over her body.

“Thank you,” the teacher muttered. Sabrina could tell Ms. White was nervous. The beauty dropped one of the books she was holding. Bluebeard swooped down and retrieved it, but he didn’t hand it back, ignoring Snow’s outstretched hand.

“It’s such a small town, but I never run into you like this,” Bluebeard continued.

“Well, I keep quite busy.”

“Oh, it’s good to be busy. Keeps the mind from wandering,” the man said. “You know what they say, ‘idle hands are the devil’s playground.’”

Sabrina watched Snow force a smile onto her face and nod.

“We really don’t get to see enough of each other,” Bluebeard continued. “Perhaps I can persuade you to accompany me to dinner. I’d love to ‘catch up,’ as they say.”

Ms. White squirmed. “I’m afraid I’m very busy.”

Bluebeard’s eyes flashed with anger. “You’re saying ‘no’ to me?”

Snow stood up, knocking her books to the ground, but Bluebeard shoved her back into her chair.

“I’m trying to be nice, Ms. White,” he hissed.

“We have to stop this,” Daphne declared.

“What do you want to do?” Sabrina asked.

Daphne was about to march up to them and interrupt when Puck grabbed her by the back of the collar. He murmured, “Listen, this isn’t a guy you play around with. If you go over there and get into his business, he’ll turn his anger on you.”

“She needs our help,” Daphne said.

Sabrina glanced around, looking for something that might distract Bluebeard. All she saw were books, and rows and rows of shelves. They couldn’t exactly start tossing books at a man who cut people’s heads off. Then she spotted the Scarecrow. He was at the top of a bookcase, halfway across the room, and as before, the case was teetering back and forth. Sabrina got an idea.

“Help me push this bookcase over,” Sabrina said. She pushed on the frame and it leaned a little. With Daphne and Puck helping it was soon rocking back and forth, but with all the books weighing it down, the bookcase seemed like it might fall back and collapse on them.