Vanishing act, p.8
Vanishing Act, page 8
“I don’t know,” Murphy said, and I saw his eyes flick nervously over to Hudson and back again. I instantly grasped the problem.
“Hudson,” I said, turning to him. “Can we trust you?”
“Um,” Hudson said nervously. “Yeah? Why?”
“It’s not that easy,” Gary protested. “Of course he’s going to say we can trust him. No one says, ‘Hey, nice to meet you. I’m a two-timing, untrustworthy slug.’”
“He’s right,” Murphy said with an apologetic glance at Hudson.
“Did you guys, like, rob a bank or something?” Hudson said nervously.
“I wish,” Gary muttered.
“No,” I said. “It’s just that last summer was, let’s say, eventful, and some stuff happened that we can’t really talk about with just anyone.”
“I’m not going to jail because Tom Tornado over there couldn’t keep his mouth shut,” Gary grumbled.
“Don’t call me that,” Hudson said, and even though it was dark out, I could tell his face was turning red. His hands balled into fists, and a second later we were surrounded by levitating sticks and rocks as Hudson glared at Gary.
“Uh,” I said, glancing around, “you know the whole sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me thing?”
“I’ve heard that,” Gary said, and even his voice had a nervous edge to it that we didn’t hear very often.
“Well, I think maybe words could get us hurt this time via sticks and stones, so why don’t you apologize?”
“Sorry,” Gary said. The sticks and rocks around us vibrated ominously.
“Say it like you mean it, man!” I said, eyeing the new kid. It felt like he was two separate people. Sometimes he was zoned out with his phone, and other times he was a tornado just waiting for an opportunity to level a town.
“I’m sorry! I won’t call you Tom Tornado again!” Gary said, throwing up his bandaged hands in surrender. “If it makes you feel better, you can call me Sticky Steve!” This brought Hudson’s impending tantrum up short as he suddenly snorted with laughter.
“Who calls you that?” he said.
“Not anyone I like,” Gary said.
“Well, no one that I like calls me a tornado either,” Hudson said.
“Point made,” Gary said. “Won’t happen again.”
“Gary struggles with speaking kindly to his friends,” I said, as though I was his kindergarten teacher at a parent-teacher conference. “We’re working on it.”
Gary snorted.
“Gary has a good point, though,” Emerson said. “No offense or anything, Hudson, but we kind of just met you. How do we know if we can trust you? If something happens, you’re not the one who will end up in jail for the rest of your life.”
“Jail?” Hudson said nervously.
“Worse than jail,” Murphy said.
“What’s worse than jail?” Hudson said.
“He’s cool,” came a voice from inside the cab of the truck, and we all yelped and jumped to our feet in surprise as the truck door opened and another Murphy stepped out.
Chapter Ten
“Relax,” said the new Murphy. “It’s just me.”
Like we always did when a time-traveling Murphy showed up, everyone did a quick double take just to confirm that we still had the original Murphy sitting beside us. I did more than a double take this time, though, because unlike the rest of the guys, I’d seen two other time-traveling Murphys in less than twenty-four hours, and I needed to know where this guy fell in the timeline of events. Was he a Murphy from before or after the time traveling to the bathroom with Gary and me? And if he was from after the first bathroom time-traveling episode, was he from after the second one too? Did this Murphy know why that second Murphy in the bathroom had been sobbing so hard? Did he know that I died? I swallowed hard as the D word that I hadn’t allowed into my brain since I’d stepped off the plane flitted through my head.
“You’re sure he can be trusted?” said our original Murphy, snapping me from my own thoughts before they could spiral out of control. I glanced at our original Murphy, who was still standing in his pajamas next to Zeke.
“He can,” said the new Murphy, who was wearing a bright green White Oak sweatshirt I’d never seen before but had a feeling I would see in the near future.
“Wait a second,” Hudson said as he looked from the Murphy in the sweatshirt to the Murphy in his pajamas and back again. “I thought you couldn’t run into a future version of yourself.”
“It’s fine,” Zeke said, waving a hand.
“That’s just in science fiction movies,” Anthony added.
“Another thing you need to get used to,” Emerson said with a shrug.
“Like, we can tell him everything?” original Murphy asked himself.
“Not only can you tell him everything, you really should tell him everything,” future Murphy said. “The future of Camp Outlier depends on it!”
“What do you mean?” Hudson said.
“I can’t tell you anything else,” future Murphy said. “These guys can explain about that.”
“It’s real annoying,” Gary said to Hudson. “Feels a lot like hanging out with a walking, talking fortune cookie.” He wiggled his bandaged fingers in front of his face and made his voice sound spooky. “A pleasant surprise is waiting for you. An important person will offer you support. Bide your time, for success is near.”
“I do not sound like that,” future Murphy said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You should try time traveling, and we’ll see how you do.”
“I’ve tried it,” Gary reminded him. “Emerson puked all over me, and I almost got shot by a couple of trigger-happy deer hunters with a strong dislike for RISK kids. You keep your RISK factor, and I’ll keep mine, thanks.”
“Are you just here to vouch for Hudson?” Emerson asked future Murphy. “Or can you tell us anything else about the summer? Is Aaron trustworthy? Do we win the camp challenge?” Future Murphy suddenly looked ill. He glanced over in my direction and grimaced. Well, that answers that question, I thought as my stomach churned. This Murphy knew that something was going to happen to me, but he seemed in more control of his emotions than the Murphy who’d ambushed me that second time in an airport bathroom.
“Emerson,” I said, forcing a cheerfulness into my voice that I didn’t feel, “let the man answer the important questions first.” I turned to future Murphy and raised an eyebrow. “Do I get another kiss from Kristy? I forgot to pack burn ointment, and I need to know if I should ask my mom to send some.”
Future Murphy rolled his eyes. “You’ll never change, will you, Hank?”
“If I did, you wouldn’t be able to see it anyway,” I pointed out.
“He’s got you there,” Emerson said.
“Seriously, though,” Zeke said, leaning forward so far his glasses almost slid off his nose. “Can you tell us anything?”
“Hmmm,” Murphy said thoughtfully. “I don’t think so. Nothing important at least, since telling you would inevitably change the future. Oh,” he said, brightening. “At one point Hank juggles our cabin’s bowls of ice cream and accidentally drops one onto his own head.”
“Nice,” I said. “Glad I’ve got something to look forward to. By the way, have you kidnapped me in the airport bathroom yet?” I asked, and everyone except future Murphy looked at me in confusion.
“Who kidnaps someone in a bathroom?” Gary asked.
“Well, you do,” I said. “It happened this morning at the airport. Future me showed up with future you and Murphy and hauled me into the accessible stall to warn me about something.”
“What did we warn you about?” original Murphy said.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “You guys disappeared before I could find out.”
The Murphy in pajamas sitting next to me turned to ask his future self something else, but he was gone. “Nuts,” he said.
“So,” Hudson said slowly, “does someone want to fill me in on what exactly happened last summer?”
“I don’t know,” Anthony said nervously. “It’s kind of a lot.”
“No offense,” Hudson said as he eyed the small fire that had just erupted on Anthony’s shoulder, “but you guys are all kind of a lot.”
“He’s not wrong,” Zeke said.
“Future Murphy vouched for him,” Emerson said. “I think that’s good enough. Don’t you?”
“It will have to be,” I said, turning to Hudson. “So, last summer,” I began, “Murphy was supposed to die.” Hudson’s eyes grew wide as I explained how Murphy had time traveled to the future and discovered that he didn’t survive the summer. In fact, he’d only been allowed to come to camp the year before because it was his Make-A-Wish, a fact that he’d accidentally let slip to Emerson and me after one particularly rough time-traveling trip. Of course, we’d been bound and determined not to let that happen. It had been Emerson who’d landed on the idea of sticking Gary to Murphy to tether him to the here and now. However, the plan had backfired, and Emerson and Gary had gotten hauled through time like a couple of unlucky hitchhikers. Lucky for Murphy that they did too, because otherwise he’d have ended up a victim of some nearsighted hunters.
“Wait,” Hudson said, holding up a hand. “So, you almost got shot? Because you were wearing an eighties prom dress?”
Murphy shrugged. “It was brown with white polka dots so I looked a lot like Bambi.”
“And why were you wearing a dress again?” he said.
“It was Hank’s idea,” Murphy said.
“Guilty,” I admitted. “Hang around, Huddy man, and maybe we’ll find you a dress too!”
“I think sparkly vests and bow ties are my limit, thanks,” Hudson said.
“What do you think you meant by ‘Camp Outlier depends on it’?” Emerson asked Murphy.
“No flying clue,” Murphy said, throwing up his hands in frustration. “Future me kind of sucked tonight, to be perfectly honest. But I don’t like the sound of it.” He paused and scowled down at his hands. “In fact, the whole thing makes me kind of mad.”
“What do you mean?” Emerson asked.
“What I mean is that I didn’t want something hanging over my head this year,” he said. “Last summer was all about me potentially dying, and I wanted to move past that. I wanted to just have an epic summer at camp without worrying about the future.”
“You will have an epic summer at camp,” I said, glad that I’d kept my mouth shut about his second visit to the bathroom. “Even if I have to make you sing Disney songs in a sparkly vest daily.”
Murphy snorted, but he didn’t cheer up like I’d hoped; in fact he seemed to get even sadder somehow. This was not my normal effect on people, and I wondered if being invisible had something to do with it. I mean, it was hard to cheer someone up when you couldn’t make eye contact or smile, and I swallowed a huff of frustration.
“Look at it this way,” I said, deciding to try a different approach. “We knew that there might be some leftover mess after you managed to take Emerson and Gary through time with you. It was wishful thinking to believe that you guys could prevent something bad happening to camp just by keeping your mouths shut to those TTBI officers who investigated you when you got back. We will figure things out as they happen, the same way we did last year, but we won’t let anything stop us from having an amazing summer.”
“I agree,” Emerson said. “I’ve been looking forward to camp all year.”
Everyone quieted down, and I leaned forward conspiratorially. “Here’s what we know,” I said. “Aaron can’t be trusted. Eli as good as told me that, so we need to be careful what we say around him.” I turned to Gary. “Think you can manage that?”
“I’ll try,” he said.
“We’re screwed,” Anthony said.
“While we’re at it, I think we should probably watch our step around that guy Munkhoosier or Munkeyhutter or whatever his name is,” Emerson said. “He seemed pretty serious too.”
“Do you think either of them have anything to do with the whole Camp Outlier depends on it thing?” Hudson asked.
“Maybe,” Emerson said. “When we time traveled last year, we saw a future where kids like us spent our time locked up in juvenile detention centers instead of camp, and Mooknoser seems like the kind of guy who would be on board with that plan.”
“Hmm,” I said, remembering the future that Gary and Emerson had accidentally landed in where we weren’t accepted or allowed to be around people without RISK factors. It was a future that frankly terrified me.
“I think it’s Munkhouser,” Anthony said, and then gave a decisive nod. “Yes, definitely Munkhouser.”
“Can we please call him Mooknoser?” Gary said with a snort. “It’s so much better!”
“So, I guess it’s up to us to make sure that Munkhouser doesn’t bring about that future that you saw,” I said, ignoring Gary as he gave another snort. “If something bad is going to happen to Camp Outlier, we will just have to stop it. Simple.”
“And how do you suggest we do that?” Anthony asked.
“We make Life Lists,” I said with a grin.
“Seriously,” Gary said.
“Seriously,” I replied. “We map out all the amazing things we want to accomplish this summer, and then we go for it. You can’t live the same summer over and over and call it a life, my friend.”
“And how does that help save camp?” Emerson asked.
“It doesn’t,” I said. “But we don’t even know what we’re saving camp from at this point. Murphy’s right. We can’t let this hang over our heads. We are here to have an awesome summer, and that’s just what we’re going to do.” I didn’t mention to them that, for all I knew, this was my last summer, and I didn’t intend to waste even a second of it.
“I guess the time travelers only visited you in the bathroom,” Gary mused. “Maybe you’re the only one in danger.”
“That’s the spirit!” I said, thumping him on the back. “Look at it this way. All we know is that letting Hudson in on the events of last summer was important to saving camp. We did that. Check!” I made a check mark in the air with my invisible finger. Of course, no one could see it, so I grabbed Gary’s arm and made him do the same motion.
“Knock it off,” he said, pulling his arm away from me.
“Never!” I proclaimed. “Now, let’s see those Life Lists, men. I want to see what you accomplished this school year.” Everyone pulled their crumpled lists out of pockets, while Hudson looked on in confusion.
“I’m sorry to say, my new friend, but you are the youngest of the bunch. Everyone starts at zero.” I went on to explain quickly what a Life List was and the theory behind it. Hudson listened attentively and then asked to see the other guys’ Life Lists, which they handed over willingly.
“You lassoed a pig?” he asked Murphy, eyebrow raised.
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Murphy said.
“Well done, men,” I said. “Good to see you didn’t loaf about while we were apart. However, I propose something different this year with the lists.”
“What?” Zeke said, sounding wary. Even Mr. Stink, who’d tagged along per usual, was giving me a look that made it clear he didn’t quite trust me, and I smiled.
“Well,” I said. “Last year everyone wrote down a whole bunch of different stuff, and while we made progress on some of them, we didn’t cross off as many things as we could have. I suggest we brainstorm and come up with a list of things we can all agree on and we go after them together. I think winning some of the camp challenges should be priority.” Everyone agreed, and we ended up with a list of ten things to add to our Life Lists. Just to be nice, we let Hudson add a few more, since only aging up to age ten seemed a bit disappointing.
“I’ve always wanted to go parasailing,” Hudson said, looking up from his list. “There’s this video game where you do it virtually, and I’m really good at it. Do they offer parasailing here?”
I was about to answer when the sound of someone approaching brought me up short. We froze as the voice got louder, and I realized that it was several someones. Girl someones, if I was being specific.
“Gentlemen,” I said, “I believe our teammates have arrived.”
The guys shot me confused looks that disappeared as the girls of the Swallowtail cabin made their way around the side of the truck. The guys sat up straighter, and I imagined we looked like a bunch of prairie dogs popping out of their holes.
“Geez,” Zeke said, pressing a hand to his chest. “This truck is like a jack-in-the-box. Who or what is going to pop out next?”
“Hopefully nothing,” I said, thinking uneasily of Aaron asleep in our locked-down cabin. “I knew about the girls,” I added. “In fact, I invited them.”
“If you consider a message written in ketchup on a napkin an invitation? Then yes, he invited us,” said the girl with dark hair and a baseball cap. I made a quick mental note to find out her name as all the guys scooted over to make room. Molly sat down next to Emerson and he grinned.
“Okay,” I said. “First of all, the men of White Oak would like to formally apologize for the loss of five points. In our defense, we had no idea that there was a point system this summer.” I saw Gary scowl as his eyes flicked over to Hudson, but I gave him a quick kick to the shin before he could say anything. We’d all agreed to keep our mouths shut about the Hudson hurricane, just like we’d kept our mouths shut the time he’d accidentally gotten stuck to a toilet last summer. Maybe I should remind him of that particular incident, I thought with a smirk.
“How about an apology for not being around to help hide our flag?” Gabby said, eyebrow raised. “The capture-the-flag game is worth twenty points, you know.”
“Actually, we don’t know,” I said. “I’m sure you noticed that our lovely new counselor, Aaron, who has the unfortunate personality of a porcupine with poison ivy, didn’t exactly give us a chance to check out the challenge board. So, if you could be so kind and fill us in, ladies, I know we’d all appreciate it.”
The girl with the black spiral curls with the tiny lightning bolts all over them rolled her eyes. “Do you always talk like that?” she said.
