“Sometimes he takes a little time off.” And she realized then that that was what the Butterfields had done. They were on a time out.
They’d been gone for nine days when Sybil heard voices in Charlie’s room one afternoon after school, and wondered if he’d brought someone home. She opened the door and poked her head in, and he and Magnus were playing videogames and shrieking with delight. She laughed when she saw them and waved at Magnus. They were back, and she hoped they’d see the whole family for dinner that night.
She checked on the boys again a little later, and they were gone. She glanced out the window and didn’t see them outside, so she assumed they were somewhere on the grounds. There were a lot of places to play in the garden and around the house. She wasn’t worried about them, and she went to her office upstairs to work on her computer. It was six o’clock when she came back downstairs to her bedroom. Blake was home by then, and she had just asked him how his day was when they both heard heavy pounding in Blake’s dressing room. Blake went to see what it was, and Sybil followed him, and they both realized the sounds came from behind the wall. He opened his closets and the sound grew stronger, and then they could hear the boys calling for help from the other side of the closet wall.
“Charlie? Where are you?” his father shouted at him, as Sybil listened and could hear Magnus shouting too. They were calling out and pounding alternately, and she could hear that her son was panicked. “Where are you?” Blake said loudly next to the heavy wood paneling so they could hear him.
“I don’t know. It’s dark.” They could barely hear him. “We’re in the secret passage,” he yelled again after a minute, afraid they’d get in trouble, but even more afraid now not to get out.
“Great,” he said with a look over his shoulder at Sybil. “How did you get in there?” he called back.
“There was a door in a closet on the third floor. There’s a staircase, but there’s no handle on this side, and there’s no way out from downstairs. We tried.”
“Okay. I’ll get you out in a minute.” Blake grabbed a flashlight he kept in a drawer and headed for the back stairs, and shouted at Sybil over his shoulder. “Keep talking to them.” He dashed up the stairs to the third floor, where the guest bedrooms were, and checked every closet. There was none with a door at the back of it, and Blake was starting to worry. He was thinking about calling the fire department when he checked one closet for a second time, and saw the thin outline of a door. It wouldn’t release when he pressed it, there was no knob, and it looked painted shut. He turned to go back downstairs to call the fire department, and found Bert standing right behind him with a frown. He had appeared from nowhere, and startled Blake.
“Now what are those two up to?” Bert said with a rueful look at Blake, who was happy to see him, after their hiatus, and particularly now with the boys trapped behind the wall.
“They found some secret passage behind the wall in one of the closets. Charlie says they got in from up here.” Bert beckoned to him to follow, and led him to another closet that was used for storage. At the very back, they found a door. Bert tried it and it was jammed. They needed something to pry it open, and the two men looked at each other, trying to decide what to do next.
“I never told my boys about this because I knew they’d wind up stuck in it one day,” Bert said to Blake. “It’s not on the plans. It serves no useful purpose, except for a fast escape. Our builder thought it would be fun to add it, to use if we were ever under an attack of some kind.”
“I think I saw a crowbar downstairs. I’ll run down and get it,” Blake offered and Bert stopped him.
“Never mind, I can take care of it,” he said, laughing. “I’ll put my full weight against it when I get them back up here, and when we get them out, we can both box their ears.” And as soon as he said it, he was gone. He had gone right through the wall, while standing there, talking to Blake, and he shouted back from the other side. “I hear them. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“They’re on the floor below,” Blake told him. “Sybil’s talking to them.”
“It’s filthy in here,” Bert said in a tone of disgust, and then stopped talking. A minute later, Sybil could hear Bert talking to the boys on the other side of the wall, and he shouted to her so she could hear him. “I’ve got them. Blake is waiting upstairs. You’ll have Charlie back in a minute,” he reassured her, and she could hear their voices fading as Bert walked them back up the stairs, and then he called out to Blake in the closet where he was waiting for them to emerge. “Stand back,” Bert warned him, and Blake took a big step out of the closet. An instant later Bert burst through the stuck door. He didn’t do his walk-through-walls trick, since he had to get Charlie out too. A moment later the four of them were standing amid the splintered wood of the door, with two of the filthiest boys Blake had ever seen, and they both looked scared stiff. Bert was almost as dirty as they were, and didn’t look pleased.
“What were you two thinking?” he asked them. “What if we hadn’t found you, or didn’t hear you? You could have been stuck in there for weeks. And I’m sure there are bats in there,” he said with an ominous look, and both boys started to cry. The two men repressed a smile, now that they had them safely in hand.
“Mr. Butterfield is right,” Blake told Charlie. “There could have been a well or a trap door. You could get killed,” and then he realized that only his son could. Magnus was already dead, but he was every bit as frightened as any other six-year-old boy. Blake made a mental note to have the entrance to the passage sealed off so they couldn’t do it again.
“You both need a bath,” Bert said to the two blackened faces. “Magnus, I want you to apologize to Charlie’s father for doing something dangerous with your friend. You’ll have dinner in your room tonight.” Bert sounded stern but loving, and Magnus hung his head when he apologized to Blake. By then, Sybil had come upstairs and gasped when she saw how grimy they were. And Bert looked just as bad.
“How long were you in there?” she asked, relieved to see them, after she thanked Bert for rescuing them.
“A long time,” Charlie answered, and both boys cast furtive looks at each other. It had been fun until it got scary and they couldn’t get out.
The five of them headed back downstairs, and Alicia saw them when they reached the second floor, or she saw Blake and Sybil with Charlie. She couldn’t see Magnus with Bert, but the Gregorys acted as though they were talking to more than just one another, and she stared at Charlie.
“What you do up there?” she asked Charlie.