Theo pressed his lips together. He’d never said he was more adventurous, just smarter about choosing his adventures. There was a difference.
She said, “We were coming home from our aunt’s house and we saw this empty train just sitting on the tracks. So, we got off the train, circled back, and climbed one of the service ladders to the tracks. We just wanted to see the train. We weren’t going to do anything else.”
The lies rolled off her tongue so smoothly that even Theo believed her. He hoped the cops did.
“Please don’t tell our mom,” Tess said. “We’ve never done anything like this before, and we’ll never ever do anything like it again.” She shuddered as if reliving the horror, and Theo knew she wasn’t faking that. Theo rubbed the wrist that Tess had held—the skin burned raw—then stopped doing it when he saw Tess’s slight shake of the head.
Clarkson looked across at Chin; Chin gave a one-shouldered shrug.
“All right, listen,” said Clarkson. “I don’t want to get you guys in trouble, and to tell you the truth, I don’t want to spend the next two hours doing a bunch of forking paperwork and babysitting a bunch of kids. But don’t let me catch you or even hear of you doing something so cornnuts ever again, okay? Because if I do, I’ll have to tell your mom what happened here, and then we’ll all be in a whole lot of hot mustard.”
“We won’t do anything like this again, sir, we promise,” Theo said. As long as the Cipher didn’t demand it.
It probably would.
The cops drove them to the nearest Underway station. Theo, Tess, and Jaime waited a few minutes to make sure the cops had left, then walked right back to the curb to hail a cab.
They got back to 354 W. 73rd Street so exhausted that the word exhausted seemed inadequate (maybe Officer Clarkson would have a better substitute—cream-cheesed? roasted?). Theo’s wrist ached. His shins and knees were bruised where he’d banged them against the train. He hadn’t fallen off the train, but he felt as if he had.
“My arm is killing me,” Theo said, rubbing his shoulder.
“I can’t even feel mine anymore,” said Tess. “Are they still there? Or did I leave them in the taxi?”
Theo’s whole body winced. “Um, about that.”
“If you’re going to thank me, don’t, because the shock would be too great,” said Tess.
Jaime said, “Thanks.”
Tess said, “Thank you. You pulled me up when I fell off first.”
Jaime put out his hand, maybe to touch one of the arms Tess couldn’t feel anymore; Theo didn’t know. But Jaime dropped the hand and shoved it in his pocket. Theo liked Jaime’s hand in his pocket better than on his sister’s arm. And then he wondered why he was thinking about Jaime’s hand or his sister’s arm (beyond the obvious and undeniable fact that she had saved his life with that arm).
Jaime cleared his throat and pressed the elevator button. “What do you want to do about the next clue?”
“I love clues,” said Tess. “Except right this second. Right this second, I love aspirin. And food. And then I will love sleep, if I can ever sleep again. Tomorrow, I will love clues.”
The elevator drifted up, the left, then down, then up once more, as if giving them some time to gather themselves before they had to go to their respective apartments and start lying to their family members about how they had spent their day. Theo didn’t think “Oh, I was dangling from a runaway train while my sister kept me from hurtling to certain death” was going to cut it. And though Tess could lie as smoothly as she could tell the truth, Theo couldn’t. Especially not to his mom.
“What happened to you two?” Mrs. Biedermann said as soon as they walked into the door.
Theo froze. Tess said, “Frisbee in the park. I’m starving. What’s for dinner?”
Mrs. Biedermann frowned at Tess. “What’s wrong with your arms?”
“Nothing. Why?”
“You’re holding them funny.”
Tess laughed. She held her arms out in a T. “Maybe they’ve just gotten longer. Because of the Frisbee.” She dropped her arms her sides again. “Dinner?”
“Your dad’s picking up falafel and kabobs. Oh, and don’t make any plans for tomorrow. Aunt Esther is coming.”
“Aunt Esther? Why?”
“We’re going to load up some of these boxes in her van and take them to her home in Queens,” said Mrs. Biedermann. “So I really do hope your arms are okay, both of you. You’re going to need them.”
Theo was dreaming of a bald man with no face on his face when his dad yanked on the shade and it snapped up with a clatter.
“Your aunt’s just called,” Mr. Biedermann said. “She’s on her way.”
“What time is it? Five a.m.?”
“Try eight,” said Mr. Biedermann. “And try getting out of bed, lazybones.”
Theo attempted to rise, flopped back down when every single one of his lazy bones shrieked in protest. Apparently, his whole body was broken. Which wasn’t convenient.
“Are you all right?” said his dad.
“Peachy.”
He had just hauled himself into the kitchen and flopped down next to Tess when Aunt Esther arrived.
“Greetings, Biedermann family!” she announced, marching into the apartment with a box of doughnuts and a container of hard-boiled eggs. “I have brought carbohydrates and protein.” She set the food on the table and sat. Nine immediately jumped onto her lap and started purring.
Theo picked a chocolate doughnut. Tess reached for one, winced.
Aunt Esther said, “I have also brought tiger’s balm. But not for the tiger,” she said, scratching Nine between the ears. She reached into the large bag she referred to as a “pocketbook” and pulled out a tube of ointment. She slid this to Tess.
“Why does she need tiger’s balm?” said Mrs. Biedermann.
“I found tiger’s balm to be very soothing back when I was working for the post office,” said Aunt Esther.
Mrs. Biedermann said, “She hasn’t carried any boxes yet.”
“A preventative measure,” said Aunt Esther. “You should select a carbohydrate before Theo eats them all.”
Aunt Esther was pushing seventy, but she didn’t look it. She was medium height and sturdy, with short brown hair and a no-nonsense manner a little like his mother’s but not quite. As far as Theo knew, Aunt Esther had never married, but she had done just about everything else. Each time he saw her, she mentioned some piece of her past that he’d never heard before, as if she were just remembering it herself. Or making it up.
“When did you work for the post office, Aunt Esther?” Theo asked.