فصل سی و یک

chapter-31

“So, does anybody have a clue as to why we were supposed to find this book?” asked Kyle.

He and his teammates were back in the Young Adult Room staring at the cover of Get to Know Your Local Library.

“Too early to tell,” said Miguel. “Let’s keep playing. This book will probably make more sense once we go into the other rooms and pick up more clues.” “Whose turn is it?” asked Akimi.

“Yours,” said Kyle. “Flick the spinner.” Akimi finger-kicked the plastic pointer.

“Purple!” she yelled when the arrow slid to a stop. “The eight hundreds.” “That means you move eight spaces,” mumbled Kyle.

“Except today.” Akimi reached for the card on top of the purple stack. When she saw what was written on it, she frowned.

“What’s the clue?” asked Kyle.

“Something about Literature, Rhetoric, or Criticism?” asked Miguel.

“Nope,” said Akimi. “It’s a wild card. With a riddle.” “Read it!” said Sierra.

“ ‘I rhyme with dart and crackerjacks. Visit me and find a rhyme for Andy.’ ” “Peckleman?” said Kyle. “How’d he get his name on a game card?” “Bro,” said Miguel, “nobody calls Andrew Peckleman ‘Andy.’ Of course, it could mean Andrew Jackson. The seventh president of the United States.” “Or Andy Panda,” said Akimi.

“Or Andrew Carnegie,” said Sierra. “He was a generous supporter of libraries.” “Okay,” said Kyle. “Let’s concentrate on the first part of the riddle. What rhymes with ‘dart and crackerjacks’?” “Smart and heart attacks?” suggested Miguel.

“Art and bric-a-bracs?” said Sierra.

“Art and Artifacts!” said Akimi, nailing it.

They hurried over to the Art & Artifacts Room.

“Everybody—check out the display cases,” said Kyle. “See if anything rhymes with the word ‘Andy.’ ” “Well, this model of the old bank building is certainly ‘grandy,’ ” said Miguel. “And the Pharaoh’s pyramid and sphinx would be sandy if they weren’t made out of Legos.” “True,” said Kyle, sounding unconvinced about both.

“Check it out, you guys,” cried Akimi, who was studying a row of Styrofoam heads sporting hats. “This plaid fedora from 1968 was worn by a guy named Leopold Loblolly.” “So?” said Kyle.

“According to this plaque, Loblolly was ‘one of the notorious Dandy Bandits.’ ‘Dandy’ rhymes with ‘Andy.’ ” “That it does,” said Miguel. “However, ‘Loblolly’ does not.” “Neither does ‘Leopold,’ ” added Kyle.

“ ‘Candy’ rhymes with ‘Andy’!” said Sierra. She was staring at the objects in a display case under a banner reading “Welcome to the Wonderful World of Willy Wonka.” “Awesome!” said Miguel, hurrying over to admire the collection of Everlasting Gobstoppers, Glumptious Globgobblers, Laffy Taffy, and Pixy Stix displayed under glass in a sea of purple velvet.

“Mr. Lemoncello is a lot like Willy Wonka,” said Kyle.

“You mean crazy?” said Akimi.

“I prefer the term ‘eccentric’ ”

“And Dr. Zinchenko is his Oompa-Loompa,” said Sierra.

Everybody started giggling.

“Nah,” Akimi joked, “she’s too tall.”

“And not nearly orange enough,” added Miguel.

“The Willy Wonka book was written by Roald Dahl,” said Sierra, who, Kyle figured, could name twelve other books the guy wrote, too. “In it, Mr. Wonka takes Charlie and Grandpa Joe home in a flying glass elevator that crashes through the roof of his chocolate factory.” Everybody thought about that for a second.

“So now we have to find a glass elevator?” said Akimi. “Because there isn’t one on the floor plan.” “But Mr. Lemoncello is just wild enough to build one,” said Kyle. “And if he did, he probably wouldn’t put it on the floor plan.” “No way,” said Miguel. “Everybody would want to ride on it.” “I know I would,” said Sierra.

“So we’re seriously searching for a secret glass elevator?” said Akimi.

“Maybe,” said Kyle. “Maybe not. This is just another piece of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. We won’t see the whole picture until we collect all the pieces.” “Or someone shows us the box lid,” cracked Akimi.

“Look, it’s only six p.m.,” said Kyle. “And we’re collecting a ton of good information.” “You mean a ton of random information,” said Akimi.

“Well,” said Miguel, “once we have more clues, we can use Sherlock Holmes’s famous ‘deductive reasoning’ method to make logical connections between all the random junk.” “Works for me,” said Kyle. “But if we’re going to play Sherlock Holmes, we need to go spin that spinner and dig up more clues.” “The game’s afoot,” said Sierra.

“Huh?” Kyle and Akimi said it together.

“Sorry. It’s just something Sherlock says to Watson whenever he gets excited.” Sherlock Holmes. Kyle had just found another bunch of books to add to his reading list.