They Stole Our Hearts by Daniel Kraus

Author:Daniel Kraus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

21

Buddy didn’t get to approach the staircase, but he got his other wish: The plum teddy led him straight past the tower and to the doorway where Reginald had said the tower materials were kept. Once beside the door, Buddy looked up, way up, to read the words printed on it.

BOILER ROOM

“What’s a boiler?” Buddy asked.

Plummy didn’t answer. Like the door to the bathroom, this door didn’t sit evenly in its frame. Plummy wedged her fork into the door crack and levered it. The door creaked open enough for both teddies to pass through.

“Thank you,” Buddy said, walking in behind Plummy.

The Cherub let the door settle shut without a reply.

The boiler room had the same kind of windows as the cellar’s main room: small, dusty, close to the ceiling. But it was darker in here, cluttered with tools and machinery, from hulking boxes and tall metal cylinders, to pipes trailing like tentacles all over the walls. The size of these objects reminded Buddy of the trashlands’ dozers. At least boilers didn’t move—yet.

Buddy followed Plummy’s lustrous fork beneath pipes, around barrels, and between table legs. Still, he fell behind. He jogged around a sharp turn and plowed into Plummy’s scarred back.

“Oh, sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t see—”

Sitting before them, in a silent row, were four teddies.

They were the same four pale teddies he’d seen in the cellar earlier, including the brownish-white one he’d heard talking about the Forgiver. Their chain belts hung loosely on their scrawny, scraggly bodies.

Buddy’s first emotion was fear. What if Plummy had brought him here to scrape off his fur? But these four teddies were the opposite of threatening. Buddy’s emotion changed to sympathy. These poor teddies who’d lost their cozy, snuggly, cuddlesome plush!

“I’m so sorry, dear Furringtons,” he said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Help?” said one.

“We need no help,” said another.

“We would never accept your help,” said the third.

“We do not deserve help,” said the fourth.

Buddy turned to his Cherub escort. “Let’s take these poor, lost teddies to your leaders. Surely the Uriel will care for them.”

Plummy’s face pinched in confusion.

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