Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages & Karen Joy Fowler

Author:Ellen Klages & Karen Joy Fowler [Klages, Ellen & Fowler, Karen Joy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781616962616
Amazon: 1616962615
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Published: 2017-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

4+9+2

3+5+7

8+1+6

4+5+6

She stared as the numbers started to make shapes in her head, then got up and sat at her desk with a clean sheet of paper, doodling and chewing on the end of a pencil, deep in thought.

“Lights out, Isabel,” her mother called from the hall. “Big day tomorrow.”

Rats. “’Night, Mama.”

Izzy turned off her desk lamp and got into bed, counting to 100 five times before turning on her flashlight under the covers. She used her other hand to hold the notebook open and continued to study the sets of numbers.

Half an hour later, her neck had a crick, and she was fighting back yawns. Uncle. She was too tired to think any more. As she closed the book, a flash of bright red caught her eye. Izzy sat straight up, spilling the covers away.

Inside the back cover of the composition book, in red-ink capital letters, she read:

the oath of the lo-shu club.

any member is my brother, and i will rescue him

from danger, no matter what, no matter where.

i hereby swear by the sign of the magic turtle.

Underneath were two crosshatches and two signatures—William Flanagan. Robert Wilkins.

Bill and Bobby.

Izzy woke up with her arms wrapped around the composition book, the flashlight down by her feet. She stashed both under her mattress and went down to breakfast, racing through corn flakes and orange juice so that she could return to her quest. Then her mother got out the vacuum cleaner.

“I’ll carry the Hoover upstairs. You can do the bedrooms while I tackle the linens. I want to be done ironing before the heat really hits.” She patted Izzy on the arm.

After the carpets, it was dusting the dining room, setting three places with the nice china, mopping the kitchen floor. Izzy didn’t have a free moment until after lunch—cold cheese sandwiches—when Mama went off to the cleaners and the bank and the drugstore. “I’ll be back around three. Don’t make a mess.”

Izzy retrieved the notebook and sat at the empty end of the dining room table with a pile of scratch paper, adding up the mysterious numbers, until she suddenly smiled. There was a pattern. She was checking her work, one more time, when the doorbell rang.

She put down her pencil and went to the screen door. An older lady with blond hair and glasses stood on the front porch in a plain blue dress, a cardigan sweater folded over one arm. Probably from the Women’s Club, raising money for the March of Dimes again.

“Can I help you?” Izzy asked.

“I’m Dr. Hopper. I believe I’m expected?”

Holey Moley. Their guests were usually scientists. Only big brains got invited to the Institute’s conferences. But none of them had been a lady before.

“Oh. Sure. Please come in,” Izzy said, in her most polite, talking-to-guests voice. “My mother will be home—pretty soon, I think.” She held the door open, saw a suitcase, and remembered to ask, “Do you need help with that?” Dr. Hopper was on the skinny side.

“No, thank you. I can manage.” She picked up the small Samsonite case and walked into the front hall.

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