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Kingdom Keepers IV(19)



Finn wasn’t sure the others noticed Jess sketching on a napkin as the discussion began with Maybeck’s heroic description of eluding the crash-test dummies.

“We need to figure out the Kim Possible mission,” Charlene said, still edgy.

Finn looked at her differently now. He’d been to the bathroom, and he’d dragged Philby with him. There he’d taken out the two photos and, for the first time, taken a good look at both.

“That’s Sally Ringwald,” Finn said, naming a girl who went to Winter Park. “And that’s—”

“Luowski,” said Philby, who knew about the bully.

“Talking to the Evil Queen.”

“I don’t recognize the second girl—maybe Maybeck or Charlene knows her. What’s the other photo?” Philby asked, for Finn had kept it tucked below the first.

“Who knows if we can trust these pictures?” Finn said.

“Are you going to show it to me or not?”

“I just think we have to keep open minds.”

“Come on! You know me.”

Finn peeled away the first photo revealing the second.

The photo was actually two images divided by a black line. Both black-and-white, they appeared to be freeze-frame photographs taken from a Security video. On the left, it showed Charlene entering a rest room—time and date stamped as the night before while they’d been in DisneyQuest; to the right, was the Evil Queen entering the same doorway.

“Twenty seconds later,” Philby said. “Charlene was still in there.”

“We don’t know that,” Finn said.

“Of course she was! Who can pee and wash her hands in less than twenty seconds? She obviously met with the Evil Queen, just like these other kids.” Philby looked back and forth between the various shots. “The question is not whether she saw the Queen; the question is why haven’t we been told about it?”

“We can’t jump to conclusions.”

“Who’s jumping?” Philby said. “Number one: she’s been acting weird. Do you deny that?”

“No,” Finn said, unhappily.

“Number two: she’s been asking a ton of questions, just like a spy would.”

“I know.”

“Number three. She volunteered to do the Kim Possible thing with you. Now, I’m not saying she doesn’t volunteer to do stuff with us, but when she does it’s always—I mean always—something physical. Something gymnastic or athletic. That’s her talent. It’s not to solve a mystery. That’s Willa’s turf.”

“Yeah,” Finn said.

“She was in the bathroom with the Evil Queen.”

“Yeah,” Finn agreed, reluctantly.

“Why?” Philby said.

“It was after that that she got weird.”

“Yes, it was,” Philby said. “You’re right. So another way to look at this is that the Queen met with her, not the other way around.”

“Meaning?”

“She cast a spell on Charlene.”

“To spy on us.”

“Maybe on the other four, too. Luowski and everyone.”

“Maybe.” Finn wasn’t easily convinced that Greg Luowski could be a victim.

“So Charlene starts asking all these questions and acting weird.”

“It makes sense,” Finn said.

“So we’ve got to break the spell,” Philby said. “Ten times out of ten, when it comes to breaking a spell put onto a girl, you break it by kissing her.”

“Not me!” Finn said. “If I kiss Charlene…I am not doing that!”

“Amanda.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, well I don’t exactly want Willa to see me do it.”

“You and Willa?”

“This is news to you?” said Philby.

Finn shrugged.

“That just confirms what Willa says: that boys don’t get any of this stuff.”

“What stuff?”

“You see?” Philby said. His eyes shifted left and right.

“Maybeck!” they both said at once.

Back in the ice cream parlor, Finn saw Philby pull Maybeck aside and whisper to him. Maybeck’s face crunched like a crushed paper bag.

“First,” Finn said to the girls, in part to keep them from noticing Philby’s whispering, “was the waiter.”

Jess read from her notes: “‘We all need a waiter now and then. Some can get a waiter’s attention faster than others. This can have disappointing results.’”

“Then the garden gnome,” Finn said.

“The gnome turned around,” Jess said, “then turned around again to face us.”

At this point, Maybeck and Philby joined the group again. Maybeck flashed Finn a look impossible to interpret. Was he going to kiss Charlene or not? Finn couldn’t tell.