"All right, then," he said.
As one, they both sighed and stood up. The bird watched them carefully.
"Do you think we need anything?" Charlotte asked. Zee shrugged. "Warm clothes?"
"I'll be right back." Charlotte went into her room and grabbed the warmest sweater she could find. She reached into her bottom drawer and took out her allowance, which she tucked into the front pocket of her backpack. She emptied her school things out of the backpack, then she tiptoed down into the kitchen and grabbed four water bottles, a pack of cereal bars, and a box of Fruit Roll-Ups, which she stuffed into the backpack.
She paused on the stairs. She could hear her parents in the living room, the welcoming sounds of nighttime- the news on the television, coffee cups clinking against dishes, bursts of whispered conversation, Mew doing laps around the room. For a moment she thought she would go in and tell them everything, she would fall into their laps and they would hold her and tell her they were going to make it all right, she didn't have to worry about a thing. Charlotte closed her eyes and pictured doing that, tasted what it would be like, and then swallowed, and headed up to Zee and the black bird.
"I have to leave them a note," she whispered to Zee when she went into the room. "Mom and Dad. I don't know how long we'll be gone. They'll think…"
Zee nodded. "Yeah."
"What do I say?"
Zee shook his head, eyes wide.
Charlotte bit her lip. "May as well tell them the truth."
She wrote:
Dear Mom and Dad-
We know what's making everyone sick. We had to go save the world. We'll be back as soon as we can. We love you.
– Charlotte and Zee
She pursed her lips, thought for a moment, then added:
PS. Don't worry!!!!
"That's going to go over well," she muttered. "Now what?"
Zee looked at her, and they both looked at the bird, who raised his head imperiously.
"We can't go out the front door," Charlotte whispered. "They'll hear us."
The bird looked at the window, then looked back at them.
"Out… there?" she said. For a second she thought the bird was going to take them flying. The bird was big, but not that big.
Zee resolutely opened up the window, and the bird flew out and perched on the branch right outside. It squawked.
Zee and Charlotte got the message. They put on their sweaters; Charlotte left the note on Zee's bed, then slung her backpack on her shoulders and crawled out the window and onto the branch. Zee followed, closing the window behind him. They climbed down the tree and out into the street.
The leaves twitched, the branches itched, hearts pounded, and breaths sounded, so neither Charlotte nor Zee noticed Bartholomew, who had just run up the stairs at full speed, standing on the windowsill howling with all her might.
They crept silently through the street, the bird hovering just ahead of them. Charlotte could not help but note that they were going in the same direction that Zee had been heading the night before. Which, she supposed, made sense.
The streets were empty, and houses were tucking themselves in for the night, so nobody noticed the two children and the enormous black bird. Or if they did, they weren't telling.
The trio walked for twenty minutes, and then the bird suddenly circled around and perched on the back of a bus stop bench.
"What? Are we here?" Charlotte asked.
The bird hopped up and down on the bench.
"You want us to sit?" asked Charlotte.
"Squawk," said the bird.
Charlotte looked at Zee. "I think we're supposed to… wait for a bus?"
Zee threw up his hands, as if nothing would surprise him anymore.
So they sat. And they waited. It was late, and buses were few this time of night. After about twenty minutes one finally pulled up, and Charlotte and Zee stood, but the bird started squawking madly, flew around their heads (awfully close, if you asked Charlotte), and perched on the bench again.
So they waited. And waited some more. Charlotte took out a Fruit Roll-Up from her backpack. She offered one to Zee, who shook his head. Another bus pulled up, and still the bird sat. Then when the third bus came into view, the bird sprang from his perch, landing on the sidewalk. Charlotte and Zee stood up, and when the bus pulled up and the doors opened, the bird flew right in.
"How's that going to go over?" Charlotte muttered, counting her change.
But the bus driver didn't say a thing about the unusual passenger; he just watched Charlotte put her money in the till and waved them through.
The bird had made himself comfortable on one of the seats toward the back of the bus and was proceeding to have another nice bath. Charlotte and Zee sat down next to him.
"Where does this go?" Zee whispered.
"I don't know," Charlotte said. "I didn't even look…" She leaned up to check the bus number, then looked at the map. "It just goes into the southwest suburbs," she said. "Near the airport? Oh, great. I can just see taking the bird on a plane."
Zee let out a little laugh. Just a little.
A few stops down a man got on. He looked like one of the reasons Charlotte's mother didn't like her to take the bus at night. He was scruffy and thin, with a shabby trench coat (and honestly, if you're a creepy man on the bus, shouldn't you wear something besides a shabby trench coat? Really, it's so typical. Let's break form, shall we, people? Strive for originality!), and was carrying a plastic cup the size of Charlotte's head, from which he slurped very noisily through a straw. The contents did not look like soda to Charlotte. Though the bus was empty, he sat opposite Charlotte and Zee and stared directly at them. Charlotte looked away, but she felt the man's watery gaze still on her. Zee moved closer to Charlotte.
The man cleared his throat. "Nice bird," he rasped.
Charlotte drew herself up. "Thank you," she said formally "He's a messenger from the Underworld… He bites!"
The man started, muttered something, and got up and moved to the front of the bus. Charlotte wasn't sure, but she thought she saw Zee smiling to himself a little. Just a little.
They were in the suburbs now, first passing small row houses, then large retail buildings. Charlotte and Zee watched out the window, looking for some sign of… something, while the bird kept on grooming himself. And then, after they had been on the bus for what seemed like eons, the bus approached the biggest retail center of them all.
The Mall.
The bird hopped up, flew up to the signal cord, and landed on it, then flew down the aisle.
"You have got to be kidding," Charlotte said.
Zee was staring out the window and shaking his head. "What in the…"
The Mielswetzskis had not taken Zee to the Mall. There hadn't really been time, and Aunt Suzanne had been so horrified when she went years ago. Apparently the British don't really have malls, and especially not megamalls. It was better to break Zee in slowly, they all thought. So he'd never seen it.
The Mall was Big. It was Huge. It was Mega. As the bus pulled into the parking lot and began to circle around the driveway in front of the Mall, into the six-story parking garage where the bus stops were, Zee's eyes grew bigger and bigger, until they threatened to take over his head. After this, Charlotte thought grimly, the Underworld will be easy for him.
Then the bus doors opened, the bird squawked at them, and Zee and Charlotte-both extremely perplexed for entirely different reasons – followed.
The bus driver, who didn't seem at all curious about why two thirteen-year-olds and a large black bird would be going to the Mall well after it had closed, waved at them. "Have a nice night."
Charlotte swallowed.
The bird led them up to the front door. Charlotte could see that the Mall was completely shut down for the night. "It's going to be locked," she said.
"Squawk," said the bird.
"What in the…" said Zee.
Charlotte pulled the door, which was, of course, wide open. They walked (or flew) in, and she cringed a little, but no alarm sounded.