Chapter Text
An armed Kelsey and an unarmed J.P. met the kids just as Faraday appeared through the undergrowth into the sidewalk. The girl was followed by Boris lifting the Body Swap 5000 over his head.
After that, the two redheads gasped at the sight of Wren and Tony carrying Carl’s body, with his face covered by a compress, underneath which was a layer of ice.
“Oh, strewth!” Kelsey cried out in shock at what happened to Carl. “What happened to him?”
Tony and Wren stared at her. “What’s a ‘strewth’?” Tony asked.
“Uh…I don’t know,” Kelsey at once moved to change back to the topic at hand, “what happened to his face?”
“I think he was exposed to dry ice,” Wren replied.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” J.P. pondered.
“Without safety equipment?” Faraday countered. “Yes.”
“Your sister works at Herkleton Med, right? Laura, is it?” Tony said.
“Yeah. She knows stuff about dry ice.”
“What the heck was he even doing with Brigid, anyway?” Kelsey questioned. “Doesn’t everyone know she’s a psycho?”
“Kelsey,” Faraday answered, “not all of us hang out in the same social circles as you guys.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Boris said. “Boy need medical attention, pronto.”
“Yes, we can discuss this at J.P.’s house,” Wren said. “Is your sister home?”
J.P. checked his phone. “Yeah, I guess she’s home by now.”
The kids set off for the Mercer house. It wasn’t that far from the Creek, but when you’re carrying an unconscious kid and a giant cardboard box, it’s like traveling a hundred miles.
Luckily, J.P. took up the persona of a flight attendant to pass the time, making comments about their surroundings, like the mailbox with a sticker of Steven Universe that had been pasted on it, the numerous suits on display at Levin Fine Wears, or the sculpture of a hobo at the Irish pub along Burnett Street.
“Okay,” J.P. said, as he led the other kids down the turn to his street. “We’ll be arriving at our destination in one and a half minutes, the one-story two-toned house with the mailbox painted in the American flag. Please stow your tray tables and fasten your seatbelts!”
“Hey, Kelsey,” Wren asked her, “where’s your pet bird?”
“Oh, he’s at home.”
“I thought he’d be with you?”
“Well, everyone deserves a break, you know.”
“That’s a relief. It would make for some very awkward conversation.”
As they arrived at the house, there was a car parked on the driveway, a Toyota Prius. That was a good sign that there was an adult there, most likely Laura.
J.P. opened the door and yelled, “Sis! We need a medic!”
“Medic?” Laura questioned as she emerged from the kitchen. “Did you get yourself hurt again?”
“No, but someone else did.” He stepped aside as Wren and Tony carried Carl into the house.
“Jesus!” the woman cried out in shock. “What happened to that kid?”
“Frostbite.”
“Frostbite?”
“Frostbite.”
“Frostbite. At this time of year, in this part of the country, localized on a single part of his body.”
“I wouldn’t believe it myself, Mrs. Mercer,” Wren said as she and Tony brought Carl onto the couch in the living room. “But somehow, the guy got into contact with dry ice on his face.”
“Okay, first off, I’m not Mrs. Mercer,” Laura said to Wren. “At least, not yet.”
“Oh, yes, silly me! You’re the sister! My mind blanks out now and then.”
“Second, how did he get dry ice in the first place? That kid looks like, what, ten years old? He can’t just go to a Walmart and get it without a parent and some cash.”
“You can make some by spraying a fire extinguisher onto a plastic bag,” Tony said.
She stared at Tony. “Whatever, I’m running some hot water for the kid.”
Brigid kept her distance, making sure no one could spot her as she tracked the kids’ scent to a house on Martin Street. A single-story house with a flag-patterned mailbox with the name Mercer painted on it. She caught the giant kid depositing the Body Swap 5000 on the carport before he went inside.
Right now, there was nothing she could do, especially since this was a stronghold of the humans. She rushed off into the forest.
She would wait just a little longer until the moment was right.
Laura filled a bowl with hot water, checking that the temperature was just right. She looked at J.P., Kelsey, and the other kids, who had sat down at the dinner table, staring at the kid whose face had frozen.
Then she looked at the giant box that the scout boy with the Russian accent had put in the carport that she remembered J.P., Kelsey, and Craig used as their “body-swapping machine” when they pretended to be each other for a time. She remembered leaving Craig dressed up in J.P.’s clothes while she went to work, only to return with the house empty and the TV running. The next time she saw him, he was back in his normal clothes.
How such an endeavor went from “walking a mile in each other’s shoes” to “getting your face frozen off with dry ice”, then, was something quite concerning.
She took a face towel from the linen cabinet and dropped it in the bowl to soak it before turning off the faucet. After setting the bowl on the floor beside the couch, she took out the compress, wrung the towel to remove excess water, and placed it on his face.
“There,” she said. Turning back to the kids, she continued, “It’ll take some time for his body temperature to recover enough. Now, can someone tell me why that kid’s face got frozen off?”
“We don’t know,” the girl in the suit said. “We found him like this.”
“But it had something to do with that Brigid kid Kelsey was talking about,” the girl in the sweater vest interjected.
“Who the heck is Brigid?” Laura asked.
“She’s this kid who’s really obsessed with dogs,” J.P. answered. “Like, she wants to be a dog the way the horse girls want to be like horses.”
“Horse girls?”
“You know, they hang around the meadow, prancin’ around. I went there earlier to help Maney with her dressage routine where she jumps over a truck. I was the truck.”
“So,” the other redheaded scout boy in sunglasses said, “Brigid’s like the dog girl? Is that how the analogy goes?”
“Are you kidding me?” Kelsey questioned. “Brigid is nothing like the horse girls! They’re pretentious; Brigid’s deranged.”
“I don’t see any difference,” Laura said.
“That raises a good question,” the suited girl said. “If Brigid was just pretending, why would she need Wren’s machine?”
“Okay, I don’t think this is going anywhere,” Laura decided. “I’m gonna need your phone numbers and contact details, pronto.”
“Um, actually, I think Boris and I will show ourselves out,” the redheaded scout boy said as he stood up, directing the Russian scout to do the same. The two exited the door. “Our houses aren’t that far. We’ll be all right. Bye, Ms. Mercer.”
“Do svidaniya,” Boris said before following the other boy out.
Turning to the other two girls, Laura said, “So that leaves you two…”
“Wren Carson,” the girl in the suit replied bombastically, “leader of the Alliance of Science, solver of the mysteries of the universe, and youth scientist extraordinaire!”
Everyone else stared at her. “Yeah, I’m not doing that,” the other girl said. “Faraday Amir; Wren and I are classmates.”
“Interesting,” Laura said. “Now, who’s that kid you guys put on the couch?”
“His name’s Carl Neil,” Faraday responded. “He and I are the sane ones in this group.”
“Doesn’t look like it now,” Kelsey retorted.
“Do you guys have his parents’ number?” J.P. asked.
“I have,” Wren said as she handed the woman her phone. “He’s always calling me whenever I’m running late for our meetings.”