Oh, my woolly mammoth. I had to put a stop to this.
“What exactly do you want, Murray?” I said. “We’re kind of in a hurry here.”
“Ah! You’re busy with business!” said Bobby, releasing my hands. “I’ll get out of the way, then. I just had to come say hello. So Hello! And Good-bye! Good-bye, Maggie, and Maggie’s people! See you all soon!” And blowing kisses to each of us in turn, he backed into the fort and disappeared.
There was an outbreak of giggling. I kept my focus on Murray, flatly refusing to catch Abby’s eye.
“Okay, yes, business,” Murray said. He cleared his throat. “Now that I’ve made sure it’s you, the reason I’m here is to tell you that given the, well, mess you two have made of the NAFAFA application process, the Council has decided to cut your trial period short. Your time’s up, and we’re voting tomorrow. Or later today, I guess, if you want to get technical.”
“What?!” Abby said.
“You can’t do that!”
“I’m really sorry, Maggie,” said Murray, and he looked like he meant it, “but we can. There’s a lot going on with the Council right now, what with Noriko aging out next month, and to be honest, we just want this over.”
“We’re going to get in, though, right?” I said. “We rescued Uncle Joe! That should be more than enough.”
“It should be,” said Murray. “But we’ll have to wait and see. If your official emergency really is finished, the best thing you can do now is get back where you belong and stay there.”
Samson, who’d been sleeping through all the excitement in his bundle of blankets, sat up and yawned, stretching luxuriously. He hopped down, sauntered over to the fort, and sniffed Murray’s face.
“Hello,” said Murray. “You’ll be the director of Camp Pillow Fort, eh? Do you have anything to say on behalf of your network?”
Samson head-butted Murray’s chin and pushed past him into the fort.
“That means he likes you,” said Abby.
“Sorry, did you say ‘director’?” asked my mom.
“Samson’s the director of our network,” I said. “He won the vote.”
“And that’s causing all sorts of other problems,” said Murray. “Ben keeps pointing out that according to the NAFAFA charter, Council seats have to be held by the highest-ranking member of each regional group, which means if you all get voted in the seat is technically Samson’s. And that’s just not going to work. Not only is Miesha super allergic to cats, but where exactly are we supposed to find sunglasses that would fit his little kitty face?”
That got a happy laugh from Kelly, but her laugh turned into a cough, and my mom instantly snapped into doctor mode.
“Okay, kids,” she said, clapping her hands, “no more nonsense. I’m taking Kelly back to her room right now, and I mean now. Murphy, or whatever your name is, you do not want to be in my way here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Murray. “I’ve got places to be too.” He lowered his sunglasses and looked at me. “Maggie, I don’t know what’s going to happen with the Council, but one way or another you’ll hear from us sometime tomorrow morning, west coast time. For now, I’m counting on you to please get everyone back where they’re supposed to be. And make sure you close this fort off after you.”
“Got it.”
“See you soon, I hope.” Murray waved good-bye and started backing up, then stopped. He seemed to be struggling with himself. Before I could ask what was wrong, he raised a hand and blew a kiss right to me—and only me—turned fire engine red, and vanished into the fort.
Abby made the noise again.
One by one we headed back, first Kelly, then my mom, then Abby. I held out a hand for Matt to go ahead of me and got one of his dazzling smiles in return.
“Thanks for letting me tag along, Maggie,” he said. “This was fun. Things are pretty awesome when you’re in charge.”
“Shmer, fenny lime!” I said casually. Matt winked and followed Abby, who was directing Mark back home.
I came through last with the map, pulling the pillow shut behind me and closing the door on a long and extremely weird day.
“I wonder what the doctors will think when they can’t find us and there’s just this random empty fort in the waiting room,” I said.
Abby shrugged. “Probably the same thing they were thinking when we turned up: that we’re one complete bunch of cantaloupes.”
We were both tired beyond tired, so after helping me stuff all the blankets and jackets back through to Uncle Joe’s, Abby headed off to bed. I climbed onto my sofa bunk, yawned, and took one last look around at Fort McForterson’s quiet links. So much was about to change. Even if the Council voted us in, my mom was involved now, and Alex would probably find out soon too, and what would that mean for our secret club? And if the Council voted to shut us down, right when things were getting good, well . . . we’d just have to cross that bridge when we came to it.
I yawned again, feeling like Samson, and finally, finally, finally drifted off to sleep.
Twenty-Four
I woke up late the next morning, stumbled groggily into the kitchen, and found myself face-to-face with something I hadn’t seen in years: my mom, wearing a bathrobe, cooking breakfast.
“Morning,” she said, poking at the frying pan. “I took the day off.”
I gaped at her. She might as well have told me she’d decided to become a moose.
Over a breakfast of lumpy pancakes, she filled me in on what happened when she and Kelly got back to the hospital the night before. Apparently Kelly had taken charge of the whole thing, telling the nurses how she and my mom had been reading the most amazing book about time-traveling cats and how it was so good she had absolutely positively refused to let my mom stop reading until it was over. Kelly had been extremely convincing, and everyone had decided my mom was a first-class
