Ari spent most of the next day trying to make sense out of what he\u2019d seen in the deli the night before. And when he wasn\u2019t doing that he was counting to ten. Or higher.<\/p>\n
\n\tAt lunch in the school cafeteria Finbar Fenker yelled \u201cBe a taster, not a waster!\u201d and squirted pickle relish all over Ari\u2019s tater tots.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile lined up for music class Finbar, behind Flossie Beemis who was behind Ari, loudly hummed the Wedding March. Ari tried very hard not to notice Flossie\u2019s delighted giggles and switched to counting in Spanish for variety.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut when the final bell rang and Finbar followed Arden Feeny out the door saying \u201cIf you look up \u2018pickle boy\u2019 in the dictionary, is there a picture of Ari?,\u201d Ari found that the counting system was beginning to fail him, and his tightening fist got tighter with every number from one to ten. Just as he began to seriously wonder how long he could resist swinging it, he was both surprised and relieved to see Uncle Ellery waiting for him on the playground.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMr. Soffit!\u201d called Finbar, dropping back a couple steps. \u201cI love your pickles!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAri wondered if Uncle Ellery had noticed his clenched fist, but something told him the answer was yes as his uncle\u2019s firm hand steered him away from Finbar Fenker.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re going to see Wilton Daylatch,\u201d said Uncle Ellery as if Ari had asked, which he hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cUncle Ellery,\u201d said Ari, \u201cDoes Wilton Daylatch seem like a grifter and a grafter to you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA what?\u201d said Uncle Ellery with a smile.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI met someone who called him that,\u201d replied Ari. He gave a fleeting thought to describing what he\u2019d seen in the deli…but it still made no sense to him. Uncle Ellery would most likely say it was a dream, and maybe it really had been.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cUncle Ellery,\u201d said Ari, \u201cwould fleas die at three-hundred degrees?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI guess they would,\u201d said Uncle Ellery, \u201cand so would anything they\u2019re living on. Are you doing something weird in science?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYeah,\u201d said Ari, hoping Uncle Ellery wouldn\u2019t ask any more questions.<\/p>\n
\n\tAri and Uncle Ellery climbed Duchy Street together and approached the Daylatch Academy gate, which stood as black and stark and cold as ever. Ari saw something pass over Uncle Ellery\u2019s face, but he couldn\u2019t tell whether it was something sad, or something scared.<\/p>\n
\n\tA speaker box sat on a post just inside the gate. There was a large black button under the speaker. Uncle Ellery reached through the gate and pushed the button.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYes?\u201d squawked an impatient female voice.<\/p>\n
\n\tUncle Ellery paused a moment, as if he preferred not to take this a step farther, then he said \u201cThis is Ellery Soffit. I have an appointment with Mr. Daylatch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter a moment, the impatient voice squawked \u201cThank you. Please proceed to the Conservatory.\u201d The iron gate creaked with a jolt and a rumble, opening just enough for a person to pass.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOk,\u201d said Uncle Ellery. \u201cHere we go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBeyond the black gate, a brick walkway stretched in front of them, leading to a square building, also of dark brick, which was brightened only barely by a glass and ironwork greenhouse attached to its face.<\/p>\n
\n\tTo the left, in the distance, was a long structure which reminded Ari more of a jail or a chicken coop than the dormitory Uncle Ellery said it was, and to the right something new was being built–something modern, windowless, and concrete.<\/p>\n
\n\tAri stepped on a brass \u201cS\u201d inlaid into the brick, and noticed a \u201cW\u201d to the left, an \u201cE\u201d to the right, and an \u201cN\u201d just ahead. They were walking across a compass rose, an ornate emblem centered in the middle of the letters with spikes like sunrays pointing in all four directions.<\/p>\n
\n\tA bell rang, making the usual startling school-bell racket, and Ari instinctively braced himself for a surge of children to come pouring noisily from the buildings, but there was no surge. Instead, there were several sharp blasts on whistles, followed by orderly and silent lines, each of about ten boys, coming from various doorways and filing wordlessly to other doorways under the grim surveillance of beefy men who looked just like the motorcyclists Ari had seen before, at the gate. He watched at the boys, but very few of them returned his gaze. Some looked tired, some grumpy, but most were expressionless as they trudged by in their drab gray clothes.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cCripes,\u201d said Uncle Ellery. \u201cat least we got to wear blue in my day. At least we talked. Cripes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tUncle Ellery looked even less comfortable with this mission than he had before, but he put an arm around Ari, pointed at the glass room straight ahead, and said \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThey went through a door of cracked glass held together by a rusty metal frame, into a room of more cracked glass and more rust.<\/p>\n
\n\tA squat woman sat at a desk in front of them. She reminded Ari of a toad with hair.
\n\t\u201cMr. Daylatch will be with you in a moment,\u201d she said, primly punching several buttons on a device in front of her with her stubby fingers.<\/p>\n
\n\tThere was nothing behind the woman but empty greenhouse space, with a few statues set on pedestals around the room. Ari supposed the room had once been full of plants, but now there was just a concrete lion near the right wall, a sphere near the door just ahead, a dog resembling the chihuahua Kipper on the left, and a concrete frog near the front end of the room. The floor was tiled, and much of the tile was cracked or missing, but a compass rose of inlaid tarnished brass was completely intact in the center of the floor, and north, straight ahead, pointed to the door, which was labeled \u201cWilton Daylatch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe door opened. Wilton Daylatch emerged, like a spider stepping away from its web. He smiled–most insincerely in Ari\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n
\n\tUncle Ellery had a very unusual look on his face. Was he afraid of Wilton Daylatch? Ari had never seen Uncle Ellery be afraid of anything before.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cTwo Soffits,\u201d said Daylatch. \u201cWhat a pleasure. Do come in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ari spent most of the next day trying to make sense out of what he\u2019d seen in the deli the night before. And when he wasn\u2019t doing that he was counting to ten. Or higher. At lunch in the school cafeteria Finbar Fenker yelled \u201cBe a taster, not a waster!\u201d and squirted pickle relish all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}