Mallory knocked her fist hard on the front door of the Water Castle and called out, “Ephraim!”
After she’d been on the roof, she’d come back down into the lab and then out through the tunnels to the bottling plant. She’d sat up on one of the counters in the cool, marble room and glanced up at the bits of sky that she could see between the ivy leaves. She was thinking about how the spaces between the ivy seemed as real and solid as the ivy itself when an idea came over her. The pieces fell together and for a moment, she thought she understood the writing in the book. She thought, but she wasn’t sure. She knew she needed to find Ephraim and Will.
She banged on the door again. “Ephraim!”
Price opened the door and looked her up and down as she stood there panting and wide-eyed. “You okay?” he asked.
“Where’s Ephraim?” she asked.
“Don’t know and don’t care.”
“I need to see him.”
Price arched his eyebrows and then leaned against the doorway. “You need to see him?” he asked. “I don’t think anyone’s ever needed to see Ephraim before, not in his whole sad, sorry life.”
“He’s with Will,” Brynn said, peeking from around her brother.
“Good. We need to find them right away. I figured it out. Maybe.”
“You did?” Brynn asked.
“Figured what out?” Price asked, now standing up straight.
“The water. The cure. Everything.”
Price looked from Brynn to Mallory and then back to Brynn again. “I can’t believe the two of you are in on this, too. I thought you both had a little bit of common sense. You’re as crazy as he is.”
Mallory’s cheeks burned. She had been called crazy all her life, but it hurt more this time, not because it was coming from Price, but because now she was so sure she was right. All the stories her parents had told her, they hadn’t been lies to amuse her. They had prettied it up and made it into a fairy tale, but the essence was true. The house was powerful. The water was magical. Her parents had told her the truth.
“It’s not crazy. It’s chemistry, sort of. About the water.” She took a deep breath and started over, trying to sound as sane and reasonable as possible. “It’s not all straight in my head. It’s like those optical illusions where you look at the picture and it’s a rabbit but it’s also a woman. Most of the time I just see the rabbit, but sometimes I see the woman, and sometimes, for just a second I can see them both, and I can see how it works.”
Price slouched against the door frame, but at least he was listening.
“Okay, listen, have you heard the stories about this place? About the water?”
Price gave a half shrug. “Yeah, sure. I mean, that’s how these people made their money, right? Selling the water?”
“Exactly. They told people it was special and that it could cure them.”
“Yeah. It was stupid. And Ephraim was stupid for believing it and almost gagging our dad.”
“He was just trying to help,” Brynn said softly.
“Maybe they were exaggerating, but every legend has a little bit of truth, right?” She kept going before they could challenge her. “What if the stories about the water are kind of true? I mean, it would explain a lot about Crystal Springs.”
“Like what?” Price asked.
“Like how people here are smarter and stronger. Even you,” she said. “Ephraim told me about you setting the pool record. You were a good athlete before, but now you’re great.”
“I guess,” Price said, grinning.
“So it seems possible that the water actually causes mutations, making people smarter and stronger. Like maybe there’s something in the water. Something that’s only here in Crystal Springs.” She held up the book she’d been analyzing. “I think there might be some new element in the water, something that no one else has known about.”
“It sounds like X-Men,” Price scoffed. “And I’m not a mutant.”
“Okay,” Mallory said. “I know it sounds far-fetched, but just bear with me a minute. Let’s say there is something in the water. And let’s say it really does affect people. What if they found a way to strengthen it?”
“How?” Brynn asked.
Mallory slumped. “That’s the part I’m not so sure about. But here’s what I know about this place. First, there’s a high level of radioactivity here. Did Ephraim tell you about the Geiger counter?”
“He mentioned something once.”
“Ms. Little measured all of us and everyone was higher than they should be. Everyone, but especially Ephraim. Ian said something about radiation giving us superpowers, which I thought was stupid at the time, but now maybe he was on to something. Anyway, I don’t know if the radiation is coming from the water or if it’s part of what makes the water stronger, but I think it’s part of it.”
“If the water is radioactive, why don’t we all have cancer?” Price asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s something in the water that protects us, too.” She shrugged. “But there’s also the house itself. You’ve seen the blue glow and the flashes, right?”
Price nodded. “Sure.”
“Okay, well, those flashes are like lightning bolts, right? Which means electricity must be being discharged. That’s what lightning is. It’s like with the Van de Graaff generator. The whole house is getting charged with electricity somehow.” She thought about the generator and how the band inside spun around while electrons were sprayed onto it, building up a charge. She wasn’t sure how the house was building up a charge. There had to be something special about the way that it was built. She widened her eyes. Another cog slipped into place. “The frame of the house! It’s all metal, with the stone placed around it. It was a big deal at the time. My dad said they did it because Angus Appledore was afraid of fires.”
“Fat lot of good it did him,” Price said.
“The metal could hold the charge. I’m not one hundred percent sure where the charge is coming from, but it could just come from the atmosphere, or even the earth, since the house is built right into the bedrock.”
Brynn nodded. “So the glow is the air being charged?”
“Right,” Mallory said. “And the flash, that’s just like lightning, except instead of going from the cloud to the ground, it’s going from your house up.”
Price did not look convinced, but Brynn said, “I guess it’s possible.”
“I wish I could be more clear. But you take that new element that’s only in the water in Crystal Springs plus the radioactivity plus the light—it all has to add up to something, right?”
Price stood still in the doorway. Mallory looked to Brynn for support, but Brynn was staring down at her shoes with a furrowed brow as if she were still working through Mallory’s explanation.
“I’m not sure how it all goes together, but I know it does. Will’s the one who really understands this stuff. So let’s go find Ephraim and Will and show them this book I found and see what Will says. If it makes sense to him, then maybe you’ll believe it?”
“We don’t even know where they are,” Price said. “They could be anywhere.”
“They’re in the tunnels,” Brynn said. “Will wanted to see the stairs.”
“Why didn’t you say that before?” Mallory asked.
“You were telling your story,” Brynn said.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Mallory tried to run, but Price took long, loping strides across the yard to the bottling house as if he couldn’t be bothered. They descended the stairs in single file. “This is a total waste of time,” Price said as they started down the path. “I could be doing weight training for swimming, you know. I’ve got a big meet next weekend.” He kicked a stone so it skittered down the tunnel.
“Come on, we’re almost there,” Mallory cried over her shoulder. “The sooner we get there, the sooner you can get back to whatever it was that you needed to be doing.”
“I was in the middle of a set of pull-ups when you pounded on the door with your story about crazy-serum,” Price said. “That’s what’s really going on here. That’s what’s in the water. It’s crazy juice and you’ve all had your fill.”
Just as they reached the intersection and were about to turn toward the lab, they heard the scream.