We got to Mount Rushmore. Eventually.
Tina must have felt responsible for the way things went down with the pirate man, because after another hour of walking, she wished for a nice old granny to pick us up on the interstate. I thought she got off easy, the Universe’s consequence causing Tina’s socks to turn to dust.
I wished for a new backpack, for which I sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” for a half hour straight. I think that kind of annoyed the granny who was driving.
She drove us west for several hours and dropped us off in a town I’d never heard of. From there, we used some money Tina had to catch a bus up north until we reached the national tourist destination.
“I can’t believe that guy,” Ridge muttered as we got off the bus. It didn’t matter that it was now late in the night, and our exchange with the roadside pirate had happened almost twelve hours earlier. The insult still felt fresh and we were all feeling a little upset about it.
The moon was full, the night was warm, and there were hardly any tourists hanging around the park so late. The four of us strolled through the front entrance and down a walkway lined with flags until we stood at a big open terrace, where we got our first view of the famous mountain sculpture.
“Hmm,” I said. “It’s smaller than I imagined.” Far out in the distance, the stone faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln were brightly illuminated by powerful unseen lights.
“It only looks small because we’re far away,” Tina said. “If we get closer, they’ll be like giants.” She turned to me. “What’s next, Ace?”
Another reason that I hadn’t mentioned more than our destination was because the instructions on the missing page of the notebook seemed absolutely bizarre. I wanted to make sure that Tina was committed to our quests before I explained the craziness.
“Here’s what the page said,” I began. “‘The Undiscovered Genie jar is hidden in a cave. To reach it, you will need to pass through certain tasks. Completing each task will enable you to receive a key to enter the Cave of the Undiscovered Genie.’”
I paused.
“Is that it?” Tina asked.
“There’s more. This next part is where it starts getting weird.” I began to quote again. “‘The first task will take place at Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Using your hand, you must poke Theodore Roosevelt in the right eye.’”
The others waited for me to go on, but this time I was finished. There wasn’t a lot of information. We’d just have to trust that the Universe had revealed the right thing. No matter how strange it seemed to poke a statue in the eye.
“Okay,” Tina said, glancing toward the distantly illuminated stone faces. “So Thackary Anderthon is going to try to climb the face?”
“Unless he already did,” I pointed out. “We have no way of knowing what kind of head start he had.”
“We’re too far behind,” Ridge said, seating himself upon the low stone wall of the terrace.
“It’s a waste of time sitting around here and hoping he shows up,” I said. “If Thackary is ahead of us, then our best chance at stopping him might be to beat him to the cave.”
“You think we should go ahead and do the task?” Tina said. “Climb up there and poke Roosevelt’s eye?”
“It’s the smartest move,” I said. “And if we happen to run into Thackary tonight, we can nab him and sit on him for the rest of the week.” How was that for a pep talk? “But Tina and I should definitely poke the president’s eye so we can complete the task. Otherwise we won’t qualify for the key when we get to the Cave of the Undiscovered Genie.”
The others were nodding their approval, which made me feel very smart for coming up with a good plan.
“Let’s head over to the faces,” Vale said. “They’re shutting off the lights in fifteen minutes.”
“How do you know everything?” Ridge asked, shaking his head in amazement at her.
Vale gestured over her shoulder. “It’s not a mystery. I read the sign when we came in.”
“Not all of us can read,” I pointed out, as Tina led the way off the illuminated terrace.
We passed an amphitheater and stepped onto a boardwalk that led down into the trees. Even though I couldn’t read, I’d seen a diagram on a sign that showed how the boardwalk would take tourists on a big loop, passing them just at the base of the sculpted mountain.
The four of us moved quickly and quietly into the dark tunnel of trees. Off both sides of the boardwalk, I could see that the terrain was littered with rocks of all sizes. The Universe would shield onlookers from strange, magical things. But if we didn’t find a place to hide until the lights turned off, we’d look like four loitering delinquents.
“This is pretty exciting, don’t you think?” Ridge suddenly asked at my side. “Sneaking around, saving the world . . .”
I grinned, glad that he was enjoying himself. Sure, he seemed a little clueless at times, but I was grateful that Ridge was an experienced genie. I didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into, so I’d be relying on him.
“You’ve got to admit,” he continued, “this is probably the most exciting thing you’ve ever done.”
Without knowing anything about my former life, I didn’t know how to respond to Ridge. I stuck my hand into my pocket, flicking the edge of my card. I’d carried it with me for as long as I could remember. Maybe once we settled into our hiding place, I’d ask him my burning question. I could make the wish and finally get some answers.
“Here,” said Tina, pointing off the side of the boardwalk. We were at a scenic point, at the very base of the big mountain carving. Far above, I saw the four famous faces, and I was surprised that tourists weren’t allowed to get any closer. Between us and the giant heads was a sharply rising slope of loose stone chunks.
Tina vaulted over the railing, her feet crunching on the rocks as she picked her way over to a hefty boulder and small outcropping of trees. It was the perfect hiding place, allowing us to be concealed from the park rangers but stay in sight of Roosevelt’s big face.
In a moment, all four of us were hunched among the fallen pieces of stone, waiting for the lights to go out so we could trespass in peace. Tina seemed careful not to sit down while we hid. I was glad she hadn’t forgotten her consequence. Screaming would really blow our cover.
I glanced sideways at Tina and Vale. They were ruining the moment I thought I’d have to ask Ridge about my past. I didn’t dare speak the wish in front of the girls. Learning that secret about myself was far too personal to spill in front of two people I barely knew.
The lights went out. It hadn’t really occurred to me that we were hiding in a forest until it became completely dark. As far as I knew, I’d never been in a forest before. I only knew the orphanage, where they took me after I woke up in the hospital, and then two foster homes before the Lindons’.
There is something eerie about a forest at night. I decided to get a conversation going to distract myself from the rustling sounds that could possibly be bears coming to munch on us.
“What do you think is the best way to reach Roosevelt’s eye?” I asked.
“It makes sense to come down from the top,” said Tina. “We shouldn’t have anyone trying to stop us.”
“Unless Thackary’s here,” muttered Ridge.
“Still, he shouldn’t be too hard to capture,” I answered. “It’s not like he’s a Wishmaker.”
“Hopefully, he’s an ex-Wishmaker,” Tina said, reminding us that she had a quest, too. In some ways it felt like we were working against each other. I was spending all my time thinking about how to stop Thackary. Tina was spending all her time thinking about how to save him.
“Enough talk,” said Vale. “Let’s go.”
The redheaded genie was right. We had waited long enough. I stood up, peering across the slope of loose rocks toward the carved faces. I was about to say something inspiring when the boulder we were hiding behind suddenly attacked us.