“How did he react?” Chelsea asked.
Abby shrugged. “He was glad, I think, but I’m not sure. He’d spent the day searching. Everything in my room had been moved. Not a lot, but enough that I knew it was different. What does he want from us?”
“And what do you two want?” Scully asked, his eyes narrowed at the adults.
“Honestly,” Eli said, “we don’t know what the man is after. We don’t know anything about him for sure.”
“Except that he steals money from Abby’s mom,” Scully said. “Have you ever seen a man do that?”
“Yes,” Eli said. “When I was a kid, I had to watch my biological father come up with lie after lie to get my mother to give him money. He didn’t need it; he just wanted to win the game.”
“Orin needs it,” Abby said. “He’s poor.” She looked at her hands.
Scully spoke up. “Abby’s mom said they have to be nice because of what Abby’s dad did to him.”
“He did not do that!” Abby said. “I’ll never believe it!”
“I know,” Scully said softly, “but—”
“I don’t think your dad did anything bad, either,” Chelsea said, “and I have some photos you should see.” She got her camera and quickly flipped through to the ones she’d taken of Orin and his healthy wife at their big house beside a lake.
“This is his house?” Abby asked, sounding confused. “Who is that woman?”
Now it was Chelsea and Eli’s turn to tell how everything had come about. Chelsea did most of the talking, starting with the overnight camping that she’d hated so much. “It was all dirt and mosquitoes,” she said, “but Eli wanted to do it, so of course I followed him. Here, I’ll show you.”
Getting up, she got the box where she knew Eli kept photos of the two of them as kids. There was astonishment from the teenagers as they saw how pretty Chelsea was, and how thin and geeky Eli was.
Throughout the story, Scully kept his eyes on Eli, watching him and seeming to be puzzled.
When Chelsea finished her story, she showed Abby a photo she’d just received from her mother. “It’s a dress I wore when I was younger. My mother keeps everything. I thought it might fit you.”
The dress in the picture was pale pink, floor length, strapless, and covered with thousands of tiny crystals. They were most dense at the waist, then gradually lessened top and bottom.
“Wow,” Abby said. “That’s beautiful.”
“My mom can send it if you’d like, and you can wear it to the dance.”
“Could I?” Abby said in wonder. “But I don’t have shoes.”
“I have some Manolos that might fit you.”
“Oh.” Abby seemed to be incapable of speech.
“Let’s go upstairs and see what we can find,” Chelsea said.
Eli stood up. “Want to see my new game?” he asked Scully. They went into the living room and turned on the TV. In seconds, the game box was on. They sat side by side, their hands filled with the controllers.
“How did you get the new Trafalgar Warriors game?” Scully asked. “No! Don’t go that way. There’s always a trap there.”
“I know,” Eli said. “It was too predictable so I changed it. Go left, but avoid tha
t rock. I put snakes under it.”
“You . . .” Scully looked at Eli. “You wrote this game?”
“I had to do something. The government pays me nothing, and how was I going to win Chelsea back if I was broke? Leap over that open pit.”
Scully agilely moved the controls to miss the demon that jumped out of the hole. “Win her back from what?”