Battle of the Beasts

“Mom, the house is called Kristoff House. You can’t take down the pictures of the Kristoffs,” Eleanor had said the other week, when Mrs Walker showed up in the hallway with pliers and putty. Eleanor was nine; she had strong opinions.

“But we own the house now, Eleanor. Wasn’t it you who suggested that we start calling it Walker House?”

“Yeah, but now I think we should respect the original owners,” replied Eleanor.

“It gives the place historical integrity,” Cordelia agreed. She was three years older than Brendan, about to turn sixteen, although she sounded like she was in her thirties. “It’s like when they change the name of a baseball stadium to Billionaire Corporation Field. It’s fake.”

“Fine,” Mrs Walker sighed. “It’s your house. I just live here.”

Mrs Walker left, allowing the Walker siblings to speak more freely. Just looking at the pictures brought them back to the fantastic adventures they had been on in Kristoff House – the certifiably crazy, never-talk-about-them-because-you’ll-be-put-away adventures. The adventures about which Brendan thought: If any of us ever gets married, and we tell people, “The best day of my life was when I got married,” we’ll be lying. Because the best day of our lives was when we got home safe, six weeks ago.

“It really does make sense to keep the Kristoffs up,” Cordelia said. “They’re the ones responsible for this whole … situation.”

“What situation? The situation where we’re rich?” Eleanor asked.

It felt weird to say. But it was true. At the end of the Walkers’ certifiable adventures, when Eleanor had made the wish in the magical book (or cursed book, really) to banish the Wind Witch, she’d also wished for her family to be rich. The Walker parents had ended up with ten million dollars in their savings account as a “settlement” for Dr Walker. Now the family was living very comfortably because of it.

“There’s that,” Cordelia said, “and there’s the situation where we live in mortal fear because the Wind Witch could come back.” She looked at Denver Kristoff’s picture. “Or the Storm King.”

Brendan shuddered. He didn’t like to think about the Storm King, the persona Denver Kristoff took for himself after he became a wizard warped by TheBook of Doom and Desire. The book – the same book that had given the Walkers their newfound wealth – was blank, but if you wrote a wish on a piece of paper and slipped it inside, the wish came true. As one might imagine, prolonged use of such a magical artifact had terrible effects on the body and mind, and, in Denver Kristoff’s case, had turned him into the monstrous Storm King. All of that was scary enough, but the real problem was that the Storm King was AWOL – the kids had no idea where he was.

He might be living in Berkeley.

“Here’s what I think,” Brendan said. “For the month or however long it’s been since we got home, those pictures have stayed up, and we haven’t had to deal with the Kristoffs in real life. Is that a coincidence? Probably. But in this house, you never know. So it’s safer to keep them up.”

Eleanor grabbed his hand. He grabbed Cordelia’s. For a brief moment, they all made a silent wish that it was really over.

Now Brendan rushed past the pictures down the spiral stairs to the kitchen. The room had been nice when the Walkers bought Kristoff House, but after the ten-million-dollar cash infusion, Mrs Walker had gone a little nuts, picking up a fancy French stove that cost more than a Lexus.

“Here,” Mrs Walker said as Brendan took a seat between his sisters at the marble countertop. His mother handed him a plate of warmish blueberry pancakes. He looked left and right: Cordelia was reading; Eleanor was playing a game on her mom’s iPhone.

“Look who decided to wake up,” Cordelia said.

“Yeah, what were you doing up there?” Eleanor asked.

Brendan tucked into his pancakes. They were good. But they had been just as good back in their old apartment.

“Wuhting fuh uh uhmportunt puhckuge,” Brendan said with his mouth full.

“Ew! Could you chew and talk separately?” Eleanor said.

“Why? Who’s watching me?” Brendan washed down the pancakes with almond milk. “We’re not in the dining hall, are we? Is one of your new friends who owns every single American Girl doll going to see me?”

“It’s not like that,” Eleanor said. “You’re just supposed to have manners and you don’t.”

“You never cared before,” Brendan said.

“Families that are rich are supposed to be nice!”

“Okay, hold on,” Mrs Walker said. She looked at all three of her children. In many ways they appeared the same as they had before the family moved into Kristoff House: spiky-haired Brendan; Cordelia with her fringe over her eyes like a shield; Eleanor with her nose scrunched, ready to take on a challenge … but they all felt different.

“I don’t want to hear you use the r word, Eleanor. I know things have changed since your father’s settlement—”

“Where is Dad, anyway?” Cordelia asked.

“He’s out for a run,” Mrs Walker said, “and—”

“All morning? Is he training for the marathon?”

“Don’t change the subject! Now, even though we are financially in a better place, we are still the family we always were.”

The Walkers looked at one another, then at their mom. It was tough to believe her when she was standing in front of so much high-end kitchen equipment.

“That means that we respect each other, so we don’t do things like chew and talk at the same time. But it also means we’re kind to each other. If we’re offended by something, we nicely ask the other person to change what they’re doing. Is that clear?”

Cordelia and Eleanor nodded, although Cordelia was already back in her music – she had found a band from Iceland that she liked; they sounded … “Cold” is the best way to put it, Cordelia thought. They make the coldest music I’ve ever heard.

And Cordelia liked feeling cold these days. Numb. It was one of the only ways she had to deal with the craziness that had happened to her. She could never tell anyone what she’d been through – never write about it or speak about it. It would be better to forget it ever happened. But that wasn’t easy, so she tried to distract herself; for instance, she’d had a TV installed in her bedroom. At first it was to keep up with Brendan, who’d had both a TV and a beef jerky-dispensing machine installed in his attic (or as Cordelia liked to call it, his “not-quite-a-man cave”). But it had grown to be a source of comfort for her, along with music, because it allowed her to numb the swirling emotions she had about where she’d been and what she’d done. Reading used to provide that escape for Cordelia, but books were harder for her to enjoy now – books, after all, were what had gotten her into trouble in the first place! I’m changing, she thought. And I’m not so sure it’s a good thing. But she couldn’t dwell on this now, because Brendan had spotted the FedEx truck outside.

“Brendan! Where are you going?”

He was tearing out of the kitchen, rushing past the suit of armour in the hallway, under the chandelier, out of the big front doors, into the chilly San Francisco air, down the path that slalomed the gigantic oak trees on the pristine lawn, past the new driveway with his dad’s new Ferrari parked in it … all the way to Sea Cliff Avenue, where the truck was parked by a man in a blue-and-orange uniform.

“Brendan Walker?”

“That’s me!” Brendan said, signing for the package and opening it on the pavement. He pulled out what was inside … and gasped.

(#ulink_5afc35f6-e9bb-57c1-870d-466eabf9b776)

Cordelia and Eleanor were down the path and practically on top of their brother before he could appreciate his delivery. He held up—

“A backpack?” Cordelia asked.

“Not just a backpack,” Brendan said. “A Mastermind backpack, from Japan. You see this skull logo on the back? Real diamonds.”

“Like the crystal skull from Indiana Jones?” Eleanor asked.

“No! Cooler than that! This is one of the most exclusive backpacks in the world! There were only fifty of them ever made!”

“Where did you get it?” Cordelia asked.

“From a website,” Brendan said.

His mother was coming down the path. He gulped. He’d been rehearsing for this moment.

“Brendan! What is that?”

“Well, Mom, it’s a—”