42. Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Two
Morgan
Morgan walked as Gracie skipped. Gracie would get a bit ahead, and then stop, skip back to Morgan and do a full circle around her, and then do it all over again.
Maybe Cody was right, Morgan thought to herself. Maybe six kids is too many, especially if they all have the same non-stop energy as Gracie.
She pictured walking down the same dirt road, a baby in one of those wraps attached to her chest, five other kids skipping around her…Hmm, yeah. Maybe Cody was right.
“Aunty Morgan, I can use Grandpa Sam’s workshop today, right?” Gracie asked.
“Yes. If that’s what you want to do. We can also play on the beach or go for a walk in the forest, maybe you can climb some trees. Or we can drive into town and get a treat at the bakery.”
Gracie slowed her steps and kicked a pebble. “Nah, I got stuff to do in the workshop.”
Maybe that was best. Maybe she’d be able to figure some stuff out about what was going on with Gracie if she just let her play in the boring workshop. There was just an old wooden bench in there and a couple of plastic toy hammers and screwdrivers. Nothing actually useful.
“What’s so special about Grandpa Sam’s workshop, anyway?” Morgan asked as they reached Cody’s property.
“Um…I need to make stuff.” Gracie kept her head down, focused on the pebble she was kicking.
“What kind of stuff?”
“When do you think Mr. Pinecone Man is going to be done talking to my dad?” Gracie asked. “And is he gonna come back to his house and play with us when he’s done?”
“I’m not sure how long he’s going to be. But yes, I think he's going to head home when he’s done. Why?”
Gracie shrugged. They had reached the workshop behind Cody’s cottage. Cody had already told Nyrah and Yana they needed to stay indoors and out of sight, and it appeared they were following his instructions.
“I need to go work on stuff now,” Gracie said. “Alone.”
“Gracie…” Morgan began, but wasn’t sure what else to say. She wanted to ask about game screens, and what exactly she was doing in the workshop, but it felt silly. Gracie would think she was being weird if she was wrong about everything.
Gracie pulled open the rickety wooden door and stepped into the workshop. “Tell Mr. Pinecone Man I need his help when he comes back, okay?”
Before Morgan could answer, Gracie shut the door in her face and disappeared into the workshop.
Morgan stayed outside, listening. She could hear Gracie moving about, followed a moment later by some hammering, and then some muttering, and then silence.
After a few quiet moments passed, the whole thing started again.
Morgan carefully tiptoed to the door, peeking through the narrow crack.
All she could see was Gracie, blue plastic hammer in hand, whacking the wooden table.
Kids’ stuff, she thought. It’s just kids’ stuff.
Cody
Doug dismissed Cody, so he headed home, fishing rod resting on his shoulder. He was excited to let Morgan know that he had earned another Friendship Level with Doug, and he was also eager to see what Morgan and Gracie were up to in Grandpa Sam’s workshop.
He reached his property and headed straight over, leaning his rod on the side of the workshop. He waved hello to Morgan, who was sitting with her back against a tree, facing the workshop. Crashing and banging was coming from inside. He raised one eyebrow as he walked over to Morgan.
“So, she’s hard at work?” Cody asked, crouching next to Morgan.
“Yeah, and I’m not allowed in there, but she wants to talk to you. But real quick: how did it go with Doug?”
“Good. I earned another level with him. But he uh…gave me a job? Or more like, he forced me to take a job.”
“What? What job?”
“At the Food Mart, helping with deliveries.”
“He wants you to be a stockboy?”
Cody shrugged. “I guess. It’s only two days a week. I don’t mind, especially if it means he’s okay with us being together. I didn’t think he’d approve of the whole ‘early retirement’ thing, so I kind of told him I was writing a book, and that didn’t go over well at all.”
“You’re writing a book? Since when?”
“I dunno, since I got really into reading Grandpa Sam’s collection of romance for dudes? I actually haven’t had time to start. I have ideas, but life has been hectic. But I felt like I had to say something to Doug and that’s what I went with.”
“Well, let me know if you ever actually write a book. I will totally read it.”
Cody smiled. “I know. But I should probably let Gracie know I’m here now.”
“Go right ahead.”
Cody stood up, walked over to the workshop, and knocked on the door. “Gracie? It’s Mr. Pinecone Man.”
The hammering stopped and the door flung open. Gracie beamed up at him. “Mr. Pinecone Man! I need your help!” She grabbed his wrist with and yanked him inside.
“So…” Cody surveyed the barren space. It was more of a shed, really. A shed that happened to have a table in it. “What exactly do you need me for?”
“I need…” Gracie got that far off look in her eyes, the one Morgan had mentioned.
The one he was pretty sure he got when he consulted his game screen.
But then her eyes snapped back to him. “I need twenty-five Red Twirlies and fifty Little Itty Bitty Pinecones. And I’m also gonna need those Droppies. Were you able to get all the Droppies?”
“I found one hundred and ninety,” Cody said, deciding to ease into the bigger conversation he wanted to have. “How about you? Between the two of us, do we have enough?”
“Um…I have…” She got that same look again before refocusing on him. “Twenty-two. I can’t math the math that big on my own. Is that enough?”
“That’s more than enough! But first, you needed those Red Twirlies and Little Itty Bitty Pinecones?”
“Yep! You can put them right on the workbench, please!”
Cody hesitated. Previously, he’d been pretending to take things out of his pockets instead of grabbing them from thin air from his Inventory.
But he decided to perform a little experiment.
He brought up his Inventory, found what he needed, and dumped everything onto the workbench.
Gracie grinned up at him as Cody’s newest notification popped up.
[Congratulations! You have completed your fourth Friendship Level with Resident Gracie Callahan! Only one more to go until Full Friendship Achieved!]
“I knew it!” Gracie grinned, pointing at him. “I knew you were like Grandpa Sam!”
Cody couldn’t help but laugh, and he crouched down to be closer to eye-level with the little girl. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
Her smile faded and she chewed on her bottom lip, as if mulling over how much she wanted to say, even after her little outburst.
“Gracie, when you think about it, can you bring up a pink game screen?” Cody asked. “Is that what you’re doing when you’re checking your Inventory?”
Gracie wrinkled her nose. “No, silly, it’s a green screen.”
“Green?” Cody asked. Relief flowed through him. If her screen wasn’t pink, that could mean she was not in the same game as him. That meant she was not in Cottage Country, being controlled by Temica. But then…where was her green screen coming from?
“Do you know the name of your um…game?” Cody asked.
“Gem Craft,” she said matter-of-factly. “Why? I thought you were the same game as me. And Grandpa Sam. Don’t you have the same game stuff as me?”
“I think we’re in different games, which is actually a good thing.”
Gracie cocked her head to the side, her long black pigtails swaying. “You…you really believe me?”
“Yeah, kid. I believe you. One-hundred percent.”
She was quiet, just staring at him. Her bottom lip started to tremble, and Cody began to feel panicked. He had no idea how to handle a crying eight-year-old girl. Besides, he thought they were making progress. He wasn’t sure why tears were welling in her eyes.
“Daddy says I'm making it all up.” She sniffled and tears began rolling down her cheeks. “He says Grandpa Sam is really gone.”
Oh, right. But before he could say anything, she continued: “Grandpa Sam is not gone! He went away, it was something real important and he had to go real quick, but he’s not…
he’s not dead! But he can’t come back unless I do the things and collect the stuff!
But I can’t because my daddy won’t let me! But it’s real! It is!”
Cody’s heart ached for the kid. She was full on crying now.
Everything was bubbling out of her, as if she’d been dying to tell someone all of this for a very long time.
She had all these big, important secrets inside of her, and not a single adult who would take her seriously.
It was probably a lot like how Cody felt, when he wanted to tell Morgan the truth, to confide in her about Velasarin.
He had struggled with that as an adult, and now this little girl was struggling with the exact same thing.
“I believe you, Gracie,” he said. “And I’m going to help you.”
She sniffled and lunged at him, throwing her arms around his neck in a big hug.
He was still crouched down, and if the workshop wall hadn’t been right behind him, he would have fallen over.
He reached out and nudged the door open, so he could see Morgan, still sitting with her back against the tree.
When she saw Gracie’s tear-stained face and the bear hug she was giving him, Morgan’s eyes went wide.
She immediately got up and walked over. He quickly gave her a thumbs up, letting her know Gracie was relatively okay, just having an overflow of emotions.
“Gracie, honey, let’s give Mr. Pinecone Man some space,” Morgan said and gently pried her niece off of Cody.
“We can talk to your Aunty Morgan about this, too, okay?” Cody said to Gracie. “She’ll believe you. She already knows about my game stuff.”
The little girl was calming down now and wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. Cody brought up his Inventory and pulled out a paper napkin from the diner and handed it to her. She smiled and accepted it, using it to finish up drying her tears.
“Believe what?” Morgan asked.
Cody stood back up and faced Morgan. “It’s what we thought; she’s in a game, too. Something to do with Grandpa Sam.”
But he was going to be cautiously optimistic about Grandpa Sam still being alive. Something was going on, he was somehow connected to Gracie’s game stuff, but he wasn’t ready to fully latch onto the idea of Grandpa Sam being alive, just somewhere…else.
Gracie looked up at Morgan. “You really believe me?”
Morgan smiled warmly. “Yes. I do.”
“You can tell us what you’re working on, and we’ll try to help you,” Cody said.
“Okay, so, I need to follow my blueprint thingie and arrange my stuff and then I can show you guys a gemmy thing!” Gracie said, doing a complete one-eighty from sad crying child, to ready-to-get-stuff-done mode.
She turned to the workbench, grabbed her toy hammer, and a bunch of other random stuff appeared on the table, presumably pulled from her Inventory. Morgan gasped, and Cody leaned in, close to Morgan.
“I think we let her do her thing,” he said quietly.
Gracie started hammering and a cloud of thick dust rose up around the workbench. But in a matter of seconds it dissipated, revealing a smooth, oval-shaped red gem about the size and shape of an avocado. It was clear, like glass. Gracie picked it up and held it out for the adults to see.
“Can I?” Cody asked. Gracie nodded, so he picked it up, turning it over in his hand and inspecting it. “What exactly is this, Gracie?”
“A World Gem,” Gracie said.
“And what is a World Gem?” Morgan prompted.
“It goes in the World Arch.”
Cody handed the gem back. “And…what is a World Arch?”
“I haven’t made that yet.” The red gem disappeared from her palm, and Cody assumed she tucked it into her Inventory. “I need to make all the gems first, and that will unlock the blueprint for the arch.”
“Is there a reason you need to make this arch?” Cody asked.
“Yeah, so Grandpa Sam can come home through it.”
Cody and Morgan exchanged a worried look.
“How many gems do you need to make?” Cody decided to breeze right past the Grandpa Sam stuff for now.
“Twelve. I’ve already done, um…” She got that far off look in her eyes again. “Ten! So, I only need two more!”
“We can help you, okay?” Cody said. “What else do you need? You tell us, and we can get it for you.”
“Yeah, and no more running away from the babysitter,” Morgan said. “Got it?”
Gracie averted her gaze. “I just really want Grandpa Sam back. I’m sorry I ran away. But it’s really, really important.”
“But you have us now.” Morgan gave Gracie’s shoulder a squeeze. “Promise me, if you need something you tell me or Cody—”
“Mr. Pinecone Man,” Gracie corrected.
“Yes, you tell me or Mr. Pinecone Man, and we’ll collect the stuff for you, and then we’ll arrange for you to come play in the workshop with us,” Morgan said. “Does that sound like a plan?”
“Yep!” Gracie hugged Morgan around the waist. “Thank you, Aunty Morgan, and Mr. Pinecone Man!”
“One more thing.” Cody didn’t really like asking a kid to lie to their parents, but… “Maybe you don’t tell your dad we’re helping you, okay?”
Cody looked over at Morgan, and she nodded.
“Yeah, your daddy worries about you a lot and he doesn’t think any of this game stuff is real,” Morgan said. “So, maybe we keep this between the three of us?”
“Four,” Gracie said.
“Four?” Cody asked.
“Me, Aunty Morgan, Mr. Pinecone Man, and Grandpa Sam. That’s four.”
Cody exchanged yet another silent look with Morgan. “Yeah, sure. We keep it between the four of us.”