“Uh-huh,” said Jaime, putting his glasses back on. “Well, maybe if you can tell me what it is, I can ask Cricket if she took it.”

The guard looked from Jaime to Cricket to the furrowed brows of the residents in the lobby, then his shoulders seemed to sink in surrender. “You know what. I guess it doesn’t matter. I could get another, uh, another—”

“Very Important Something?” Jaime said.

Now it was the guard’s turn to snap his mouth shut. He marched back to his desk and dropped into his seat, his expression—what was the term?—ah yes, murderous.

Jaime turned to Cricket. “Are you okay?”

Cricket stared up at him as if she’d never seen him before. “Yes. I’m fine.”

“What about your friend here? Karl, are you okay?”

Thank you, yes, I’m perfectly well, Karl chittered. It’s been quite an adventure and I’ve built up something of an appetite. He held up the empty cheese curl bag.

Jaime took the empty bag, balled it up in his fist, and tossed it in the nearest trash can. “I think Karl needs some more cheese curls.”

What a smart boy, Karl thought. Good and kind. Some might even say heroic. By the way she was gazing up at him, Cricket might say exactly that.

If she had been anyone but Zelda “Cricket” Moran, that is.

“I don’t like that man,” Cricket said. “He’s PECULIAR.”

“I don’t like him, either,” said Jaime. “But you should probably avoid him from now on. I’ll talk to your parents. You didn’t take anything from his desk, did you?”

“Hmmph,” Cricket said.

“Cricket?”

“I don’t take things, I CONFISCATE them.”

“Okay, did you confiscate anything from his desk?”

“I might have confiscated a wiggle worm,” Cricket said.

“A what?”

“A WIGGLE WORM.”

“Yes, but—”

“It’s a WORM and it WIGGLES,” Cricket said.

“Okay?” said Jaime, clearly confused. “Where’s the wiggle worm now?”

“I gave it to Karl. He ate it.”

Karl chittered, The child did indeed give me said wiggle worm, Kind Sir, but I did not eat it. I would much prefer a cheese curl.

“Well,” Jaime said. “Don’t take any more, uh, wiggle worms from anywhere.”

Cricket crossed her arms. “I don’t take anything.”

“Confiscate, then,” said Jaime.

“I’m not making any promises,” Cricket said. “This place is too PECULIAR.”

Karl was growing weary of this kind of talk; he was hungry and in need of a snack and a nap, in that order. He wished he could simply ask for these things in a tongue they could understand. It would be so much simpler.