The Candy Shop War
Page 13

Trevor held up his Moon Rock, studying it. “I wonder what happens if we bite them?”
“I bet our heads will explode,” said Nate. He looked around the circle; the others were all watching him with expectant looks on their faces. “Okay, I’ll do it first.” He popped the Moon Rock into his mouth.
“Feel any different?” Pigeon asked eagerly.
“A little,” Nate said. “Sort of tingly. It tastes really good. I almost feel . . .”
He moved to take a step and floated up into the air. He rose slowly, his feet reaching the height of Trevor’s eyes before he drifted downward to land gently on the ground.
“ . . . lighter,” Nate finished, bewildered.
They stared at each other in awed silence.
“They really are magical,” Pigeon finally murmured.
Nate tried a little hop, and this time he glided over Summer’s head, landing softly on the other side of her. He could almost have reached some of the overhanging branches of the trees. “It’s like I’m on the moon,” Nate said. “You know, the way the astronauts look on TV, bouncing around in low gravity.”
“Moon Rocks,” Trevor said. “I want to try.” He stuck his candy into his mouth and jumped hard. He launched up into the limbs of the tree above, catching hold of one to stop his ascent. “Whoa!” he called from his lofty perch. “It felt like I was heading into orbit.”
“I’m not sure Moon Rocks is the right name,” Pigeon said, examining his piece of crystallized sugar. “The gravity on the moon is roughly one-sixth that of earth. Which means you could jump six times higher there than you could here. But that branch is more than six times higher than Trevor can jump. And he was still heading up when he caught hold.”
“And you say you’re not a brain?” Nate said.
“I just like books about space,” Pigeon apologized.
“How do I get down?” Trevor asked. “This is freaky.”
“Just drop,” Pigeon said. “Since you jumped up there, it should feel no worse than falling a couple of feet.”
“I don’t know,” Trevor fretted. “What if it stops working? I could break my legs.”
Taking aim, Nate jumped toward the branch Trevor was clutching. He did not jump with everything he had, just a solid leap. He glided up through the air, feeling almost weightless. As he reached the apex of his trajectory, Nate came alongside Trevor and caught hold of the same limb.
“Watch,” Nate said, letting go and floating to the ground, gradually gaining a little speed. He landed just hard enough to make his knees bend a little. Trevor let go of the branch and landed the same way.
“You guys have to try this,” Trevor said.
“Maybe we should save ours,” Summer said. “They might come in handy when we’re out on adventures.”
“Mrs. White acted like we could get more,” Pigeon reminded her.
“For how much?” Summer replied. “A billion dollars?”
“Just try it,” Nate urged. “You’re not afraid, are you?”
Summer’s eyes hardened and she stuck the Moon Rock into her mouth. Pigeon did likewise. They both took a few experimental leaps. Pigeon could not stop giggling. Nate and Trevor bounded around as well.
“What if the candy really is drugs?” Pigeon asked. “What if we only think we’re jumping really high because our minds are warped?”
“You saw me jumping high before you tried the Moon Rock,” Nate pointed out.
“Oh, yeah,” Pigeon said.
“Over here,” Summer called. She stood at the brink of the steep bank above the creek. The others loped over to her with long, slow-motion strides. “Who wants to jump it?”
At this point the bank of the creek was more than ten feet high. The far bank was lower, and almost thirty feet away. “Your idea,” Nate said.
“I do everything first,” she complained.
“I tried the candy first,” Nate pointed out.
“Think I could get a running start?” she asked.
“You’d have to back up,” Nate said. “You could take a few steps if you pace yourself.”
“But carefully,” Trevor said. “If you misjudge, you could drift right into the water.”
“If you fall, be careful how you land,” Pigeon warned. “It will only feel like you fell a little ways, but the creekbed is rocky.”
Summer took a pair of long, low strides away from the creek and turned around. Keeping low, she started forward, pushing off tentatively with the first step, then much more forcefully with the second. Landing about four feet shy of the edge, she pushed off with all she had, soaring upward in a smooth, mild arc. She easily cleared the creekbed and had to fend off small branches before catching hold of a tree limb on the far bank. Letting go, she drifted to the ground. “Easy!” she challenged.
Duplicating the strategy Summer had used, Trevor took two steps, but he leapt from the edge more gently and landed ten feet beyond the far bank, stumbling slightly. Nate copied Trevor and landed in almost the same spot.
“I don’t know,” Pigeon said, staring down at the water.
“It’s no sweat, Pidge,” Trevor said.
“I don’t know,” Pigeon repeated.
“Go for it,” Nate said.
“Okay, okay.” Instead of backing up for a running start, Pigeon squatted and sprang, keeping his feet together. He rose very high but had little forward momentum. After he reached the zenith of his flight, his speed lazily increased as he descended toward the center of the shallow creek.
Summer crouched and sprang, moving low and relatively swiftly on a course to intercept Pigeon. They glided past each other, just out of reach. Pigeon hit the water with a splash and ended up on his backside. Summer had not jumped very high, so she hit the side of the far bank. Pushing off from the dirt wall, she drifted back over the creek to land near Nate. Pigeon spat out his candy and waded out of the creek, his soaked jeans a much darker blue.
“That was cool of you to go after Pigeon,” Nate said to Summer.
“You came close,” Trevor said encouragingly. “I didn’t even think to try.”
“How much of your Moon Rock has dissolved?” Summer asked Nate.
“I still have a good amount,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’m paying attention. I don’t want to run out in midflight.”
Pigeon waddled over to them, pants dripping. “As soon as I spat out the Moon Rock, my weight returned to normal,” Pigeon reported. “I wonder if that means you guys would seem really light to me?” He grabbed Trevor under his arms and hoisted him into the air. “Wow, it feels like you’re made of Styrofoam!” He tossed Trevor, who sailed more than ten feet before landing lightly.