Chapter 13: Matt's Marvelous Plan

As soon as dinner was over, Matt ran up to his bedroom and got out his walkie-talkie. Moving his chair next to his window, he sat down and waited for Gerallt to signal him that it was safe to talk.

After about twenty minutes, Matt saw Gerallt wave an oil lamp briefly in front of the window and then disappear He returned holding something in his hand.

"Hello, Gerallt," Matt spoke softly into his walkie-talkie. "Can you hear me?"

"Ayuh, I hear you!" Gerallt replied excitedly. "This is honkin' great! So how are you holdin' up bein' grounded?"

"Not so bad. Tina's been pretty nice, fixing me special dinners, and I have some books I've been meaning to read. How about you?"

"Gwyneth is givin' me the silent treatment. Gareth and Ahnt Vivianne sometimes stop by foah a while, but then they're gone, and it's just Nightwing and me. I'm going tah go crazy if I have to stay in heah foah a whole month."

"What about your mom?"

"She's the worst. The only time Mothah talks tah me is tah give me a lecture about how important it is for us tah not draw attention tah ourselves. That the Goddess's gifts must remain hidden, and we can nevah evah give anyone a reason tah associate us with them. As fah as she's concerned, I've let everyone down: her, Ahnt Vivianne, the whole family."

"But you're innocent! We both are."

"Ayuh. Colin, Clayton, and Dylan really got us good. We can't let them get away with this. But, what ah we goin' tah do?"

"I'm not sure. Since I can't think of a way for us to prove we're innocent, we need to find a way to prove they're guilty. What we really need is to get them to confess. Is there some way we can scare them into confessing?"

"No way. Mothah would kill me if I threatened them. Anyway, it would just make them look like they're telling the truth about me threatenin' tah hex them. Besides, she made sure I couldn't, even if I wanted to."

"What do you mean, making sure you couldn't? What did she do?"

"Mothah confiscated my..." Gerallt paused. "Anyway, she confiscated somethin', and I can't do anything without it. If I tried tah sneak out of my room tah find out where she hid it and she caught me, she'd ground me forevah. She'd homeschool me foah sure. We'ah just going tah have tah do somethin' else."

"Like what?"

"What about usin' some of youah gadgets, like this..., this..., what did you call this thing, again?"

"A walkie-talkie."

"Oh yeah, a walkie-talkie. So, isn't theah some electronic thing like this that we can use tah record them confessin' what they did tah us?"

"Well, I suppose we could use the microcassette recorder my dad let me have. It's small enough I could hide it in my pocket. But how are we going to get them to confess? With the in-school suspension, we can't even get close to them. And there's another problem. Even if we got them to confess, they'd just say we forced it out of them. Besides, they're not likely to confess in front of us, anyway."

"I got it!" Gerallt exclaimed. "You know how they always eat lunch at the same table in the cafeteria. Maybe we can hide it undah the table and record them talkin'. They're always braggin' about what they've done when they think no one's listenin'."

"Good idea! I could duct tape it to the underside of the table. Sooner or later, they're bound to say something useful."

"But how are we going tah do that? We're stuck in the detention room, and the cafeteria's crowded by the time we get there. They'll already be sittin' at the table, or if we somehow managed tah get there before them, they might still see us around theah table and get suspicious. We really need someone who'd hide it foah us. Gwyneth's on Mothah's side so she certainly won't. How about Tina?"

"Sure, she'd do it. I'll ask her tonight. Oh wait... we still have a problem. She'll have to hide it there early so she won't be seen. But the tape recorder can only record for thirty minutes. It might run out of tape before lunch starts. I'm going to have to rig up some kind of timer for it."

"Can you do that?"

"I think so. I have a small, mechanical alarm clock. I should be able to hook it up to the recorder. Then when the alarm goes off, it will start recording instead of ringing."

Matt heard the muffled sound of someone climbing the stairs outside his bedroom door. "Someone's coming. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Matt hid his walkie-talkie under his mattress and returned his chair to his desk. Then he got to work. The small alarm clock and microcassette recorder were in an old shoebox Matt used to keep things he eventually wanted to take apart to see how they worked. Setting them on his desk, he took out a screwdriver, soldering iron, scissors, and duct tape. An hour later, he'd wired the alarm clock to the tape recorder and mounted both in a small box that he'd made out of pieces cut from the shoebox. It wasn't pretty, but it was small, relatively flat, and it worked when Matt tested it. Now, all he needed was to borrow the duct tape and explain the plan to Tina.

A few minutes later, Matt knocked on Tina's bedroom door.

"Come in," Tina said.

Matt walked in to see her lying on her bed, reading her French textbook. "You busy?" Matt asked, not sure where to begin.

"Not really," Tina answered, putting down the book as she got up from her bed. "So, what's in the box, Baby Brother?"

"Well," Matt answered, forcing himself to not point out that she was only four minutes older. "Gerallt and I have been using my walkie-talkies to discuss what to do about Colin, Clayton, and Dylan."

"Ingenious, but you'd better be careful not to let Dad find out. He's still worried that Gerallt's a bad influence on you. If you don't watch out, he could do more than just ground you."

"Yeah, I know. But we need to prove we're innocent, and the only thing we can think of is to get them to confess they set us up."

"You're probably right, but somehow I don't see them doing that anytime soon. So, what's your plan? And you still haven't told me what's in the box."

"Well, I wired the guts of an old alarm clock to my microcassette recorder so it will start taping instead of ringing when the alarm goes off. If I set the alarm for lunchtime, and we hide it under the table where Colin, Clayton, and Dylan always eat, it might record them talking about what they did to us. So, what do you think?" Matt handed the box to Tina.

"Not half bad, Matt," she said, with reluctant admiration as she looked over his invention. "This just might work. But how are you going to hide it if you're stuck in the detention room all day? Oh... When you said 'we,' what you really meant was me. So, what do you want me to do?"

The next day after the children had left for school, Gwendolyn and Vivianne were sitting in the parlor discussing what to do about Gerallt.

"I don't know what tah do with him anymoah," Gwendolyn confided. "Every time I talk tah him, he just gets ugly and won't listen. I don't know what else I can take away from him, and I'm just about at my wit's end. He won't confess, and until he admits his guilt, I don't see how I can trust him to not misuse his amulet."

"It might be that Gerallt just needs more time," Vivianne suggested. "Besides, I've talked tah him several times, and I'm not at all convinced he's as guilty as you think. I know his accusers. Colin, Clayton, and Dylan are bad seeds. Why I wouldn't put it past them tah have planned the whole thing just tah get Gerallt and Matt in a gaum."

"I don't know. The principal and the two teachahs seemed very sure of themselves. And I don't trust Matt. He's an outsidah, and he could easily have tempted Gerallt with his electronic wonders tah violate our laws and traditions. Gerallt could have been extortin' money for Matt in exchange foah some modern marvel or other."

"I don't think so. I've watched Matt closely foah the last couple of months, and he's not like the othah boys. He's worked hard and been respectful. In fact, I've grown tah like him. More importantly, I trust him. In fact, he's reminded me that there are good kids, even among the outsidahs. He's earned plenty of money workin' foah me. It doesn't make sense he'd risk his job just tah push Gerallt intah extorting a few dollars from his classmates. I really think blamin' Matt's a red herring."

"I want tah trust Gerallt, but I've got tah know foah sure, and the uncertainty is killin' me. I've been thinkin' that maybe I should search his room. Then if I find the money or some electronic plaything, I'll know foah sure he's guilty and can confront him with it."

"I'm not sure that's wise, deah. This situation has already strained youah relationship with Gerallt, and he's at an age where a certain amount of rebellion is natural. You don't want tah totally destroy his trust and drive him away."

Gwendolyn looked puzzled. "So, what should I do? I've got tah do somethin'."

"Perhaps there's another way. Maybe I should be the one tah search his room. Then, if I find anythin', you can say it was my idear. That way, you won't be breakin' his trust."

"I guess if you really think it's best."

"I do." Vivianne left her niece and headed up the two flights of stairs to Gerallt's room. Opening his door, she pulled a short wand of polished oak out of a pocket in her dress and waved it at the dresser. "Magna Dea, inveni, quaesumus, quod absconditum est!"

Nothing happened.

Next, she walked over to Gerallt's desk and repeated the incantation. Once again, nothing happened. With growing relief, she turned and waved her wand over his bed with the same results. Finally, she stepped up to his closet, a tall antique oak wardrobe that stood along the wall just inside the door.

This time when she intoned the incantation, the tip of the wand glowed and shot out a green ray of light that illuminated the top of the wardrobe. With a mixture of worry and resignation, she dragged Gerallt's desk chair over to the wardrobe, climbed up, and peered over the top. She saw a small wooden box that didn't belong there.

Vivianne hesitated a moment and then lifted its lid to see the battered old walkie-talkie and extra batteries Matt had given Gerallt. Then she smiled with relief and closed the box, carefully replacing it and the chair where she found them. She headed down to where her niece sat, waiting and worrying.

"Did you find anythin'?" Gwendolyn asked nervously, as Vivianne reentered the parlor. "Did you find the money? Or anything electronic?"

Vivianne Hawthorne gazed down with concern at the worried expression on her niece's pale face. Deciding that what she found was not worth worrying her niece about, she replied, "No, deah, there's nothin' in Gerallt's room that doesn't belong theah."

Gwendolyn looked relieved. Maybe Gerallt was telling the truth after all.