Duke's Den Page 2

  Water sloshed back and forth. Something gave a shrill squeak. A voice cried, “Beaker! Beaker! Beaker!”

  Finally Simon came back by himself, slammed the rear door of the van, jumped into the driver’s seat and sped away.

  Amelia pulled a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt over her pajamas and hurried out of the house, easing the front door shut behind her. She slipped around to the back. A light was shining from the apartment window beside the door, and she saw Duke and Gabriella standing in the kitchen, talking.

  The two bedroom lights were on. Amelia sidled along the wall and peered into the first room. It was the small bedroom, the one that had been empty.

  It wasn’t empty now. It was full of cages, glass tanks and plastic bins. She stared through the side of a wire cage at a bright black eye in a grayish-green scaly face. It looked like a little dinosaur!

  A hand clamped down hard on her shoulder.

  Amelia spun around.

  FOUR

  Duke! Amelia wriggled out of his grasp. Duke was big, but she wasn’t going to let him freak her out. “What’s going on?” she demanded.

  Duke gave her a long, hard look. “Are you one of those kids who has to blab everything?”

  “No! I’m awesome at keeping secrets.”

  “Then you’d better come inside.”

  Amelia followed Duke into the apartment. “Look who I found,” he said to Gabriella, who was kneeling on the kitchen floor beside a huge blue plastic bin full of water.

  “Amelia!” Gabriella said.

  Amelia dropped down onto the floor beside Gabriella and peered into the bin. Two round turtles, the size of dinner plates, swam lazily under the water. “Wow! They’re enormous!”

  “Romeo and Juliet,” Gabriella said. “They used to be cute and small, but they grew and now nobody wants them.”

  “Beaker! Beaker! Beaker!” cried a voice.

  Amelia gazed around.

  “Beaker! Beaker! Beaker!”

  It was coming from a cage at the end of the kitchen counter. Amelia walked over to have a look. She went cold inside with shock. “Oh my god,” she whispered. In the cage was a slim bird with sleek white feathers. His body looked normal. But his shoulders and neck were naked, the skin gray and scaly. He had a tiny bald head, with a few tufts of white down sticking up, and a scraggly white goatee.

  “What happened to him?” Amelia said.

  “Burned,” Duke said. “He escaped from his cage and got under a hot tub. They’re chemical burns, so he might have got into the filter or something. We don’t know for sure. The person who used to own him wouldn’t say. He just wanted to get rid of him.”

  Duke spoke quietly, but Amelia could hear anger simmering in his voice.

  “We call him Beaker,” Gabriella said. “Do not worry—he is not suffering. We have had him for five years now.”

  “So his feathers won’t grow back?” Amelia said.

  “Not on his head and neck,” Duke said. “He didn’t have any feathers at all when we got him, so he’s better off now. But Beaker doesn’t care anyway. He doesn’t know what he looks like.”

  “What kind of bird is he?” Amelia said.

  “A cockatiel.” Gabriella sighed. “He should have lovely red cheeks and a yellow crest.”

  “How did you get him?”

  Duke looked at Gabriella. “I guess we better tell you,” Duke said. “We run a kind of shelter for abandoned and sick reptiles, and a few other strays as well. Like Beaker and”—he pointed to a cage resting on the floor by the fridge—“Zak and Lysander.”

  Amelia squatted beside the cage. Two fuzzy brown faces with huge round ears stared at her. “They’re brothers,” Duke said. “They’re called Dumbo rats because of their big ears. They were cute when they were babies, and then they got big. Owner didn’t want them anymore. Same old story.”

  “Like the turtles,” Amelia said. “Do they bite?”

  “Never!” Duke said. “They’re both sweethearts! Zak has lung scarring, and he lets me give him medicine every day and never does a thing.”

  Amelia rocked back on her heels, her head spinning. “I want to see everything.”

  “Okay,” Duke said slowly. “I’ll show you the reptile room. We’re setting it up in the spare bedroom. But only for a sec. I want to turn their light out. They’re pretty stressed from the move, and they’ll be calmer in the dark.”

  Duke took Amelia into the bedroom and shut the door firmly. “I’m trying to warm it up in here. These are desert and tropical animals. They can’t get cold.”

  Two heaters glowed in corners of the room. Cages and glass tanks were lined up against the walls. “I’ll be putting up some shelves,” Duke said. “So I can get some of them up higher where it’s warmer. But they’re okay for now.”

  Amelia felt like eyes were peering at her from every direction. A prickle of excitement ran up her back.

  “A quick tour,” Duke said, “and then we’ll leave them alone. You’ve already met Bill, I think. Through the window. He’s an iguana.”

  Bill was draped along a thick branch, his long striped tail hanging down. A row of spikes stood up on his back, and a long flap of green skin dangled under his chin.

  “He’s so big,” Amelia said. “He looks strong.”

  “Don’t go too close—”

  The iguana lunged at the bars and snapped his jaws.

  “Yikes!” Amelia leaped back. “What’s his problem?”

  “He’s a little cranky now. He thinks he’s supposed to be looking for a mate.”

  “A little?” Amelia studied the iguana from a safe distance. His small dark eyes glared at her. “Does he have teeth?”

  “Yeah. They’re tiny, but they’re sharp! But don’t worry. He’ll be his happy-go-lucky self again soon. You’ll see—you’ll be able to hold him in your arms.”

  Not a chance, Amelia thought.

  She walked around the room slowly. She spotted a slim bright-green lizard, a fat yellow-and-black snake coiled up in a ball, a funny little creature with a grinning mouth, and a bright-red frog.

  “I’ve never heard of a red frog,” Amelia said.

  “That’s Nate. He’s a tomato frog. They come from Madagascar. The red color keeps predators away.”

  Amelia peered into three tanks that looked empty except for crumpled-up towels.

  “Is there anything under those towels?”

  “Snakes.”

  Next, Amelia’s eyes darted to a large wooden box that took up a corner of the room. It had low sides and was heaped full of hay. Was there anything in there? She couldn’t be sure.

  A pile of hay moved and a humped back poked through, then a small head on the end of a long papery neck.

  “Another turtle!” Amelia said, kneeling beside the box.

  “A sulcata tortoise,” Duke said. “Not the same thing at all. This is Winston.”

  Winston took slow, lumbering steps through the hay and stopped right in front of Amelia.

  “He’s looking at me!” Amelia said.

  The colors on his shell were beautiful. Yellows, browns and golds. “Is he old?”

  “Nope. About four, I think. He could live to a hundred. And he’ll get much bigger.”

  Amelia reached out her hand and gently touched his bumpy shell.

  “We’ve only had him a couple of weeks. Someone found him in a drainage ditch by a farm in Langley. He’d been abandoned there.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “Can’t tell yet. We’re keeping an eye on him. It was when it was really rainy and cold out. We’re praying he didn’t pick up some kind of respiratory disease. That can be fatal for a tortoise. And it could take a while to show up.”

  “Who would just leave him in a ditch?” Amelia said. “That’s so horrible!”

  “You wouldn’t believe what some morons will do. Dogs and cats get shoved out of cars right on the freeway. Or tossed in Dumpsters.”

  “Why would people do that?”

  “Who kn
ows? I’ve heard so many horror stories. Come on. I’m going to turn the lights off now.”

  Amelia thought Winston was amazing. It was hard to take her eyes away from him. “Goodnight,” she said softly. “And hey, please don’t get sick.”

  Duke took Amelia to the living room to see Georgia, a soft white-and-brown lop-eared bunny (with epilepsy, Duke said), and Mary, a crested gecko (missing her tail) who peeked at her from behind a green plastic bush. Then they went back to the kitchen, where Gabriella was unpacking plastic baggies from the freezer chest. “Frozen mice,” she said as she popped them into the freezer at the top of the fridge. “To feed the snakes.”

  “The thing is,” Duke said, “we weren’t going to tell your mom about the animals. Not just yet.”

  “We do not want to lie to her,” Gabriella said quickly. “We will tell her soon. So many landlords have told us no animals. If we wait one or two weeks and then tell your mother, she will know that they will not hurt anybody, and she will let us stay.”

  “That’s the plan,” Duke said.

  “So you will keep our secret?” Gabriella added.

  “Of course I will! But there’s one problem. A mega problem. Mom has this snake phobia.”

  “We’ll phase her in slowly,” Duke said. “Introduce them one at a time—”

  “I’m talking a serious snake phobia,” Amelia said.

  Duke was silent for a moment.

  “Like, how serious?”

  “Like, try going ballistic if she even sees a picture of one.”

  FIVE

  The next morning, Amelia’s eyes felt like they had sand in them. She’d been way too hyper to sleep when she had finally got back to bed. Excited and worried at the same time. Duke didn’t know her mother.

  She walked along their street, past houses of all different sizes and colors. Most of their neighbors had at least some garden area, and their grass was mowed. Diane had run over a rock and broken their lawn mower, so their lawn looked like a hayfield. It was embarrassing.

  Maybe that was why their neighbors ignored them. Or maybe it was just that kind of neighborhood. Diane said most of the people here worked all day and were busy. Maybe, thought Amelia.

  She and her mom had been living here for almost a year, and they didn’t know one person. Not even the woman next door, who was always weeding her garden but who hadn’t even looked up a week ago when Amelia said hello. A couple from India lived on the other side, and she saw them sometimes, getting into their silver car. The man wore jeans, but the woman always dressed in a colorful sari. The Indian couple’s house was the last one on their street, which dead-ended at a chain-link fence behind a high school.

  In their old neighborhood, the houses were nicer. Most of the families had lived there a long time, and they all knew Amelia. Her best friend, Starla, had been only three doors away, and they had practically lived at each other’s houses.

  Halfway down the street, Amelia stopped to admire the red sports car that had appeared a few weeks ago in the driveway of a small green house. She had never seen a car that was so bright and shiny, like a mirror, with so much glittering chrome. She had told her friend Liam last week that it was probably a Ferrari, and he had said, Do you have any idea how much Ferraris cost? Then he’d raced over after school to check it out.

  Get your cars straight, Amelia, he’d said. It’s a Mustang.

  But he was impressed, Amelia could tell, and they had both walked around it and peered in the windows. Then the front door of the house had burst open, and a skinny guy in jeans with holes in the knees and a stud in his lip had yelled at them, Get away! Don’t put your fingerprints on it! Don’t even breathe on it!

  Amelia had fled to the safety of the street, but Liam had sauntered away, yelling over his shoulder, Okay, okay, dude. Yeesh!

  GET LOST, PUNK! the guy hollered, and Liam had stopped sauntering and broken into a jog.

  Nice neighborhood, he’d muttered.

  This morning, Amelia spotted a bucket by the back door of the car. It looked like the bucket was full of polishing rags, and she started to run in case the skinny guy came out and screamed again. She ran the two blocks to Hastings Street, crossed at a light and walked three more blocks to her school. She found her friends, Roshni and Liam, sitting in the sun with their backs against the outside gym wall. Roshni was reading a People magazine. Liam had earbuds jammed in his ears, and his eyes were closed.

  “Bonjour!” Amelia dumped her backpack on the ground and slid down the wall beside them.

  “Bon voyage,” Roshni said, flipping pages without looking up.

  Liam yanked out his earbuds. “What?”

  “We’re speaking French,” Roshni said.

  “We rented the apartment!” Amelia burst out.

  Roshni closed her magazine. “You’re kidding! Who to?”

  “Gabriella and Duke. Gabriella’s from Paris! She’s a real French person!”

  “How can you be a fake French person?” Liam said.

  Amelia ignored him. “They are very cool. Very cool. They moved in yesterday.” A wide smile spread across her face.

  “Gah!” Liam leaped up as if he were going to run away. “When are you going to do something about that tooth? You are seriously scary!”

  “Shut up, Liam,” Roshni said. “And sit down. What’s so cool about them?”

  Amelia opened her mouth. She was about to say, They have a SNAKE! Wait, not one snake! Lots of snakes! And an iguana and a tortoise and rats and this bird—

  But she clamped her mouth shut. She’d promised Duke she could keep a secret. Did he mean from just her mom, or did he mean from everybody?

  “Well?” Roshni demanded.

  “They’re just really neat,” Amelia said. Whoops. Big mistake bringing this up, especially with someone like Roshni. “Gabriella’s French.”

  Roshni’s eyes narrowed. “You already said that. And you hate French.”

  “I don’t hate French. I just hate the way Mrs. Pearson teaches it.”

  “Right.” Roshni dug in her backpack and pulled out a well-worn Star magazine.

  Time to change the subject fast. “Is that a new iPod?” Amelia said to Liam.

  Liam pulled out his earbuds again. “What?”

  “A new iPod?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What was wrong with the old one?”

  Liam shrugged. “This one can do more stuff. Dad got it for me.”

  Liam’s parents were divorced, which was a lot more final than the situation with Amelia’s parents, who were separated. Liam’s dad was rich and bought him stuff all the time.

  “Oh, wow,” Roshni said. “Lindsay Lohan is back in jail.”

  “Who cares?” Amelia said. “Don’t you think you’re getting a little bit too obsessed with celebrities?”

  “Pardon me? I’m obsessed? I’m obsessed? This coming from you, who only talks about Camp Fly Away, like, all day long?”

  “Camp Soar Like an Eagle.” That was unfair. She didn’t talk about it that much. She’d found the camp on the Internet. It was about three hundred miles away from Vancouver, somewhere in the Cariboo. There was a climbing wall and a sweat lodge, and they took you mountain climbing. She checked every day, and there were still a few openings.

  “Speaking of Camp Whatever,” Liam said, “what did your dad say?”

  “He said no. It’s mega expensive.”

  The bell rang, and Roshni shoved her magazines into her backpack. “I say you’re hiding something about those people who took your apartment,” she said unexpectedly. “Nice, Amelia.”

  Amelia felt her cheeks turn red. “I’m not.”

  She and Starla had never argued as much as she and Roshni did. She missed Starla, but whenever they tried to get together it ended up being so complicated, organizing rides and working around all the stuff they had to do, that it never happened. She sighed. It was hot already. She should have worn a tank top instead of this stupid sweatshirt. She felt as prickly as a hedgehog. br />
  When Amelia got home from school, Diane was in her bedroom, on the phone. It was Friday, Diane’s day off because she worked on Saturdays. Amelia poured herself a glass of milk. She could hear her mom yelling from all the way down the hall.

  “I don’t care if the twins want to join hockey and the roof needs new shingles! I’d appreciate some child support!”

  Amelia winced.

  “It’s called postpartum depression. Deal with it!”

  Silence.

  Amelia sighed. Dad sounded broke. No way he was going to change his mind and fork out the money for Camp Soar Like an Eagle.

  “Oh, sweetie!” Diane said from the doorway. “I didn’t know you were home. I hope you didn’t hear all that.”

  Diane had read a book about kids and divorce when she and Amelia’s dad split up. She’d promised Amelia she would never bad-mouth her father to her or make her a pawn in their fights, even if worse came to worst and they ended up getting a divorce. (Amelia didn’t want to even go there.) Most of the time, Diane had stuck to it.

  “That’s okay.” Amelia pointed to a brand-new blender sitting on the counter. “Where’d that come from?”

  “An amazing sale at London Drugs. Half price!”

  Diane was into making green smoothies full of healthy things like broccoli and spinach. The new blender looked great. Very high-tech.

  “I thought I’d give the old one to Gabriella. I know it only has one speed that works, but she might be able to use it. I wonder if they’re married,” Diane added as she lifted the old blender down from the cupboard above the fridge.

  “What?”

  “I wonder if they’re married.”

  “Why does it matter?”

  “It doesn’t matter. And I’m not criticizing them. I’m just wondering.”

  “You sound like you’re going to criticize them. People live together these days, Mom. They don’t have to get married.”

  “I’m well aware of that, Amelia.”

  Her dad and Candice. How could she be so dumb? “Sorry,” Amelia mumbled.

  “Nothing to be sorry about. I’ll pop down with this now. I saw Gabriella come in just after lunch.”