Chase Tinker & The House of Magic by Malia Ann Haberman Page B

punched his arm. "Ew!
Disgusting!"
    "Hey, you guys! Get a load of this room,"
Andy hollered from down the hall.
    Moments later, they all stood inside the
doorway with their mouths hanging open.
    "Holy moly," breathed Janie.
    The pitch-black walls, ceiling and floor were
dotted with hundreds of softly glowing, blinking eyeballs. They
looked as if they were floating in the darkness.
    "Dude, they follow you wherever you go," said
Andy as he tip-toed around the room and tried not to step on any of
the eyes. "What do you suppose it means?"
    "I don't know," said Persephone.
    " Eyes ," murmured Chase. It took a
moment for him to realize he was seeing Persephone in front of him
and—Andy in back. "Whoa baby!"
    "Uh, Chase?" said Andy. "You have eyes in the
back of your head."
    Chase reached back and touched the eyeballs.
Talk about weird. He could see his hand waving behind himself.
Janie and Persephone walked around and studied his extra eyes.
    "How do they look?" he asked, making the eyes
wink and blink.
    "Like your regular eyes," said Janie in
wonderment.
    "Let's get out of here," said Persephone,
crossing her arms and shivering. "This is way too creepy."
    When they left the room, Chase's spare eyes
disappeared. As they continued on their trek through the house, he
couldn't stop checking to make sure the back of his head was
eyeball free.
    During the next hour, they explored the
Laughing Room, where Chase laughed so long and hard, his stomach
ached for hours afterward; the Replicating Room where they made
dozens of clones of themselves until they were packed like sardines
in a tin can; and the Goo Room where the whole room was slick and
dripping with yellowy-green goop. They spent at least twenty
minutes oozing around trying to figure out how to change from
puddles of slimy goo to back into themselves.
    But they all thought one of the best rooms by
far was where they were able to change into any bird they wanted.
Like the other rooms they'd visited, this one was far from
ordinary. Its high walls were painted with colorful pictures of
birds and towering trees, while thick, green grass carpeted the
floor.
    It took Chase a while to get the hang of it,
but after several wild loops around the room as a sparrow (he
thought it'd be easier to start small), he began to enjoy the
awesomeness of the wind blowing across his arms—no—his wings. He
sure wouldn't mind having this power.
    "That was too cool for words!" exclaimed Andy
when they finished flying. He spread his arms wide, pretending he
was a bird again, swooping and diving. "Did you see me, Chase?"
    Chase grinned as he limped along. He'd also
had a little trouble with his landings. "Yep, I saw you. And I saw
Persephone waddling around too."
    "Hey, penguins are my favorite birds," said
Persephone. "It's not their fault they can't fly." She shot him a
sideways glance. "At least I didn't crash into anything."
    Chase gave an embarrassed shrug. "I guess I
need more practice."
    A little farther down the hall, Janie stopped
in front of another door. Clasping the brass handle, she tried to
give it a quick twist, but it wouldn't budge.
    "It's locked," she said, stepping back and
gaping at the door. "I've never seen any locked doors around
here."
    "Are you sure?" asked Chase. "Maybe it's just
stuck." He bashed his shoulder against it and jiggled and tugged on
the handle. "Hmm. We need to ask Grandfather about this one."
    While they pondered the stubborn door,
Janie's cell phone rang. "Hello?…Yes…Okay… We'll be right
there."
    "Who was that?" asked Chase.
    "Grandfather," she answered, slipping the
phone back into her pocket. "Mrs. Periwinkle wants us to run some
errands for her in town."
    After a few wrong turns and some
backtracking, they found the kitchen again. Grandfather and Mrs.
Periwinkle were there eating turkey sandwiches. The kids crowded
around and dug into the pile of food.
    "Hey, Grandfather," said Chase around a huge
bite of sandwich. "How come one of the rooms on the