Floors: by Patrick Carman Page A

together once all the mysteries of the hotel had been solved.
    Leo reached over the grass and the trees and took hold of the gold-plated arrow, which was about the size of a toothpick. He pulled and nothing happened.
    “Try pushing it in,” said Remi, who was impatient by nature.
    Leo tried and, again, nothing happened.
    “Let me have a try,” said Remi, reaching past Leo to grab the little arrow.
    “No, I can do it,” Leo said. He’d missed opening the blue box and he wasn’t about to let Remi open a secret room in
his
hotel.
    Leo and Remi both reached for the arrow at once, but Remi got there first. Leo, in his frustration, tried to push Remi’s hand aside. When he did, the arrow snapped off in Remi’s hand.
    “Now look what you’ve done!” said Leo.
    Remi had always been a daring, energetic boy, but he was also tenderhearted, his confidence easily shaken.
    “I’m sorry, Leo. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just got so excited.”
    Leo turned back to the Bow Bridge, his frustration made worse by the fact that Remi didn’t fight back. Remi turned to Blop for comfort, pulling him out of his red jacket pocket and asking him for help.
    “Blop, how do we find the train?”
    Blop’s head spun back and forth as he scanned the park, the Lake, the bridge. He seemed to be thinking.
    “The ducks have turned, which is very odd indeed. Might that be of interest?”
    Leo, a glimmer of hope returning, moved in close to the ducks. It was true; they had all turned, their miniature heads now facing the other side of the bridge.
    “Remi,” said Leo. “Give me the arrow.”
    Remi handed the toothpick-size arrow, the tip of which had been broken off, to Leo. He leaned in, too, and saw what Leo saw.
    “A bull’s-eye! No way!” Remi yelled. He was so excited, in part because he realized the arrow was
meant
to be broken off, but even more because the rupture between him and Leo had been repaired. All was not lost after all!
    Leo stuck the arrow in the center of the bull’s-eye and stepped back as a hole opened up in the ceiling over their heads.
    “Better move back — I’ve seen this happen before,” warned Leo.
    Remi was a perceptive listener, and as the ladder shot down out of the ceiling, he thought he heard something else from the other end of the room.
    “So cool!” he said, because it was, and then he added, “I think someone might be trying to get in here.”
    Leo stayed very still and listened. Someone was fumbling with a key card in the hall, trying to get the door open. Leo looked at Remi and put a finger to his lips, then he started up the ladder double time.

     
    When Jane Yancey finally got the key to work, she opened the door to the room only a crack, hoping she would catch Leo doing something he shouldn’t be doing, andbe able to turn him in. She thought she heard a swishing noise, but she couldn’t be sure. The room had turned completely dark, and she opened the door wide, proud of herself for sneaking downstairs and making off with the key while no one was in the lobby.
I’m a crafty girl,
she thought to herself. She let the door go as she searched for a light switch, not realizing the door was on a spring, and it slammed behind her.
    She felt she was not alone.
    “Hey, Maintenance Man! You get out here right now! Stop trying to scare me!” she screamed, but now she wasn’t so sure. Maybe the maintenance man hadn’t entered this room. Maybe she should get out, fast, and never come back.
    Jane Yancey got hold of the handle and threw the door open, afraid to look over her shoulder and see someone chasing her.
    She couldn’t be sure, but as she ran down the hall, Jane thought she heard the sound of a distant train.

     
    “Oh no,” said Remi. “I’ve done it again.”
    “Done what?” Leo asked. Neither of them had made it up the ladder before it shot back up into the hole, taking them with it. The hole had closed and they were in Merganzer D. Whippet’s secret Railroad Room.
    Remi