Free Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware by M.T. Anderson

getting away from me now.”
    Meanwhile, the wreckage down below moved. A few pieces of concrete slid to the side. A door banged open. A cloud of dust puffed into the air.
    Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, poked his head out and surveyed the wreckage. He was wearing a pith helmet.
    From below him came a voice.
    â€œJasper?” said Katie. “Jasper? Am I alive?”
    â€œI believe so,” he replied. “Or if we are in Heaven, there are more mules than I imagined.”
    There were about four mules standing and looking at the pile of concrete and metal, wondering if there was anything there worth eating.
    â€œJasper?” said Katie’s tinny, echoing voice. “Jasper, can we make an agreement to never, ever, ever use the Gyroscopic Sky Suite again?”
    â€œI don’t think we have to worry,” said Lily, sticking her head out next to Jasper’s. “It’s crushed.”
    â€œWell, at least something good came out of this,” said Katie, pulling herself out of the capsule, covered with brown dust. She slappedat her shirt and pants to get the grime out.
    â€œDash it all,” said Jasper. “I guess we’ll have to check into the hotel in the normal way.”
    â€œAh,” said Katie sarcastically. “You mean, instead of being fired from a rocket-launcher into the side of the hotel and having explosive clamps blow up and make a new doorway, we might just, I don’t know, walk in and say, ‘I’d like a room, please?’”
    â€œExactly,” agreed Jasper.
    â€œWell, that’s a novel idea,” said Katie.
    â€œSometimes, Katie,” he replied, “new situations call for new solutions.” He was already hopping down the chunks of concrete. Jasper wasn’t very good at noticing sarcasm. And he was at his happiest after explosions.
    Lily reached down and grabbed another pith helmet and scrambled after him, tottering on rubble. Katie shook her head and followed.
    A secret policeman dressed in a suit too short for him and an old Tyrolean hat watched them go. He flipped open a little notepad and began writing.
    Katie, Lily, and Jasper walked into the lobby of the hotel. There were some plastic chairs to sit in, most of them turned toward the wall, and a fountain that hadn’t worked for years.
    â€œHello,” said the proprietor, a paunchy man in a soccer shirt and flip-flops. He then spoke rapidly in a language Lily had never heard before that sounded like it might have roots in Eastern Europe, the planet Krypton, and a rock tumbler.
    The three kids didn’t know what to say.
    In English the proprietor said, “You are not speak Doverian? You speak English?” *
    The kids nodded.
    â€œOkay, okay,” said the man. “Welcome to Dupontville Fine Excellent View Stay Hotel. I can get you a room?”
    â€œYes, please, sir,” said Jasper. “One room with three beds.”
    The proprietor nodded. “Come, follow. Follow, follow.” He took some keys off the desk and led the three kids up a flight of stairs. The hallway above was dark. There were rooms with numbers on the doors and a sound of rushing water. Lily was a bit worried about the sound of rushing water. She wondered when the ceiling was going to collapse.
    The man rattled the keys in the lock of one room and threw the door open. “Very nice room,” he said. “Very nice.”
    They looked in.
    â€œThree beds,” he said. “Television, chair, five coat hangers. Yes?”
    â€œIt’s missing a wall,” said Katie.
    â€œVery nice view. Very nice view.”
    â€œMaybe we weren’t specific enough,” said Katie. “We’d like a room with three beds and at least four walls.”
    The man nodded and led them up anotherflight of stairs. Here there was a light, but it flickered off whenever the wind in the broken window blew the dangling electrical cord back and forth through the puddle. He let them