Free Steemjammer: Through the Verltgaat by John Eubank Page A

Giselle standing in the boiler, they urged her to follow them through the verltgaat, and in seconds they were back in Beverkenhaas.
    He tugged the lever. For a moment nothing happened. The hole between worlds stayed open, and they feared the youth might find it and come through, but then the verltgaat snapped shut and disappeared.
     
    ***
     
    Exhilarated, Will and Angelica told their cousin what had happened. At last they felt like they might find their father, but the machine, which had been idling when they found it, was now shut off completely.
    “We have to figure out how this works,” Will said excitedly, “and go back.”
    “But how?” his sister asked.
    He studied the complex control panel and made a face. This wasn’t going to be easy.
    They noticed that Giselle stared with interest at a nearby table. “This may be a ridiculous question, but is that a book?”
    BONG! The Steemjammer kids almost jumped out of their skins. Indeed a leather-bound book sat on the table, and as much as it interested Will, the bone-jarring noise from upstairs took all his attention.
    The door gong, which often went silent for weeks at a time, had sounded. They could tell when the hideous face popped out, because a muffled scream ripped the air.
    “What is wrong with these people?” boomed a commanding female voice.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8
     
    trouble comes knocking
     
     
    “Open up!” the forceful female voice reverberated through the door. “We know you’re in there!”
    Giselle, who’d raced after her cousins upstairs, stepped back with alarm. Angelica moved behind her.
    Will set his jaw and faced the door. “Let me handle this.” They were only too happy to let him.
    Opening it a crack, he peered out. A gaunt, tan man in a blue uniform that read “School Police” jumped back with fright and then settled himself, trying to pretend nothing was wrong. It was he who’d screamed, and at an embarrassingly high pitch. An African-American woman in a light gray business dress with her long hair piled on top of her head in a tight bun stood next to him.
    Behind them towered the large woman with the powerful voice, Waverly Norman. Will found that he couldn’t take his eyes off her strange, unnatural-looking black hair.
    “I’m Officer Ahmed Watib of the School Police,” the skinny man in the uniform told Will, pronouncing it AK-med Wa-TEEB.
    “And I’m Jane Gables, Assistant Health Inspector,” said the woman with the hair bun.
    “We need to speak with your parents.”
    “They aren’t here,” Will said and shut the door.
    Waverly thundered, “He can’t do that, can he?”
    “I’m not ringing that thing again!” the officer said.
    Will realized he had to face them – and that he had a large dagger in his belt. He wondered what would happen if they found the crossbows, swords, and axes scattered throughout the house. They also had an old steam-powered fighting suit in the barn, which would make the other weapons even harder to explain. Hiding the dagger in an urn, he stepped outside but stayed near the door.
    “What do you want?” he asked guardedly.
    “Your neighbor, Mrs. Norman,” Ahmed began politely but was interrupted.
    Waverly jutted out her ample chin. “That’s me.”
    “She claims that you and your sister don’t go to school.”
    “Thirty-seven years experience! I know every trick you deviant miscreants have.”
    Ahmed grimaced. “Are you enrolled anywhere?”
    “We do home-schooling,” Will said.
    “Aha!” Waverly said, shoving Ahmed aside and stepping forward. “If your parents aren’t here, then you aren’t being schooled – as if they even could. Are they trained educators? Do they have teaching credentials?”
    “It’s perfectly legal to home-school, Mrs. Norman,” Ahmed said, placing himself between her and the boy.
    “Well, it shouldn’t be!”
    “But they have to enroll with an approved program. Young man, which are you using?”
    “My mom knows,” Will said.