Jane and the Fire -Part XXXII

Jane is back! In 1958, young Jane has just moved to the city of Chicago, Illinois with her parents and cousins. Jane has forced two very mysterious but almost definitely dangerous characters to stop their van, as she suspects that they’re the ones who’ve got her friends. But upon closer inspection, it seems (for the moment) that she might be wrong…

There were stacks of bricks, and even as she climbed into the truck and looked around behind the piles, she could see no track of her cousins or friends.

“But I saw you carrying a sack!” she cried, outraged.

“Well,” said the man who had helped her flag them down, “there isn’t a sack here. Only bricks.”

“Quite good, my right sir,” said Jigger smiling, which turned quickly to a frown as Jan stepped hard on his foot. “Quite right, my good sir.”

“If you don’t remember what to say check the paper!” hissed Jan. Again, Jane was the only one to hear him. The bystanders dispersed, after apologizing for their untoward interruption. A few gave Jane a dark look, and a murmured threat about crying wolf. She stood frozen, by her bike.

As the van drove off, a brown piece of paper flew over into her face.

“Things…” she read, “to say if you get caught…? What?!”

It was a wrinkled paper with the exact script Jan and Jigger had used to belay the bystanders inquiring into their activities.

Jane stuffed the paper into her pocket and hopped onto her bike, mind racing as her feet raced to pedal faster. Again, the complete and utter junkiness of the vehicle didn’t make it too difficult to keep following it, though it had a head start.

I had my back turned when I went to grab Don’s bike, Jane thought, That must be when they displaced the sack. The back of the van is quite large, but the space filled with bricks only took up less than half of that space… but there was still a closed wall at the back of the truck…

She moved from the main road to the sidewalk, biking around pedestrians.

There must be a secret compartment in the van, she concluded to herself. We’ve all been tricked!

The van pulled to a halt at the edge of the Irving Park neighborhood. Jane hid the bike behind a dumpster nearby and crouched behind a tree to watch. Horrified, but grimly aware that she had well and truly been pranked, she observed Jan open the trunk of the van from the front of the vehicle, just behind the driver seat.

“Out, this way!” Her cousins and friends, struggling and wriggling, climbed out of the truck in a line, but their efforts to get away were useless. Jan ushered them towards an empty storefront a block away.

Jigger climbed into the back of the van, where the bricks were still stacked. With a good deal of effort, he pushed and pushed the wall of the brick half of the truck backwards, until it met the wall of the trunk of the van.

Then he too went towards the shop. Jane knew she had limited time to decide what to do. She could follow them into the shop… but what could she do against Jigger, Jan, and whatever cronies they had in there? She could spy on them until she thought of a plan… or she could run for the cops right away. But the police were far away… Before she could decide, she heard a sharp whisper. “Jane!”

Read on next month to find out what happens next!