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THE only person they dreaded to saying good-bye to was grover, but as it turned out, they didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to manhattan on the same greyhound as they had, so there they were, together again, heading into the city.

During the whole bus ride, grover kept glancing down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to them that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when they left yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen happen. Before, they'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the greyhound.

Finally, percy couldn't stand it anymore. "Looking for kindly ones?" He asked and pandora lifted her head from percy's shoulder and looked at him and grover.

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat, "Wha— what do you mean?" He questioned and percy confessed about he and pandora eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"

"Oh.. not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?" Pandora questioned, Grover winced. "Look, percy.. dory.. i was just worried for you, see? i mean, hallucinating about demon math teacher.."

Percy and Pandora shared a look. "Grover—" He cut percy off, "And i was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you two were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and.."

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." His ears turned pink, from his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? in case you need me this summer."

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on percy and pandora's dyslexic eyes, but they finally made something out like: Grover underwood, keeper, Half-blood hill, long island, new york. with numbers at the end.

"What's half—" Pandora started,

"Don't say it aloud!" Grover yelped, "That's my, um.. summer address." Their hearts sank and they glanced at each other. Grover had a summer home. They'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at yancy.

"Okay," Percy said glumly, "So, like, if we want to come visit your mansion." He nodded. "Or.. or if you need me."

"Why would we need you?" It came out harsher than percy meant it to, grover blushed right down to his adam's apple, "Look, Percy, dory, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you." Percy and Pandora looked at each other then stared at him.

All year long, they'd gotten into fights, keeping bullies away from him. They'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without them. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended them.

"Grover," Pandora started, "What exactly are you protecting us from?" She tilted her head, curiously. There was a huge grinding noise under their feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that they'd all have to get off. Grover, pandora and percy filed outside with everybody else.

They were on a stretch of country road— no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On their side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

the stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks percy and pandora had ever seen.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at percy and his sister.

"Are they looking at us?" Percy whispered to her who shrugged then they both looked over at grover to say something about it and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

"Grover?" Percy said. "Hey, man—"

"Tell me they're not looking at you two. They are, aren't they?" He asked. "Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit us?" Pandora grinned.

"Maybe it'll fit smelly gabe." Percy giggled, "Not funny, percy, dory. Not funny at all." The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors— gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. They heard grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus," He told them, "Come on." They both looked at him, "What?" Percy said, "It's like a thousand degrees in there." He added, "It's too hot, gro." Pandora whined.

"Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but percy and pandora stayed back. Across the road, the old ladies were still watching them. The middle one cut the yarn, and they swore they could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving percy and pandora wondering who they could possibly be for— sasquatch or godzilla.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chuck of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered, "Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once they got going, percy and buffy started feeling feverish, as if they'd caught the flu. Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. "Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What aren't you telling us?" Percy asked, Grover dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, Dory, what did you see back at that fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like.. Mrs. Dodds, are they?" Percy questioned.

Grover's expression was hard to read, but percy and liz got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.

"Just tell me what you saw." He said, "The middle one took out these huge, massive, really big, scissors. I mean, they were huge, like.." Pandora opened her arms wide to demonstrate how big they were. "This big!"

"Dory, focus." She looked at percy and grover who were watching her, "Sorry. She cut the yarn." She glanced down, "You saw her snip the cord." Grover asked.

"Yeah. So?" But even as percy said it, he and pandora knew it was a big deal, "This is not happening." Grover mumbled, he started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

"What last time?" Pandora and Percy asked, "Always the sixth grade. They never get past the sixth." The girl looked at grover then at percy.

"Grover." She said, because he was really starting to scare them, "What are you talking about?" She asked.

"Let me walk you guys home from the bus station. Promise me." This seem like a strange request to them, but they promised he could.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" Percy asked the boy. No answer.

"Grover— that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" Percy questioned again, Grover looked at them mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers they'd like on their coffins.

"Great." Pandora murmured, if percy or her were going to die, at least they'll see their mama.

                                              ☽

Confession time: They ditch grover as soon as they got to the bus terminal. I know, i know. It was rude. But grover was freaking them out, looking at them like they were a dead man and woman, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"

Whenever he got upset, grover's bladder acted up, so they weren't surprised when, as soon as they got off the bus, he made them promise to wait for him, then made a beeline to the restroom. Instead of waiting, they got their suitcases, slipped outside and caught the first taxi uptown.

"East one-hundred-and-fourth and first." Percy told the driver. A word about their mother, before you meet her.

Her name is sally jackson and she's the best person in the world, which proves percy and pandora's theory that the best people in the world have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.

The only good break she ever got was meeting percy's dad and pandora's mom.

Percy doesn't have any memories of his dad, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. Their mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures. See, they weren't married. She told percy he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.

Lost at sea, sally told percy. Not dead. Lost at sea. Same thing she told the both of them, fleur wasn't dead, just — lost.

She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised percy and pandora when all on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But percy and pandora knew they weren't easy kids, especially when their mama disappeared.

Finally, she married gabe ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds they knew him, then he showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When they were young, they nicknamed him smelly gabe. They're sorry, but it's the truth.

The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts. Between the three of them, they made their mom's life pretty hard. The way smelly gabe treated her, the way he, percy and pandora got along.. well, when they came home is a good example.

They walked into their little apartment, hoping their mom would be home from work. Instead, smelly gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home." Pandora grimaced at the dirty floor and looked at the man with disgust, "Where's our mom?" Percy asked. "Working," He answered. "You got any cash?"

That was it. No welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?

Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.

He managed the electronics mega-mart in queens, but he stayed home most of the time. Percy and Pandora don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made them nauseous, and on beer, of course.

Always beer. Whenever they were home, he expected percy to provide his gambling funds. He called that 'guy secret.' Meaning, if percy told their mom, he would either punch percy or his sister's lights out.

"We don't have any cash." Percy told him, he raised a greasy eyebrow. Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else. "You took a taxi from the bus station," He said.

"Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, they ought to carry their own weight. Am i right, eddie?" Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at them with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, gabe."

"The kids just got here."

"Am i right?" Gabe repeated, eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony and pandora frowned at that.

"Fine." Percy said. He dug a wad of dollars out of his pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."

Percy dragged pandora into the hallway, "Your report cards came, brainies!" He shouted after them. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

Percy slammed the door to their room, which really wasn't their room. During school months, it was gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving their stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on their windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.

They dropped their suitcases on their beds. Home sweet home. Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's sheers snipping the yarn.

But as soon as they thought that, their legs felt weak. They remembered grover's look of panic—how he'd made them promise they wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through them. They felt like someone—something—was looking for them right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.

Then they heard their mom's voice. "Percy? Dory?"

She opened the bedroom door, and their fears melted. Their mother can make them feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but they never think of her as old.

When she looks at them, it's like she's seeing all the good things about them, none of the bad. They've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even them or gabe.

"Oh, Percy, Dory." She hugged them tight, "I can't believe it, You've grown since christmas!" She exclaimed. "And look at you, Dory. You're even slightly taller than percy." The girl shot a smug look towards percy who glared at her.

Sally's red-white-and-blue sweet on america uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in grand central. She'd brought them a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when they came home.

They sat together on the edge of the bed. While percy and pandora argue over the sour strings, sally ran her hands through their hairs and demanded to know everything they hadn't put in their letters. She didn't mention anything about them getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But were they okay? Was her little boy and little girl doing all right?

Percy told her she was smothering them, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, he was really, really glad to see her.

From the other room, gabe yelled, "Hey, sally—how about some bean dip, huh?" Percy and pandora gritted their teeth. Their mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to their mama, not some jerk like gabe.

For her sake, they tried to sound upbeat about their last days at Yancy Academy. They told her they weren't too down about the expulsion. They'd lasted almost the whole year this time. They'd made some new friends. They'd done pretty well in latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. They liked Yancy Academy. They really did. They put such a good spin on the year, they almost convinced themselves.

They started choking up, thinking about grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad. Until that trip to the museum..

"What?" Their mom asked. Her eyes tugged on their conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"

"No, mom." Pandora shook her head, they felt bad for lying. They wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but they thought it would sound stupid.

She pursed her lips. She knew they were holding back, but she didn't push them. "I have a surprise for you," She said. "We're going to the beach."

Their eyes widened and they said in sync. "Montauk?"

"Three nights—same cabin." She answered, "When?" Percy asked, "As soon as i get changed." She smiled.

They couldn't believe it. Their mom and them hadn't been to montauk the last two summers, because gabe said there wasn't enough money.

Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, sally? Didn't you hear me?" He questioned.

They wanted to punch him, but they met their mom's eyes and they understood she was offering them a deal: be nice to gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for montauk. Then they would get out of there.

"I was on my way, honey." She told gabe, "We were just talking about the trip." Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You were serious about that?"

"I knew it," Percy muttered. "He won't let us go."

"Of course he will," Their mom said evenly, "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," She added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works." Gabe softened a bit.

"So this money for your trip.. it comes out of your clothes budget, right?" He asked, "Yes, honey." Their mother said. "And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."

"We'll be very careful."

Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry up with that seven-layer dip.. And maybe if the kids apologizes for interrupting my poker game."

'Maybe if we kick you in your soft spot,' Percy thought.

'Make you sing soprano for a week.'

But sally's eyes warned them not to make him mad. Why did she put up with this guy? They wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?

"We're sorry." Percy muttered, "We're really sorry we interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now." Percy hid his grin as gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in pandora's statement.

"Yeah, Whatever."

He went back to his game. "Thank you, Percy, Dory," Thier mom said. "Once we get to montauk, we'll talk more about.. whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"

For a moment, they thought they saw anxiety in her eyes— the same fear they'd seen in grover during the bus ride— as if their mom too felt an odd chill in the air.

But then her smile returned, and they figured they must have been mistaken. She ruffled their hair and went to make gabe his seven-layer dip.

An hour later they were ready to leave.

Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch percy and pandora lug their mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 camaro— for the whole weekend.

"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy." He warned percy as he and pandora loaded the last bag. "Not one scratch."

Like percy'd be the one driving. He was twelve. But that didn't matter to gabe. If a seagull so much pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame percy and pandora.

Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, percy got so mad he did something he couldn't explain.

As gabe reached the doorway, percy made the hand gesture they'd seen grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over his heart, then a shoving movement toward gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but percy and pandora didn't stay long enough to find out.

Pandora called shotgun and they both got in the camaro and told their mom to step on it.

                                              ☽

Their rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of long island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

They loved the place. They'd been going there since they were babies. Their mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but they knew why the beach was a special place for her. It was the place she met percy's dad.

As they got closer to montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing form her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea. They got there at sunset, opened all the cabin windows, and went through their usual cleaning routine.

They walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples their mom had brought from work.

I guess i should explain the blue food.

See, gabe had once told their mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, their mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the candy shop.

This—along with keeping her maiden name, jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like percy and pandora.

When it got dark, they made a fire. They roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Sally told them stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told them about the books she wanted to write someday, When she had enough money to quit the candy shop. How she met her fleur

Eventually, percy and pandora got up the nerve to ask about what was always on their minds whenever they came to montauk—his father and fleur. Sally's eyes went all misty. He figured she would tell them the same things she always did, but they never got tired of hearing them.

"She was —" She paused like she always did when she spoke about pandora's mother. "She was the most beautiful woman i knew. She was patient, she loved painting, just like you. She loved you. Both of you," The two smiled as sally placed her hand on their cheeks.

It's not like they fully forgot about her but they faintly remembered her, they remember her smile, and her green eyes, which slightly resembled pandora's bluish greenish eyes.

"He was kind, Percy," She said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes." Pandora smiled despite not knowing anything about her father except for the fact that he doesn't care for her and probably has another family somewhere, She still smiled for percy, her brother, she loved hearing stories about his father, he seemed like a nice man.

Sally fished a jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish they could see you, two. They would be so proud." Percy wondered how she could say that. What was so great about them? Two dyslexic, hyperactive kids with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.

"How old was i?" Percy asked. "I mean.. when he left?"

Sally watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."

"But.. he knew me as a baby."

"No, honey. He knew i was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born." Percy tried to square that with the fact that he seemed to remember.. something about his father. A warm glow. A smile.

Percy had always assumed he knew him as a baby. Their mom had never said it outright, but still, he'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never seen him.. he felt angry at his father. Maybe it was stupid, but he resented him for going on that ocean voyage.

For not having the guts to marry their mom. He and Fleur both left them, and now they were stuck with smelly gabe. "Are you going to send us away again?" Percy spoke up after a moment, "To another boarding school?" He added.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think.. i think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want us around?" Pandora regretted the words as soon as they were out. Their mom's eyes welled with tears. She took their hand, squeezed them tight. "Oh, dory, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away." Her words reminded them of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for them to leave yancy.

"Because we're not normal." Percy said.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you two don't realize how important you are. I thought yancy academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."

"Safe from what?" Percy asked and she met their eyes, and a flood of memories came back to them—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to them, some of which they'd tried to forget.

During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked them on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed them when they told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.

Before that—a really early memory. They were in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put them down for a nap in cots that snakes had slithered into.

Their mom screamed when she came to pick them up and found them playing with limp, scaly ropes they'd somehow managed to strangle to death with their meaty toddler hands.

In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and they were forced to move. They knew they should tell their mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about their weird hallucinations that they had sliced their math teacher to dust with swords. But they couldn't make themselves to tell her. they had a strange feeling the news would end their trip to montauk, and they didn't want that.

"I've tried to keep you two as close to me as i could." Sally said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, dory, Percy— the place your father wanted to send you. And i just.. i just can't stand to do it."

"My father wanted us to go to a special school?" Percy asked, "Not a school," She said softly. "A summer camp."

Their heads were spinning. why would percy's dad— who hadn't even stayed long enough to see him born— talk to their mom about a summer camp?

And if it was so important, why hadn't she mentioned it before?

"I'm sorry, Percy, dory," She said, seeing the look in their eyes. "But i can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."

"For good? But if it's only summer camp.." Pandora trailed off, sally turned toward the fire, and they knew from her expression that if they asked her any more questions she would start to cry. So, She and percy just looked at each other, silently.

That night they had a vivid dream. It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

They ran towards them, knowing they had to stop them from killing each other, but they were running in slow motion. They knew they would be too late. They saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and they screamed, No!

Percy and Pandora woke with a start and quickly glanced at each other.

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.

With the next thunderclap, their mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane." They knew that was crazy. Long island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, They heard a distant bellow, a vary, tortured sound that made their hair stand on end.

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on their cabin door. Their mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't.. he wasn't exactly grover.

Pandora tilted her head, staring curiously at grover then her gaze moved to his lower half, she froze,

"Searching all night," He gasped. "What were you thinking?"

Their mother looked at them in terror— not scared of grover, but of why he'd come. "Percy, Dory," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

They were frozen, looking at grover. They couldn't understand what they were seeing. "O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" He yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

They were too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in ancient greek, and they'd understood him perfectly. They were too shocked to wonder how grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because grover didn't have pants on—and where his legs should be.. where his legs should be..

Their mom looked at them stern and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Dory. Tell me now!"

Percy stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and their mom stared at them, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.

She grabbed her purse, tossed them their rain jackets, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"

Grover ran for the camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to them. They understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.

☽