“How are we supposed to get down?” Coco asked. For of course the ladder was broken.
“We could jump down,” said Brian unenthusiastically. “Maybe the scarecrows would break our fall?”
“Or they wouldn’t and we’d break our ankles,” said Coco.
“We can’t just sit up here forever,” said Ollie.
“Fine,” said Brian shortly. “You jump first.”
“Hush. Hear that?” Coco said.
Ollie and Brian fell silent. Rub. Creak. It sounded like slow feet right overhead. They all froze.
Then suddenly Ollie laughed. She stood up. “No scarecrows this time,” she said. “A tree branch rubbing the roof. And that means a tree, which means a way down. The roof tiles are all rotten.” She began scraping at the roof from the inside. Wormy wood rained down around her. “Come on, help me.”
Together they made a hole big enough to boost Coco’s head through. “A tree branch!” cried Coco. “Ollie, you were right. Here—” She grabbed something they couldn’t see and struggled out, kicking. “It’s fine,” said Coco, muffled overhead. “You just have to climb. Carefully.”
“How is she the clumsiest person ever on the ground, yet a squirrel when she’s climbing?” muttered Ollie.
Brian grinned. “You’re kind of grumpy most of the time, but when things get bad, you’re the bravest. People can surprise you, Ollie-pop.” Without another word, he turned away and began making the hole in the roof bigger.
Ollie found herself smiling. “Yeah, sometimes even hockey stars read books,” she said.
“Sometimes,” said Brian, and smiled back. “You next.”
Ollie hoisted her backpack and let him push her outthe hole in the roof. She found herself high above the world, looking out at the huge, rustling field of corn. There seemed to be a dark lump in the center of the field, but she couldn’t tell what it was.
Ollie waited to be scared sick of the height. But she wasn’t.
Coco had used the branch rubbing the barn roof like a bridge. Now she was watching anxiously from the fork of the big old oak tree. “Come on, Ollie!” she called.
Behind her, Brian said, “Come on, Ollie. It’s not that high.”
And Olivia Adler, without hesitation, crawled across the branch and began climbing down the tree. In a few minutes, they were all on the ground, flushed with success.
—
The cornstalks hissed all together. They were taller than Brian’s head. Scarecrows stood in the corn; the trio caught glimpses of bright shirts and checked shirts. None of them really wanted to go into the field.
“Well,” said Ollie, “either we wait for the scarecrows to come back tonight and every night until they get us or we starve. Or we go into the corn.”
“We can’t leave without the others,” said Brian. “Once you leave Narnia, you can’t get back in the same way.”
Ollie nodded. “If anyone is going to save them, it has to be us.” She raised her watch.MAZE, it said. “The answer has to be in there.”
“Fine,” said Coco, looking unhappily at the corn. “Fine!”
They were like swimmers about to jump into icy water and no one wanted to go first.
“Let’s go,” said Ollie. She reached out her hands. Brian and Coco took them.
The three stepped into the corn. The path was narrow and they switched to single file. Ollie went first, then Coco, then Brian. Their feet squelched in the mud. Such big stalks—the corn looked like it could swallow the gray sky, much less three wandering kids.
They were walking down a row. Ollie could barely hear her own footsteps, couldn’t hear Brian’s and Coco’s. The corn rustled too loudly, dead stalks rubbing together.
The row ended. Ollie looked up at a huge wall of corn. They could turn left or right. “Okay,” said Ollie. “It’s definitely a corn maze. We have to get to the center. Any ideas?”
Ollie had loved corn mazes when she was small. Left then right, squealing in fake terror, mud flying as she ran, and then finally figuring it out, getting to the center, laughing, her father picking her up, saying, “Way to go, Ollie-pop. No maze can stop you.” But this was different. This was cold and huge and scary.
