The Untimely Journey of Veronica T. Boone - Part 1, Laurentide

Chapter 6 - Mrs. Van Helsing

Mrs. Isabelle Van Helsing was not well. She sat inside the antique shop away from the windows with a blanket over her lap. Her breathing was raspy. Her eyes watered.

"Are you sick?" Molly asked, which was not a polite question but she couldn't help herself.

Mrs. Van Helsing touched a handkerchief to her eyes.

"Ah, Molly," she said. "Peter said you were direct. Sit down, please."

There weren't many places to sit, the shop was so stuffed with junk. There were old statues and desks and floor lamps everywhere. There were model cars and trains on shelves, dusty paintings on the walls, and old-fashioned jewelry stacked on the counter. A child's wagon from the 1920s sat in a corner next to a box of stuffed toys. Above the toys was a crate full of teacups, and above that model airplanes hung on string from the ceiling. There were grandfather clocks and wash tubs and butter churns and an old ice box that looked as solid as a bank safe. The store was so full there was no room to turn around. There were even antiques in the yard: through the back door Molly saw the old railroad repair car that Mr. Van Helsing was putting back together. It looked like a pickup truck but had train wheels instead of tires.

If there was any order to the shop Molly couldn't see it. The only spot that was tidy was a display case where Mr. Van Helsing kept his collection of Civil War photographs.

She settled onto a milking stool while Peter found a barber's chair from the early 1900s.

"I'm not sick," Mrs. Van Helsing continued. "But I've been hurt. It's difficult for me to breathe and my eyes don't like bright light anymore."

The three of them sat for a minute. The grandfather clocks ticked all around.

"Peter said you wanted to see me," Molly said finally. "Um, how do you two know each other?"

"Oh, Peter is my savior," Mrs. Van Helsing said. "I don't get around much so Peter helps me know what's going on. He told me about your encounter with the Pug-Nasties."

"With the what?"

"The Pug-Nasties," Peter repeated. "I told you they weren't gypsies."

"What's a Pug-Nasty?" Molly asked. "It sounds like a bug."

"It's not a bug, unfortunately," Mrs. Van Helsing lamented. "If they were bugs we could call an exterminator. But it's not that easy."

"They come from Pug," Peter continued. "Ms. Bamcroft uses them to create trouble."

"They're people from Pug?" Molly tried to understand. "They don't look like people. They look like the Seven Dwarves except with really old clothes."

"They're not dwarves," Mrs. Van Helsing corrected her. "They're not people at all. Well, once upon a time they were but traveling without a ticket twisted them into foul little creatures who make nothing but mischief."

"Doing what?"

Mrs. Van Helsing looked at Peter. "You haven't told her?" she asked.

Peter shook his head.

Mrs. Van Helsing sighed. "It sounds like we'll have to back up a little. Molly, tell me something: what do you think of Ursula Bamcroft?"

Molly shivered. "I think she's very unpleasant," she said. "I never knew one person could cause so much trouble. She wants to force everyone to do what she wants."

"What do you mean?"

"She has weird ideas," Molly shrugged. "As though she doesn't understand how people really think. She keeps talking about fairness but then she does things that are unfair, like mixing up grades and letting anyone into Laurentide. Yesterday she told the soccer team that we have to let everyone join even if they can't run, and this morning I couldn't go to my art class because it was full of students from Pug. Ms. Bamcroft said last week if we liked our classes we could keep them, and if we liked our teachers we could keep them. But none of that is true. She's cancelling classes and firing teachers and everyone seems to be too afraid to stop her. Anyone who complains is called a hater. And she tells us that we're the ones being unfair."