The Underworld's Child

31 | The Road to Mount Tam

"But how can we get to my sisters' garden?"

"Thalia's right," Elora said. "We need a car. But there's nobody to help us here. Unless we, uh, borrowed one."

She didn't like that option. Sure this was a life or death situation, but nevertheless, it was stealing, and it won't sit that well with her. On the other hand, she can practice her charm speak. So now she's at the scales weighing her options.

"Wait," Thalia said. She started rifling through her backpack. "There is somebody in San Francisco who can help us. I've got the address here somewhere."

"Who?"

Thalia brought out a crumpled piece of notebook paper and held it up. "Professor Chase. Annabeth's dad."

After listening to Annabeth gripe about her dad for two years, she was expecting him to have devil horns and fangs. She was not expecting him to be wearing an old-fashioned aviator's cap and goggles. He looked so strange, with his eyes bugging out through the glasses, that they all took a step back on the front porch.

"Hello," he said in a friendly voice, "Are you delivering my aeroplanes?"

Thalia, Zoe, Percy, and Elora glanced at each other warily.

"Um, no, sir," Percy said.

"Drat," Dr Chase said. "I need three more Sopwith Camels."

"Right," Percy said. "We're friends of Annabeth."

"Annabeth?" He straightened.

"Is she all right? Has something happened?"

None of them answered, but their faces must've told him that something was very wrong. He took off his cap and goggles. He had sandy-coloured hair like Annabeth and intense brown eyes. "You'd better come in," he said.

☀︎︎☽︎☾︎☀︎︎

It didn't look like a house they'd just moved into. There were LEGO robots on the stairs and two cats napping on the sofa in the living room. The coffee table was piled up with magazines, and a little kid's winter coat was strewn on the floor. The whole house smelled like fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. There was jazz music coming from the kitchen. It seemed like a messy, happy kind of home-the kind of place that had been lived in forever.

"Dad!" a little boy screamed. "He's taking apart my robots!"

"Bobby," Dr Chase called absently, "don't take apart your brother's robots."

"I'm Bobby," the little boy protested. "He's Matthew!"

"Matthew," Dr Chase called, "don't take apart your brother's robots!"

"Okay, Dad!"

Dr Chase turned to them. "We'll go upstairs to my study. This way."

"Honey?" a woman called.

Annabeth's stepmom appeared in the living room, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. She was a pretty Asian woman with red highlighted hair tied in a bun.

"Who are our guests?" she asked.

"Oh," Dr Chase said. "This is..."

He stared at them blankly.

"Frederick," she chided. "You forgot to ask them their names?"

They introduced their selves a little uneasily, but Mrs Chase seemed nice. She asked if they were hungry. They admitted they were, and she told them she'd bring them some cookies and sandwiches and sodas.

This reminded her of her mother back home.

"Dear," Dr Chase said. "They came about Annabeth."

She half expected Mrs Chase to turn into a raving lunatic at the mention of her stepdaughter, but she just pursed her lips and looked concerned.