Matthew and the Chimney Sweeps: Book One (Completed, Editing)

Chapter Five B: Spring Heights

As soon as they woke up the next day, it was time to hit the road. They would have had breakfast breakfast, but they had eaten all the food the night before. Chloe was about to start the car's engine when she said, over the sound of buzzing from the bees in the box on the roof, 'Oops. We almost forgot our disguises.'

'Oh, right,' said Jennifer. She popped open the glove compartment and out fell two fake black beards. 'Here you go,' she said, giving one of the beards to Chloe and keeping one for herself. They put them on.

'At night,' Chloe started to explain to Matthew, 'nobody can see inside the car. But during the day, that's another story. Whoever's in the front must wear the beards because we're too young. Too young to drive and too young to sit in the passenger's seat. The beards help us make us look older so we don't get pulled over by the cops and into trouble.'

'Wearing the beards,' said Norman, 'to make us look older was what gave us the idea of infiltrating Bordash Manor as retirees.'

'Your fake faces,' said Matthew, as Chloe started the engine and stepped on the gas, 'were very good. Was it difficult to make them?'

'If we had proper theatrical supplies, prosthetics, it would have been a lot easier,' said Jennifer. 'We just can't afford any of that stuff. Instead, we used all sorts of things. We used newspapers, making it into paper-mache, five-year-old flour, food scraps, dirt, berries – for colour – the list is endless.'

'Slink, as usual, was the mastermind of making the disguises,' said Norman. 'We helped, though.'

'What about the wigs?' asked Matthew.

'We found those in a dumpster in Spring Heights,' said Chloe. 'Same goes for these beards.'

'Mostly all the things we have, our possessions,' said Jennifer, 'were discarded, thrown out by their previous owners.'

'There's nothing wrong with reusing what others have thrown out,' said Matthew. 'I did that many times when I was living at my father's shop.'

'How did you like our voices?' John asked Matthew.

'I thought Jennifer, Chloe and Norman's were very good,' Matthew answered with a grin.

Chloe, Jennifer and Norman laughed.

'You didn't like mine?' said John.

'It was a bit over the top,' said Chloe. Jennifer and Norman agreed with that description.

'Phooey. You're all crazy,' said John. 'You wouldn't know talent if it hit you over your heads.'

Matthew was very much still tired, even though he just had the best sleep in his live, and about ten minutes into their journey to Spring Heights, he closed his eyes and was out like a log. The next thing he knew, he was being shaken awake.

'Wakey, wakey.' John was doing the shaking. 'We're here. We're home.'

'How long was I asleep for?' asked Matthew, yawning. The sun was beating down on his face.

'Three hours,' said Norman, now in the driver's seat and wearing a black beard.

Matthew yawned again and looked out the window at the city of Spring Heights. He had never been to a big city before. Hundreds of tall buildings reached into the air as if they were pillars holding up the sky, and although it was really early in the morning, cars clogged the streets and people crammed the sidewalks.

With Norman turning right at a stop sign, Matthew asked, 'So, how many are in your group?'

'There are twenty-two of us,' said Norman.