Ada and the Lost Horizon: The Final Chapter

To read the previous installations in this serial story, visit instagram.com/leilasalesbooks.

The revolutionaries hung back in fear as Ada walked across Concord Hill, toward Chef Rotter, whose pointy hat reminded Ada more of a witch than a chef. She approached him slowly, her mind spinning as she tried to process the information she’d just learned.

The revolutionaries had told her that her mother, Petunia, wasn’t from here at all. If they were to be believed, then Petunia had been born in another world: the World Beyond the lost horizon. Years ago, Petunia had stolen a locked box from the World Beyond — the box which Ada now carried in her arms. And she had run away, to bring it to the only place where it could be safe: this world.

Nobody from this world could open the box. Only those from the World Beyond had that ability. So as long as nobody from the World Beyond got their hands on it, then whatever devastation the box held could not be unleashed upon the universe.

Ada wished her mother were here to tell her what to do.

But the only person here was Chef Rotter, standing menacingly at the tip of Concord Hill. “Who are you?” he demanded.

“I’m Ada,” said Ada. “I come on behalf of your café workers — your tables and chairs, your kitchen appliances and your silverware. They want to be treated with dignity. They want to come and go from the café as they please. They demand fair pay.”

“Absolutely not,” said the chef.

Ada heard the revolutionaries murmuring behind her. “The café wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for them,” Ada pointed out. “What’s a café without tables and chairs, kitchen appliances and silverware? Why, it’s just an empty room!”

Chef Rotter shook his head, his odd hat twisting this way and that. “They belong to me,” he said. “All of them. Now that I think about it, you might belong to me as well. What did you say your name was again?”

“Ada,” said Ada, “and no, I don’t belong to you. None of us do.”

“Well,” said the Chef dismissively, “then I suppose the only way forward is to do battle. Which seems like a pity, really. For your side, I mean. Already they have lost so many brothers-in-arms in their first two failed revolutions. How many more are they willing to part with in pursuit of their ridiculous cause?”

“We outnumber you!” shouted the eggman from his safe position behind Ada.

Chef Rotter pulled down the brim of his hat, making sure it was snug on his head. “You have more fighters,” he agreed. “But I am more powerful and have more resources. I have the law and the status quo on my side. You could gather together every toaster over and tea kettle in town, and you still couldn’t beat that.”

Ada thought the revolutionaries might charge at him, try to take him down, but they stayed put — even took a step backward.

“He’s right,” muttered Mr. Coffee.

“We’ve suffered so much already,” whispered Bad-eye Blender. “Why should this time be any different?”

Ada shook her head. “I was sent here to start the third revolution,” she said. “And that’s what I’m going to do.”

She marched up to Chef Rotter until they were standing face to face. He didn’t back down. “What are you going to do?” He laughed at her.

Ada snatched the pointy hat off the chef’s head.

He froze in place, as if he was made of ice, or glass. A moment later, cracks began rippling throughout the glass. And a moment after that, they shattered.

The pieces clattered to the ground in a jumble of glass shards and sand. And just like that, Chef Rotter was no more.

Ada turned around to face the revolutionaries, who were staring at her, their mouths gaping wide open. “What did you do?” asked Earl Grey, the first among them to regain the power of speech.

“I removed his hat,” Ada said. “There was nothing to Chef Rotter, really. Just an impressive hat. And without the hat, we could all see him for what he really was: a pile of dust.”

The revolutionaries broke into applause. “We’re free! We’re free!” They cheered and danced around Concord Hill.

Ada checked the time. It was closing in on midnight. “I have to go to the old railway station,” she said. “That’s where Teddy’s kidnappers will be meeting me.”

“We need the box first,” said the eggman. “Once we have the box, we can return to the World Beyond. Our work here in your world will finally be complete.” Captain Barton swung open her doors, so Ada would have a place to put the box.

But Ada shook her head. “I need to get Teddy back. His kidnappers told me to bring the box to the railway station at midnight, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

“In that case,” said the eggman, “we’re coming with you. We’re not letting that box out of our sight.”

Ada and the rest of the victorious revolutionaries piles back into the spaceship, and Comrade Chair blasted off. It was just a short trip from Concord Hill to the old railway station, but Ada’s stomach churned just as much as it had on their longer ride — maybe even more so. This was it. Her chance to rescue Teddy. What would she find at the railway station? The ransom note had said that Teddy was safe, but the ransom note was left nearly twenty hours ago. Anything could have happened to him during that time. Just look at everything that had happened to Ada in that time!

The bubbling blue jet fuel that Bad-eye Blender had concocted was just enough to get them safely to the railway station. They all got out and looked around cautiously. The station was dark and deserted. Trains hadn’t stopped here in years. The tracks were rusty and broken-down, and the platforms were covered in graffiti.

“You’re sure this is where the kidnappers said to meet them?” asked the Lysol can. “’Cause it’s kind of a dump.”

“We can clean it!” suggested another member of the Clean Team.

Ada didn’t respond. She thought she saw something off in the distance, far down the track. She squinted and leaned forward, sure she was mistaken.

But it was real. A train was headed toward them.

The bright light on the conductor’s car illuminated the platform and as it slowly, silently, pulled into the station.

The clock struck midnight.

The train doors creaked open, and an enormous flower stepped out. And not just any flower.

A marigold.

“Good,” said the flower. “You brought the box.”

Ada gripped it even more tightly. “Who are you?” she asked. “Why did you take Teddy? What do you want with my box? I brought it here, like you demanded. Now I deserve some answers.”

“It’s not YOUR box,” said the flower. “It doesn’t belong in your world at all. It’s mine. I created it, many years ago. I had grand plans for it. But just before I could use it, my sister Petunia — your mother — stole it and fled to your world. I don’t know how long she planned to stay here, if she had any plans at all. But after she fell in love with your father, and had you and Teddy, she was never going to return. So I had to come here myself to get my box back.”

“So you’re the World Beyond counterpart for my Aunt Marigold?” Ada asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” said the flower. “Your Earth-world Aunt Marigold is a real pill. I can’t believe I don’t have a better counterpart.”

“And I’m half…” Ada wasn’t sure how to say it. “I’m only half-human? And half of the World Beyond?”

“Of course,” said the flower. “Shame on my sister for never telling you the truth about where she came from, and who you are. That’s why you have your extra skill, Ada. People from your world simply don’t have magical abilities like you do. You know that. If your mother had only taught you how to use your skill properly, maybe you wouldn’t have wound up killing her.”

Ada’s face felt hot. “It was an accident. I NEVER would have hurt my parents on purpose.”

The flower shrugged. “You don’t need to defend yourself to me,” she said. “I have no issues with hurting anyone. Now. Give me the box.”

Ada gripped it tightly. “Give me back my brother first.”

The flower smirked at her. “Why? You don’t believe I’d hold up my end of the bargain?”

Ada just glared.

“Fine,” said the flower. She opened the train door once again. “Teddy,” she called. “Come on out.”

Ada held her breath as her little brother stepped out of the train car.

“Ada!” he exclaimed, his face breaking into a wide smile. “I missed you!”

“Teddy!” Ada felt like she was going to cry. “You’re safe!”

She took a step toward him, but was blocked by the flower. “You’ve seen your brother,” she said. “Now give me the box, and we’ll go our separate ways.”

Ada paused, looking at the box.

“Don’t do it, Ada!” cried the eggman.

“What do YOU know about it?” snapped the flower.

“We were sent here to reclaim the box, too,” said the eggman. “We’re here to bring it someplace safe, someplace where it can never, ever be opened.”

The flower cackled.

“If that box is opened,” said Padrot, the pepper shaker, “the whole universe will be destroyed.”

“And that would be, like, a major bummer, man,” said Haydray, the salt shaker.

“Yes, I know,” said the flower. “I built it, remember? That’s been my plan all along. It’s just taken a lot longer than I’d expected, thanks to my good-for-nothing sister.”

Ada raised an eyebrow. She’d always disliked her Aunt Marigold, but she was a ray of sunshine compared to her aunt’s counterpart from the World Beyond. Aunt Marigold was difficult. This flower was downright EVIL.

“But we don’t WANT the universe to be destroyed!” wailed Comrade Chair.

“Do I look like I care what you want?” asked the flower.

“Ada doesn’t want the universe to be destroyed, either,” said the eggman.

“What makes you so sure of that?” the flower asked. “Ada, it’s up to you. Which would you rather: save your brother and risk destroying everything, or keep the box and never see Teddy again?”

Ada swallowed hard. Slowly, she held the locked box out to the flower.

“No,” said the eggman. “Don’t do it, Ada!”

But there was nothing the revolutionaries could do to stop her. The flower grabbed the box from Ada’s hands.

Teddy ran to his sister, and he hugged her so tightly she could hardly breathe. “You did it!” he said. “You saved me!”

“She saved you,” muttered the eggman, “by sacrificing the entire universe!”

But Ada didn’t pay any attention to him. Instead, as the flower boarded the train, Ada used her voice.

Not her ordinary voice, the only one that Teddy and the revolutionaries had ever heard from her. Her secret, supersonic voice. The voice that could create energy waves, knock over tree trunks, explode machinery. The voice which she had not accessed in three years, not since it caused the accident that killed her parents.

But this time, she did what the book from The Library had suggested:

“If you have damaged something with your supersonic voice, keep with you an emblem of that damage. (For example, if you shatter a windowpane, keep a shard of its broken glass in your pocket.) The next time you use your vocal powers, channel them through the emblem. The emblem will absorb the destruction and let out a purer, less dangerous power.”

The last thing Ada had damaged was her mother. And fortunately, she had an emblem of her mother with in her pocket: the heart-shaped necklace that she’d taken off the mantelpiece shrine in her aunt’s house. She didn’t know if it would work the way that the book had suggested, but it was the only plan she had.

Ada’s supersonic voice came out even louder and more powerful than she remembered it. It had been so long since she’d last used it, she hardly even recognized it as her own.

Would it hurt everyone around her — the revolutionaries, Teddy?

Ada clutched her mother’s necklace — her emblem — and tried to “channel” her power through it. And suddenly, she felt it begin to work. Her voice, which previously had been like a great wall or a tidal wave, all went into the necklace, and it came out the other side as a thin, targeted laser beam. No longer was it a shapeless force, toppling over everything in its path. Now it was a single, impossibly sharp point.

“What are you doing?” cried Teddy. But Ada didn’t stop. She just held on to her little brother with her other hand, the one not holding the necklace.

She saw an expression of confusion, or maybe fear, pass across the flower’s face as she backed onto the train. Then Ada targeted her voice — right at the locked box.

The box imploded.

It was as if all the air was sucked out of it in an instant. Ada threw herself in front of her brother. If the box was going to blow up, if whatever was inside it was going to hurt anyone, it would have to go through her first.

But that didn’t happen. Ada closed her mouth. The railway station fell quiet. Everything was as it had been, except for the box, which was concave now, its sides all falling in on top of one another.

The flower opened the box. It unlocked easily in her hands. Ada held her breath, but all that came out was a thin puff of smoke.

The flower turned the box upside down and shook it. Nothing came out.

She glared at Ada. “You stupid, stupid human!” she hissed. “You’ve ruined it! Do you have any idea how long I worked on this for, how long I’ve been trying to get my hands on it?” She threw the open, empty box to the ground.

“What can I say?” Ada shrugged, then put her arm around Teddy. “I’m my mother’s daughter.”

The World Beyond version of Marigold gritted her teeth, let out a little scream of frustration, then went inside the train and slammed the door shut behind her. A moment later, the engine started up, and the train chugged away into the night.

Ada hugged her brother harder than she’d ever thought possible. Then, to the revolutionaries, she said, “I know you were supposed to bring the box back to the World Beyond with you. I’m sorry I ruined it. But it was the only way I could see to rescue my brother. And even if you took the box, there’d still be the chance that someone could open it. The only way the universe could be safe is if there simply is no box to open.”

The revolutionaries conferred amongst themselves. Then, the eggman turned back to Ada and said, “Our task was to ensure that the box never fall into the wrong hands. And I would say, that goal has been achieved. Our work here is done.”

“We’re also thinking,” said Mr. Coffee, “we might stick around for a while.”

“Here, in this world?” asked Ada.

“Yup,” said Comrade Chair. “Now that we don’t have a box to return, we’re in no rush to leave.”

“Plus,” said the eggman, “now we have a café of our own. We can run it just the way we want.”

“That sounds great,” said Ada. “I’ll come by for eggs.”

“What will you do now?” asked Fork, Knife, and Spoon.

“I’m going to take Teddy home,” Ada said, slinging her arm around her brother’s shoulders. “And we’re going to catch up on everything we missed while we were separated.”

Teddy gave a little yawn and leaned against her. “It was a big day, Ada, wasn’t it?”

“It sure was, Teddy.” As Ada led her brother away from the old railway station, she paused for just a moment, picked up a shard of the broken box, and stuck it in her pocket. It would be would be good to have an emblem of her power. She never knew when she might need it.