THE NOSE AND HIS PERFUME

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten: The Secret

The thing about carrying a giant, antique crate is that everyone notices the crate and not the people carrying it. Under normal circumstances, if Bunny and Penny went to mail something alone, someone might have wondered where their parents were. On seeing them with the crate, people only smilingly wondered what they were doing lugging the enormous thing. The girls made their way up to the post office counter easily, though probably more slowly than Beau, who was inside the crate, would have liked. Bunny looked around for Mike, the young man who had showed them the shipping tunnel before, but he was gone.

A woman behind the counter smiled at the children and asked, “What have you got there?”

“It’s a Christmas present,” Bunny lied, and then trying to appear less nervous than she felt by making small talk, she elaborated. “Our cousin’s staying with us for the holidays. We wanted to send her mom a Christmas present.”

Bunny dug into her knapsack for the money they had raided Beau’s piggybank for and the post-it on which he had written the address.

“Her mom’s in the ocean saving dugongs,” Bunny added.

“This address is in Grayton,” the woman said. 

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Bunny could hear Beau groan inside the crate and kicked it.

“This will be expensive to mail. Are you sure you want to mail it?”

“Yep.”

The woman entered the address into the computer, and a printer spat out a label, which she stuck to the crate. When their transaction was done, the woman and another postal worker dragged the crate into the backroom, and Bunny pulled Penny over to a display of commemorative stamps, pretending to be interested in them. When the coast was clear, they went to the backroom door. Bunny lightly knocked on the door, tapping to the rhythm of the song “Happy Birthday,” which was the signal they had agreed upon.

Beau let them in, and they hurried to the shipping tunnel. While Beau helped Penny into one of the shipping carts, Bunny pulled the lever on the wall, and then got in behind Penny. Beau climbed in behind them, and they fell into each other, as the shipping carts lurched forward with a screech.

Gradually picking up speed, the carts trundled along, and then hurtled down a hill in the dark tunnel. Air rushed over the children as the carts rattled down, swinging alarmingly from side to side on the track. They careened around a corner, sparks flying from where the poles connected to the cable above, making an electric fizz and crackle. Bunny was surprised by how fast they were going; the shipping carts were as fast as a rollercoaster. The journey through the tunnel also lasted about as long as a ride. When they reached the other end, a breaking mechanism fell into place, and with a series of grinding sounds and clanking jolts, the shipping carts rolled to stop.

Beau unzipped the knapsack on Bunny’s back, and took out the two flashlights they had brought, passing one to Bunny over her shoulder. Not wanting to risk turning on the overhead lights to see, the twins turned on their flashlights. Bunny helped Penny out of the shipping cart. They were in a huge room in the basement of Spark’s and Campbell’s, full of rows of dusty tables. 

“Where are we?” Penny asked.

“We’ve never been in this room before, but Mr. V said the shipping tunnel ends in the store’s old mailroom,” Beau said. He pointed to a clear plastic tube receding into the ceiling. “Look. It’s a pneumatic tube,” he said. “For sending mail upstairs.”