It was a dark and windy night. The people of Hogshead were looking out of their windows, wondering what the storm would be like, but little did they know the meeting that was about to take place in the town’s old abandoned warehouse.
Two dark figures sat at the table with a briefcase full of money.
“The deal is final then,” one of them said in a low, deep voice.
“Yes,” one replied in a high-pitched voice, giving him the suitcase. But they didn’t know that a young boy destined for greatness was watching them.
Two years later, Emory woke up to go to school but instead found Comet, Cara’s pet bird, banging on his window. Emory was accustomed to this kind of thing, so he opened his window, grabbed the letter from Comet’s pouch, and let him fly back to Cara.
He opened the letter, read it, and stuffed it in his bag. Then Emory got ready and left for school.
At recess, he met with Cara like she asked in her letter.
“Emory, we have a mission,” she said. “Remember the shelter that the mayor promised he would never close?” she asked, grinning.
Emory chuckled, as it was his superpower to repeat things exactly as he hears them because he had a rare disease called echolalia.
“Yeah,” he replied.
“Well, he’s closing it, so we have to stop him,” she said.
“A mission?” asked Emory.
Cara smiled. “Meet me at the abandoned warehouse today at 11:00 p.m.”
Emory nodded and went back to his friends who were playing tag.
Emory went home and got a good night’s sleep because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all at night.
He met up with Cara at 11:00 p.m. just like she asked, in the central building where they always met up. When Emory reached there, he could not find Cara anywhere when all of a sudden a voice behind him said, “Ready, Emory?”
Emory jumped up in surprise, panting, but replied, “Ready.”
“So here’s the plan: we’ll go to the mayor’s house and make him hear what he said using your superpower. Got it… Emory, are you okay?”
“Huh, oh yeah, just thinking about something.”
Cara, with a consoling expression, asked him what was wrong, and he replied, “Cara, do you know that when I was young, I was in a warehouse taking shelter from the rain, waiting for it to end, when I overheard two men talking about the situation happening today—like a deal? One of the men was giving money to the other… I think that the mayor and the owner of the hotel were the two people.”
Cara thought for a while and then said, “Well, it’s possible, but we’ll think about it later.”
Emory nodded and said, “Let’s go.”
They reached the mayor’s house, who was just getting ready to sleep, and then a sudden fright caused him to yell, “Ahh! What in the world—?”
It was Cara and Emory, who had just somehow entered the room.
“Mr. Mayor, I’m Communication Cara, and this is Echo Emory. We know that you want to close the shelter to build the hotel, but we won’t let you.”
“Yeah, you promised to never close the shelter.”
“I am the mayor,” he said, chuckling. “You can’t stop me,” he said, dropping to the floor and laughing hysterically, “or not until you have proof,” he said.
“I am Sypher. I have built this center and promise to never break it,” Emory said.
The grin on Sypher’s face vanished and his attitude immediately changed.
“Oh no, I am so sorry, please forgive me, but I don’t have a choice. You see, a long time ago I took a hefty amount of cash from the owner of the hotel to close the shelter so he could make a hotel here, and now I can’t return it.”
“So it was you!” Emory shouted triumphantly. “I saw it all, since I was there. Mr. Mayor, you don’t have to listen to him.”
Sypher took a deep breath and said, “Okay, I won’t break the shelter.”
Cara and Emory smiled and left, and the children of the shelter were saved.