Donut Holes and Lightning Bugs
Winston was just grabbing a ranch dressing packet in the lunch line when a hand reached out in front of him. Johnny waved, but his usual smile was absent.
“Hey! Did you get any information from your parents?” Winston whispered.
Johnny shook his head. “They never tell me anything. They just said someone from Tango Co. called to tell them nothing was wrong, so I shouldn’t worry.”
“We did see that explosion, didn’t we?” Winston asked. He was now starting to wonder if he should trust his own memory.
“Oh, we definitely did,” Johnny said, grabbing a ranch dressing packet for himself. “But my parents are acting like I’m confused.”
“Mine too,” Winston sighed. “Do you know if—”
“Hurry up!” A snippy voice snapped from behind him. “Let’s GO!”
Winston jumped and spun around. It was Ms. Judy, the lunch room supervisor, grouchy as always. She came towards him like a wide-eyed octopus creeping through the darkness of the deep sea. Stringy white hair bounced with each step. She caught him in a glassy glare for just a moment but then seemed to look right past him. Winston and Johnny scooped up their trays and scrambled for the lunch tables without looking back. Winston always tried to avoid Ms. Judy. Something about her just gave him the creeps.
Winston set his tray down and spoke quietly to Johnny. “I asked a bunch of people in our class this morning if they saw anything unusual yesterday.”
(“The only unusual thing I saw was you,” Derek had replied.)
Winston had purposely kept his question open-ended. He didn’t want to “lead the witness,” as Baba would say. He didn’t want someone claiming they knew about the explosion who hadn’t actually seen or heard it.
But everyone he spoke with replied very earnestly, “No, I didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Why?”
Winston tore open his ranch dressing packet and squeezed it onto his tray next to his carrots. “That security guard wasn’t looking out for our safety. What did he think we were going to do—climb over a fifteen-foot fence with razor wire? He knew there was no way we could get onto Tango Co. property.”
“And he was pretty rude,” Johnny agreed. “Telling us there was no explosion? He was lying. You and I both saw it, and I know that security guard saw it too.”
“My parents refuse to tell me what they do at Tango Co.,” Winston said. “They keep just finding fancy ways of not answering my question. All my dad ever told is me is: We put the holes in the donuts and the lights on the lightning bugs.”
Angela leaned across the table and cut into the conversation. “My mother used that line on me too when I was little.”
Winston stared in stuttering astonishment. “She... she did?”
“I think it’s a Tango Co. saying.”
“But what does it mean…?”
Her best friend, Denise, started laughing. “I thought my parents literally meant it! I thought Tango Co. was a donut shop that helped fireflies who couldn’t light up.”
Angela and Denise shared a chuckle.
“Wait, your parents said that to you too?” Winston asked Denise in disbelief. “Has everyone heard this?”
Denise nodded like it was so obvious.
Winston’s eyes scanned the cafeteria, table after table, face after face. As far as he knew, every student at Presley Elementary had at least one parent who worked at Tango Co. That place was the only reason the town of Sun View even existed. Without it, this would all be just open desert, miles and miles from human civilization. Was there anyone in here who knew what that line about donuts and lightning bugs actually meant?
“Have any of your parents told you what they actually do?” Winston asked.
“Science,” Denise replied.
“Research,” Angela said.
“But what kind of research?”
The girls shrugged.
“Don’t you think that’s kind of… strange?” Winston asked. “I mean, why can’t our parents tell us what they do? What’s so secret about it?”
“It might not be as weird as you think,” Angela explained rationally. “You know how scientific research companies are.”
“Yeah,” Denise agreed. “They can’t just go around blabbing all their secrets to everyone, you know.”
“Some other company could steal their ideas,” Angela added.
“I understand that,” Winston said. “But don’t you think it’s weird that none of us know anything about what they do there? Not even a hint?”
“It’s not a normal science lab, that’s for sure,” Johnny said.
Winston pinched open his milk carton. “I just wish I could go inside Tango Co. and find out what our parents are doing.”
There’s nothing wrong at Tango Co.
That’s what Winston’s parents and all the other adults in Sun View keep telling him. But Winston knows what he saw—an explosion in the sky right above the Tango Co. Building. Now he wants answers. What exactly is this “scientific research” facility hidden out in the desert behind a razor wire fence? Why can’t his parents tell him what they do there? With the help of his best friend Johnny, Winston is ready to investigate.
But their quest for answers only leads to a series of eerie occurrences. An unidentified creature running through town. A mysterious ring at school that makes Winston’s head heavy when he wears it. The janitor showing up unannounced at Winston’s house, snooping. And when Johnny goes missing with no explanation, that’s when Winston really knows—there is something wrong at Tango Co. If he’s going to save his best friend, Winston will have to summon up all his courage to get past the razor wire fence and the find the truth once and for all.
Complete at 48,000 words
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