The Mysterious Wrinkle in Society

Disclaimer: All rights to the characters Wrinkle in Time go to Madeline L'Engle. All rights to characters of Mysterious Benedict Society go to Trenton Lee.

Chapter Two

The three children were now inside the building. But to their utter disappointment it seemed as if no one was there except a middle aged couple who seemed agitated.

"This is prosperous!" The woman shrieked, her hands flying up in the air. Her face was quite red and candid. Her husband on the other hand shrugged and tried finding the appropriate words to comfort his wife with. Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin looked on.

"Zack should be able to be accepted into a program like this. I mean he does exceptionally well in school and he's on the honor roll after all." The wife stared at her husband who nodded in agreement, she continued. "He's rare. Sports is such a talent of his, too. Ugh, the people who made this test should be doomed."

The husband nodded again and chewed on a bagel, taking a sip out of his coffee cup he sighed as he saw the cup was empty. "Honey, maybe Zack should stick with sports and try another advanced academic test later. He seems to be fine where he is now."

The wife wasn't taking it. "No Keith, Zack is perfect. This test on the other hand wasn't able to display any of those abilities." She couldn't tolerate it no more, thus she grabbed her husband's coffee cup and sighed in frustration at the realization there was no coffee in it. "Ugh, I need coffee."

However before the couple exited the room Meg stopped them. "Um sir, where were you able to fetch that coffee?" The man glanced at the empty coffee cup. "The café around the corner." The wife eyed her suspiciously. "What do you need young lady?" She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. Meg a bit intimidated paid it no mind. "Well my brother, friend, and I were just wondering if if you got that just now?"

"No," said the wife irritably. "He got the coffee about an hour ago."

Meg nodded and thanked them before going back to where Calvin and Charles Wallace were waiting. The couple stared at her as she did so.

"What did they say," inquired Calvin watching the couple leave. Meg sighed. "They said they got the coffee about an hour ago, and they had gotten the coffee the same place dad went 'apparently' missing." Charles Wallace seemed a bit terrified considering he only had little time to spend with his father. It had been about a year since they had defeated IT and "The Black Thing".

"What do we do now?" Inquired Charles Wallace. "It seems as if not a single soul is in here."

Meg rubbed her forehead. She wanted to call her mother but ditched the thought. Why would she want to worry her mother? And it wasn't as if a phone was around—much less usable. Sitting down in one of the plush orange chairs she put herself into utter reverie leaving Calvin and her little brother to themselves.

They both stared at her.

"Do you think Meg's alright?" Calvin whispered to Charles Wallace who stared at his sister with his finger beneath his chin. He thought for a moment. Noticing how cleared out the room was a thought came to him, this place could be possibly closed.

"No, I don't think Meg's doing fine." Charles Wallace looked up at Calvin expectantly. The older boy didn't know what to do in this particular situation either. All he was wondering was what that side door lead to. He was by all means curious about the door. It seemed forbidden but he could care less about that. He knew they needed to find Mr. Murry who, in other words, was like a second father to him.

"We need to see what's behind that door," said Calvin to Charles Wallace. "No one's in here, so we might as well walk though to see if we can find anybody who can help us."

"That sounds reasonable which in other words I do agree."

Calvin smiled and nudged the sleeping Meg. "After all that thinking she fell asleep on us," he said.

"Meg?"

"Meg?"

The girl opened her eyes, rubbing them beneath her glasses she yawned and looked alarmingly at Calvin and her little brother.

"Has the testing started?"

Calvin frowned and shook his head apologetically, although he had no reason to be sorry. He wished he could've been more help in this dire situation. Mr. Murry was family to him, too. "No," he said. "However were trying to check out this door that could maybe lead us to your father."

Megan getting up headed towards the door. Her mind was only focused on locating her father and the possibilities there were on finding her father. She then tried turning the knob of the door but it wouldn't budge.

The door was locked.

"The door's locked," said Meg. She tried budging the door a little more but the door still wouldn't open. "I'll try." Calvin stepping in front of Meg, he then grabbed something from inside his brown corduroy pant pocket. It was what seemed to be something equivalent to a key.

"This might work." Taking the key and inserting it into the lock of the door, after a few seconds the door unlocked.

The trio then entered the room. There was nothing in the seemly vacant room, hence the fact it was bit dark where the children stood. However they all noticed that on the opposite wall from where they stood, hung over a closed door was large sign that read: "CROSS THE ROOM WITHOUT SETTING FOOT ON A BLUE OR BLACK SQUARE."

Meg furrowed her eyebrows in bewilderment. What's that supposed to mean? she thought frustratingly. Calvin on the other hand was slightly disturbed. This was bringing him flashbacks to IT. Feeling frightened he made sure not show it. Therefore he felt something on his hand. "Calvin, are you aware of what to do?" The fifteen year old boy shook his head. "No Charles Wallace but I think have an idea. You need to hold on to my hand and Meg's hand, okay?"

The intelligent little boy nodded, and did as was told.

Opening the door. "Don't step on the blue and black squares!" Meg reminded.

When they had entered the room, they expected something terrifying and exhilarating to happen considering the three of them had their eyes closed. But instead when they had entered and opened their eyes, the floor was printed with blue, black, and yellow tiles. The trio was now standing on a red circle and across the other side of the room, another red circle laid.

"How are we going to step on the yellow squares when there's a lot of blue and black squares?" Meg asked. All her eyes could spot were the blue and black squares (being the majority).

"I don't know," replied Calvin. Like everyone else, he was trying to figure out how to cross the room without stepping on the prohibited squares.

Charles Wallace, on the other hand, was reevaluating the instructions mentally. Without setting foot on the blue or black squares... That was when it had hit him. "Meg, Calvin, I have made quite the discovery."

The two teens nodded.

"I think I have, too," said Calvin, with the smile on his face triumph and vigorous. "Have you Meg?" The blonde girl nodded her head again and mumbled something to herself the two boys couldn't hear. "Well, what do you have Charles?

"The blue and black squares aren't squares, there..."

"Rectangles. Exactly!" Calvin gave Charles Wallace a high five. "Now all we'll need to do is walk down the those rows of blue and black rectangles, the squares are on the sides, so it won't be too difficult."

Meg scrunched her eyebrows. "Well considering it said to cross the room WITHOUT setting foot on blue or black squares, we can just crawl across the room. There's no harm in that," but blushing at her idea. "Walking across the rectangles would be a lot easier."

The two boys laughed at her quirkiness and the trio then made there away across the room, stridently and hand-to-hand as if they were Dorothy and her friends, making their way down the yellow brick road.

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