Return of the Homework Machine (8 page)

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

It was really awkward. Nobody was saying anything. Milner and Mr. Murphy were just staring at each other. Like they were really going to fight over the treasure. I looked around. There were five of us there, and only two of them. Of course, Milner had a sword in his hand, which
changed the odds. And I didn't think Judy would be very useful if things were to get violent. But even so, we had the advantage.

MR. MURPHY. SIXTH-GRADE TEACHER

I could smell alcohol on Milner's breath. It was a very dangerous situation, and I felt that somebody needed to calm things down. I said that we should all be happy because we had stumbled upon a great archeological find, perhaps the most important one in American history. I pointed out that legally, any artifacts found within the Grand Canyon belong to the state of Arizona, or very possibly the Havasupai Indians, who still live on a reservation nearby. To them, this was probably sacred ground.

RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6

Well, Milner just flipped. He started ranting about Indians. He said, “Why is everything sacred just because some Indian touched it? They could just say the whole United States is sacred ground. They were here first. It was their land. We took it from them. We took everything from them. What's different here?”

He started waving the sword around and telling them to get out before somebody got hurt. I tried to get him to calm down, but he waved the sword at me, too. He was getting out of control. The alcohol didn't help.

MR. MURPHY. SIXTH-GRADE TEACHER

I told the kids to stand back against the wall. I had so carefully planned out this whole trip to make sure nobody would get hurt hiking, rafting, or climbing. But it never occurred to me that we would encounter a drunken lunatic with a sword. Some things you can't plan for.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

Mr. Murphy looked real calm. He kept trying to get Milner to put the sword down and talk things over man-to-man, but Milner wouldn't listen. He kept yelling and threatening us. Sometimes you can't reason with people. He was waving that sword around like he was Indiana Jones or something.

MR. MURPHY. SIXTH-GRADE TEACHER

I spent my whole career in the military.
Except for the practice range, not once did I pull the trigger on a gun. Never got into a fistfight. Never hurt another person in my life. But I know how to defend myself. They trained me for that.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

They were circling around each other, like boxers. The only difference was that Kinkaid's dead body was between the two of them. I was paralyzed. We all were. The girls were crying and yelling for them to stop.

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

Milner kept saying we had to leave or he'd kill us. He was crazy! Mr. Murphy kept telling him that if he put the sword down, we would leave.

BRENTON DAMAGATCHI. GRADE 6

Finally, Milner lunged at Mr. Murphy with the sword.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

Mr. Murphy kicked the sword out of his hand.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

The sword hit Milner on the side of his face.

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

He put his hand to his cheek and saw the blood on it. He was real mad! He took a wild swing at Mr. Murphy with his bare fist.

MR. MURPHY. SIXTH-GRADE TEACHER

In martial arts, they teach you to use physics. If somebody lunges toward you, their forward momentum can be used to your advantage.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

Mr. Murphy ducked the punch and shoved Milner aside.

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

Milner tripped over Kinkaid's body and lost his balance. That's when he fell down the steps.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

Milner went head over heels down the steps and over the rock shelf. We all ran over. His legs went over the edge.

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

He was hanging there with his elbows up on the ledge for a moment or so.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

He was struggling to hold on.

BRENTON DAMAGATCHI. GRADE 6

He looked up at us. There was a pleading look on his face. But there was nothing we could do.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

And then he slipped off the edge.

May

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

Even now, I still can't believe it happened. It was all so fast. One second he was standing there, and the next second he was gone. May I have a tissue, please?

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

For a moment, we were all frozen. We just stared. Like statues. Then we all rushed down the steps. Everybody was freaking out, even Mr. Murphy. And
nothing
freaks him out.

MR. MURPHY. SIXTH-GRADE TEACHER

This was not the first time I had seen a man die. But it was the first time I had seen a man die by accident. It was my fault. I was the adult in
charge. I had failed. It's a failure I will have to live with for the rest of my life.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

I leaned my head over the ledge and the others held on to my legs so I wouldn't fall off. At first I didn't see anybody down there. Then I saw somebody floating in the river. Facedown. He wasn't moving. He must have hit the rocks on the way down.

BRENTON DAMAGATCHI. GRADE 6

It was my fault. I could have stopped it. I could have stepped between the two of them while they were fighting. But I froze. And in that instant, a man died. If only I had a time machine, so I could go back and erase that mistake.

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

I hope he didn't feel too much pain. I was pretty sure he was dead. You don't survive a fall like that. It would be a miracle for him to still be alive. I said a prayer.

RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6

I felt really alone. The others were part of a
group. Milner was gone. Probably dead. And it was my fault. I was the one who brought him in on the treasure hunt. If I hadn't, he would still be alive today.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

I was crying. He wasn't a nice man. I didn't like the guy or anything. But even so, you don't want to see that happen to anybody. I had never even been to a funeral before, and now—in the space of a few minutes—I had seen one dead man, and another man die. I was in shock. We all were. We just sat there silently for a long time.

RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6

What should we do? That's what we were all asking. My first thought was that we should keep our mouths shut. I didn't want to tell anyone else what happened. Nobody else had to know. Nobody could tie us to Milner.

But I realized that was stupid. The police were eventually going to find Milner's van parked at Lee's Ferry. Somebody was going to find his raft. People had probably seen me meeting with him at the visitor center. Somebody would report him missing. And I was sure that one of the
others would spill the beans. They're all so honest. They wouldn't know how to tell a lie if their lives depended on it.

MR. MURPHY. SIXTH-GRADE TEACHER

There was no question in my mind what we had to do. We needed to alert the police right away. I'm not just saying that because I'm sitting in a police station. It was the right thing to do.

RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6

When Mr. Murphy said we had to notify the police, I didn't argue.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

I don't know why we did it, but we all hugged. Even Ronnie. He was part of our group now too. He was a jerk and all, but he had been through it just like us.

When I first met Kelsey and Snik, I didn't like them either. But we had been through a lot together with the homework machine, and we became best friends.

Mr. Murphy took out his cell phone to call the police, but he couldn't get a signal.

BRENTON DAMAGATCHI. GRADE 6

I went over to Ronnie and told him to give me the GPS. I didn't ask him, I told him. And he gave it to me. I opened it up right there and pulled out the chip. The little red light was still attached to it, and it was blinking. It's amazing that such a tiny thing could cause so much trouble. I put the chip in my pocket. I gave the GPS back to Ronnie.

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

Snik said that we should agree on our story so we would all say the same thing to you police folks. Well, we jumped all over him. What story? We had no story. We would just tell the truth. What happened to Milner was an accident. He was crazy. He would be fine today if he hadn't gone loco and started swinging that sword around. Mr. Murphy did what he had to do to protect us from getting hurt.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

They were all mad at me just because I used the word “story.” I didn't mean we should
lie
about what happened. I just wanted us to be consistent so nobody would get into any trouble.

One thing was amazing to me. The one person who wasn't sure that telling the truth was the right thing to do was Mr. Murphy.

BRENTON DAMAGATCHI. GRADE 6

Mr. Murphy said we should tell the truth, of course, but not necessarily the
whole
truth. He said that if the police found out that he fought with Milner and threw him down those steps, they might decide that a crime had been committed. And if Milner turned up dead, the crime would be murder. It made a certain amount of sense—at the time, anyway.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

I thought Mr. Murphy was right. What purpose would it serve to tell everybody there was this big fight and that he threw Milner down the steps?

We could just say we saw a body floating down the river. That was the truth. I
did
see a body floating down the river. Leave it at that. People fall off the cliffs in the Grand Canyon all the time, right? Milner could have been one of those guys who liked to pee off high places. Or
maybe he was getting his picture taken and took a few too many steps back. After all, Ronnie said Milner was drinking. If the body was found, there would be alcohol in his bloodstream.

RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6

We shook hands on it. I thought that would be the end of it.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

I didn't feel good about what we decided. We saw more than just a man floating in the river. We saw a man get out of control with a weapon, and we saw Mr. Murphy disarm him. In the process, the man fell down the steps and over the ledge.
That's
what we saw.

I'm not very good at lying. And withholding the whole truth is not that different from lying. Some people can stare you right in the face and say something they know isn't true. I don't want to be one of those people, but I wish I could do that sometimes.

RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6

We were about to climb down when I
remembered something—the treasure. They hadn't even seen it yet. I took them into the room where the Buddha and all that other gold stuff was.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

It was amazing. Just amazing. Like a museum carved into the rock. I never saw so much gold before. I couldn't really appreciate it though, because of what had just happened with Milner.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

We didn't know what to do about it. Should we take some of that stuff with us to prove we found it? Leave it? Contact the historical society when we got back? It was Ronnie, of all people, who came up with the best idea.

RONNIE TEOTWAWKI. GRADE 6

I said we should forget about the treasure. Don't tell anybody about it. Just leave it there for some future generation to discover. The treasure was nothing but bad luck anyway. Maybe it was cursed, like the tomb of King Tut. That Kinkaid guy discovered the treasure, and he was dead. Now Milner was dead. I didn't
want anybody else to die. We all just wanted to get out of there.

MR. MURPHY. SIXTH-GRADE TEACHER

We climbed down from the cavern and started making our way back. As soon as my cell phone was able to get a signal, I called police headquarters and reported that we had seen a body floating in the river. That's all I said. When the officer asked me if I could give her any details, I said no.

It was stupid. I feel terrible about it. I apologize. It was wrong to deceive you folks. But I hope you believe me that what happened was an accident.

POLICE CHIEF REBECCA FISH: LOG BOOK

May 1, 11:23 a.m.: Gerald Murphy, teacher at Grand Canyon School, reports body floating in Colorado River downstream from Bright Angel Campground.

May 1, 9:12 p.m.: Found white van parked after hours in lot at Lee's Ferry. Arizona plate #SDF759. Registered in the name of Richard Milner.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

We went back to school the next day, and nobody said anything. I think I was still in shock. We just glanced at each other nervously. But I knew that I would never be the same person after what happened. I felt like I wasn't a kid anymore. I had seen somebody die.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

I didn't even know Milner, but I had the same feeling as when my dad died. Like a part of me was missing. I started watching the news on TV to see if Milner's body turned up. I mean, it was floating in the river. At some point it would wash up against the rocks and somebody would find it. But there was nothing about it in the newspaper or on TV. They just had all these reports about Canyonist nuts wandering around because the end of the world was coming.

POLICE CHIEF REBECCA FISH

The tourist season don't usually start up around here till school lets out and people take their vacations. But in the beginnin' of May, these lunatics were just streamin' into the park in droves. I never seen anything like it! They all had
this glassy look in their eyes. When you talked to 'em, they'd just say the world was gonna end on Mother's Day, and they wanted to be here.

It got to be a real problem. You'd be walkin' down the street and there would be three of 'em standing on their heads, and chanting. Folks would complain. But what was I supposed to do? I couldn't arrest these loonies. There's no law against standin' on your head in public. Maybe there should be.

BRENTON DAMAGATCHI. GRADE 6

I had wiped the website clean as soon as I saw that people didn't realize Canyonism was a joke. But it didn't make any difference. The crazies had printed out the whole website and made copies of it to give to their friends. They would walk around reading it like it was the Bible.

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

We only had a few more weeks of school left. Nobody had found Milner's body. We began to relax and stop thinking about him all the time. Even if they found Milner, I figured there was no way anyone would know we had anything to do with his death.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

We were a little team now. Not just the four of us. Mr. Murphy and Ronnie were part of the team too. Because we knew a secret that nobody else knew. It wasn't a good feeling. Not for me, anyway. I wanted to tell somebody. Anybody.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

I was keeping an eye on Brenton. When we were using the homework machine, he was the one who couldn't keep his mouth shut. If he hadn't spilled the beans, we would probably still be using it today to do our homework. We never would have catapulted the computer into the Grand Canyon. None of this other stuff would have happened. Brenton isn't good at keeping secrets.

BRENTON DAMAGATCHI. GRADE 6

I had no intention of telling anyone the full story of what happened to Milner in that cave. I had put it behind me. But something else was weighing on my mind—the chip. I had been carrying it around in my pocket ever since I got it back from Ronnie. I didn't want it out of my
sight. It had caused too much damage. In the wrong hands, it could do a lot more. I decided that we had to get rid of it once and for all.

BRENTON'S MOM

Brenton told me that a few of his friends were coming over after school. And their teacher, Mr. Murphy, too. I had met him on Back to School Night, and he seemed very nice. I made cookies.

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

We all went over to Brenton's house for a meeting. He took us down in the basement and we sat around the Ping-Pong table. Then he took out the computer chip and put it on the table in front of us. That blinking red light was still attached to it. I hated that thing.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

Brenton said we had to get rid of the chip, and we all agreed. Even Ronnie. The question was, how would we do it? Catapulting it into the Grand Canyon obviously didn't work the first time. Everybody had an idea.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

I said we should just crush it. I could smash that sucker with a sledgehammer in a second. Bam! No problem. Done. But nobody liked my idea. I don't know why. Usually simple solutions are the best ones.

KELSEY DONNELLY. GRADE 6

I've been to this website called “Will It Blend?” This guy with a high-powered kitchen blender takes everyday objects and sees if he can chop them up into tiny little pieces. So he takes, like, a baseball. Or a cell phone. And he blends it. It's cool. I suggested we try to blend the chip. But nobody wanted to ruin their blender.

SAM DAWKINS. GRADE 6

People were suggesting that we flush it down a toilet, bury it underground, burn it in a campfire, all kinds of crazy stuff. I remembered one of those
Terminator
movies, where these machines take over the world and decide they're gonna get rid of the human race. Every time the good guys think they kill one of their cyborg assassins, it finds a way to come back to life. We were gonna have to
come up with a foolproof method of getting rid of the chip forever.

JUDY DOUGLAS. GRADE 6

It seemed to me that the right thing to do would be to turn the computer chip over to the police and let them figure out what to do with it. They would know a way to dispose of it safely. But everybody started yelling at me. They all said that if the authorities got ahold of a chip this powerful, they would use it to create some super weapon and start another war or spy on American citizens. They may have been right. I don't know.