Well! He could talk, after all. He wasn't exactly friendly, but at least he had finally spoken. Then his words sunk in. No phone! We were stuck there — probably for the night — and we wouldn't even be able to call our families. My stomach did a flip-flop. This was not a good situation.

"Is there a phone anywhere around?" asked Charlie. "Maybe we could walk to one."

"Impossible, with the bridges out," said the man shortly.

Charlie glanced at me and grimaced. I knew how he felt. We were in big trouble, and we weren't going to get any help out of this strange old man.

Then he surprised both of us.

"You can stay up at the big house," he said. "I'd have you here, but I see you've got a passel of kids with you, and I don't have the space." He nodded toward the van. I looked over at it and saw eight small faces, plus Barfs, peering out at us.

Maybe the old man wasn't so bad after all. "That's very nice of you, sir," I said. "Does

that house belong to you?" I didn't mean to be nosy, but I was awfully curious about why he was able to offer it to us.

"I'm the caretaker," he explained. "Nobody's lived there for ages. I've been taking care of it for — for more years than you've been alive, I'd say." He peered at me, and just then I heard a roll of thunder and the sky lit up for a second. I saw the man's hard, gray eyes looking into mine, and I felt a chill. I shook it off.

"I'm Kristy Thomas," I said. "And this is my brother Charlie. We're very grateful to you." I figured the only way to conquer my nervousness was to act self-confident, and it did seem to help.

"I'll get you some supplies," the man said. And just like that, he disappeared into the cottage, leaving Charlie and me standing alone on the front step. We looked at each other. Charlie raised his eyebrows, and I raised mine. Then I turned to the van and gave Bart the thumbs-up sign, to let him know things were okay. I also pointed to the big house and then laid my cheek on my folded hands, to let him know we'd be sleeping up there. He looked confused for a second, but then he nodded, and turned to tell the kids.