Alphabet Allie's Arc

Chapter 14 of 15

Allie followed the path past Ophelia's oblong house and up a slow hill. The grass turned to smooth stone under her shoes. At the top stood a tall building with layered roofs that curled up at the corners. Red pillars held up each tier. Gold paint shone along the eaves. Allie had never seen a house like it. She climbed the steps and heard a small voice grunting near the top. "Please," the voice said. "Please, just one." Allie reached the landing and stopped. A small penguin stood in the middle of a wide platter of pizza slices. Cheese stuck to his orange feet. A blue scarf hung around his neck, and goggles sat pushed up on his head. He was trying to pick a pepperoni off the top slice without falling in deeper. Every time he bent down, he sank further into the cheese. "Are you stuck?" Allie asked. The penguin looked up. His cheeks went pink. "I only wanted the pepperoni," he said. "I love pepperoni. But my feet went through the cheese and now the plates are slippery and I can't step out." Allie knelt at the edge of the platter. She looked at the penguin, then at the pizza, then at the pagoda behind him. Her mouth opened. "Penguin," she said. "Pizza. Pepperoni. Pagoda." She counted on her fingers. "Platter. Plates. Pillars." She pulled her notebook out so fast the pencil rolled. "All P. Every single thing here starts with P." The penguin blinked at her. "Does that help me get out?" Allie laughed. "Maybe." She thought for a second. In this world, letters listened. She smoothed the P on her dress with one hand and held the other out to the penguin. "Petra," she guessed, because it felt right for a penguin in a pagoda. "Grab my hand. We both start with the same letter. That should be enough." The penguin's eyes went wide. "How did you know my name?" "I didn't," Allie said. "The letter did." Petra reached up. Allie braced her brown shoes against the top step and pulled. His feet came free of the cheese with a wet sound. He landed on the stone beside her, scarf crooked, one pepperoni clutched in his flipper like a prize. He held it out to her. "For helping," he said. Allie took it and wrote pepperoni in her notebook under the other P words. Then she looked at Petra properly. His goggles were scratched. His satchel hung heavy on his side. He did not look like a penguin who lived at a pagoda. "Where were you going," she asked, "before the pizza?" Petra's face fell. He touched the satchel. "I was supposed to deliver a letter," he said. "But I've lost it. And I don't know which letter it was." Allie closed her notebook. A lost letter. That was a problem she could not walk away from.