The Book of Adam
Town Secrets
By
Scott Gelowitz
Copyright © 2014 Scott Gelowitz
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
For Jennifer,
Jessica, Zachary, Rachel and Rebecca.
Thank you for all of the wonderful adventures we’ve shared.
You are my inspiration.
CHAPTER ONE
Adam McTaggart sat on his bike in front of the grocery store, wondering when his friends would arrive. As he waited, he heard the conversation of two familiar old ladies as they approached.
“Did you hear? Something destroyed that town! There isn’t a soul left anywhere,” said Aggie as she walked beside her tall friend.
“I heard that some of the buildings are still standing, but not many,” replied Martha, looking down at Aggie.
“Gives me the shivers, I’ll tell you. I’ve met people from there before. Seemed like normal folks to me,” said Aggie.
Martha nodded in agreement. “I sure hope they find out what happened. I feel like going on a long holiday ‘til they figure it out. They’re not that far away from here.”
Aggie nodded with a shudder.
The elderly ladies walked and talked as they passed the grocery store, ignoring Adam completely.
What did they say? A town was destroyed and the people are missing? Weird, he thought as he watched them turn onto Main Street and out of sight.
Although the sun was shining, it felt cool outside, especially for a summer day. The birds that usually filled the air with happy song seemed to sing sadly that morning.
James Jones the Third, (he preferred Jimmy), and Kevin Baranov rode up on their bikes a short time later. Jimmy had a puzzled look on his face.
“Hey,” said Adam
“Hey,” replied both Jimmy and Kevin.
“Did you hear about Langenburg?” asked Jimmy. “My parents couldn’t stop talking about it this morning.”
“I didn’t know it was Langenburg. I overheard Aggie and Martha talking about it when they walked by a few minutes ago,” Adam replied, “I wasn’t sure how much to believe. You know how those two can tell a story.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” chuckled Kevin. “My parents were acting pretty weird this morning too. I overheard the news on Dad’s radio at breakfast, but they must have known about it earlier ‘cause they were talking about Langenburg instead of listening. They never miss the news at our house.”
The conversation stopped as a customer stepped out of the store carrying bags of groceries. The three boys waited in silence, and soon they were alone again.
“What do you want to do?” asked Adam.
Jimmy and Kevin looked at each other and shrugged.
“Let’s see if Mark has any ideas,” said Adam.
“As long as we don’t get seen by old George,” said Kevin, “He freaks me out.”
Jimmy laughed. “How come a big guy like you is scared of a little old man like George? He couldn’t hurt you!”
“I’m not scared of him! He just creeps me out,” replied Kevin.
The others smiled. They knew George was a little strange, but he wasn’t dangerous.
“We’ll ride around the block and coast into Mark’s driveway from the other side,” said Adam. “That way, we don’t go past George’s house so there’s less chance he’ll see us.”
“We can try, but I think he can sense me coming,” said Kevin. Adam and Jimmy chuckled.
It was a short ride to Mark’s house, made slightly longer by the detour. As they approached, they could see the front of George’s mobile home on the other side. Even though not much of it was visible, they could see things piled high in the front window. Adam couldn’t imagine what the inside would be like.
As they pulled into Mark’s driveway, George was nowhere to be seen. Even though he didn’t admit it, Adam was relieved he didn’t have to listen to George either.
Jimmy hopped off his bike and rang the doorbell while the other two stood a few steps behind him. Mark’s dad answered the door and looked at the group.
“Hello boys, what are you up to today?” asked Gurpreet Gupta in his naturally low voice and rich East-Indian accent.
“Not too much, just hanging out,” replied Jimmy. “We came to see if Mark wanted to come out with us today.”
The door opened wide. “See you later Dad,” said Mark as he squeezed his round belly between his father and the door frame.
“Just make sure you are home in time to eat, or your mother will be very very angry.”
“Ok,” Mark replied as he closed the door. “Let’s go guys.”
Mark grabbed his bike from beside the house as the others returned to theirs.
"HEY...YOU...KIDS...,” came a yell from nearby. George jogged around the corner in a hurry to catch them.
Oh no, thought the group at the same time.
“Did you hear the news? The end of this town’s coming! We’re next! They’re after the secret!”
“Hi Mr. Fritz,” said Mark, seeming to have heard the warnings many times before.
“Mark, you and your friends need to get out of town! It’s not safe here anymore. Just like I told you! They’re coming for the secret,” said George pointing at each of the boys.
“Who’s coming?” asked Adam.
“…I don’t know…but I know they’re coming. Just listen to the news,” said George
“Sure thing,” replied Mark, trying to end the conversation and leave.
“Langenburg isn’t the first place this happened to, you know. It’s happened before…down east, on the coast… something’s coming…,” he repeated.
George stopped talking, having noticed Mark’s dad appear in the window.
“You come over soon and I’ll show you what I’ve found,” George whispered, “You won’t think I’m crazy then.”
After a quick and almost frightened wave to Gurpreet, he turned and walked straight into his mobile home, locking the door behind him.
The boys looked at each other.
“I don’t know about you guys, but this Langenburg thing has my parents pretty uptight,” said Mark in a low voice, seeing his dad still in the window. He walked his bike toward the gas station and the others followed.
“Yeah, all of our parents are acting pretty strange,” replied Kevin, with the other two boys nodding in agreement.
“Do you think George is onto something? I know I’ve always heard rumours about Grayson being different, but I never thought about it much,” said Adam.
“I’ve heard a lot of his stories before, and they can be pretty convincing,” said Mark. “When Dad makes me cut his grass and do odd jobs for him, I usually get stuck listening to his stories, like ‘why no one from Grayson had to serve in either World War’. He has tons of stories about the founding families, hidden treasure, great evil destroying us all, and on and on. If it wasn’t for his endless supply of chocolate bars and Root Beer, I wouldn’t listen at all.”
Kevin laughed. “You’d do anything for a free Root Beer, except work,” he teased.
“You go listen to him for an hour and tell me it isn’t work,” Mark shot back.
“Anyway,” Jimmy changed the subject as they walked, “what should we do today? It’s the start of summer holidays and I’m already bored.”
A car raced around the corner by the hotel, startling the boys and ending their conversation. It nearly slid into the pumps at the gas station before it recovered and sped past, pulling into the Gupta’s driveway.
They watched a
s a man stepped out of the car and jogged up to the doorway.
“Isn’t that Mr. Chen?” asked Kevin. “What’s the big panic?”
The boys could hear a stressed conversation going on at the Gupta house.
“I should check it out,” said Mark with a worried look on his face.
The group walked toward the Gupta house when they saw Gurpreet and Don Chen heading for the car.
“We have an issue at work. I’ll be back later,” Gurpreet called to Mark before jumping in the passenger seat. Don backed out of the driveway and sped past the boys, the engine roaring.
“What on earth could be such an emergency today?” asked Jimmy. “They work at the weather monitoring station. It’s not like we get earthquakes here.”
“I wonder if it has something to do with Langenburg,” thought Adam aloud.
Had he known what was coming, Adam wouldn’t have wasted the following few days in search of excitement with his friends. There would be plenty of excitement soon enough.
CHAPTER TWO