The Secret Path

  “Adam!” she cried. “Don’t go near that car!”

  But she was too late with her warning. He stopped the shopping cart only inches from the car door, feeling as if he had done his good deed for the day. He noticed that Sally was still standing where he’d left her. She seemed afraid to approach the vehicle. As he started to move the cart to a safe place, a soft yet mysterious voice spoke at his back.

  “Thank you, Adam. You have done your good deed for the day.”

  He turned toward the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She was tall—most adults were. Her black hair was long and curly, her eyes so dark and big, they were like mirrors that opened only at night. Her face was very pale, white as a statue’s, her lips as red as fresh blood. She wore a white dress that swept past her knees. In her hands she carried a small white purse. She must have been in her late twenties, but seemed ageless. It was a warm day, yet she had on gloves, as red as her lips. She smiled at his shocked expression.

  “You wonder how I know your name,” she said. “Isn’t that so, Adam?”

  He nodded, dumbstruck. She took a step closer.

  “There isn’t much that happens in this town that I don’t know about,” she said. “You just arrived today. Isn’t that so?”

  He found his voice. “Yes, ma’am.”

  She chuckled softly. “How do you like Spooksville so far?”

  He stuttered. “I thought only kids called it Spooksville?”

  She took another step forward. “There are a few grown-ups who know its real name. You’ll meet another one today. He’ll tell you things you might not want to listen to, but that will be up to you.” She glanced at her car, then at the shopping cart still in his hand, and her smile broadened. “I give you this warning because you have done me a favor this day, protecting my car. That was valiant of you, Adam.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  She chuckled again, removing her gloves. “You have manners. That is rare among the young in this town.” She paused. “Do you think that is one of the reasons they have so many—problems?”

  Adam gulped. “What kind of problems?”

  The woman looked in the direction of Sally. “I’m sure your friend has already told you many frightening things about this town. Don’t believe half of them. Of course, the other half—you might want to believe.” She paused as if sharing a private joke with herself. Then she waved at Sally. “Come here, child.”

  Sally approached reluctantly, and then stood close to Adam. She was so close he noticed she was shaking. The woman studied her up and down and frowned.

  “You don’t like me,” she said finally.

  Sally swallowed. “We’re just out walking.”

  “You’re just out talking.” She pointed a finger at Sally. “You watch what you talk about. Every time you say my name, child, I hear it. And I remember. Do you understand?”

  Sally was still shaking, but a sudden stubbornness hardened her features. “I understand very well, thank you.”

  “Good.”

  “How’s your castle ‘keeping’ these days?” Sally asked sarcastically. “Any cold drafts?”

  The woman’s frown deepened, then unexpectedly she smiled. Adam would have said it was a cold smile if it hadn’t been so enchanting. This woman held him spellbound.

  “You’re insolent, Sally,” she said. “Which is good. I was insolent as a child”—she paused—“until I learned better.” She glanced at Adam. “You know I have a castle?”

  “No, I didn’t know,” Adam said. He liked castles, although he’d never seen one, much less been inside one.

  “Would you like to visit me there someday?” the woman asked.

  “No,” Sally said suddenly.

  Adam glared at Sally. “I can answer for myself,” he said.

  Sally shook her head. “You don’t want to go there. Kids who go there, they—”

  “They what?” the woman interrupted. Sally wouldn’t look at her now, only at Adam. Sally seemed to back down.

  “It’s not a good idea to go there” was all Sally said.

  The woman reached out and touched the side of Adam’s face. Her fingers were warm, soft—they didn’t feel dangerous. Yet Adam trembled beneath them. The woman’s eyes, as she stared at him, seemed to pierce to the center of his brain.

  “Nothing is the way it looks,” she said gently. “Nobody is just one way. When you hear stories about me—perhaps from this skinny girl here, perhaps from others—know that they’re only partially true.”

  Adam had trouble speaking. “I don’t understand.”

  “You will, soon enough,” the woman said. Her fingernails—they were quite long, and so red—brushed close to his eyes, almost touching his lashes. “You have such nice eyes, did you know that, Adam?” She glanced over at Sally. “And you have such a nice mouth.”

  Sally gave a fake smile. “I know that.”

  The woman chuckled softly and drew back. Reaching out and opening her car door, she glanced back at them one last time. “I will see both of you later—under different circumstances,” she said.

  Then she got into her car, waved once, and drove away.

  Sally was ready to throw a fit.

  “Do you know who that was?” she exclaimed.

  “No,” Adam said, still recovering from the shock of meeting the woman. “She didn’t tell me her name.”

  “That was Ms. Ann Templeton. She is the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Mrs. Madeline Templeton.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “The woman who founded this town about two hundred years ago. A witch if ever there was one. Witchery runs in their family. The woman you just met is the most dangerous creature in all of Spooksville. Nobody knows how many kids she’s killed.”

  “She seemed nice.”

  “Adam! She’s a witch! There are no nice witches except in The Wizard of Oz. And one thing Spooksville sure doesn’t have is a yellow brick road. You have to stay away from that woman or you’ll end up as a frog chirping in the stagnant pond behind the cemetery.”

  Adam had to shake himself to clear his brain. It was almost as if the woman had cast a spell on him. But a pleasant spell, one that made him feel warm inside.

  “How did she know my name?” he muttered out loud.

  Sally was exasperated. “Because she’s a witch! Get a grip on reality, would ya? She probably just had to look in a big pot filled with boiling livers and kidneys to know everything about you. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if she sent that shopping cart flying toward her car just so you could run over and stop it. Just so she could stop and bewitch your tiny little mind. Are you listening to me, Mr. Kansas City?”

  Adam frowned. “The shopping cart wasn’t flying. It never left the ground.”

  Sally raised her arms toward the sky. “The kid has to see a broom fly across the sky before he’ll believe in witches! Well, that’s just great. Be that way. Get yourself changed into something gross and disgusting. I don’t care. I have problems of my own.”

  “Sally. Why are you always yelling at me?”

  “Because I care. Now let’s get out of here. Let’s go to the arcade. It’s pretty safe there.”

  “None of the games are haunted?” Adam asked to tease her. Sally stopped to give him another one of her impatient looks.

  “A couple of games are haunted,” she said. “You just can’t put quarters in them. Of course, knowing you, you’ll head straight for them.”

  “I don’t know,” Adam said. “My dad wanted his change back from when I bought the Cokes. I don’t have any money.”

  “Then thank your dad for a small favor,” Sally said.

  4

  They never got to the arcade. Instead they ran into Sally’s friend—Watch. He was an interesting-looking fellow. About Sally’s height, with blond hair the color of the sun and arms that seemed to reach to the ground. His ears were big. Adam saw in an instant where he got his nickname. On each arm he wore two large watches, four that Adam cou
ld see. Maybe he had a couple in his pockets that Adam didn’t know about. The lenses on his glasses were thick—they could have been swiped from the ends of telescopes. Sally seemed happy to see him. She introduced Adam.

  “Adam’s from Kansas City,” she said to Watch. “He just got here and is finding the change of scenery painful.”

  Adam frowned. “It’s not that bad.”

  “What are your favorite subjects in school?” Watch asked.

  “Watch is a science nut,” Sally said. “If you like science, Watch will like you. Me—I don’t care if you flunked biology. My love is unconditional.”

  “I like science,” Adam said. He gestured to Watch’s arms. “Why do you wear so many watches? Isn’t one enough?”

  “I always like to know what time it is in each part of the country,” Watch said.

  “There are four time zones in America,” Sally said.

  “I know that,” Adam said. “Kansas City is two time zones ahead of the West Coast. But why do you want to know what time it is in all these places?”

  Watch lowered his head. “Because my mother lives in New York. My sister lives in Chicago, and my father lives in Denver.” Watch shrugged. “I like to know what time it is for each of them.”

  There was sadness in Watch’s voice as he spoke of his family. Adam felt he shouldn’t ask why everyone was so spread out. Sally must have felt the same way. She spoke up again.

  “I was just telling Adam how dangerous this town is,” she said. “I don’t think he believes me.”

  “Did you really see Leslie Lotte get swallowed by a cloud?” Adam asked Watch.

  Watch looked at Sally. “What did you tell him?”

  Sally was defensive. “Just what you told me.”

  Watch scratched his head. His blond hair was kind of thin. “I saw Leslie get lost in the fog. And then none of us could find her. But she might have run away from home.”

  “The fog, a cloud—what’s the difference?” Sally said. “The sky ate her, it’s as simple as that. Hey, Watch, what are you doing today? Do you want to go to the arcade with us?”

  Watch brightened. “I’m going to see Bum. He’s going to show me the Secret Path.”

  Sally shuddered. “You’re not taking the Secret Path. You’ll die.”

  “Really?” Watch said.

  “What’s the Secret Path?” Adam asked.

  “Don’t tell him,” Sally said. “He just got here. I like him, and I don’t want him to die.”

  “I don’t think we’ll die,” Watch said. “But we might disappear.”

  Adam was interested. He’d never disappeared before. “How?” he asked.

  Watch turned to Sally. “Tell him about it,” he said.

  Sally shook her head. “It’s too dangerous, and I’m responsible for him.”

  “Who made you responsible?” Adam asked, getting annoyed. “I’m my own person. You can’t tell me what to do.” He turned to Watch. “Tell me about the path. And tell me who Bum is.”

  “Bum is the town bum,” Sally interrupted. “He used to be the mayor until Ann Templeton, town witch, put a curse on him.”

  “Is that true?” Adam asked Watch.

  “Bum was the mayor,” Watch agreed. “But I don’t know if he became a bum because he got cursed. It may have been because he got lazy. He was always a lousy mayor.”

  “What exactly is the Secret Path?” Adam asked again.

  “We don’t know,” Sally said. “It’s a secret.”

  “Tell me what you do know,” Adam said, getting exasperated

  “There’s supposed to be a special path that winds through town that leads into other dimensions,” Watch said. “I’ve searched for it for years, but never found it. But Bum is supposed to know it.”

  “Who says?” Adam asked.

  “Bum says,” Watch said.

  “Why is he going to tell you the secret?” Sally asked. “Why today?”

  Watch was thoughtful. “I don’t know. I gave him a sandwich last week. Maybe he just wants to thank me for it.”

  “Maybe he wants to get you killed,” Sally grumbled.

  “It wasn’t that bad a sandwich,” Watch said.

  “When you say the path leads into other dimensions,” Adam said, “what do you mean?”

  “There is more than one Spooksville,” Sally said.

  “Huh?” Adam said.

  “This town overlaps with other realities,” Watch explained. “Sometimes those other realities blur into this one.”

  “That’s why this is such a weird place to live,” Sally added.

  Adam shook his head. “Do you have any proof that this stuff exists?”

  “No direct proof,” Watch said. “But a man on my block was supposed to have known about the Secret Path.”

  “What did he say about it?” Adam asked.

  “He disappeared before I could ask him.” Watch paused to check one of his watches. “Bum is waiting for me. If you want to come, you have to decide now.”

  “Don’t go, Adam,” Sally pleaded. “You’re young. You have your whole future in front of you.”

  Adam laughed at her concern. He was interested in the Secret Path, but he couldn’t say he believed it really existed. “I have a long boring day in front of me. I want to see what this is about.” He nodded to Watch. “Let’s go find this Bum.”

  5

  Sally ended up going with them, complaining all the time about how they could get stuck in a black hole and squashed down to the size of ants. Adam and Watch ignored her.

  They found Bum sitting by the pier on a concrete wall, feeding the birds from a pile of nearby seed. On the way to the water Watch had stopped and bought a turkey sandwich at a deli as a gift. Bum accepted it hungrily and didn’t even pause to look at them until he’d finished eating.

  Bum was dirty with a long scraggly gray coat that looked as if it had been dug out of a garbage can. His face was unshaven, his cheeks stained with grease and dirt. His hair was the color of used motor oil. He could have been sixty, but maybe cleaned up he would have looked closer to forty. Although he was thin, his eyes were exceptionally bright and alert. He didn’t look drunk, just hungry. Finished eating, he regarded them closely, searching Adam up and down.

  “You’re the new kid in town,” he said finally. “I heard about you.”

  “Really?” Adam said. “Who told you about me?”

  “I don’t reveal my sources,” Bum replied, throwing the final crumbs from his sandwich to the birds that flocked around him as if he were Father Bird. Bum continued, “Your name’s Adam and you’re from Kansas City.”

  “That’s right, sir,” Adam said.

  Bum grinned wolfishly. “No one calls me sir anymore, kid. And to tell you the truth, I don’t care. I’m Bum—that’s my new name. Call me that.”

  “Did you really used to be mayor?” Adam asked.

  Bum stared out to sea. “Yes. But that was long ago, when I was young and cared about being a big shot.” He shook his head and added, “I was a lousy mayor.”

  “I told him that,” Watch said.

  Bum chuckled. “I’m sure you did. Now, Watch, what do you want? The secret to the Secret Path? How do I know you’re qualified to learn it?”

  “What qualifications are necessary?” Watch asked.

  Bum asked them to lean in closer. He spoke in a confidential tone. “You have to be fearless. If you walk the Secret Path and find the other towns, then fear is the one thing that can get you killed. But if you keep your head, think fast, you can survive the road. It’s the only way.”

  Adam had to draw in a breath. “Have you taken the Secret Path?” he asked.

  Bum laughed softly, mainly to himself. “Many times, kid. I’ve taken it left and I’ve taken it right. I’ve even taken it straight up, if you know what I mean.”

  “I don’t,” Adam said honestly.

  “The Secret Path doesn’t always lead to the same place,” Bum said. “It all depends on you. If you’re a lit
tle scared, you end up in a place that’s a little scary. If you’re terrified, the path is like a road to terror.”

  “Cool,” Watch said.

  “Cool?” Sally said sarcastically. “Who wants to be terrified? Come on, Adam* let’s get out of here. Neither of us is qualified. We’re both cowards.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Adam said, getting more interested. Bum had a powerful way of speaking—it was hard to doubt his words. “Can the path lead to wonderful places?” Adam asked.

  “Oh yes,” Bum said. “But those are the hardest to reach. Only the best people get to them. Most just get stuck in twilight zone realms and are never heard from again.”

  “That wouldn’t bother me,” Watch said. “I love that old show, The Twilight Zone. Please tell us the way.”

  Bum studied each of them, and even though the smile left his mouth, it remained in his eyes. Adam liked him but wasn’t sure if he was a good man. The words of Ann Templeton, the supposed witch, came back to haunt him.

  “There are a few grown-ups who know its real name. You’ll meet another one today. He’ll tell you things you might not want to listen to, but that will be up to you. I give you this warning because you have done me a favor this day.”

  “If I tell you the way,” Bum said, “you have to promise not to tell anyone else.”

  “Wait a second!” Sally exclaimed. “I never said I wanted to know the secret.” She put her hands over her ears. “This town is bad enough. I don’t want to fall into a worse one.”

  Bum chuckled. “I know you, Sally. You’re more curious than the other two. I’ve watched you this past year. You go out looking for the Secret Path all the time.”

  Sally pulled down her hands. “Never!”

  “I’ve seen you searching for it,” Watch said.

  “Only to block it up so that no one else could find it,” she said quickly.

  “The Secret Path cannot be blocked up,” Bum said, and now he sounded serious. “It’s ancient. It existed before this town was built, and it will continue to exist after this town has turned to dust. No one walks it and remains the same. If you choose to take it, you must know there is no going back. The path is dangerous, but if your heart remains strong, the rewards can be great.”