Encore
Cover Art by Lucía Benito Zambrana
Cover Art Copyright © 2002
http://paradegritar.deviantart.com
email: [email protected]
All cover art rights reserved
Copyright © 2012 Helen Chadwick
All rights reserved.
ISBN-10: 1477508139
ISBN-13: 978-1477508138
Cover Art Copyright © 2002
http://paradegritar.deviantart.com
email: [email protected]
All cover art rights reserved
Copyright © 2012 Helen Chadwick
All rights reserved.
ISBN-10: 1477508139
ISBN-13: 978-1477508138
Chapter 1 - Tedium
Summers normally flew by like migrating geese, but that summer was extra hot and long. Boredom was a word we seldom used because there was little time for boredom.
However, that summer before we entered the ninth grade seemed to never end because it was the hottest summer ever. It was too hot for fishing, too hot for bicycling, and everyone in town who was not working during the day was cooling off at the lakes. We had done it all and soon were bored near tedium. Sitting around the house or watching television resulted in someone finding chores for us to do, so we stayed outside as much as possible even with the sweltering heat.
“So, what do you want to do,” Gary asked while poking a stick at a half-dead cricket on the sidewalk. His sandy hair always looked as if he had just gotten out of bed with a cowlick in the back that would not stay down with anything short of glue.
“I dunno,” I shrugged my shoulders and leaned back on the gray wooden steps of his front porch. The sun was hot on my face and arms, but it felt good.
“We only have a couple weeks left before school starts. We can’t just sit here wasting time doing nothing.”
“We done it all already this summer, rode our bikes, played baseball, went fishing, and made Susan run home yelling, ‘mommy’ more times than we should’ve. What else do you want to do?” I asked with emphasis on “want” as if there was nothing else we could possibly want to do.
Gary stopped poking at the cricket because it was dead, and he looked as if a great idea attacked his brain. “Tommy, we haven’t gotten into trouble all summer. That’s what is missing,” he tossed the stick at the old elm tree in the center of the yard.
Sometimes, Gary’s idea of fun got him into trouble, but never too serious. He didn’t want trouble. He was only bored with normal things. He liked the thrill of getting away with something, or crossing forbidden boundaries. Sometimes, he persuaded me to go along by telling me that our parents didn’t want us to see something.
That something was what he seemed to be searching for when we went exploring. Had he known that that hot summer would be more something than he bargained for, he might have been content on going fishing for the remainder of summer break.
“Gary, I don’t want to get into trouble. Your dad expects it of you, but my dad will ground me for life if I get into any more trouble with you. He might even say we can’t hang out together anymore.”
“You afraid?”
“No, but…” I started, but I knew I was afraid. I did not want him calling me a coward, though, not ever, not by my best friend. Unfortunately, he knew that. More than once, he managed to get me to go along so I wouldn’t hear that “c” word. To be honest about it, I wanted to explore as much as he did, but I preferred a little coaxing so I would not feel guilty.
“We won’t do anything to get into real trouble,” Gary said as he stood up and started walking down the walk towards the street. He motioned for me to follow him. I had an ugly feeling in my gut; it could have been a voice in my head. Either way, I had a feeling I should go find something else to do, such as clean my room.
“Maybe we can go fishing again,” I offered as I caught up to him. “It’s getting late. Maybe we can think of something to do tomorrow.”
“Quit stalling. I know of a place we can go exploring. I’ve wanted to go there for a long time.”
“You know we are not allowed to go near the old theatre,” I knew where he was going. “The signs…”
“Signs schmigns, those are only there to scare us away. They don’t want anyone knowing the truth about what really happened there.”
“The signs are there to keep people away so it doesn’t fall on their heads and someone sues the snot out of them. Besides, people say it is haunted.”
“But, there are no such things as ghosts so says you. So, it can’t be haunted, now can it?”Gary had me on that one. I did not believe in ghosts or haunts. There was always some logical explanation.
“Even if it isn’t haunted, it is off limits. I don’t want to go snooping around there and get into trouble. Those signs are official enough for me,” I stopped walking.
Gary faced me with defiance, “I am going with or without you. If you don’t go, you are a…”
“Alright,” I resigned. “But, if it looks dangerous, we get out of there fast, right?”
“Sure thing, I ain’t stupid. It’s just an old theatre,” Gary started walking again.
“It is old and falling down. No one has performed there since that ballerina died,” I followed behind him with reluctance mixed with curiosity.
“No one ever proved whether it was an accident or someone murdered her. What if we were able to find out something,” Gary shook his finger at the sky as if he had had a good idea, a real light-bulb moment.
“If the police couldn’t find out what happened, what makes you think we can discover something new? I have a bad feeling that we should go fishing instead.”
“You chicken?”Gary widened his eyes promising to say the “c” word if I didn’t go along.
“No, but…” I looked behind us to see if anyone saw us. Secretly, I wished someone would see us and stop us before it was too late. There was no one in sight anywhere. Just my luck.
The closer we got to the massive old building, the quieter it seemed. Not many people went down Willow Lake Road anymore. It was a long time ago when the ballerina died, but a few people talked about it as if it happened yesterday. Up until that long hot summer, the stories were interesting to me. However, dread combined with sweat running down my back, I wished the dilapidated monstrosity of a building would vaporize so I did not have to set foot inside its old dankness. All old buildings where people do not go anymore had to be dank. That had to be the dankest building of all time.
Because of the heat, the walk to the old theatre seemed to take forever. We stopped in front of the old theatre, which resembled a haunted house in a horror movie with an overgrowth of weeds surrounding it. There was nothing inviting about it, nothing at all.
“Kinda reminds you of the Adams Family, huh?” Gary smiled with wicked satisfaction.
“No, it doesn’t. You could see their house. This place is covered with weeds, probably poison ivy,” I protested. “A snake will probably do us in before we even get to the building. Besides, the Adam’s Family does not have a ‘No Trespassing’ sign in front of it.”
“That is only to keep people from snooping around.”
“Exactly. It says violators will be prosecuted. Do you want to be prosecuted? I don’t.”
“Do you even know what that word means?” he laughed.
“Of course I do. It means you get caught being somewhere you shouldn’t be and then they put your butt in jail,” I almost yelled at him.
“You’re smarter than I thought, dude," he mocked me.
No matter how much I protested against going any further, he ignored my attempts to change his mind. He was dead-set on going into the theatre. I hoped I would never regret my choice of words on that last thought.
“C’mon, let’s get going before it gets dark. We will check it out today and then explore first thing in the morning,” he darted into the wooded overgrowth as if it were nothing.
“Jerk,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I followed him while watching every step so I didn’t step on anything that might try to eat me.
After picking our way through the underbrush, we were next to the steps leading up to the front entrance. I touched his arm to gain his attention while pointing at the broken steps. “Yeah, it looks bad,” he whispered.
I started to turn around to leave hoping he meant the whole idea was dangerous, but he grabbed my arm pulling at me to continue. We crouched along the side of the building where the brush was not as thick. We crept along like thieves. Even though it was scary, it was more fun than anything else we did that summer.
Gary stopped while putting up his hand for me to stop too. He turned around slowly with a finger to his lips. My gut feeling grew so intense, I wanted to run, but my legs stuck to the dirt under my feet. I felt sick. Then, I stood upright when I realized Gary was only playing on my fears. I didn’t tell him I was onto him, but I knew.
“What?” I whispered.
He pointed to a window near the ground with all the glass broken out. It was completely black inside and I didn’t care to know if anything lurked about in the darkness. However, Gary inched his way up to the window and looked inside.
“What do you see?” I whispered.
“Nothing. It’s too dark in there,” he darted past the window as if he had seen something inside, but didn't want to tell me about it.
I casually strolled by the window while glaring at his theatrics in trying to make me afraid of a dark window. However, when we went past the broken window, I sensed that someone or something was watching us.
It reminded me of when I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It never failed that when I woke from a scary dream, or watched a spooky show on television right before bedtime, I had to go pee in the middle of the night. Walking through our house in the dark always gave me a feeling that something was behind me. I held my breath until I went into the bathroom where I could turn on the light and do my business. Going back to bed was a repeat of the hair-raising ordeal. I couldn’t turn the light on in the hallway without Dad yelling, “Turn that light out and get to bed.” For some reason, that was always scarier than unseen things in the dark.
Gary stopped suddenly causing me to walk into him almost knocking him off balance.
“Wow,” I said forgetting to whisper.
“Shh,” he said.
I wasn’t sure if he was telling me to shush or that he was about to cuss. It would have been understandable if he had cussed, though. There were more flowers than I had ever seen in one place before. Flowers covered everything in sight, all the trees, bushes, and ground. Every color of the rainbow covered the back yard area of the theatre with roses, marigolds, mums, morning glories, and some that I had no idea what they were called.
Flowers hung down from broken arches and lattice walls. Broken birdbaths and planters scattered among the flowers made the place look even spookier as if we were walking around some ancient ruins or worse, a cemetery. I tried to imagine what it must have looked like back in the day. It must have been a real paradise. No amount of flowers, however, made that place any more appealing.
“Okay, we have been here and seen it. Now can we go home?” I complained.
“Stop your whining. We aren’t even inside yet. Let’s go,” he resumed his crouching towards the back door, which was on ground level with no steps.
Weeds had grown up along the edge of the building and door. I wasn’t about to go back past that dark window alone. Therefore, I followed him up to the door, which had a padlock on it.
“Locked,” he pulled at the padlock as if angry at it.
“We tried,” I mocked resignation.
“No we haven’t. We haven’t tried nothing yet. Besides, there is always that window over there.”
“Uh, maybe there is another door somewhere,” I did not want to jump through a window not knowing where or on what
we may land.
After a couple yanks on the lock, he picked up a large rock and was about to hammer at the lock, “That is against the law, Gary. Breaking and entering,” I warned him, but he ignored me, and with a few whacks with the rock, he had the door open.
Poking his head in first, he stepped inside motioning me to follow him. Again, I followed because I was not going to stay outside by myself. It was wrong to keep following him deeper into a trouble-zone, but for some reason it seemed safer than being alone anywhere near the theatre. Stepping inside that old building felt as though we had entered a dungeon. It was dank, dreary, and smelled how I imagined Dracula movies would have smelled if movies smelled. However, it was not as bad as a fresh skunk kill on the highway.
“What’s that smell,”Gary whispered.
“Rat crap?” I teased.
“Serious?”
“No.”
“Stop it,” he clinched his teeth at me. He hated rats as much as I hated snakes and buildings falling down on my head.
Gray light, the kind at dawn, filtered through the dirty windows enough for us to see that the inside was worse than the outside of the building. Beyond the main room we entered, it looked like a black hole where no light made it very far down the hallway.
“Twilight Zone,”I muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“I heard what you said. I wonder sometimes where your mind goes.”
“If this place had music, that would be the right tune for it.”
“You have a point. It does look like a scene out of the Twilight Zone.”
“Yeah, enough light to see we are inside a dungeon, but not enough to see any critters hiding over there in the corner waiting to pounce and eat us,” I pointed at one of the darkest corners of the room.
Straining to see in the dark, he whispered, “There ain’t nothing over there.”
“How do you know?”I tried to sound scary.
“Because if there was something lurking over there, you would have run out of here like a scared little girl, that’s how.”
“With you hot on my heels,” I poked at him.
“We are wasting time.” He returned to inching his way towards the black hole.
“Okay, we have seen the inside. There is nothing worth anything in here,” I pulled on his arm for him to leave.
“We have only begun, my dear Watson.”
“Listen here, Sherlock, my dad is going to ground me for life if he finds out I have been in here and…”
“Lighten up. There is nothing in here except some cobwebs and dust. We are exploring. That’s all. We might find something valuable in here, too.” He picked up what looked like a piece a knight’s suit of armor.
“Just remember that cobwebs have spiders. Besides, even if we find a hidden treasure in here, it would be stealing if we took it.”
“You don’t have to take anything. I will. So, don’t worry about it.” He dropped the armor causing a clanking echo down the blackened hallway.
“If you steal something and I am with you, doesn’t that make me an excessory?”
“Accessory, and you are already here, guilty as I am for trespassing and breaking in. Try to relax so we can make some progress before dark. Tomorrow…”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes. Tomorrow, we will bring our flashlights so you can see there’s nothing in here to be afraid of.”
“Just some rats crapping all over the place,” I smiled, but he couldn’t see me smiling.
He headed for the door with me on his heels. Once outside again, he put the broken lock back on the door. Whew! I sighed with relief, until we were back to that dark window. I was sure I saw eyes, big eyes. Once we were clear of the overgrowth of brush, I brushed the dust and cobwebs off my clothes. Gary looked around to see if anyone had seen us. We were in the clear, so far.
Hurrying back up the lane, I noticed the old green and white street sign, “Willow Lake Road”leaning towards the trees. I gave one last look over my shoulder at the old theatre, and for some reason, I felt a little sad for such a building rotting from disuse. In its day, it must have been beautiful.
“What’s the name of that place, anyway?” I asked while looking back.
“What difference does that make?” Gary kicked a can, which was lying in the curb.
“I’d like to know what it is called seeing as we are pretending to be related to Drew.” I took a turn at
kicking the can up the street.
“My sister reads those books.” He raced after the can before I could kick it again.
“You read them, too.” I teased while blocking him from kicking out of turn.
“No way, those are girlie books,” he lied.
I could tell when he was lying. He definitely did not have a poker face around me. We kicked the can all the way back to our street as if nothing happened out of the ordinary that day.
However, that summer before we entered the ninth grade seemed to never end because it was the hottest summer ever. It was too hot for fishing, too hot for bicycling, and everyone in town who was not working during the day was cooling off at the lakes. We had done it all and soon were bored near tedium. Sitting around the house or watching television resulted in someone finding chores for us to do, so we stayed outside as much as possible even with the sweltering heat.
“So, what do you want to do,” Gary asked while poking a stick at a half-dead cricket on the sidewalk. His sandy hair always looked as if he had just gotten out of bed with a cowlick in the back that would not stay down with anything short of glue.
“I dunno,” I shrugged my shoulders and leaned back on the gray wooden steps of his front porch. The sun was hot on my face and arms, but it felt good.
“We only have a couple weeks left before school starts. We can’t just sit here wasting time doing nothing.”
“We done it all already this summer, rode our bikes, played baseball, went fishing, and made Susan run home yelling, ‘mommy’ more times than we should’ve. What else do you want to do?” I asked with emphasis on “want” as if there was nothing else we could possibly want to do.
Gary stopped poking at the cricket because it was dead, and he looked as if a great idea attacked his brain. “Tommy, we haven’t gotten into trouble all summer. That’s what is missing,” he tossed the stick at the old elm tree in the center of the yard.
Sometimes, Gary’s idea of fun got him into trouble, but never too serious. He didn’t want trouble. He was only bored with normal things. He liked the thrill of getting away with something, or crossing forbidden boundaries. Sometimes, he persuaded me to go along by telling me that our parents didn’t want us to see something.
That something was what he seemed to be searching for when we went exploring. Had he known that that hot summer would be more something than he bargained for, he might have been content on going fishing for the remainder of summer break.
“Gary, I don’t want to get into trouble. Your dad expects it of you, but my dad will ground me for life if I get into any more trouble with you. He might even say we can’t hang out together anymore.”
“You afraid?”
“No, but…” I started, but I knew I was afraid. I did not want him calling me a coward, though, not ever, not by my best friend. Unfortunately, he knew that. More than once, he managed to get me to go along so I wouldn’t hear that “c” word. To be honest about it, I wanted to explore as much as he did, but I preferred a little coaxing so I would not feel guilty.
“We won’t do anything to get into real trouble,” Gary said as he stood up and started walking down the walk towards the street. He motioned for me to follow him. I had an ugly feeling in my gut; it could have been a voice in my head. Either way, I had a feeling I should go find something else to do, such as clean my room.
“Maybe we can go fishing again,” I offered as I caught up to him. “It’s getting late. Maybe we can think of something to do tomorrow.”
“Quit stalling. I know of a place we can go exploring. I’ve wanted to go there for a long time.”
“You know we are not allowed to go near the old theatre,” I knew where he was going. “The signs…”
“Signs schmigns, those are only there to scare us away. They don’t want anyone knowing the truth about what really happened there.”
“The signs are there to keep people away so it doesn’t fall on their heads and someone sues the snot out of them. Besides, people say it is haunted.”
“But, there are no such things as ghosts so says you. So, it can’t be haunted, now can it?”Gary had me on that one. I did not believe in ghosts or haunts. There was always some logical explanation.
“Even if it isn’t haunted, it is off limits. I don’t want to go snooping around there and get into trouble. Those signs are official enough for me,” I stopped walking.
Gary faced me with defiance, “I am going with or without you. If you don’t go, you are a…”
“Alright,” I resigned. “But, if it looks dangerous, we get out of there fast, right?”
“Sure thing, I ain’t stupid. It’s just an old theatre,” Gary started walking again.
“It is old and falling down. No one has performed there since that ballerina died,” I followed behind him with reluctance mixed with curiosity.
“No one ever proved whether it was an accident or someone murdered her. What if we were able to find out something,” Gary shook his finger at the sky as if he had had a good idea, a real light-bulb moment.
“If the police couldn’t find out what happened, what makes you think we can discover something new? I have a bad feeling that we should go fishing instead.”
“You chicken?”Gary widened his eyes promising to say the “c” word if I didn’t go along.
“No, but…” I looked behind us to see if anyone saw us. Secretly, I wished someone would see us and stop us before it was too late. There was no one in sight anywhere. Just my luck.
The closer we got to the massive old building, the quieter it seemed. Not many people went down Willow Lake Road anymore. It was a long time ago when the ballerina died, but a few people talked about it as if it happened yesterday. Up until that long hot summer, the stories were interesting to me. However, dread combined with sweat running down my back, I wished the dilapidated monstrosity of a building would vaporize so I did not have to set foot inside its old dankness. All old buildings where people do not go anymore had to be dank. That had to be the dankest building of all time.
Because of the heat, the walk to the old theatre seemed to take forever. We stopped in front of the old theatre, which resembled a haunted house in a horror movie with an overgrowth of weeds surrounding it. There was nothing inviting about it, nothing at all.
“Kinda reminds you of the Adams Family, huh?” Gary smiled with wicked satisfaction.
“No, it doesn’t. You could see their house. This place is covered with weeds, probably poison ivy,” I protested. “A snake will probably do us in before we even get to the building. Besides, the Adam’s Family does not have a ‘No Trespassing’ sign in front of it.”
“That is only to keep people from snooping around.”
“Exactly. It says violators will be prosecuted. Do you want to be prosecuted? I don’t.”
“Do you even know what that word means?” he laughed.
“Of course I do. It means you get caught being somewhere you shouldn’t be and then they put your butt in jail,” I almost yelled at him.
“You’re smarter than I thought, dude," he mocked me.
No matter how much I protested against going any further, he ignored my attempts to change his mind. He was dead-set on going into the theatre. I hoped I would never regret my choice of words on that last thought.
“C’mon, let’s get going before it gets dark. We will check it out today and then explore first thing in the morning,” he darted into the wooded overgrowth as if it were nothing.
“Jerk,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I followed him while watching every step so I didn’t step on anything that might try to eat me.
After picking our way through the underbrush, we were next to the steps leading up to the front entrance. I touched his arm to gain his attention while pointing at the broken steps. “Yeah, it looks bad,” he whispered.
I started to turn around to leave hoping he meant the whole idea was dangerous, but he grabbed my arm pulling at me to continue. We crouched along the side of the building where the brush was not as thick. We crept along like thieves. Even though it was scary, it was more fun than anything else we did that summer.
Gary stopped while putting up his hand for me to stop too. He turned around slowly with a finger to his lips. My gut feeling grew so intense, I wanted to run, but my legs stuck to the dirt under my feet. I felt sick. Then, I stood upright when I realized Gary was only playing on my fears. I didn’t tell him I was onto him, but I knew.
“What?” I whispered.
He pointed to a window near the ground with all the glass broken out. It was completely black inside and I didn’t care to know if anything lurked about in the darkness. However, Gary inched his way up to the window and looked inside.
“What do you see?” I whispered.
“Nothing. It’s too dark in there,” he darted past the window as if he had seen something inside, but didn't want to tell me about it.
I casually strolled by the window while glaring at his theatrics in trying to make me afraid of a dark window. However, when we went past the broken window, I sensed that someone or something was watching us.
It reminded me of when I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It never failed that when I woke from a scary dream, or watched a spooky show on television right before bedtime, I had to go pee in the middle of the night. Walking through our house in the dark always gave me a feeling that something was behind me. I held my breath until I went into the bathroom where I could turn on the light and do my business. Going back to bed was a repeat of the hair-raising ordeal. I couldn’t turn the light on in the hallway without Dad yelling, “Turn that light out and get to bed.” For some reason, that was always scarier than unseen things in the dark.
Gary stopped suddenly causing me to walk into him almost knocking him off balance.
“Wow,” I said forgetting to whisper.
“Shh,” he said.
I wasn’t sure if he was telling me to shush or that he was about to cuss. It would have been understandable if he had cussed, though. There were more flowers than I had ever seen in one place before. Flowers covered everything in sight, all the trees, bushes, and ground. Every color of the rainbow covered the back yard area of the theatre with roses, marigolds, mums, morning glories, and some that I had no idea what they were called.
Flowers hung down from broken arches and lattice walls. Broken birdbaths and planters scattered among the flowers made the place look even spookier as if we were walking around some ancient ruins or worse, a cemetery. I tried to imagine what it must have looked like back in the day. It must have been a real paradise. No amount of flowers, however, made that place any more appealing.
“Okay, we have been here and seen it. Now can we go home?” I complained.
“Stop your whining. We aren’t even inside yet. Let’s go,” he resumed his crouching towards the back door, which was on ground level with no steps.
Weeds had grown up along the edge of the building and door. I wasn’t about to go back past that dark window alone. Therefore, I followed him up to the door, which had a padlock on it.
“Locked,” he pulled at the padlock as if angry at it.
“We tried,” I mocked resignation.
“No we haven’t. We haven’t tried nothing yet. Besides, there is always that window over there.”
“Uh, maybe there is another door somewhere,” I did not want to jump through a window not knowing where or on what
we may land.
After a couple yanks on the lock, he picked up a large rock and was about to hammer at the lock, “That is against the law, Gary. Breaking and entering,” I warned him, but he ignored me, and with a few whacks with the rock, he had the door open.
Poking his head in first, he stepped inside motioning me to follow him. Again, I followed because I was not going to stay outside by myself. It was wrong to keep following him deeper into a trouble-zone, but for some reason it seemed safer than being alone anywhere near the theatre. Stepping inside that old building felt as though we had entered a dungeon. It was dank, dreary, and smelled how I imagined Dracula movies would have smelled if movies smelled. However, it was not as bad as a fresh skunk kill on the highway.
“What’s that smell,”Gary whispered.
“Rat crap?” I teased.
“Serious?”
“No.”
“Stop it,” he clinched his teeth at me. He hated rats as much as I hated snakes and buildings falling down on my head.
Gray light, the kind at dawn, filtered through the dirty windows enough for us to see that the inside was worse than the outside of the building. Beyond the main room we entered, it looked like a black hole where no light made it very far down the hallway.
“Twilight Zone,”I muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“I heard what you said. I wonder sometimes where your mind goes.”
“If this place had music, that would be the right tune for it.”
“You have a point. It does look like a scene out of the Twilight Zone.”
“Yeah, enough light to see we are inside a dungeon, but not enough to see any critters hiding over there in the corner waiting to pounce and eat us,” I pointed at one of the darkest corners of the room.
Straining to see in the dark, he whispered, “There ain’t nothing over there.”
“How do you know?”I tried to sound scary.
“Because if there was something lurking over there, you would have run out of here like a scared little girl, that’s how.”
“With you hot on my heels,” I poked at him.
“We are wasting time.” He returned to inching his way towards the black hole.
“Okay, we have seen the inside. There is nothing worth anything in here,” I pulled on his arm for him to leave.
“We have only begun, my dear Watson.”
“Listen here, Sherlock, my dad is going to ground me for life if he finds out I have been in here and…”
“Lighten up. There is nothing in here except some cobwebs and dust. We are exploring. That’s all. We might find something valuable in here, too.” He picked up what looked like a piece a knight’s suit of armor.
“Just remember that cobwebs have spiders. Besides, even if we find a hidden treasure in here, it would be stealing if we took it.”
“You don’t have to take anything. I will. So, don’t worry about it.” He dropped the armor causing a clanking echo down the blackened hallway.
“If you steal something and I am with you, doesn’t that make me an excessory?”
“Accessory, and you are already here, guilty as I am for trespassing and breaking in. Try to relax so we can make some progress before dark. Tomorrow…”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes. Tomorrow, we will bring our flashlights so you can see there’s nothing in here to be afraid of.”
“Just some rats crapping all over the place,” I smiled, but he couldn’t see me smiling.
He headed for the door with me on his heels. Once outside again, he put the broken lock back on the door. Whew! I sighed with relief, until we were back to that dark window. I was sure I saw eyes, big eyes. Once we were clear of the overgrowth of brush, I brushed the dust and cobwebs off my clothes. Gary looked around to see if anyone had seen us. We were in the clear, so far.
Hurrying back up the lane, I noticed the old green and white street sign, “Willow Lake Road”leaning towards the trees. I gave one last look over my shoulder at the old theatre, and for some reason, I felt a little sad for such a building rotting from disuse. In its day, it must have been beautiful.
“What’s the name of that place, anyway?” I asked while looking back.
“What difference does that make?” Gary kicked a can, which was lying in the curb.
“I’d like to know what it is called seeing as we are pretending to be related to Drew.” I took a turn at
kicking the can up the street.
“My sister reads those books.” He raced after the can before I could kick it again.
“You read them, too.” I teased while blocking him from kicking out of turn.
“No way, those are girlie books,” he lied.
I could tell when he was lying. He definitely did not have a poker face around me. We kicked the can all the way back to our street as if nothing happened out of the ordinary that day.