Secrets in the Dark (9 page)

As the words left her
mouth, small shapes began moving towards us — two on the road, one
through the air to our left, and one in the field to our right. We
were being surrounded.

They ones on the road were
still too far away to tell what they were, but the one on the right
was definitely a fox.

Note to self — Find out if
foxes attack people.

I took a step closer to
Doug and his slingshot. “Where did those come from?”

Faith moved next to me as
the small what-the-heck-are-those-things grew closer. She grabbed
my arm, but didn’t take her eyes off the things approaching us.
“What do they want?”

Even Doug sounded uneasy.
“You’re sure you didn’t see any animals in here before?”

Only Olivia didn’t seem
disturbed. She grinned and pointed in the tree next to us. There, a
small gray-brown owl, only a few inches high, had touched down on a
low branch, watching us with large yellow eyes. “Oh you cute
thing,” Olivia breathed, then laughed as
it fluttered over to land on a branch just above her
head.

“
That owl is staring at
you,” Faith said, moving closer to me, away from the spot where the
small bird perched. Her shoulder pushed so hard against me, she
almost knocked me over. “Why is that owl staring like that? In the
middle of the day! Owls come out at night, don’t they?”

“
Pygmy owls are diurnal.”
She grinned at the confusion on Faith’s face. “They hunt during the
day.”

“
Why didn’t you just say
so,” Faith grumbled.

“
How do you know it’s a
pygmy owl?” Doug asked skeptically.

Olivia, Faith and I
laughed. It was Faith who answered, “Owls have always been Olivia’s
favorite. She knows
all
about them. Naturally.”

“
What do you mean,
naturally?”

“
Olivia Willow Larson.
OWL.”

“
I get that’s your name,
though why that would make you like owls…” He trailed off at the
expression on Olivia’s face. “Forget it. Anyway, foxes are mostly
nocturnal,” Doug said, and pointed back to the field on the right.
There, the orange fur and pointed ears of the fox were visible,
staring directly at Faith. “That fox is staring at you,
Faith.”

“
Okay, I’m getting a bit
freaked out here,” I said in amazement as Faith moved closer to the
side of the road, staring at the fox with fascination.

“
Isn’t
anyone
worried about this?” I gasped
as one of the creatures on the road suddenly rushed toward us.
Then, the racing beat of my heart changed from fear to pleasure as
a large cat jumped onto the low stone fence only a few feet from
me. The others watched as it walked towards me and stared intently
into my face.

Olivia grinned at me. “It’s
Siamese. Your dream cat.”

As if the cat heard her, it
blinked its blue eyes in pleasure, then stretched elegantly, first
one paw then the other, and jumped off the wall. It walked straight
to me.

The others hesitantly drew
closer, watching as I smiled down at the cat. It rubbed its head
against my legs, gazed into my face and meowed. I stooped down and
laughed at the loud rumbling purr that came from its chest when I
stroked the soft fur on its back.

I glanced up at the others.
“It’s not wearing a collar. I wonder where it belongs.” It sat at
my feet and looked like it was waiting for us to do
something.

“
Um, do you think the
other animals are as nice as the cat?” Olivia asked, then looked up
startled at a flutter of wings. The tiny owl swooped down onto her
shoulder, hooting wildly. It sounded…happy.

“
Okay, now
I’m
the only one freaked
out by all this,” Doug complained.

Faith and Olivia were too
busy looking at their favorite animals to react, but Doug and I
both looked up at the sound of a bark. Only a few feet away, a Jack
Russell terrier had all of its attention focused on Doug, its tail
wagging so hard it was having trouble standing still. Brown patches
of fur circled both eyes and wrapped around both ears, and short
white fur covered its body.

“
Jack Russell’s are my
favorite. Remember Rusty, Kat?”

I nodded, feeling my throat
tighten at the memory of the feisty little dog that was Doug’s best
friend until last winter. When, shortly after its sixteenth
birthday, it lay down for the last time and never got back up. Doug
hadn’t said his name once since then. Now he said wonderingly,
“Rusty looked like that.”

Faith said, “How can that
happen?”

My voice sounded weak when
I answered, “Magic? Ronny said to be careful what we wished for.
Were any of you wishing about animals?”

Olivia was
staring at me. I mean
really
staring right at me.
“What?”

“
You
wished for something to help us figure things out in here.
Could they be here because of your wish?”

Faith said, “You don’t
really think that’s what happened. Do you?”

“
Better hope not,” Olivia
told her, grinning. “I wish for stuff all the time. And when I get
mad, they’re not very nice wishes. I don’t even mean them. Most of
the time.”

“
I wish I had a million
dollars,” Doug said, and laughed. He waited a moment then said,
“So, wishing for money doesn’t work.”

“
I wish I had an X-Box,”
Olivia said. None of us were surprised when
that
didn’t come true.

Note to self — You can’t
get something electronic in a place where cell phones won’t
work.

“
Okay, so not
all
wishes work,” Doug
said. “I guess if they are here for us, they’ll go where we
go.”

“
They’ll come,” Faith said
confidently. “Race you,” she yelled and took off. Olivia and I
scrambled to catch her, the small owl fluttering off Olivia’s
shoulder with an indignant squeak. After a minute we stopped,
laughing, and waited for Doug to catch up. We perched on the stone
wall, watching him trudge up the road. When he reached us, he was
rolling his eyes and muttering something about ‘girls’ under his
breath.

Whatever he’d said could
not have been nice. I was about to ask him to repeat it when I felt
something rub against my legs. I looked down and smiled with
pleasure at the cat.

I glanced over and saw
Olivia looking at the little pygmy owl, who was back on her
shoulder. To the right I could see the fox slinking through the
grass, and the little dog had practically glued itself to Doug’s
side. As I watched, its tongue lolled out and it looked like it was
grinning. It suddenly jumped up, dancing in place and gave an
excited bark.

Doug held out his hand,
and received a quick lick on his fingers. Then the small dog gave a
tremendous leap that reminded me of Rusty. Doug instinctively
reached out and caught it, and got his face licked as
well. Doug laughed and hugged the dog, asking,
“What‘s your name, boy, huh? You’re not wearing a collar
either.”

Olivia said, “What do you
think we ought to do now? There still aren’t any signs of people in
here.”

I said slowly, “We should
probably ask Ronny. We could ask her about these animals,
too.”

Faith asked, “How long have
we been in here?”

I shrugged and guessed,
“Maybe…an hour. Maybe less.”

“
What time is that in
Santa Ramona?” Doug asked.

“
I don’t know, but it gets
dark early, and I have to be home before dark,” Olivia
said.

Faith stood up. “You
realize I won’t be able to do this on Sunday’s. My coach isn’t
going to buy going to a magic place through a tree as an excuse to
miss practice.”

“
The rest of us could come
tomorrow,” Doug said.

Olivia and I glared at
him. “We’re
not
coming without Faith,” I told him. I heard Faith give a quiet
sigh. Actually, she might prefer to miss the next trip through the
tree.

“
If we come back, we can
check the calendar for the next full moon.” Olivia stood up and
began brushing off her pants. I was glad Doug didn’t argue, though
it surprised me — he’d given in way too easy.

He gave the dog a last
pat. “I hope I see you again, boy. We’re going now, but
I’ll
come back. I
promise.”

The terrier barked and
licked Doug’s face, then jumped out of his arms. It ran back the
way we’d come.

“
It’s like he understands
me,” Doug said, surprised.

I shrugged and grinned.
“This is a magic place.” I joked, “Maybe he does.”

Chapter 13

We’ll Be
Careful

Going back through the
tree, though it was just as disgusting as before, didn’t seem to
take as long. Less creepification was a good thing!

We stumbled out of the tree
into the cemetery. It wasn’t dark yet, but twilight wasn’t far
off.

“
I’ll check on the next
full moon,” Doug said, sounding way more enthusiastic than the
statement called for. “So we’ll all know when we can go
back.”

That wasn’t like him. He
was definitely up to something.

“
Before we go home we have
to talk to Ronny.” The others nodded, and I pulled out my phone,
using the speaker so everyone could hear.

“
Hi, Ronny. I’m sorry it’s
late. We’ve a lot to tell you.”

Ronny said, “Did you find
out about Mother?”

“
No, that’s part of what
we need to tell you.”

“
It is almost dinner time,
so I know you cannot meet with me tonight. Tomorrow is another day,
right? Can we meet then?”

I bit my lip, knowing she
wouldn’t like what I was about to say. “Uh…Faith has
soccer practice tomorrow. Can we meet Monday
after school?”

There was a short pause.
For a moment I was sure she was
going to
argue about waiting so long. Then she sighed. “Can we meet at 4:30
at Johnny’s?”

I got everyone’s nod of
agreement. “Yeah, we’ll meet you then. Bye.”



School crawled by on
Monday. Doug had promised to meet us, so when the final bell rang,
Faith, Olivia and I grabbed our stuff and headed out. We got there
a few minutes early, and remembering how Doug had listened last
time, we picked a booth where no one could overhear us.

Ronny got there a few
minutes later. As she took her seat, I asked, “Could we wait until
Doug gets here? To talk about what happened.”

Before I could say anything
else, the smell of fries and burgers made my stomach growl loud
enough that everyone at the table heard it. Olivia and Faith
laughed, while Ronny smiled at the blush crawling up my face. She
held up her hand and asked a waitress for sodas and fries for each
of us.

Then the waiting
began.

I actually forced myself to
wait a couple minutes after the fries were delivered. My mom would
have been proud of me, being all polite, waiting for Doug to show
up. But when it got to be 4:40, I decided it was his fault for
being late and said so. As if that were a signal, we all started
chowing down. By the time the fries were gone, Doug still hadn’t
shown up.

I looked across the table,
intending to ask Olivia if she remembered Doug saying anything
about being late, but got distracted. Everyone was waiting
so…different.

Faith’s eyes were bouncing
around, looking all around the restaurant. Although her hands were
folded quietly on the table, her shoulders were hunched and she
kept shifting around in her seat. Sitting still was always hard for
Faith.

Olivia was drumming her
fingers on the table. Although she did stop occasionally to check
herself out in the mirror by the exit. Johnny had put it there as a
joke with a sign over it saying, “Check your face and shirt for
mustard.”

Ronny held so still she
might have been a stone statue rather than flesh and
blood.

I was the only one acting
anxious. I kept picking up my phone and checking for a text or
voicemail from Doug. I was really starting to worry — Doug
was
usually early, never late. He said he
hated missing anything. I tried calling and texting him, but the
call went straight to voicemail and he didn’t text me back. I was
going to start bouncing off the walls if he didn’t get here
soon.

The next ten minutes were
some of the longest I’d ever spent. Occasionally one of us would
try to start a conversation, but it kept dying out as
the door opened and someone other than Doug came
in.

Finally I said, “I can’t
stand this waiting. Will you tell us more about how you met
Chris?”

Ronny looked down, twisting
her wedding ring on her finger. Her voice was very quiet as she
started speaking. “I met Chris by mistake. I was only here to find
out what all the escaped magick was doing to Santa Ramona. But I
came across this ten year old boy, crying because his dog had been
hit by a car.”