They just hung themselves from the chandelier.”
“We don’t have a chandelier.”
“They were fat old people. The chandelier broke when they strung themselves
up with the ropes. Someone told me they didn’t leave any money for a proper funeral. Their bodies are supposed to be buried in your basement.”
“We don’t have a basement.”
Sally nodded. “The police had to fill it in, in case you found the bodies.”
Adam sighed. “Oh brother. Do you want to meet my father?”
“Yes. Just don’t ask me to stay for lunch. I’m a picky eater.”
“Somehow I’m not surprised,” Adam said.
3
His mom and dad were very impressed with Sally, Adam was surprised to see.
Of course, Sally kept her remarks to a minimum and her identity crisis private while she spoke to them. Sally did not have an opportunity to meet Claire, Adam’s seven-year-old sister, because she was asleep on the floor in one of the back bedrooms. His father hadn’t set up the beds yet. From the way he was hobbling around holding his lower spine as if he were a monkey with a sore tail, he looked like he needed one. His father winked at Adam and told him to go out and play with Sally. He said that neither of them would be doing any more heavy lifting that day.
Adam didn’t know what the wink was supposed to mean.
He wasn’t interested in Sally. Not as a girlfriend.
He had no desire to have a girlfriend before seventh grade.
But school didn’t start for another three months, so he had a whole summer full of monsters to look forward to.
Not that he believed a word Sally had told him.
“Let me show you the town,” Sally said as they stepped out of his front door.
“But don’t be deceived by what you see. This place looks perfectly normal, but it’s not. For example, you might see a young mother walk by wheeling her newborn infant. She might smile at you and say hello. She might look real, and her baby might look cute. But there’s always the possibility that that young mother is responsible for the disappearance of Leslie Lotte, and that her baby is a robot.”
“I thought you said a cloud swallowed Leslie.”
“Yeah, but who was in the cloud? These are the kind of questions you have to ask yourself this afternoon as you check out the scene.”
Adam was getting weary of Sally’s warnings. “I don’t believe in robots. There are no robots. That’s a simple fact.”
Sally raised a know-it-all eyebrow. “Nothing is simple in Spooksville.”
Springville—Adam refused to think of it by any other name—was tiny. Nestled between two gentle sets of hills on the north and south, it had the ocean to the west. To the east a range of rough hills rose sharply. Adam was inclined to call them mountains. Naturally, Sally said there were many bodies buried in those hills. Most of the town was set on a slope that only leveled out as it neared the water. Close to the shore, at the end of a rocky point, stood a tall lighthouse that looked out over the hard blue water as if in search of adventures. Sally explained that the water in and around Springville wasn’t safe, either.
“Lots of riptides and undertows,” she said. “Sharks, too—great whites. I knew a guy—he was out on his boogie board only a hundred feet from the shore, and a shark swam by and bit his right leg off Just like that. If you don’t believe me, you can meet him. His name’s David Green, but we call him Jaws.”
This story had a ring of truth to it, at least.
“I don’t like to swim all that much,” Adam muttered.
Sally shook her head. “You don’t even have to go in the water to have problems.
The crabs come right up on the sand to nibble on you.” She added, “We don’t have to go to the beach right now if you don’t want to.”
“Another time might be better,” Adam agreed.
They did head in the direction of the water, though. Sally wanted to show him the arcade next to the movie theater, which, she said, was owned by the local undertaker. Apparently it showed only horror movies. The theater and the arcade were located next to the pier, which, Sally said, was about as safe as a single plank set above boiling lava. Along the way they passed a supermarket.
Parked out front was a black Corvette convertible, with the top down. Adam wasn’t into cars, but he thought Corvettes were cool. They looked like rockets.
He stared at the car as they strode by, for a moment blocking out Sally’s rambling. Like so much of Springville, the market parking lot was built on a hill.
Adam was shocked to see that a shopping cart had slipped loose from its place
near the front doors and was heading for the car. He hated to think of such a beautiful car getting a dent in it, and jumped forward to stop the cart. Sally screamed behind him.
“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?”
