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.”
