Chapter the 4th
The hum of the train engine’s motor soothed Shawn, but it was also made him restless. Normally his train ran all night and put him to sleep and then its hum greeted him in the morning. But this night, Shawn heard something odd in the train’s sound. With growing uneasiness, Shawn sat upright in his bed and looked over his little kingdom, but he couldn’t see the train. Shawn held himself still and listened to the engine a bit longer. His stomach tightened when he realized that the sound seemed to come from under his bed where there were no tracks. Shawn’s stomach turned into a knot when he remembered that the engine was broken and it shouldn’t be running at all.
Shawn switched on the lamp over his bed, dropped down to the floor and looked under his bed. Sure enough, the engine was chugging along on the carpet with its headlight shining in front of it. Several buildings and plastic humans and animals lay scattered about in what Shawn called the Lost City, the place where pieces ended up if he didn’t care about them any longer. The engine rolled straight at one of the buildings, gently knocked it over, backed up a little, switched directions and kept on going. Shawn reached over and picked up the piece. It was the new lighthouse he had broken in a fit of anger the day he had gotten it. After having waited for the piece so eagerly, Shawn thought it silly to relegate it to the Lost City and so he picked it up and tossed it on to his bed. Then Shawn ducked back under his bed and watched the engine come straight at him. He cupped his hands in front of the engine, cradled it in his hands, and carried it to the nearest stretch of track in his train set and placed it there. The engine moved on along the track as if nothing were wrong with it.
Shawn sat up and watched the engine work its around the track, its headlight lighting the way in the dark. As an experiment, Shawn turned on the switch that controlled the engine. It kept on moving. Shawn switched it off. The engine continued on at the same pace. Shawn got back down on his hands and knees and pulled out the plug. The engine’s motor was still ran! At that point, Shawn decided to let the train run without electricity rather than plug it back in.
He picked up the lighthouse and examined it. The little light bulb at the top was broken. Shawn shrugged and put it back on the rocky coastline where he placed it the first time. He half-expected the broken light to turn on by itself, but it didn’t. Instead, it stood at the far edge of the table as a dark presence brooding over the Kingdom of Corelee. Shawn surveyed his kingdom, looking for the missing pieces. The miniature stores were still missing. The wolf was missing. And then Shawn noticed that the blue brontosaurus he got out of a cereal box was missing as well. He was sure of it! He looked for his unicorns but couldn’t spot them. Had they and the cowboys disappeared yet again?
Shawn leaned against his pillow, mesmerized by the engine’s motion. As it neared the far corner of the coastline where the last train wreck had occurred, Shawn remembered that the derailed cars still lay across the track. He was tempted to sweep the cars off the track, but he couldn’t resist the chance to see another train wreck. Since the engine was already wrecked and shouldn’t be running, he figured there was nothing to lose. But as the engine neared the cars, it slowed down and backed away. The engine continued to go backwards all around the track until it reached the spilled cars from the other side. Once again, Shawn anticipated a train wreck but that didn’t happen. Instead, the engine changed directions and moved forward again.
As the night wore on, Shawn let his mind move in wide, gentle circles and his train did the same until the morning light began to creep in under the shade. The train backed up to the cars once again but, this time, it stopped. Then Shawn saw pricks of light dance around the engine. The unicorns were back and their horns were shining! But the cowboys weren’t riding them. The unicorns pranced around the train as if they were celebrating having thrown off their riders. Then Shawn saw the plastic outlaws load sacks into of one of the freight cars.
“What are you guys stealing now?” Shawn whispered to the outlaws. “I hope it’s gold. I don’t need any more useless light.”
But the outlaws kept to their work without answering the self-appointed king of Corelee. When they finished loading the car, they hopped back on to the unicorns and rode off. Meanwhile, the train started up again, moving forward this time around the track. Shawn tried to follow the movement of the unicorns and their riders but he lost sight of them almost immediately and no amount of searching could locate them.
An hour or so later, Shawn ate his bowl of cereal while his mind mulled over the mysteries of the past night. He ignored his aunt's presence in the breakfast room more thoroughly than usual, and buried his head in the newspaper. The news blurred his brain and he gave it up. He dumped the soggy cereal into the trash can, grabbed his jacket, and walked out of the house into the chilly air. The sky was clear, but even so, the morning still seemed darker than it should be.
The thought that something else might be wrong tickled Shawn’s spine. Half-heartedly, he looked about the neighborhood. As usual, there was nothing to see. Or so he thought. Something dark moved at the periphery of Shawn’s vision and then he saw them: the same three dark-clad people who spoke to him a couple of days ago. Shawn watched them as they paced up and down a piece of sidewalk like caged animals. Something felt wrong about the street. Shawn looked up to the church, then the rectory, and then—Shawn could not believe his eyes. The house near the top of the hill was missing, stone lions and all. Otherwise, the street looked the same as ever. Nothing appeared to be out of place, but the one house was no longer there.
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“Sheila, did you hear my question?” asked Mrs. Fuller.
The smirks of her classmates aggravated the shame that burned through Sheila Armstrong’s body.
“I'm afraid I didn't,” Sheila admitted.
“Is that because you were not paying attention in class?” Mrs. Fuller asked.
“I guess so. I'm trying to pay attention, but . . .”
“But—but—but!” Mrs. Fuller scoffed. “Are you turning into a nanny goat?”
Several children giggled. Mrs. Fuller snapped her attention away from Sheila to glare at them. The giggling stopped.
“Sheila, you may not believe me now,” Mrs. Fuller admonished her, “but one of these days you are going to have to learn to pay attention to what is going on around you. If you don’t pay attention at a board meeting of a business corporation you work for, you will have a much greater problem on your hands than the bad marks you’re about to get in my class.”
After seeing what she thought she had seen two days earlier, Sheila was much more afraid of reality was warping out of recognition than she was of getting a bad grade in school.
“Kevin, have you been listening attentively enough to remember any of Africa’s exports?” asked Mrs. Fuller.
Kevin Rosskill blinked his eyes, as if he, too, had something to think about besides African exports or his grade in social studies.
“Maybe,” he replied.
“Will you please demonstrate what ability you have to absorb information and retain it?” Mrs. Fuller asked, her patience growing thin.
Kevin rattled off several of the natural resources of Africa, all the while sounding as if he were talking in his sleep.
“Not bad, Kevin,” said Miss Fuller. “I was hoping for better, but fearing worse. Sheila, did you pay sufficient attention to what Kevin just said that you can now name some of Africa’s exports?”
Sheila’s stomach sank. There seemed to be no escape from persecution.
“If Africa has all the stuff Kevin says it does, then how come all the people there are starving to death?”
Mrs. Fuller pursed her lips.
“Sheila, I would appreciate it if you would not cover up your ineptitude at learning by asking irrelevant questions.”
Kevin’s hand shot up.
“Mrs. Fuller, Sheila’s asking a good question. How come Africa is so poor when it has all this stuff?”
The expression on Mrs. Fuller’s face was enough to make Sheila fear for Kevin’s life
“Kevin, this is social studies class, not social justice class. Got it?”
Kevin was obviously opening his mouth to make a retort that would get him into deeper trouble, but the bell rang and the usual mayhem took over. Sheila collected her books and made as quick an exit as politeness would allow. She threaded her way through the halls, fearing all the while that strange boys in black cassocks might step through a wall at any time. She ran for the door as if only the outside air could keep her from suffocating, but once outside, she felt a disappointing chill. The schoolyard was filled with the murky light that normally signals an eclipse of the sun, only there was no eclipse. As Sheila walked past the swings, she half-expected to see a unicorn's head emerge from of one of the poles. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed when she saw nothing of the kind.
With nothing else to occupy her thoughts, her experience at Donna’s Donuts the day before played out in her memory like a video that wouldn’t move out of her mind. After meeting her father at his office, they had stopped off at Donna’s Donuts for a snack on the way home. When she saw Michael Bullinger there, she wanted to go somewhere else, but she didn’t see how she could tell her father that. She was puzzled about seeing Scott Simpson, the Rosskill kids, Father Clement and his son Mark sitting with Michael. But what really unnerved Sheila was the presence of three boys, dressed in black cassocks, that she had never seen before. These strange boys were huddled together in earnest conversation with Michael, Father Clement and the others as if they all knew each other well. Sheila found it hard to pay attention to her father as her ears picked up references to “light” and “darkness,” “quests,” and “disappearing dinosaurs.” Sheila asked her father how his day went and wished she hadn’t when he hinted that each client seemed to be more crooked than the last. Curious about the strange choirboys, Sheila watched them out of the corner of her eye. When the boys got up from their crowded table and walked to the back wall, Sheila peeked and saw one of the choirboys walk straight through the back wall. She was sure of it. When the next boy in line started to do the same thing, Sheila looked back at her father and tried to pay attention to what he was saying. A few moments later, the six people who belonged in Milton walked out of Donna’s, looking gravely worried about something. Sheila asked her father what he thought those strange boys in cassocks were doing in Donna’s Donuts, and he reassured her by suggesting that some boys’ choir must have come to town to sing at the church. But then Sheila tried to remember if any such visiting choir had been announced in church by Father Clement, and she could remember nothing of the kind. At which point, she saw herself going into Donna’s Donuts with her father once more. . .
The sound of quick, heavy footsteps snapped Sheila out of her memory tape. To her surprise and dismay, Kevin Rosskill was running up to her. Like everybody else in class, Kevin had ignored her all year, so Sheila did not understand why he should think she was worth the time of day all of a sudden. She wondered if Kevin had caught her looking at the strange boys disappear through the wall at Donna’s Donuts and he wanted to neutralize her in some way.
“You were good in class,” said Kevin.
“Really?” Sheila responded cautiously.
“I wish I had the nerve to ask a question like that.”
“It helps if you aren’t thinking,” Sheila replied.
That shut Kevin up. At the moment, Sheila wished she could get up the nerve to take the offensive and ask him what was going on at Donna’s Donuts, but she couldn’t.
“Do you have to go straight home?” Kevin asked.
The question reminded Sheila that she had promised her mother she would do a few errands on the way home from school. Kevin’s sudden intrusion made her feel grateful for the onerous request.
“My mother wants me to stop at a couple of stores on the way home,” said Sheila.
“I can—uh—I can walk with you to the stores if you want,” Kevin offered.
“Okay,” Sheila replied, not knowing how she could turn Kevin down, uneasy as she was about his motives for approaching her.
“Uh—have you noticed anything about Milton lately?” Kevin asked.
Sheila gave Kevin a sharp look.
“Why should I have noticed anything about Milton?” she asked.
“Just wondering if you’re noticing what I’m noticing.”
Seeing Kevin’s ears turn a bit red reassured her.
“The—air around here is darker than what I’m used to,” Sheila ventured, amazed that those words tumbled out before she knew she had said them.
“Have you noticed anything else?” asked Kevin.
“Like what?”
“Well, have you seen anything kind of strange?”
“Why do you ask me if I’ve seen anything strange?” Sheila asked, surprised at her irritability. “Of all the kids in our class, why do you have to pick on me to ask a question like that? Why am I the most likely person to have seen something kind of strange around here?”
Kevin wilted so badly that Sheila almost felt sorry for him. When she and Kevin reached Main Street, Sheila stopped and tried to figure out which store she ought to go to first.
“I have to go over to Melroy’s to pick up my mother’s shoes,” Sheila announced in a tone of voice that suggested Kevin was not invited to accompany her.
Kevin stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets.
“Okay. Uh—I’m not trying to make fun of you or anything.”
“Then what are you trying to do?”
Again, Kevin was left speechless. Sheila walked on ahead of him in the direction of the shoe store, hoping she could shrug him off. She passed the library where the sound of hammers and drills blasted the eardrums of all who passed by. The store she was looking for was just up ahead. But as she closed in on it, a cobbled alley suddenly interposed itself. Sheila was new to this town, but she knew the town well enough to know that this alley had never been there before. Fearing that Kevin was making strange things happen to her, Sheila slowly turned her head and looked down the alley that should not be where it was.
A thick gray wall lined both sides of the narrow cobbled street, making it almost as dark as a tunnel. Every so often, the wall was broken up by a small window, but there were no doors anywhere. Sheila looked back the way she had come and her heart just about stopped when she saw no trace of Milton. Instead, she saw only the same deserted cobbled street in that direction as well. Sheila began to wish she had let Kevin stick with her, even if she wasn’t sure she either liked or trusted him
When Sheila heard heavy footsteps and a high-pitched roar from around a corner, she didn’t know if she should run from it or freeze. By default, Sheila froze. It hardly reassured her when she saw a furry elephant’s trunk wind its way around the wall at the corner. A few seconds later, a mastodon lumbered into the cobbled street and headed in Sheila’s direction. Seated on the mastodon’s back was a fat woman who was absorbed in her knitting. Sheila looked about in all directions, but saw no escape. She pressed herself against the wall in a desperate attempt to keep the animal from crushing her when it passed by, and she fell through the wall and landed in the middle of another cobbled street.
“Hello there!” the woman called out from on top of the mastodon which stood at the intersection cleared by the wall that disappeared on her.
Sheila looked about her, hoping that the woman was speaking to somebody else, but there wasn’t nobody else to be seen.
“Hello there, little girl!” the woman called out again.
Sheila, still seated where landed and smarting from scuffs on her knees, looked up at the woman who remained so absorbed in her knitting that Sheila wondered how the woman could have even noticed her.
“Hi,” said Sheila uncertainly.
“Do you know where Schiller’s Oyster Store is?” asked the woman.
“No, I’m new here!” Sheila cried back. “I don’t know where anything is! I don’t know where I am! I’m lost! Do you know where I am?”
“Oh my poor dear,” replied the fat lady, continuing to knit without stopping. “What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know! I don’t even know what to look for! I don’t even know where I am!”
“Oh, my poor, poor dear!” exclaimed the woman, looking sympathetic enough to give Sheila some hope that she would help her. “If you don’t know what you are looking for, then I don’t know how to help you—Oh just a minute—Oh Young Sir! Do you know where Schiller’s Oyster Store is? I want to buy an oyster for my birthday.”
“Never heard of it,” a boy with a familiar voice answered. “Have you seen a skinny girl with big glasses around here, looking like she doesn’t know where she is?”
Sheila felt like slugging Kevin when she saw him through the mastodon’s furry legs.
“Why yes I have—why you’re Sir Kevin the Weaver Maker, aren’t you?”
“And aren’t you the knitting lady I met on the train?”
“Why yes,” said the woman, “I suppose you could call me the knitting lady, but most people call me Petunia.”
Petunia went on to chat about a painting she seemed to think Kevin had done until it seemed that she was not ever going to stop talking any more than she was ever going to stop knitting. With her skinned knee still smarting a bit, Sheila climbed to her feet and started to walk down the street, having given up on Kevin. But she hadn’t gone far when the conversation suddenly broke up and Kevin ran after her.
“Sheila! There you are!”
Sheila stopped and let Kevin catch up with her, too unnerved by the strange place to spurn Kevin’s company if he had some idea of where they were.
“Are you okay?” Kevin puffed when he caught up with Sheila.
“Yea, I’m okay—I’m just lost.”
“Me, too.”
“A big help you are then.”
Kevin slumped a bit at those words, but Sheila was too upset to care.
“Don’t worry,” said Kevin. “You’re in a pretty good place.”
“How do you know we’re in a good place if you’re as lost as I am?”
“I’ve been here. I’m not that lost. Things are kind of funny here, that’s all.”
“Do you mean funny things like a skinny girl with big glasses getting lost here when she’s just trying to do some shopping in Milton?”
“I’m not trying to insult you,” said Kevin. “I just don’t know how to talk to people. Please give me a chance. It looks like you’ve got an important quest and maybe I can help you with it.”
Sheila stopped and faced Kevin.
“What are you talking about?”
“Uh—I don’t know how to explain it,” Kevin stammered. “Around here, you kind of have to go with the flow. If you do, you usually end up where you’re supposed to be.”
“Do you mean we’re supposed to walk up and down these deserted cobbled streets until we drop dead of exhaustion?”
“It’s not like that,” Kevin replied. “We’re supposed to find something, so we have to look for it. I suggest that you kind of feel along the wall as you go.”
Sheila was about to tell Kevin what a stupid suggestion she thought that was when she remembered how the wall gave way to a street that wasn’t there when she leaned into it. So she shrugged and ran her fingers along the wall as she walked along. Nothing seemed to be happening.
“Kevin, I saw you and some friends at Donna’s Donuts yesterday.”
“Hmm. I thought maybe you did.”
“I kind of got the impression that the three boys in black robes kind of disappeared into the wall.”
“Your impression was correct,” Kevin answered. “We weren’t sure it would work, but it did. I was thinking that Karen and I would have to put them up for the night. That would have been a nice surprise for Mom if she ever came home.”
“Does that have anything to do with your coming after me?”
“Yes. Michael got the idea that you might have a quest. But he asked me to try and talk to you because he’s not good at talking to people, but I’m not very good at it, either.”
“So, is Michael telling everybody in town that I’m seeing things like a crazy person?”
“No,” said Kevin, “just a couple of people who understand. Like me.”
“Well, I’m tired of being understood by—OW!”
Sheila backed away from an oak door that had suddenly appeared in the wall. Above her head, a sign read: Taverner & Tye. A pair of windows materialized next to the door that showed candles and sheet music on display.
“Is this—part of the flow?” asked Sheila in a subdued voice.
Kevin’s eyes lit up.
“Yea,” he replied.
“And does that mean we should go inside this place?”
“Of course.”
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When Shawn collected his books from his hall locker, he checked everything to make sure that nothing was missing. Unlike his train set, it seemed that none of his school materials had walked off by themselves—at least not yet.
“How many companies have you bought?” one boy called out from a distance.
“Got a company for me?” called out another.
Shawn tried to pretend that his rude classmates did not exist.
“Baa, baa, black boss, have you any firms?” sang a small chorus, “Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. One for the President and one for his dame, and one for the yuppies all crying in the Lane.” That ditty was followed by a chorus of “Superbrat” sung to the tune of “Superstar.”
Shawn pretending that the taunting affected him as much as it would a stone. He knew the other students were envious because his father was rich and theirs weren't. He headed for the nearest door at a steady, moderate pace. Hurrying out of the school, even to get away from rude classmates, was bad luck. And he would need all the good luck he could get if he was going to find the store that had eluded him so mysteriously the day before. Once out the door, he watched for the cracks in the pavement. That slowed him down a little more. But slowing down would bring him more good luck. But instead of gaining any good luck, he plowed into a girl and almost knocked her over.
“Sorry,” said Shawn, without looking at her.
“That’s okay, Shawn,” said the girl.
That made Shawn look up. He recognized her.
“You’re Karen, aren’t you?”
“Yea.”
“Sorry I ran into you.”
“That’s okay. Are you going down to Main Street?”
“Could.”
Normally, Shawn would have leapt at the opportunity to talk to a decent-looking girl, but if Karen tagged along, he wouldn’t be able to look for Morley’s Toy Store until he found a way to dump her. On the other hand, this was the first time that anybody in the school had shown the faintest interest in being friendly with him. At long last, a girl had noticed how handsome he is. His careful grooming had finally paid off. Shawn thought he detected an uncertain look about Karen that told him she was hoping that a handsome boy would take her under his wing. Or was she scheming to use him in some way? Did she only want the treats his money could buy her? The trouble with having money was that you never knew if anybody liked you for yourself of for your money. But then it occurred to Shawn that if he could walk through a wall and find the elusive toy store as Scott Simpson had managed to do, he would really sweep this girl off her feet and have her in the palm of his hand for as long as he wanted her. Shawn decided to put himself in gear and churned out all the charming words he could think of. The words flowed out of him about all his favorite stores on Manhattan, his mansion on the Hudson Rivers, and the ski resort his father took him to.
“Is there anything here in town you need?” Shawn asked Karen when they reached Main Street. “Of course there isn’t much in this town for people like you, who have real taste. Now if I just had a magic wand, I could wave it over a store front and lead you into a magical shopping center where I could find something worthy of you.”
Karen seemed a bit startled at that claim.
“Oh, really?”
Shawn kept a careful look at Karen’s face as he approached the spot where Scott had stepped through the wall and then returned to claim that he had seen Morley’s Toy Store. Although she was obviously trying to hide it, Shawn could tell that the very spot did mean something to her.
“Maybe I don’t even need a magic wand,” said Shawn. “Maybe, if I can imagine this great shopping center in my mind clearly enough, I can walk right through the wall right here and we’ll be there.”
Karen’s back stiffened and she looked away.
“What kind of a store are you looking for?” Karen asked.
“Well, I’d like to find the a toy store so spiffy that it’s got a state-of-the-art engine for my train set.”
Shawn almost went on to offer to show his train set to Karen, but he realized in time that he wasn’t ready to do that.
“Have you tried Morley’s Toy Store?” Karen asked, trying to sound casual and failing.
Shawn jumped a mile before he could make a quick recovery.
“Have you heard of it?” Shawn asked Karen, trying to keep his voice from shaking.
“Yea.”
“Want to go there?”
“Sure.”
With Karen at his side, there was no backing down. Shawn lifted a foot and drove it into the wall. As he put a tight lid on his anger, Shawn expected Karen to laugh at him, but she didn’t.
“You might have better luck if you move your foot more slowly,” Karen suggested.
The smug look on Karen’s face irritated Shawn and made him wonder if Karen was pulling a prank on him. With as much dignity as he could muster, he lifted his foot a second time and slowly moved it toward the wall. When his foot landed on a bumpy surface, he lost his balance and only Karen’s steadying hand saved him from falling. Seeing a blur of shops that looked as if they belonged in a movie set for, Shawn pulled himself together.
“See?” he said with a smile weaker than he wanted it to be. “What did I tell you?”
“Well, you did find this place, all right,” said Karen, who seemed a little too knowing for Shawn’s comfort.
Shawn took in the horse drawn carriages that rolled down cobbled the street and a large fountain that shot up its spray in the middle of the shopping square.
“Well, let’s see if I can find Morley’s and get you the best toy you’ve had in your life,” said Shawn.
“You don’t have to buy anything for me,” Karen replied.
Shawn frowned. “I know I don’t have to buy you anything. Can’t you accept a free gift once in a while?”
“I think we’re here for a different purpose than to go shopping,” said Karen.
Shawn gave Karen a suspicious look.
“How come you know what we’re supposed to do in this place? You haven’t been here before, have you?”
“Actually, I have been here before,” Karen admitted. “I think we are probably here for a different purpose than for shopping.”
“Who says what we’re supposed to do?” asked Shawn.
Karen shrugged.
“It’s hard to explain.”
Determined not to let Karen take control of things, Shawn scanned the signs in search of Morley’s Toy Store, but he couldn’t find it. Then his heart leapt when he saw the sign: The Byrd & Tallis. He remembered that the flyer said that Morley’s could possibly be found through the Byrd & Tallis. When he realized that the establishment was a restaurant, Shawn knew how to regain his control of events and find his way to Morley’s besides.
“Uh—I could treat you to a great meal in there,” said Shawn as he pointed to the restaurant. “Come on!”
“I’m not that hungry,” said Karen.
“Aw come on,” said Shawn. “You must be hungry when all you’ve had for lunch is what they serve at school.”
“It’s just that I think we should look around a little more,” said Karen.
“What for? Some wizard in a cape with a message from God in his cap to tell us what we’re supposed to do here?” Shawn asked.
Just then, the door of the Byrd & Tallis opened and a smiling man wearing green tuxedo beckoned to them.
“Are you willing to accept that as a sign that we’re supposed to go in there,” Shawn asked with satisfaction.
“I guess so,” Karen admitted.