Dan Poblocki - The Stone Child

Her face was no longer a face. It was a long hallway in a secret, underground place through which he found himself hurtling, his feet skidding against the slick, dark floor. At the end of the hallway, twenty feet away, a swarm of black insects so dense it seemed to fold in upon itself beckoned to him like a hand. He reached for the walls, trying to find something to hold on to, but his fingers kept slipping against the wet stone. He clenched his mouth shut, trying to keep his screams in and the insects out.

Eddie turned and to his surprise found he was still standing in his parents’ bedroom. He grabbed at the doorknob, wrenching it open and running blindly into the hallway. When he reached the top of the stairs, he grabbed the handrail and swung himself around the corner. Taking three steps at a time, he leapt down the staircase, until he missed one and slid the rest of the way to the rug in the foyer.

Someone clutched at his shoulders, shaking him.

His father was leaning over him. “Edgar! Are you okay?”

Eddie glanced around, unsure of where he was or what was happening. As he tried to sit up at the bottom of the stairs, a dull pain throbbed in his tailbone. He groaned.

“What’s wrong?” asked Mom. Eddie turned to find her peering up from her place at the kitchen table. She appeared to still be writing, as if she hadn’t moved since Eddie had come home from school.

“He fell down the stairs,” said Dad. “I saw the whole thing from the couch in the living room.”

Eddie stood up. His parents both seemed so calm. He nearly grabbed his father to give him a hug but stopped himself. He didn’t want to alarm them by being upset. “When did the power come back on?” said Eddie evenly. He held on to the banister at the bottom of the stairs to keep his hands from shaking. His parents were looking at him funny.

“The power’s been on all night,” said Dad. He felt Eddie’s forehead with the back of his hand. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Eddie wasn’t sure of the answer to that question. He turned around and looked up the stairs. He could see the light spilling from his bedroom. “But the lights were…” Eddie peered out the window next to the front door. The entire town was lit up as usual. Had the whole thing been a dream? Impossible. Eddie was certain that he’d been awake the whole time. He’d been too excited by Nathaniel’s story to fall asleep. “What-what time is it?” he said.

“Nearly midnight,” said Mom. “We thought you were asleep upstairs.”

“You mean you’ve been down here the entire time? But I thought you were… I thought you were…” Eddie tried to speak, but he realized he didn’t want to finish his sentence.

Plus, at this point, he wasn’t sure what he had been thinking.

Eddie was late for school the next morning.

In class, Ms. Phelps called on him for the third time in twenty minutes, and he had to admit, once again, he didn’t know the answer. He hadn’t done any of the homework. He didn’t blame Ms. Phelps for being upset-how could she possibly know that last night he had been haunted by a malicious spirit who once upon a time might have been banished from the Garden of Eden, and who might have been responsible for the disappearance of Nathaniel Olmstead? Of course, he didn’t try to explain this. He knew she wouldn’t understand. He would save his explanations until he met up with Harris and Maggie during lunch.

After class, Eddie found them sitting near the windows in the far corner of the cafeteria. He was late because he’d wanted to make photocopies of his translation so they could read it themselves. He’d convinced Mr. Lyons to help him by volunteering to reshelf books next week-if he was still alive…

Neither Harris nor Maggie looked like they had slept much, but when they saw him approaching, they perked up. He knew they’d be excited to hear about his translation, but he didn’t know how to explain everything else that had happened.

After falling down the stairs, Eddie refused to sleep in his own bedroom. Even shoved between his parents, Eddie’s mind had churned with frightening images all night long. He hadn’t slept either.

He slumped into the chair next to Harris and across from Maggie.

“So?” said Harris, taking a bite of his peanut butter sandwich. “How did it go? Do you know what happened to Nathaniel Olmstead?”

Eddie shook his head. “I didn’t finish.”

“Didn’t finish?” said Maggie. “Why not?”

Eddie took a deep breath and told them everything that had happened, starting with the face he saw in the library table yesterday afternoon and ending with his horrifying encounter with the Woman. After Eddie finished his story, Harris slumped over onto the cafeteria table and threw his arms over his head.

“What’s wrong?” said Maggie.

“Don’t you get it?” said Harris, turning his head slightly to speak. “The legend of the woman in the woods? Like all the other monsters that have attacked us for whatever reason-touching the water at the lake, picking the flower, going into the woods at night-now she’s coming for Eddie. She followed him down from the statue in the Nameless Woods, and she’ll haunt him until he’s totally gone bonkers!”

“Stop scaring him.” Maggie slapped Harris’s shoulder and rolled her eyes before looking at Eddie. “You’re not going bonkers,” she said. “She came to you for a specific reason. She doesn’t want to drive you crazy. She wants you to leave her alone.” She paused, thinking. “Didn’t you say she told you to read something less frightening? Maybe she was trying to scare you so you’d stop reading The Enigmatic Manuscript.”

Eddie bit at his bottom lip. “Should we stop? I mean… now that we’ve read about what she can do to people in The Wish of the Woman in Black… it seems really stupid to keep going.”

Harris sat up. “We can’t just stop! Not now that we’re so close to finding out what happened to Nathaniel Olmstead. He obviously did something that made her mad. If he’s in trouble… maybe we can help him.”

“Why?” said Maggie.

The boys looked at her like she was crazy.

“He said it himself,” she continued. “The creatures came through the door-whatever door he’s talking about, I don’t know-but he said it’s his fault . Maybe he doesn’t deserve our help.”

As he sat at the lunch table, images of the Woman in Black flashed through Eddie’s memory and he shuddered. But maybe Maggie was right. He pulled his book bag onto his lap. “There’s so much more to the story now that you won’t understand until you actually read it for yourselves.” He took out the two photocopied packets he’d made for Harris and Maggie. “You’ll have to tell me what you think.” He handed one to each of them. “Try to read it all if you can,” he said. “We’ll meet at the end of the day and keep working.”

After school, they quietly walked to Harris’s house together. Both Harris and Maggie had managed to finish reading everything Eddie had written. Despite the Woman’s threat, they were intrigued and seemed excited to find the answers to Nathaniel Olmstead’s mystery. They all agreed: they might as well try to read a little bit more.

At the bookstore, they found Frances standing on the front porch, looking at the wooden deck beneath her feet.

“What’s the matter, Mom?” said Harris, stopping at the bottom of the steps.

When Frances turned around, Eddie could see that her cheeks were blotchy red. She’d been crying. Embarrassed, she quickly wiped her face. “Oh, Harris,” she said, “you brought friends.” She came to the top step, reached out, and held on to the balustrades on either side of the stairs. When Harris tried to peer around her, she moved, as if trying to block his view. “Wait,” she whispered.