Jimmy Stone's Ghost Town (16 page)

"You're right and you're
wrong." Gasp placed his hands on his hips as if preparing to begin
another one of his
long
stories. I had to jump in right away.

"The quick version, please," I said.

Gasp gave me that same look he'd given me
earlier to tell me to keep my mouth shut and listen.

"Fine," he said. "The
quick version. Yes, you buried these people in
your
world. And, yes, they're now
buried here. Once you bury your dead, you all think the bones just
stay there. Well, they don't. They don't just stay in the ground to
rot away. They're transported here to Ghost Town. That is, as long
as the ghost of your dead is destined to stay here. If they're
here, their bones are in Ghost Town Cemetery."

"Interesting," I said and tilted my head
just a bit. "So there really are buried bones beyond that
gate."

"Sure are," said Gasp.

This made me slightly more nervous but,
really, what could happen? They weren't going to come to life.
They're already ghosts floating around here in Ghost Town. What
else is there to be afraid of.

"I think we need to go in
there," I said and stepped forward slightly, just ahead of the
group. "I just think what we're looking for is probably in there. I
don't know why and I don't know how, but I have this
feeling
."

"What are you waiting for then, Jimmy? Lead
the way."

And, with those words, I continued my walk
toward the menacing black gate, holding closed whatever lurked
inside of Ghost Town Cemetery.

The fading sun was beginning to fall even
faster as we approached the fence and the gloominess of the Ghost
Town streets only added to our anxiety. There was a feeling of
dread in the air, but I did my best not to let it effect me. I
couldn't let it bother me. Not now. Not this close.

"Have you been before?" I asked Gasp
pointing toward the fence, my fingers just barely touching the
stubbly iron.

"Of course," he said. "Many times."

Gasp pulled up even with me and gave me one
last glance before he just floated right through the black
fencing.

Once on the other side, he looked back at us
and put his hand to his head as if it might help him think.

"I can't remember anything special about it,
really. Lots of gravestones and lots of graves, but I can't imagine
what would be in here that you could find for your first item."

"Doesn't matter," I said and put both hands
on the fence. I lifted the small latch and pushed the gate doors
open. They swung into the cemetery and the sign that hung so
delicately on the front of the fence rattled before falling to the
ground with a loud clash. "Where else would we even go right now?
It's worth a shot, right?"

"Right again, sir," said
Gasp. "I don't have any
other
ideas, so this one is as good as anything
else."

David and Trex followed right behind me as I
stepped inside the gate and into the cemetery.

Gasp wasn't kidding. It was gravestones and
graves as far as the eye can see. That's really all there was
except for some very faded grass, some hard dirt, and a few bare
trees.

Every few minutes, you'd see another
gravestone appear in the distance and the loose dirt of a fresh
grave appear in front of it.

"New admissions," Gasp said and chuckled.
"Happens all the time."

This was wild. It was a real-time graveyard
that just kept piling up with dead bodies and fresh graves.

The sun was gone now and it was growing dark
in the cemetery. We'd only been inside for a few minutes, but I
could already tell that David and Gasp were losing faith that we'd
find anything here. They looked bored, anxious, and ready to try
something new.

We stood in the shadow of a tree and thought
about our plans underneath the moonlight. We had no idea where to
go next.

Gasp waved his arms quickly to display the
map and give us the opportunity to try to find somewhere else to
look.

"Have a look," I said and leaned in close. I
put my arm behind David and pulled him in as well. "Let's see what
options we have."

David, Gasp, and I began looking over the
map of Ghost Town while Trex chewed quietly on some grass. After a
few moments of this, David must have started to get comfortable
with our surroundings so he dropped his hold on Trex's leash.

As soon as the leash left David's hand, it
was as if something came over Trex. He stopped chewing the grass
and immediately looked up. His snout pointed straight ahead and his
right leg lifted, the paw almost pointing in the direction he was
facing.

We all stopped looking at
the map and Gasp waved his arms again to put it away. We were all
looking at Trex, just waiting to see what he was going to do. It
was obvious to us all that
something
was happening.

"What is it, boy?"

Trex looked over at me quickly before going
back into the same stance he was just in. You could see his
nostrils flex in and out as he sniffed about as hard as I'd ever
seen him sniff.

"What is it?"

And then, he took off.

Trex raced through the
cemetery at a good clip and, if it weren't for Gasp's being able to
literally
fly
, we
probably would have lost him.

David and I ran as fast as we could to keep
up as Trex weaved in and out of graves, over fresh dirt, through
the faded grass, and around the sad little trees. It was dark and
hard to see already, but Trex's speed made it even more difficult
for us to navigate the cemetery.

We were tripping over gravestones, stumbling
in the dirt, and generally looking foolish. If it weren't for Gasp,
we'd have lost Trex for good and been completely stranded in the
middle of Ghost Town Cemetery.

"Over here," we heard Gasp say before too
long. "We're over here!"

We followed the sound of Gasp's voice to a
nearly secluded spot under a tree. Trex had slowed down now and was
pacing around the area.

It was the oddest thing, too. All throughout
Ghost Town Cemetery were tons and tons of gravestones lined up
meticulously, but this spot Trex had found was different. It was
like nothing else in the place.

Here, where Trex was now sniffing furiously
and batting his tail back and forth, was just one gravestone
underneath a very full tree. Every other tree in the cemetery was
nearly bare, but this was in full bloom. It was thick and strong
and looked like it would be there for centuries.

"What do you--"

"Shh," said Gasp. "Don't bother him. Let him
do his thing."

So we shut up while Trex rooted around in
this patch of cemetery and, within minutes, he suddenly stopped
pacing. His sniffing increased, his nostrils flared, and he started
to dig furiously.

Trex's paws were moving a mile a minute and
his nails dug into the hard dirt between the tree and the
gravestone. He was panting and digging like a crazed animal. You'd
have thought the world's biggest doggie treat was buried there.

"What does it say?" I asked Gasp, who was
standing slightly closer to Trex, the gravestone, and the tree. We
were all watching in amazement at how fast he was digging. "The
gravestone. What does it say?"

"It's just a name," said Gasp. "A name and
nothing more."

"Well?" I asked annoyed that he didn't just
tell me without me having to ask. We were already completely on
edge. "Well?"

"Sarah," he said. "The name on this
gravestone is Sarah Anose."

"Anose," I said slowly as the pieces of the
puzzle started to come together in my mind. "Anose leads the
way."

I looked back at David and his mouth was
wide open. He was completely silent, but he was there and excited
by the prospect of what we'd just found. That was the David I
knew.

"Indeed it does," said Gasp as he nodded
toward Trex, who had finally stopped digging, for us to look in his
direction. "It seems Anose and a nose both lead the way."

David and I turned our heads slowly towards
Trex, who was stationed in between the gravestone and the tree.

There he sat on his hind legs. Just sitting
there like the good dog he'd always been. Sitting there quietly and
peacefully. Sitting there with a large white bone in between his
clenched teeth.

It was human. It had to be human, it was so
big. Maybe something from the leg, like a femur. Yeah, that had to
be it. A femur. We'd just learned about the bones back in
Boredsylvania and that was the only thing it could be. The biggest
bone in the human body. The femur.

I looked up at Gasp and David. Neither of
them had anything to say and it was almost like they were looking
to me to do something.

"Bring it here, Trex," I said and patted my
leg. "Come on, boy!"

Trex walked over with the bone still firmly
in his teeth. He came right up beside me and sat back down on his
haunches.

"Drop it," I said and put out my hand below
Trex's mouth. "Here ya go, boy. Drop it."

Trex opened his clenched jaw and the bone
tumbled out in what seemed like slow motion. It fell right into my
open hand.

It was smooth and white as pearl, and it
felt heavier than I'd expected. But that wasn't the most amazing
thing about it. No. Not even close.

The most amazing thing about the bone was
the fact that on one end, right where the bone started to spread
out near the end, was what looked like a carving. Yes, that's
right. It was a carving or an etching of some sort.

I brushed the small bit of dirt off the bone
and the etching became crystal clear. It was an ornate design in
the shape of a circle. Inside the circle was a star, and inside
that, another circle. And the design went on just like that until
there were seven circles. But the most important thing - the thing
that I won't forget for as long as I live - was what was inside
that seventh circle.

Right inside that seventh circle on the bone
that Trex had found and dug up in Ghost Town Cemetery, between the
oddly placed tree and the grave of Sarah Anose, was, as clear and
plain as a bright summer day, a perfectly shaped number one.

Chapter Thirty One

I remember it so clearly now, that day when
everyone came home from the hospital. Well, everyone except my
almost-sister, Charlotte, that is. I can picture them pulling into
the driveway and I can see my dad pushing my mother up the path, in
her wheelchair, toward the house.

I can hear the yelping of a tiny puppy and
the muffled tears of my grandmother when she entered the house. I
can even smell the hospital stink of mints and hairspray on
everyone when I hugged them.

I remember that day like
no other day in my life and, now, I remember it even more as the
day that everything
changed
. Nothing would be the same
again after that. Not Grandma. Not Dad. Not my almost-sister. Not
Mom. And sure as hell not me.

And in the hospital, weeks later, with me at
my mother's side. It all seems so long ago now, but I can see it so
clearly. I can hear her voice in my head fighting to win out over
the sound of sucking machines and beeps and whirs in the
background.

She knew something that day. She told me I'd
be the man of the house. She told me she'd see me again. She said
she liked Trex's name and that he'd lead the way.

How could she have possibly known how right
she'd end up being?

"It's a great name, Jimmy," was the last
thing I ever heard her say. Ever.

But I think, now at least,
things were looking up. I think things were about to change for the
better. Things were about to change
forever
. And there was a chance that
I might make her premonition come true. There was a chance, albeit
slight, that I might see her again. She knew Trex would lead the
way. She
must
have known that I'd see her again.

And what would she say this time?

I had no idea.

All I knew was that now - in this very
moment - I knew that I didn't intend on letting "It's a great name,
Jimmy" be the last thing I ever heard my mother say.

Chapter Thirty Two

Before we even had a
moment to soak in the fact that Trex had just dug up a human bone
with some crazy carving on it (with a number
one
on it no less), the tree we were
standing under began to shake like we were right in the middle of
an earthquake. The already-dark sky above seemed to turn a darker
shade of black and the moonlight disappeared completely.

Right there in front of David, Gasp, Trex,
and me a glowing ball of light began to form. It grew larger and
larger until it began spinning fast. The middle pulled back and it
looked like a mini-tornado was spinning inside of this massive
glow.

We'd seen this before. We knew we had.

David looked over to me and Gasp followed.
We all looked at each other and just nodded before bracing
ourselves for what we seemed to know was coming.

It was only a matter of seconds before the
whole show was over and there before us floated, once again, the
same Oracle Essex we'd seen earlier when she delivered her
letter.

None of us said a word as
we just stared at her floating above us. There
were
no words for moments like this.
It was as if we'd all been rendered completely mute.

"I see you've found your very first item,
Jimmy Stone," the Oracle Essex said in her most beautiful and
frightening voice. "Congratulations."