Jimmy Stone's Ghost Town (9 page)

"They're all here around
us, Jimmy," he told me. "They're practically
everywhere
here in Ghost Town, just
like you're everywhere in your world. You just can't see them
unless they want you to."

"Huh," was all I could muster.

"These ghosts have been here all along, but
these guys and gals only revealed themselves after I invited them
to. Only after I told them it was okay."

Wow
, I thought.
Gasp is like the Good
Witch telling the Munchkins it's okay to come out and meet Dorothy.
So where was my Yellow Brick Road? Was it this hallway?

"And they're everywhere? Like even outside
this hallway?

"Everywhere, Jimmy," Gasp
said and turned down the hallway again. The apparitions we were
seeing started to fade until they were no longer visible.
"This
is
Ghost
Town, remember?
Ghost
being the operative word."

"Yeah," I said and shrugged. "I got it
now."

I guess it takes a while to get used to
being in a place like this. I could do it though, if for nothing
more than the remote chance of seeing Mom.

We kept moving down the hallways and my
thoughts shifted back to David and Trex. All the talk of my mom
made me temporarily forget that they were still somewhere in Ghost
Town and I had no idea where.

"We're on our way to them, Jimmy."

"Where
are
they?"

"Through one of these doors," Gasp said and
smiled like it was some kind of clever inside joke that I wasn't
getting.

"But how do we know which one?"

"That's why I'm here, sir.
If you remember, I did tell you that I'm your
guide
."

"Right. Right," I said. "Okay, so let's get
going. Lead the way."

* * * * *

Gasp and I walked the
hallway for what seemed like hours. There were straight-aways,
twists, turns, corners, and at one point, it felt like we were
spinning upside down. Almost like we were in some crazy video game
and we had to make our way through the maze to get to rescue the
Princess. There may not have been any
obstacles
but this was certainly no
easy journey either.

As we walked the hallway -
I followed Gasp mostly in silence - I wondered just how many more
spirits we'd passed on our way. Once they'd disappeared, I hadn't
seen another on the entire walk, but it was pretty obvious that
they were there anyway. Gasp said they're "everywhere," and I
didn't expect them to up and leave on my account, so I assumed they
were still walking past, around,
through
us as we made our way to
wherever the heck we were headed.

"Do you really know where we're going?" I
asked, wondering just how much longer we'd have to walk this crazy
hallway.

"Of course, Jimmy." Gasp said and shook his
ghostly little head. "We're going to Room 7."

Room 7?
I thought.
But none of
these doors had any numbers. At least not any that we'd passed had
numbers on them.

"But--"

"I know," he said before I had a chance to
finish my thought. "None of the doors have numbers, right?"

"Uh huh," I mumbled and nodded towards Gasp,
looking for him to lead me in some direction. He'd been leading me
down this wacky hallway for long enough and I was starting to get
frustrated. I just wanted to see David and Trex.

"Not everything here, Jimmy, is what it
seems."

And, having said that, Gasp waved his
ghostly, see-through hand in front of the door that we happened to
be standing in front of. He waved it back and forth three or four
times then stepped back to watch my reaction as solid brass numbers
began to reveal themselves on the front of the bright red door.

1408.

"This is Room 1408?" I
asked. "And we're looking for
what
room?"

"David and Trex should be behind door 7,
Jimmy."

I shook my head and nearly
collapsed on the hallway floor. I wasn't sure I had the strength to
pass another thousand rooms. I wasn't sure I had the strength to
pass another
hundred
rooms, much less over a thousand.

Gasp swiped his hand in front of the solid
red door again and the brass numbers began to dissolve. Within
seconds, the door was blank again. Just a big red slab with a brass
doorknob and a peephole.

"I can't," I said. "I just can't."

"You can't
what
, Jimmy?"

"I can't possibly make it
past another thousand rooms, Gasp. There's no way. There's just no
possible way I have the energy, strength,
whatever
to make it all the way to
Room 7. 1408?! We've been walking for what seems like
forever
already,
Gasp.
FOREVER
.
There's just no fricken way!"

Gasp just looked at me. He didn't say
anything, at first, and just stood there staring at me. He smirked
just slightly as if he was waiting for me to keep going... So I
did...

"I'm not even sure how we
got here. I have no idea where we are. Sure, you told me. We're in
Ghost Town. That's great, Gasp. That's just great. We're in Ghost
Town." I was on a roll now and I didn't intend on stopping any time
soon. I don't even think I took a breath in between sentences.
"Well that's fine. Ghost Town. What the hell
is
this place, Gasp? Why am I here?
How did I get here? Sure. I know. I messed with that crazy tree we
found and suddenly I'm standing in this room and you're flying
around by the window. But
WHY???
Why did I end up here and why the hell did David
and Trex end up in Room 7 without me? Why--"

Gasp was smiling now. It was almost as if he
enjoyed watching me fly off the handle and lose it for a while. I'd
been so composed and calm up until this point. I'd listened and
heard what he was saying. I'd followed his rules and trusted what
he told me to do mostly blindly, but now I was beginning to lose
it.

"Jimmy," he said and looked me dead in the
eyes. "Relax. You're losing it a little."

"I know I am. I just need
some answers, okay? I need to know why I'm here and what is the
purpose of all this. I need to know how the
hell
I'm going to make it all the
way to Room 7 to find my dog and my friend." This time, I took a
deep breath, let out a short sigh, and looked up at Gasp. "And I
need to know how to get home."

"Easy, Jimmy," Gasp said and stepped back,
closer to the big red door. "We have all those answers for you, and
you'll get them soon. First we need to find David and Trex, and
then I can explain everything."

"But they're over a thousand rooms
away!!"

"Not everything," Gasp said and waved his
hand back and forth in front of the red slab of a door again, just
like he had before, "is exactly as it appears here in Ghost Town,
Jimmy. You seem to keep forgetting that."

And within a matter of seconds, the solid
brass came into focus on the front of the large red door. The
number curving once at a sharp angle and pulling the breath right
out of me as it became completely clear in front of my shocked
face.

7.

We were here.

Chapter Eighteen

There was a brief moment when I first found
myself in Ghost Town that I wondered what Dad might be think when
he woke up in front of the buzzing television, surrounded by empty
green bottles, and realized that he was alone in the house. No dog
barking. No closed bedroom door down the hallway. No Jimmy slaving
away at his homework or pulling together garbage bags full of
empties.

I wondered if his mind would trip over the
situation at all or if he'd pop open a brand new bottle, sip it
long and deep, and settle back in for some more mindless
entertainment. I wondered if he'd call the cops or the neighbors,
or if he'd start panicking and tossing everything around our house
until he found what he was looking for (like he does when he can't
find the remote control).

But, mostly, I wondered what he'd do when he
realized that I was, in fact, gone. I wondered if he'd heave a sigh
of relief that it was just him now or if he'd do everything he
could to find me. I wondered if he was the kind of father I
remember him to be when Mom was still around and we were expecting
my almost-sister. I wondered if he'd man up, throw out his own
empties (and not make anymore), throw on his boots, and head into
the woods to search for me. I secretly hoped he would, but I
couldn't be sure of anything. Not anymore. Not with Dad.

Chapter Nineteen

"No!" I said. "Really?"

"Really," said Gasp and
laughed a little when he saw the bundled up blast of energy ready
to escape from my body. "I tried to tell you before, Jimmy. Things
are different here than where you come from. Things are
very
different."

I want to reply and tell Gasp that I
understand - that I get it now - but the only thing I can think
about is putting my hand on that shiny brass doorknob, twisting it
just enough, and swinging open that door number 7 to find David and
Trex.

I lunge forward and grab the doorknob before
Gasp has a chance to stop me and the last thing I hear him say
before I'm twisting it is "be careful."

Careful of what?
I think as I swing open the door and jump through
it. And, before I know what's happening, I'm sliding
down.

And down.

And down.

And down.

I'm on some type of slide and there's no
stopping me as I'm blasting down the tube towards
God-knows-what.

I try to spin around to
hold onto anything I can find. I try to twist my body, but it's
useless. I'm moving way too fast to even attempt it again. The only
thing I
am
able
to do is spin my head around to see Gasp flying right behind me.
Sure, he's not sliding helplessly like me, but at least he's along
for the ride.

"I told you to be careful," he says as he
lets out the biggest laugh I've heard from him yet.

"What the hell, Gasp?!"

"Oh," he says as we continue to slide
through the tube, "don't worry. We're almost there."

"Almost where?"

"To Room 7, Jimmy."

"And is this how we get
to
every
room in
Ghost Town, Gasp?"

"No," he says and laughs again. "Just this
one."

When we finally stop
sliding and I land flat on my butt in front of yet another red slab
of a door with the number 7 in brass across it, I'm not only
confused, but I'm also a little bit pissed off that we just went
for that entire ride and I'm
still
not seeing David and Trex yet!

"Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"Just open the door, Jimmy." Gasp smiled and
waved his hand toward the door again, motioning for me to turn the
knob and push it open. "No need to be as careful this time." Then
the bastard has the gall to throw a wink at me, as if the last
stunt was some hilarious joke the Gods of Ghost Town had paid
me.

"If you say so," I tell
Gasp and reach for the shiny knob, grab it tightly, and twist until
Room 7 pops open and I'm staring into a nearly empty room. The only
thing keeping it from being
completely
empty is the sight of
David and Trex in the corner.

"Jimmy!" David yells as he jumps up and
looks towards the door. Trex barks loudly and bolts toward me. His
snout nose-dives into the side of my leg as he begs me for a
petting. "I wasn't sure we'd ever see you again!"

The fact that David is so
excited to see me, and the fact that he's actually
emoting
is pretty rare.
In fact, it's something I've seen
very
little of since I've known
David. He's also been the quiet and contemplative one, sitting in
the corner and waiting for his turn to strike. But, this time, he's
absolutely
thrilled
to see me and he's not afraid to show it. It's pretty
nice.

"You're telling
me
," I say and stop
petting Trex just long enough to grab David by the shoulders and
pull him in for a hug. The embrace nearly shocks the pants off my
friend and it's clear to me that he hasn't been hugged in a
long
time. That's ok -
neither have I.

When David is done hugging me back he starts
to pull away and it's at that very moment that he jerks fast and
hard away from me, grabbing Trex's leash and pulling my buddy along
with him back into the corner of Room 7.

"What's going on?" I ask and follow David
into the corner, turning back toward the door of the room. "What is
it?"

"Th...Th...That!" David says and points
toward the door.

Floating, directly in
front of the open red door to Room 7, is my new buddy Gasp.
He's
obviously
floating too. It's not like he's even trying to hide it, or
make himself appear more "normal" to ease David into this. He's
just
floating
there like it's an everyday thing that people should
automatically be accustomed to.

"Oh," I say to David and move slowly toward
Gasp. "That."

I pull up next to Gasp and put my arm around
him, though it's tough to say exactly where "around him" really is,
as my arm slides right in and through his see-through body at this
point.