The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet
Read The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet Online
Authors: Tony Abbott
The Hidden Stairs
and the Magic Carpet
Illustrated by Tim Jessell
Contents
10. The World Under the Stairs
The Small Room
Eric Hinkle ran past his mother on his way through the kitchen. He was heading to the back door.
“Neal and I are going to play soccer in the yard,” he said. “Julie’s coming, too. Gotta go.”
“Stop.” His mother blocked the door. “Didn’t you forget something, Eric?”
She held out her hand.
She was holding empty garbage bags.
Eric looked at his mother. He looked at the garbage bags. All of a sudden, he remembered.
“Oh, no! I forgot about the basement!”
Knock, knock.
Eric sighed. He pulled the door open. Neal Kroger stepped into the kitchen. Neal lived at the end of Eric’s street. He was Eric’s best friend.
“Hey, what’s up?” Neal asked.
“I have to clean the basement,” Eric grumbled.
Mrs. Hinkle gave Eric the garbage bags. “You know your father wants to start remodeling the basement soon. This was supposed to be your special job.”
Neal made a face at Eric. “That doesn’t sound like much fun.”
“According to my dad, it’s not supposed to be fun,” Eric replied. “It’s supposed to be done.”
“Give it two hours,” Mrs. Hinkle said. She pointed to the clock. It was two o’clock.
“Two whole hours?” Eric headed for the basement door.
“Hey, I’ll help,” said Neal. “We’ll be sort of a team. Maybe we’ll find some cool stuff.”
Eric smiled. Neal is a true friend, he thought. He’ll even help clean up junk. “Okay. Come on.”
Eric flicked on the light. The two boys tramped down to the basement.
On the right side of the stairs was the playroom. It had paneling on the walls, bookcases, a toy chest, a big sofa, and even a television.
“This looks pretty clean,” Neal said, peeking in. “If my basement was like this, I’d live down here.”
Eric liked the playroom, too. It was a great place to hang out on rainy days.
“The playroom isn’t the problem,” Eric said. “Look over here.” He stepped into the other side of the basement. The room on the left side of the stairs. The side his father was going to remodel.
“What a mess!” Neal said, looking around.
On one wall was a tool bench filled with jars of nails, nuts, and bolts. On another wall were cabinets lined with canned food. An old washer and drier sat against a third wall.
And everywhere in between was junk.
In piles. In bunches. In cartons. In boxes.
There was even a dusty old chair sitting in the middle of the floor.
“We’d better get started,” Eric muttered.
Neal slumped into the chair. “We? Did I say I would help?”
Eric stared at his friend. “You said we were a team.”
“I’ll be the coach,” Neal said with a smile.
Tap, tap!
A face appeared at the basement window.
“It’s Julie,” said Eric. He waved. “Come in.”
Julie Rubin had been friends with Eric and Neal ever since they got stuck in a tree together in kindergarten. Since then, they’d been in all the same classes. They even went to the same summer camp.
“Hi,” Julie said as she raced down the stairs. She held a soccer ball under her arm.
“I thought we were going to play,” she said, checking her watch. “It’s only two o’clock.”
Eric dragged a big toy box out from under the stairs. “Sorry, I’ve got to clean all this stuff up.”
“And I’m coaching,” Neal said. “Ball, please?”
Julie passed the ball to Neal and looked around. “It looks like a big job. I’ll help.”
“How about a little game first?” Neal said. He stood up and bounced the ball once. Then he swung his foot hard. “Heads up, everybody!”
“Wait!” Eric yelled, ducking behind the box.
Too late. The ball was already in the air. It bounced off the tool bench and smacked Neal right in the face. “Ow! My nose!”
“Serves you right!” said Julie.
The ball bounced off the washing machine and rolled into the shadows by the stairs.
“I’ll get it!” Julie jumped after the ball, then stopped. “Hey, what’s this?” She
pointed to a door in the wall under the stairs. It was open slightly.
“My house has that, too,” Neal said. “There’s a cool little closet inside.”
Eric remembered seeing that door a million times. But he had never been inside. “It must have been swung open when I pulled that box away.”
“Well, I think the ball went in there,” Julie said. She swung the door open further. “Cool!”
Inside was a small closet. The ceiling was the underside of the basement stairs. It slanted all the way to the floor at the back of the room.
In the center sat the soccer ball.
“This is great,” Eric said, peeking over Julie’s shoulder. “We can put some of the junk in here.”
Julie stepped into the room and reached for the ball. “It’s an awesome secret hideout.”
“Let me see!” Neal said. He jumped over to Eric, accidentally pushing him into the door.
Blam!
It slammed shut.
A muffled scream came from inside the room.
“Help!” cried Julie. “I’m falling!”
The Sky Below the Ground
Eric pulled the door open quickly.
Julie was standing in the middle of the tiny room. She was staring at the floor beneath her feet. The ball was nowhere in sight.
“Are you okay?” Eric asked.
Julie pushed her way quickly out of the room. “The ball went down there!”
Eric and Neal looked at the gray cement floor. Then they looked back at Julie.
“There were steps,” Julie said. “And I almost fell all the way down!”
“Steps?” said Neal. “Where the floor is?”
Julie nodded. “And the soccer ball went bouncing down them. Then you opened the door, and the steps sort of…disappeared.”
Eric and Neal entered the little room under the stairs. Then Julie stepped back in. They stood close together.
“Maybe the ball whacked you in the head, Julie,” Neal said with a laugh. “You just thought there were stairs.”
Eric looked down at the floor. There weren’t any steps anywhere. “Julie, I don’t think –”
“I’m not making this up,” she said. “Wait. The door was closed. And it was dark at first. Maybe then…”
“It’s pretty dark already,” Neal said. “Don’t close the door on us –”
Slam!
Julie did close the door on them.
Neal grumbled. “Now it’s very dark.”
Then, suddenly, it wasn’t.
The floor began to shimmer beneath them, and a bright light glowed under their feet.
Then –
whoosh!
– a stairway appeared out of nowhere. A set of steps, leading down. Leading away from the basement.
Away from the house.
“Whoa!” Eric said. “It looks like
outside
down there! Is this what you saw?”
Julie nodded. “Told you.”
The steps glowed a rainbow of colors.
Julie peered over Eric’s shoulder. “Let’s go find the ball.”
Neal reached for the door. “I don’t think so.”
“Come on,” said Eric. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt as if they had to go. He stepped down to the next step. Then to the next, and the next. Already the air was brighter where he was. It was pink. And cool and fresh.
“Neal. Julie. This is incredible,” Eric said. “We have to go down.”
“I don’t think this is such a good idea,” Neal said.
Julie laughed. She ran to catch up with Eric. “The air smells so sweet! Hurry up, Neal. We’re already ten steps ahead of you.”
Just below them was a forest of tall trees. The stairs led all the way down to the treetops.
“Unbelievable!” Eric whispered. “Do you think this is some kind of magic?”
“There’s no such thing as magic,” Julie said, biting her lip. She always did that when she didn’t understand why things were happening. “But this place is beautiful. Strange, too. It’s sort of like a theme park.”
