The Secret Path (3 page)

Watch lowered his head. “Because my mother lives in New York. My sister lives in
Chicago, and my father lives in Denver.” Watch shrugged. “I like to know what time it is for each of them.”

There was sadness in Watch's voice as he spoke of his family. Adam felt he shouldn't ask why everyone was so spread out. Sally must have felt the same way. She spoke up again.

“I was just telling Adam how dangerous this town is,” she said. “I don't think he believes me.”

“Did you really see Leslie Lotte get swallowed by a cloud?” Adam asked Watch.

Watch looked at Sally. “What did you tell him?”

Sally was defensive. “Just what you told me.”

Watch scratched his head. His blond hair was kind of thin. “I saw Leslie get lost in the fog. And then none of us could find her. But she might have run away from home.”

“The fog, a cloud—what's the difference?” Sally said. “The sky ate her, it's as simple as that. Hey, Watch, what are you doing today? Do you want to go to the arcade with us?”

Watch brightened. “I'm going to see Bum. He's going to show me the Secret Path.”

Sally shuddered. “You're not taking the Secret Path. You'll die.”

“Really?” Watch said.

“What's the Secret Path?” Adam asked.

“Don't tell him,” Sally said. “He just got here. I like him, and I don't want him to die.”

“I don't think we'll die,” Watch said. “But we might disappear.”

Adam was interested. He'd never disappeared before. “How?” he asked.

Watch turned to Sally. “Tell him about it,” he said.

Sally shook her head. “It's too dangerous, and I'm responsible for him.”

“Who made you responsible?” Adam asked, getting annoyed. “I'm my own person. You can't tell me what to do.” He turned to Watch. “Tell me about the path. And tell me who Bum is.”

“Bum is the town bum,” Sally interrupted. “He used to be the mayor until Ann Templeton, town witch, put a curse on him.”

“Is that true?” Adam asked Watch.

“Bum was the mayor,” Watch agreed. “But I don't know if he became a bum because he got
cursed. It may have been because he got lazy. He was always a lousy mayor.”

“What exactly is the Secret Path?” Adam asked again.

“We don't know,” Sally said. “It's a secret.”

“Tell me what you do know,” Adam said, getting exasperated

“There's supposed to be a special path that winds through town that leads into other dimensions,” Watch said. “I've searched for it for years, but never found it. But Bum is supposed to know it.”

“Who says?” Adam asked.

“Bum says,” Watch said.

“Why is he going to tell you the secret?” Sally asked. “Why today?”

Watch was thoughtful. “I don't know. I gave him a sandwich last week. Maybe he just wants to thank me for it.”

“Maybe he wants to get you killed,” Sally grumbled.

“It wasn't that bad a sandwich,” Watch said.

“When you say the path leads into other dimensions,” Adam said, “what do you mean?”

“There is more than one Spooksville,” Sally said.

“Huh?” Adam said.

“This town overlaps with other realities,” Watch explained. “Sometimes those other realities blur into this one.”

“That's why this is such a weird place to live,” Sally added.

Adam shook his head. “Do you have any proof that this stuff exists?”

“No direct proof,” Watch said. “But a man on my block was supposed to have known about the Secret Path.”

“What did he say about it?” Adam asked.

“He disappeared before I could ask him.” Watch paused to check one of his watches. “Bum is waiting for me. If you want to come, you have to decide now.”

“Don't go, Adam,” Sally pleaded. “You're young. You have your whole future in front of you.”

Adam laughed at her concern. He was interested in the Secret Path, but he couldn't say he believed it really existed. “I have a long boring day in front of me. I want to see what this is about.” He nodded to Watch. “Let's go find this Bum.”

S
ally ended up going with them, complaining all the time about how they could get stuck in a black hole and squashed down to the size of ants. Adam and Watch ignored her.

They found Bum sitting by the pier on a concrete wall, feeding the birds from a pile of nearby seed. On the way to the water Watch had stopped and bought a turkey sandwich at a deli as a gift. Bum accepted it hungrily and didn't even pause to look at them until he'd finished eating.

Bum was dirty with a long scraggly gray coat that looked as if it had been dug out of a garbage can. His face was unshaven, his cheeks stained with grease and dirt. His hair was the color of used motor oil. He could have been sixty, but maybe cleaned up he would have looked closer to forty. Although he was thin, his eyes were exceptionally bright and alert. He didn't look drunk, just hungry. Finished eating, he regarded them closely, searching Adam up and down.

“You're the new kid in town,” he said finally. “I heard about you.”

“Really?” Adam said. “Who told you about me?”

“I don't reveal my sources,” Bum replied, throwing the final crumbs from his sandwich to the birds that flocked around him as if he were Father Bird. Bum continued, “Your name's Adam and you're from Kansas City.”

“That's right, sir,” Adam said.

Bum grinned wolfishly. “No one calls me sir anymore, kid. And to tell you the truth, I don't care. I'm Bum—that's my new name. Call me that.”

“Did you really used to be mayor?” Adam asked.

Bum stared out to sea. “Yes. But that was long ago, when I was young and cared about being a big shot.” He shook his head and added, “I was a lousy mayor.”

“I told him that,” Watch said.

Bum chuckled. “I'm sure you did. Now, Watch, what do you want? The secret to the Secret Path? How do I know you're qualified to learn it?”

“What qualifications are necessary?” Watch asked.

Bum asked them to lean in closer. He spoke in a confidential tone. “You have to be fearless. If you walk the Secret Path and find the other towns, then fear is the one thing that can get you killed. But if you keep your head, think fast, you can survive the road. It's the only way.”

Adam had to draw in a breath. “Have you taken the Secret Path?” he asked.

Bum laughed softly, mainly to himself. “Many times, kid. I've taken it left and I've
taken it right. I've even taken it straight up, if you know what I mean.”

“I don't,” Adam said honestly.

“The Secret Path doesn't always lead to the same place,” Bum said. “It all depends on you. If you're a little scared, you end up in a place that's a little scary. If you're terrified, the path is like a road to terror.”

“Cool,” Watch said.

“Cool?” Sally said sarcastically. “Who wants to be terrified? Come on, Adam* let's get out of here. Neither of us is qualified. We're both cowards.”

“Speak for yourself,” Adam said, getting more interested. Bum had a powerful way of speaking—it was hard to doubt his words. “Can the path lead to wonderful places?” Adam asked.

“Oh yes,” Bum said. “But those are the hardest to reach. Only the best people get to them. Most just get stuck in twilight zone realms and are never heard from again.”

“That wouldn't bother me,” Watch said. “I love that old show,
The Twilight Zone.
Please tell us the way.”

Bum studied each of them, and even though the smile left his mouth, it remained in his eyes. Adam liked him but wasn't sure if he was a good man. The words of Ann Templeton, the supposed witch, came back to haunt him.

“There are a few grown-ups who know its real name. You'll meet another one today. He'll tell you things you might not want to listen to, but that will be up to you. I give you this warning because you have done me a favor this day.”

“If I tell you the way,” Bum said, “you have to promise not to tell anyone else.”

“Wait a second!” Sally exclaimed. “I never said I wanted to know the secret.” She put her hands over her ears. “This town is bad enough. I don't want to fall into a worse one.”

Bum chuckled. “I know you, Sally. You're more curious than the other two. I've watched you this past year. You go out looking for the Secret Path all the time.”

Sally pulled down her hands. “Never!”

“I've seen you searching for it,” Watch said.

“Only to block it up so that no one else could find it,” she said quickly.

“The Secret Path cannot be blocked up,” Bum
said, and now he sounded serious. “It's ancient. It existed before this town was built, and it will continue to exist after this town has turned to dust. No one walks it and remains the same. If you choose to take it, you must know there is no going back. The path is dangerous, but if your heart remains strong, the rewards can be great.”

“Could we find some treasure?” Adam asked, getting more excited. Bum stared him right in the eye.

“You might find wealth beyond your imagination,” Bum said.

Sally brightened. “I could use a few bucks.”

Bum threw his head back and laughed. “You three are a team, I see that already. All right, I'll tell you the secret. After you promise to keep it secret.”

“We promise,” they said together.

“Good.” Bum asked them to come close again, and he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Follow the life of the witch. Follow her all the way to her death, and remember, when they brought her to her grave, they carried her upside-down.
They buried her facedown, as they do all witches. All those they are afraid to burn.”

Adam was confused. “What does that mean?” he asked.

Bum would tell them no more. He shook his head and returned to feeding the birds.

“It's a riddle,” he said. “You figure it out.”

W
ell, that's just great,” Sally said a few minutes later as they walked back up the hill in the direction of Adam's house. “He gets us all excited about hearing the big secret, and then he just tells us a stupid riddle.”

“You were excited?” Adam asked. “I thought you didn't want to find the Secret Path.”

“I'm human,” Sally said. “I can change my mind.” She glanced over at Watch, who had been silent since Bum sent them on their way. “Aren't you disappointed?”

“Not yet,” Watch said.

Sally stopped him. “You're not trying to figure out the riddle, are you?”

Watch shrugged. “Of course,”

“But it's meaningless,” Sally said. “How can we follow the life of the witch who founded this town? She's been dead almost two hundred years. And what does it mean anyway? A life isn't a line on the ground. You can't follow it as you would a path.”

“That part of the riddle is easy,” Watch said. He glanced at Adam. “Have you figured it out?”

Adam had been struggling with the riddle since Bum had told them. But he had been hesitant to say anything because he feared he might make a fool of himself. Watch was obviously the most intelligent one in the group. He spoke quietly as he answered Watch's question.

“I was thinking to follow her life meant to follow where she went during her life,” Adam said.

“That's ridiculous,” Sally said.

“It's probably true,” Watch said. “It's the only explanation. What puzzles me is what's so special about each place she went.”

“Maybe the places aren't so important as the order they're in,” Adam said. “Maybe the Secret Path is right in front of us, like the numbers on a combination lock. But you have to turn the numbers in the exact right way. And only then will the lock open.”

Sally stared at them, dumbfounded. “I can't believe you guys. You both think you're Sherlock Holmes. Bum's just taking you for a ride. He only wants you to bring him another sandwich, and then he'll tell you another stupid riddle. He'll keep going until you've fed him the entire summer,”

Watch ignored her. “I think you're right, Adam,” he said, impressed. “The path must be right in front of us. It's the sequence that's important—where you go first, second, third. Let's try to figure out the first place. Where was Madeline Templeton born?”

“I don't know,” Adam said. “I never heard of the woman until this morning.”

Watch turned to Sally. “Do you know where she was born?”

Sally continued to pout. “I think this is stupid.” She paused. “At the beach.”

“How do you know?” Watch asked, surprised.

“There's the old story about how Madeline Templeton was brought to earth by a flock of sea gulls on a dark and stormy night,” Sally explained. “In fact, she was supposed to have come out of the sky exactly where we just were with Bum.” Sally made a face. “If you can believe that.”

“You believe everything else,” Adam said.

“I draw the line at supernatural births,” Sally replied.

“The story may have a germ of truth in it,” Watch said. “As long as the location of her birth is correct, it doesn't matter if birds, or her mother, brought her into the world. And if the location is accurate, we don't have to search for the first place on the Secret Path—we've already been there.” He considered for a moment. “It makes sense to me. Bum insisted on telling me the riddle at that exact spot. Maybe he knew we would have trouble finding the first location.”

“Where did she go next?” Adam asked. “How can we know?”

“We may not have to know every detail of
what she did,” Watch said. “We can just follow the general direction of her life. There are so many stories about Madeline Templeton that this won't be as hard as it sounds. For example, I know that when she was five she was supposed to have wandered into the Derby Tree and made all the leaves turn red.”