

# The Lost Spells

# Anderson Atlas

The Lost Spells

Anderson Atlas

Copyright© 2009 Anderson Atlas

All Rights Reserved

Young Adult Fantasy Fiction

ISBN- 978-1-949897-03-6

Contents

1. Spooked by a House, Whispered Warnings About

2. Angry and Loud, Under a Black Cloud

3. Lightning, Rain, Four Walls, and a Game

4. A Place to Defend and a Moon that's a Friend

5. A Coyote in a Dream Speaks of Strange Things

6. A Delivery to Jerry Turns Out to be Scary

7. The Whispered Canyon Warnings and the Tickled Toe

8. Greycoat Stops by—Mary Says Hi

9. Mary Delves into Year 1912

10. A Scull and a Powder Makes for Horrible Chowder

11. Vira Becomes Estranged as Mary's World is Rearranged

12. Found in the Walls—an Adventure Calls

13. Find the Magic Book and Have a Look

14. Elephants and Arrows, a Butt-Chin and Cheese

15. Does this Journey End on a Gurney?

16. Exploding Rocks and the Cat that Plots

17. Homeward Bound, Greycoat Found—Is Vira Around?

18. The Book is a Hook—Its Power will Cook

19. Waiting for the Next Day is Torture for Today

20. Karl Escapes to a Familiar Place

21. Karl Fights Back with a Magic Attack

22. Way Back We Go—How Will Time Roll

23. The Witch is Powerless—For Good It's Said— Let the Canyon Never Again Be Dead

24. The Craziness is in the Mind, the Memory an Unstable Kind

25. Rich Again But Spoiled No More

Side Story: Trapper Baron Has Survived

"Words are direct communication with our brains. The more beautiful our language, the more beautiful our intent. ~Anderson Atlas

# The Lost Spells

# Chapter 1

# Spooked by a House, Whispered Warnings About

In the evening the house seems to wake up, preparing for the night, waiting patiently for its next victim. Only once did Jerry get the nerve to approach its haunted steps and that was today. Most days, Jerry and his friend Casey didn't have to witness the awakening–except on Tuesdays when their after school class ended late and their walk home coincided with sunset. Of course, they heard all the scary stories about the abandoned house from friends or older siblings and they were constantly warned to stay away. The house looked like a death trap and its very appearance radiated evil. Its windows were boarded up like closed eyes. In between the windows sat the front door, partially open and encased in spider webs. It whispered warnings to all that listened. Its vaulted roof overhung the porch like a massive beastly forehead and the front steps curved into a wicked smile.

Today, Jerry was feeling courageous. The sunset to the west, drawing long shadows on the ground while painting the house orange. It would not be long until the sun disappeared completely. Instead of passing the house like usual, he turned toward it.

Casey froze and watched Jerry, her gum chewing slowed.

Jerry continued up the dirt drive. Even his goose bumps were afraid to come out.

"Jerry?" Casey called out. "Wha–what're you doing?"

Jerry turned. "I want to see it," he replied. "I've heard so many stories about this place. I want to see it for myself."

Casey took a few steps up the drive. "But it's haunted," she said. "What if we get attacked?" She reached out for her friend. "What if the stories are real?"

"My dad doesn't believe in ghosts. I don't know if I do either," Jerry said. His short stature contradicted his current attitude. "Come on, don't be scared. Let's just take a peek."

Casey gripped the shoulder straps of her backpack and ran to Jerry's side. "Okay, but if we get hurt my parents are going to kill us." She grabbed Jerry's hand and let herself be led up the creepy steps.

Each footstep creaked.

The sky darkened to deep red but Jerry only noticed his pounding heart. A hot breeze escaped the house and smelled dirty, like rotting things. The front door was ajar, but it was impossible to see inside because a thick spider web filled the crack. Jerry reached out and grabbed the handle of the door. Casey's grip tightened. Jerry pushed the door open forcefully, ripping the spider web apart. Red light spilled into the house and the two stepped inside.

Jerry led Casey into the gloomy room. The house was filthy. "See?" He whispered. "Nothing in here but stinky trash and crappy furniture." His voice wavered.

"Okay, now can we leave?" Casey whimpered.

"Yeah, let's go."

Jerry and Casey moved slowly toward the door. The wind kicked up and spun dry leaves on the porch, rattling the door. At the threshold Jerry froze and Casey bumped into him. The setting sun seemed to go out as a shadow passed in front of the door. The shadow had no body, just a foggy essence. It moved to the door and swelled as if it reached out for them. Jerry instinctively slammed the door.

"What was that?" Casey whispered.

Jerry could feel her shaking. "Something was outside. . . I saw something weird. It had no body."

"Me, too," Casey said. "I really want to get out of here, now."

The closed door blocked most of the setting sun. The only source of light in the room seeped through the boarded-up windows. Jerry took off his backpack and set it at his feet. He pulled out a flashlight that was connected to his key ring.

The front door handle giggled.

Casey yelped. Her hand covered her mouth to stop a scream.

"Let's go out the back door," he whispered. He ran through the dark kitchen, Casey two steps behind him. The back door was sealed with spider webs just like the front. Jerry grabbed and turned the doorknob, pulling the door open and ripping apart the webs.

On the back porch, levitating two feet above the porch floor was a huge vulture with wings outstretched, a red wrinkly face and fierce with anger. All its sleek, black feathers ruffled. It lowered itself to the porch, slowly, eerily, all the while hissing like a maniacal snake. The vulture partially folded its wings and hopped toward the door, snapping its wings, hissing and cawing, "Inside!" Its voice was raspy and shrill.

Casey screamed and Jerry slammed the back door shut. He grabbed Casey's shoulders and squeezed. "Quiet!" he yelled. "Let's go back to the front door, okay?" With Casey's hand in his, he pulled her back though the house. When they neared the front door, Casey resisted. Jerry stopped and looked her in the eye as he said, "I open the door, then we run as fast as we can. Got it? We run right through that shadowy thing."

Casey pointed to the door, a look of horror growing on her face.

Written in spider webs on the door was a message. It read: Keep my doors closed!

A large white and red spider, the size of a small bird, feverishly scuttled back and forth between the door and the wall sealing then together with its thick sticky web. Jerry grabbed his backpack and led Casey to the side window. He swung his backpack at the wood and the spider webs covering the window until the way was clear. "Jump out and run to our street. Don't stop for anything."

Casey nodded and hopped out the window.

She ran as fast as she could. Jerry followed her. A half mile down the road, they slowed.

"I think we're safe," Jerry wheezed. He turned and sat, gasping. Casey fell to her knees.

"What happened?" Casey mumbled. "Did that bird really talk?"

"Yeah. It said, inside," Jerry said in heaving breaths. If he would have been alone he would have thought he'd gone crazy, but Casey was a witness. She was out of breath and scared, just the same.

"Animals don't talk and spiders don't write words with their webs," Casey said. She put her head in her hands. "I know vultures fly, but it was just hovering and it looked so weird," she recalled.

"Unless they're possessed or something," Jerry answered. The two sat in silence for a moment. "Look, we can't tell our parents we were in there. We'd be in massive trouble for sure."

Casey nodded and wiped her nose on her sleeve. "The place is haunted for real," she said. "Now I know all the stories are true."

"Yeah, I heard there was a whole family that once lived there before mysteriously disappearing," Jerry recalled. "We were lucky."

Casey concluded, "We could've disappeared, too."

Jerry looked around and moaned. He pounded his hand on the dirt and cursed.

"What?" Casey asked. "What's wrong?"

Jerry pulled his face out of his hands. "I left my backpack in the house," he said.

"Don't go back there," Casey pleaded. "Make up a story to tell your mom."

Jerry nodded. "Yeah, I'm not going anywhere near that house ever again."

# Chapter 2

# Angry and Loud, Under a Black Cloud

The Chen family used to live in a three-story, six-car garage mansion, with a patio ocean view in San Francisco but now they were poor. Very poor. They only had one car and a small trailer full of things. The bank took the rest. The black cloud seemed to follow the Chen family even as they turned off freeway and headed to their new house in a new city, leaving their old lives behind.

"Trev keeps farting!" Karl yelped and rolled the window down. He was the middle child and nearly half as tall as his older brother, though they were only a couple years apart in age.

Trevor laughed. "It's the fast food! Cheap burgers give me the farts. I can't help it."

Jennifer, Karl's mother, turned and handed baby Jenna a bag of crackers. "Don't upset your little sister."

"Just give us warning, so the fart doesn't hit us in the face," Li, Karl's dad, suggested.

Trevor took the crackers from Jenna and she started crying.

"What are you doing?" Jennifer snapped, reaching over the seat and pulling the cracker bag from Trevor's hands.

"I just wanted a couple."

"Yeah, just eat more cheese and toasted bread. That'll help your wicked gas," Li said. "What we need is some good fish and some soup."

Trevor unplugged Karl's phone from the charger and plugged his phone in.

Karl snatched the plug and tried to re-plug in his cord.

"No way, punk." Trevor snapped and pulled Karl's plug.

"I've no charge. You've been plugged in for an hour."

"No way, it's been, like, ten minutes," Trevor's eyes narrowed. "Touch my cord again and you're dead."

"Stop fighting or I'm taking away both your phones," Jennifer snapped.

A huge bang startled everyone and the car shook violently. Li struggled with the steering wheel and then pulled the car off the side of the road.

The SUV into a bush and skidded to a stop.

Karl cradled his head in his hand as he stared out the window. He caressed his phone and wished batteries never died.

"Now look what you've done," Jennifer muttered.

"Me?"

"If you weren't driving so fast!"

Karl jumped out of the vehicle.

"Where are you going?" Jennifer hollered.

Karl yelled back, "I need to use the bathroom!"

Karl returned from peeing on what he labeled the lucky bush to his entire family on the side of the road with suit cases and backpacks on, the stroller unfolded and stuffed with not only baby Jenna but toys and food. He stared blankly. "No spare tire?"

Li shook his head. "I used the spare already. The back tire lost all its air over lunch, remember?"

"Yeah, but what about another spare? There's only one spare tire?" Karl wondered out loud."

"Dork, there's only one spare on a car. Jeeze," Trevor started walking down the road.

Li pat Karl on the shoulders. "It's okay. Our new house is down the road. Less than two miles. We'll walk."

"But the sun is going down, Dad? We gonna walk in the dark?"

"We do what we have to do."

Karl grabbed his bag from the back seat and his suit case and followed his brother and family.

The sun disappeared over the edge of the mountains, flooding the sky in oranges and reds.

A half mile from their new house, two kids walked by the Chen family. They looked frightened. Jennifer and Li noticed and stopped them.

"Hey, guys," Jennifer said. "What's wrong? You look scared."

The kids looked at each other. The girl said, "Fine. Just fine. We could have disappeared tonight but didn't."

The boy shoved the girl, shushing her.

"Whoa. Do we need to call the police? What happened? We'll help."

The boy said. "No, we're fine." He shook his head. "Just going home now."

The girl couldn't hold her tongue. "We thought we saw a ghost. There's this haunted house down the road, the one with the red dented mailbox and the boarded up windows. We were exploring and–saw something–weird. Something like a shadow but with no body."

The boy pulled her and they continued walking. "Our houses are in that neighborhood." He pointed across the street to a group of houses. We're fine. Honest."

"Okay, stay safe," Li said.

"Should we walk them home?" Jennifer suggested. "They looked really frightened."

Li shook his head, no. "Come on. The sun is nearly down. They just have wild imaginations."

The family continued dragging their suit cases to their new home. Li was following his phone's map and GPS to get there. He was eyeing the map when he turned down the driveway.

Trevor and Karl froze, stopping at a red, dented mailbox. "Uh, Dad." Trevor said.

"This is it. Our new home," Li said, continuing down the drive.

Jennifer pushed the stroller hard, forcing the wheels through the gravel and sand.

Karl and Trevor ran up to Li and stopped him.

"Dad, this is the house the kids just came from." Karl pointed. The house had boarded up windows, just like the girl had said. "This is the haunted house."

"Nonsense. They just saw what they wanted to see." Li grabbed the stroller's front end and lifted and, with Jennifer's help, carried the stroller up the creaky steps and to the front porch.

The family stood on the porch in silence.

The house looked not only abandoned but avoided. He closed his eyes and wished he were back in his old room in San Francisco playing Dragon Lands.

Trevor spun his basketball in his hands. "Someone gonna call the Ghostbusters?"

Li was tall for a Chinese man, but his shoulders were hunched under disappointment. "We're okay. This is fine. We do what we have to do. Ghosts aren't real."

Karl looked like his father, sharing the same straight black hair, round face, and thick glasses. He pushed up his glasses at the same time as his father did. Karl was only twelve, and certainly believed in ghosts.

"What a junk pile. I ain't livin' here." Trevor snapped. He was tall and thin like his American mother, sharing her blond hair, sharp cheekbones, and perfect eyesight.

Jennifer bundled her blond hair into a knot. "Your father's right. We do what we have to do."

The house was built in the early nineteen hundreds and it looked it. The windows were boarded up, the wood unpainted and cracked, the roof broken and weathered, and the porch was drab and heavily stained.

Karl pointed to the spider webs strung around the door frame, "Dad, look at all the webs."

"I see them," Li said. "We'll just have to sweep them up and kick out the spider."

Jennifer nervously mumbled, "I've never seen such strange webs."

"Welcome to the desert," Li replied.

Karl pointed to a particularly dense web near the window. "This is creepy. How can we live in a haunted house?"

"Not another word about ghosts. Gotta grow up a bit, right now." Li pushed the door open, pulling the spider webs apart. Karl and the family filed one by one into the house. The inside air reeked of dust and dead things. Li found the light switch and a single lamp hanging from the ceiling turned on. "No one's lived here for over fifty years—the exception being the occasional bum," Li said. Beer bottles, food cans, and piles of grit-covered clothes littered the floor as evidence.

"Looks like we're gonna have to clean up a bit," Li said. "The tow truck will be here with our car and furniture in about an hour." He lowered his head, crammed his hands deep in his pockets, and closed his eyes.

"This totally sucks," Trevor mumbled.

The rest of the family seemed to agree with Trevor, slowly clustering in the middle of the living room, gripped in abeyance. Jenna was the only one that didn't really mind.

Karl didn't agree with Trevor much, but he hated this house, too. It was a big change from their house in California. He used to have a huge bedroom all to himself, and now . . . he didn't know if he'd even have one.

Karl kicked an empty can across the floor where it landed at the base of a backpack covered in spider webs. He picked up the pack. "Dad, one of those kids left their backpack."

Li emptied the pack of its contents. "Yeah, here's his name. Your mom will drive around the neighborhood he pointed to and return the backpack tomorrow." He found a name and phone number of the owner then handed the pack to Jennifer. "His name is Jerry. Here, call the number and get an address so we can return it."

Jennifer resisted the hand-over. "It's covered in webs." She shivered.

Li found a gift box on the counter, left by Jennifer's aunt. She owned the property. Next to the package of treats and snacks was a broom and a box of cleaning supplies and even fresh paint. "Karl, get the broom," Li ordered. Then, after a few deep breaths, he issued more orders. "Trevor, get the hammer and take the boards off the windows and clear out all these nasty cobwebs. And, honey, see to the kitchen. I'm going to the hardware store when the tow truck arrives." He started picking up trash and bagging it.

The family cleaned up the house in a rancid, sulking silence. Karl blew his nose into his sleeve numerous times to get the dust out. He couldn't believe anyone lived in the desert. The desert was a beautiful place, he was told. It was better than the crazy city, one of his friends said. Anything would be better than living in a haunted house. Karl would rather sleep in a tent, or the car.

Karl hovered over his mountain of dirt with the broom and pan in his hands. He watched Trevor trash the boards on the windows feverishly, especially if the window was broken and he didn't have to be careful. His mom scrubbed the walls and countertops in the kitchen with such a determined fury that it made Karl mad. It was entirely his dad's fault that they were stuck poor. Karl reached for the front door with his dustpan overflowing. He froze when he saw the writing in spider webs that read: Keep my doors closed! Trevor noticed Karl fixating on the door and playfully bumped into him making him spill the dust he'd just swept up.

"Hey!" Karl cried out.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Trevor snapped. He saw the spider web writing and scraped at it with the hammer until the words were no more.

"Hey, why'd you do that?" Karl asked. He bent to scoop up the mountain of dirt and groaned, the strange web of words fading from his thoughts.

The tow truck came, along with a mobile vehicle repair man. The SUV tire was replaced and Li took off to the store. An hour later, Li returned with a water-cooled fan, paint, soap and pizza. He was just in time because the only thing that would allow anyone to forget about ghosts was intense hunger.

"Why do we have to live here?" Trevor mumbled with his mouth full of food. "I mean, how do we know the roof won't fall on our heads or something?"

"I told you already. We have to get back on our feet. Aunt Kathy was nice enough to let us stay here rent-free. All we have to do is put up with it until I get a good job."

Karl huffed, "I hate Aunt Kathy. She's mean and smelly."

"Don't talk about her like that," Jennifer said.

"There's no basketball court, no pool, and no weight room," Trevor complained.

"This is just temporary, guys," Li said. "I'm responsible for losing our money to that crook and I'm going to get it back. You'll see." His voice trailed off, his confidence waning. "This is an old ranch. Tomorrow we'll check out the rest of the property."

They moved in mattresses, keeping them side by side in the living room. The bedrooms weren't cleaned yet and filthy. Plus, the rest of the house didn't have electricity yet. Boxes filled the kitchen and the couch barely fit in the living room. The family set up the house as best they could until exhaustion forced everyone to find their bed and sleep.

Karl didn't fall asleep easily. He kept his light on, and his covers pulled up to his nose. Eventually, he passed out.

The next morning, the family walked around the property, each with dark bags under their eyes. Karl felt like they were a family of zombies or something.

The house stood on the front of the five-acre ranch. There were two other buildings—a rotten shed to the left and an abandoned stable on the right.

Li wrestled the stable doors open and poked his head inside. "This is kind of cool. They used to keep horses in here."

There were a few pens still framed by the rotting wood—their rusted gates still hung from crooked hinges. Trevor pushed ahead and shook one of the gates loose. Spooked pigeons erupted in a frenzy and escaped through the various gaps in the eroding roof, dislodging a wood plank.

It crashed to the ground, sending dust into the air. Everyone jumped back toward the door. Li, keeping his eyes on the ceiling, pushed everyone out. "Okay, new rule—there will be no exploring in here until we get someone out to fix the roof."

Between the stable and the shed was an array of thin shrubs, rocks, sand, and not much else. A hill at the back of the property rose and then dropped off, leading to a small canyon at the foot of the Rincon Mountains.

"Let's be very careful even when running around outside, at least until we get this place cleaned up," Li added, noticing some old metal and other junk clustered around the two structures.

"We'll all need tetanus shots, for sure," Jennifer chimed in. "There should be danger signs posted everywhere . . . oh, and Band-Aids. We'll need a lot of Band-Aids."

The family cleaned all day, scrubbing the floors, the walls, the ceiling, the closets, every single inch. Karl had never worked so hard his all his life.

Trevor yelled, "This is my room!" He'd picked the biggest bedroom.

"That's the master, and for us and Jenna," Li said. "Pick one of the other two."

Trevor did, and seemed partially satisfied. Karl didn't mind his room either. It was okay, as long as it had a door he could close and keep everyone out.

After the sun went down and the Chinese food arrived, the family ate in front of the water-cooled fan, the heat of the day lingering in the corners of the house. The handful of lamps and the small couch and breakfast table helped the house resemble a home.

Karl mumbled, his mouth full, "I'm eating dust," he complained.

"You've been saying that all day, dude," Trevor yelled back. He threw a piece of chicken at Karl.

Karl dropped his chopsticks and tried to lunge at Trevor. He was much smaller than his older brother, but his anger and frustration drowned out all logical thought.

Li caught Karl and pushed him back. "There will be none of that. We've had a tough enough day, thank you," Li yelled.

Everyone ate in silence. Around eight o'clock, Trevor plugged in the TV and searched for a signal. He picked up Channel Four, barely.

"This super sucks. There's no TV, no Internet, and we don't have any of our movies 'cause someone had to sell them." He threw a frown at his dad.

"We had to pay off all our bills," Li replied. "Don't worry, we'll get them back eventually."

Karl eyed the box that contained his computer. "Can I plug my computer in?" He knew that the only power outlets were in the living room.

"No, honey, there's not enough power for that," his mother said. "WE have to keep the cooler running and the lights. Your computer might blow the circuit. Your aunt is paying for an electrician to come tomorrow. He'll wire this place for all electronics."

"Why hasn't anyone lived here for, like, a thousand years?" Karl asked. "Why buy a house and let it rot away?" He secretly thought that his evil aunt was punishing them for some reason.

"Your aunt bought this property years ago. She is sitting on it until it's worth a lot more money. That means the city has to grow for a few more years, and when the property value goes up enough, she can make a profit." Li spoke matter-of-factly, but his eyes told Karl that he wasn't telling the whole truth. Aunt Kathy had to be hiding something Karl thought.

"So she doesn't know it's haunted, then," Karl said.

"It's not haunted," Li answered, stiffly. "Enough of that talk."

Jennifer finished feeding Jenna her bottle and placed her sleepy body in her crib for the night. She was reading something on her phone. "Babe," she said to Li. "It says here the last family who lived here went missing. They moved in and then, after a few months, were never heard from again."

"Great, Mom!" Trevor snapped in anger. "I thought you said that wasn't true."

Karl looked around. "The truth comes out. This is an Amityville Horror house for sure. That means we're all dead."

Li sat up. "Hey now, it's just a story. This is the twenty-first century. There's no reason to be superstitious. The stories are just foolish tall tales, that's all." He looked at his wife. "Not a good idea to bring that up."

"This whole place is crap. The doors squeak, the steps creak." Trevor mumbled. He slowly looked around.

"Enough!" Li snapped. "You're sharing a bedroom now, until the roof gets fixed, so you'll be able to protect each other."

Trevor's eyes snapped open. "What? I'm fine with a small leak. I can't share a room with dork over there."

"You are, and you will," Li said.

"I'm not a dork; you're a meathead!" Karl yelled, throwing a small pillow at Trevor. Trevor slapped it away, sending the pillow into the light. The light cover flew off and shattered on the floor and the light bulb went out. The glowing TV was the only light holding the darkness at bay.

"Look what you did, idiot!" Trevor hissed.

A silhouette appeared on the TV amid the fuzz. "Open the door," said a voice on the TV.

The family stared at the silhouette, transfixed.

"What is that?" Karl asked, nervously.

"Open the door. . . NOW!" the voice cried.

Li leapt from the couch and flipped off the TV. Darkness descended on the home.

Jennifer screamed and scooped up Jenna, who was crying. Li turned on his cell phone light. "Calm down. I got this." He found the cord for the lamp and plugged it in.

"What the hell was that, Dad?" Trevor snapped, pointing to the TV.

"Just some show the TV picked up," he said. "Now go to bed. And no more fighting, am I understood?"

Karl and Trevor found their mattresses and crawled into bed. For once, Karl was glad to not be alone.

#  Chapter 3

# Lightning, Rain, Four Walls, and a Game

Karl couldn't sleep. He sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. Trevor was fast asleep and snoring like an old fisherman without a care in the world. Karl never knew that Trevor snored like this. He wondered if he snored also.

Suddenly, a flash of lightning caught his eye. Karl looked out the window as a powerful bolt split the clouds and shook the thin window like a drum. Flash after flash danced in the sky. He'd never seen so much lightning. The smell of rain filled the small room, but it wasn't California rain. It smelled different; yet, it smelled good. When Karl couldn't sleep in San Francisco, he'd sit on the porch and watch the traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge until he couldn't keep his eyes open. There wasn't a bridge. There wasn't much to look at either, except the faint shadow of the mountains and some scrawny cactus.

The dark night beckoned Karl like a mysterious siren, so he grabbed his flashlight, tiptoed to the back porch, and sat in a creaky old rocking chair. He felt safer being outside the house. Ghosts haunted the inside, right? More lightning flashed above the canyon, followed by a clap of thunder so loud it made Karl's heart skip a beat. Rain started to fall, making a loud ruckus on the rusted metal roof. Karl reached out from the patio and let the water drops wet his hand. It was a light rain, and as fast as it started, it stopped.

Leaving the porch, he carefully wandered between bushes and rocks until he reached the stable.

He tried to tell himself that soon they would be able to move back to California. Once his dad started making money again, they would be out of here. He would have to put up with the dirt and heat for just one summer, hopefully.

He breathed in deeply. It definitely didn't smell like the ocean. Ahh, the ocean. It was strange to think about the ocean now that it was so far away. He loved to stroll around Fisherman's Wharf among the tourists and fish smells, while his mom or dad bought food or gifts. There was so much more there. He didn't have much hope for the desert especially from what he'd seen since they'd pulled off the freeway.

The funny thing was, he didn't remember being all that happy in San Francisco. Now that he was more miserable, all he wanted was to be back in his previous misery. He didn't know anyone here, but he supposed that didn't matter much. All his friends were online, and soon he'd be able to play and chat with them. He thought about Dragon Lands, his little online house and all the quests he'd completed. His online character, when not playing, would stand there, just as Karl was doing now. He smiled at the irony.

Fresh lightning flashed above the dark mountain silhouette. It illuminated what looked like a figure standing on the hilltop. Loud grumbly thunder roared seconds later. Was someone on the hill? Karl took a few paces back. Another flash of lightning struck just over the hill. It illuminated the entire hilltop and the canyon wall, too. The figure was gone. Karl rubbed his eyes. He must be seeing things. He walked to the top of the hill in the dark night, small straggly bushes crunching under his feet.

Down the hill was the roof of another house. Karl squinted and took another look. His light wouldn't go that far. He stepped over a small bush and made his way down. As the landscape steeply lowered to the wash below, Karl slowed so he wouldn't slip and fall.

Huge vertical rocks rose deep into the Rincon Mountains. It was an impressive canyon−dark and ominous with unexplored lands and undiscovered threats.

He continued down the steep hill and found a small house just on the other side of a large dead tree. He traipsed over to the structure. Maybe the figure he saw on the hill was actually a person out here with him. What if they lived in this little house?

It was a nice little house with a door in between four windows, two on either side. The bottom half of the walls were made from stacked rocks mortared together, on top of which stood a wood frame. The crumbling wood roof was in even worse shape than the one on the main house, where they were now living. It looked as though it was the original wood from the nineteen hundreds. It occurred to Karl that it was similar to his online house in Dragon Lands.

The rain picked up, catching Karl off guard. He stumbled his way over sad-looking bushes and ran to the door and forced it open. The door was sealed with thick spider webs similar to how the main house was when they first moved in. Half of the roof lay broken on the floor, but the other half kept the stone floor dry. A rusted bed frame sat up against the sidewall. Next to it, under one of the large windows, was a rickety old table and an unstable wood chair. The window had no glass, just crisscrossed with spider webs. No one lived here now, that was for certain.

He yawned, carefully sat on the chair, and watched the summer storm out the window. He found himself smiling. The desert smelled great to him, as if all the plants were being scrubbed clean by the rain. The lightning was an exaggerated light show, and when it illuminated the canyon ridge, it silhouetted the saguaros, which Karl thought, looked like a leafless, branchless forest. He imagined a fire-breathing dragon swooping down on the forest and scorching everything in its path until all the leaves and branches burned and fell away, leaving only tree trunks in its wake.

Karl hung his flashlight on a nail on the back of the door. He looked around the small single-room house. Someone had lived here once, before electricity, telephones, and computers. Someone had probably stared out this window and watched all the storms that rolled through. Karl wondered if the previous inhabitant had been happy living in the desert, or if the person was forced to live here as he was.

His thoughts drifted to Dragon Lands again. In the game, there was no electricity, telephones or computers, and he had bought a small single-room house just like this one. He grabbed a long board from the floor and held it like a sword. In his online world, he was the slayer of dragons, the master of his world, the protector of the town of Wayne. He flung the door open, stepped onto the small porch, and swung the board around like the razor-sharp blade he gave to his online character. The rain spattered heavily on his head. He knelt on one knee and thrust his sword in the ground at the edge of the porch. He was a powerful warrior, and this was his land now.

Out of the bushes, just off the porch, emerged a coyote. Alone and a bit thin, the coyote trotted in front of Karl, paying him little notice before trotting off.

Karl called after the coyote, "Hello, friend. I shall call you Greycoat."

The rain picked up even more, so Karl went back inside the little house. He sat down reflecting on all that had happened this evening. Laying his head in his arms on the table, he felt better here. No ghosts in this little house. He fell asleep.

# Chapter 4

# A Place to Defend and a Moon that's a Friend

Karl woke early dawn. Disorientation confused him. Then he remembered the night before–he was in the little house he'd found, just over the hill. Panicking, he snuck back inside the main house just as baby Jenna was starting to cry. Amazingly, he felt great. He decided that he would fix the place up and hopefully, persuade his dad to let him turn it into his bedroom. It wasn't too far from the main house, and it would be much better than sharing a room with Trevor.

The morning was cool and smelled fresh from the rain. Jennifer made eggs and toast with a small gas camping stove and an iron skillet. They might as well have been camping, because the water didn't run, and they didn't have a stove or refrigerator. Jennifer placed the two large coolers where the refrigerator would go, keeping a couple of water bottles on the sides of the sink.

Li tried to liven the mood with some positive energy. "Mmm, tasty food, honey." He looked around and added, "I hope everyone slept well." There was no reply from the family.

Li cleared his throat. "Okay, right to business, then. Today we have an electrician coming. He's going to wire this house room to room. He's gonna hook us up to the pole so we can turn this cabin into a real house. That means we're to stay out of his way—but that doesn't mean we're sitting around. Karl, I want you to take the cabinet doors that I removed yesterday and sand them to a fine, soft finish. Then I want you to paint them with the colors I've laid on the back porch. Trevor, you're going to help me fix the roof and install the cooler. Honey, you're going to follow the electrician and paint the walls behind him as he finishes running the wires. How does that sound?"

The family exchanged mumbles and got to work. Karl vigorously sanded the cabinets. When he was done painting them, he poked his head inside. Everyone was busy with other tasks, so Karl grabbed a broom and ran to the small house at the edge of the canyon.

It looked different today than it had last night. More specifically, it was more of a junk pile. He noticed more spider webs covering the broken window. They stretched up to the corner of the ceiling and sprawled out under the rickety table. The web was impressive, but Karl hoped he wouldn't run into the spider that created it. Spiders were his least favorite bug. He took the broom and destroyed the web. He then swept the rock floor clean.

As the sweat rolled off Karl's forehead from the muggy heat inside the house, a breeze suddenly picked up and cooled him off a bit. It was cooler in here than in the main house. The canyon seemed to funnel the wind directly through the windows, serving as a gigantic air conditioner.

After lunch, the electrician finished wiring the house and Karl helped his mom paint. The little house was all he could think of while he worked. It was the perfect getaway. Convincing his mom and dad that it could be his room wasn't going to be easy. It occurred to Karl there was a possibility that Trevor, because he was older, would get jealous and take the small house for himself, but he couldn't keep it a secret. It wouldn't be long before everyone would discover it.

That night at dinner, Karl lumped a huge helping of spaghetti on his plate. "I walked up the hill today," Karl said. His brain scrambled to find the right words to say. He had to be careful not to show too much elation this.

Jennifer looked up from her food. "You have to be careful, honey. The desert can be a dangerous place. There are all kinds of animals out in that canyon, and I don't think we know enough about the desert to be wandering about."

"Oh, I'm sure the wolves don't come down this far," Li said.

"There aren't wolves out here," Karl said. "There are coyotes and lizards and snakes." He remembered Greycoat and wondered if he'd see him again.

"Whatever they're called, I'm sure they're farther up the canyon." Li noticed Jennifer's stern look. "Well, fine honey. There will be no going past the top of the hill until further notice," Li ordered.

"There totally could be bears farther up. And humongo cats," Trevor said. "Billy told me that his uncle lived in the desert and was mauled by a mountain lion." He looked wide-eyed at Karl. "He was ripped apart 'cause he accidentally found its home. It was feeding its pups . . . and then attacked! No more Billy's uncle!"

"They're not called pups. They're called . . ." Karl couldn't quite remember what they were called.

"I think its cubs," Li interjected. "Like lions in Africa."

"Once we get the Internet, we can look up the animals that live here," Karl suggested. Whenever that would be.

Li shrugged. "I'm maxing out credit cards just to fix this place up. I'm sorry, kiddo, I don't think we'll have the Internet for a while."

Karl dropped his fork. "That's great. I won't be able to talk to any of my friends for, like forever. This place really sucks."

The group at the table sank into silence once again. That is, until little Jenna started crying.

After dinner, the family sat around trying to watch Channel Four. The image was fuzzy and the show boring. Trevor stomped out of the room, snatched his basketball, and went outside. Moments later, the thump-thump of the ball hitting the side of the house was just enough to send Li into a fit. He dragged Trevor to his room by his arm and then returned to the living room, steaming and red in the face.

Karl could see the misery on his dad's face and he wanted to cheer him up. He leaned toward him saying, "I saw a building out there."

Li sighed. "Where?"

"On the other side of the hill, just before it drops all the way to the wash. You can see the canyon from there. I'll show you."

Li reluctantly got off the couch. "All right, let's go."

The two headed outside. As they approached the top of the hill, Karl pointed. "It's over there. I saw it last night when the storm came through."

"You were out in the rain?" Li asked.

"It wasn't raining at first. Then, when it started, I ran to the little house to get out of the rain. It's really neat." Karl ushered Li inside.

"This is cool. It looks clean," Li said. "Except for the spider web that covers the windows." Li inspected the web then looked for the spider but didn't find it.

"Yeah, I swept away all the webs that covered the windows but the spider came back and re-spun it." Karl knocked the web away again. "Every time I come out here the web is back. But I never saw the spider."

Li looked at Karl strangely, "You've been out here cleaning?"

Karl shuffled back and forth. "I snuck away and cleaned it up. I want it to be my room. I can't stand sharing with Trevor. He snores and doesn't let me have any space."

Li folded his arms as he looked around. "What about the spider that keeps covering the window? Does that freak you out at all?"

"No, I've never seen it." Karl thought for a second. "I don't want to see it but I don't care. I just don't want to share with Trevor."

"I'm going to have to talk to your mother about this and I have a feeling it might not pass. It's far from the house and kind of. . . . " Li looked out the window at the moon rising from the canyon horizon. It was huge, and it lit up the desert with its soft blue glow.

Karl noticed it. "Why is it so big?"

"It's a trick of light. When your eyes have something to compare the moon to, like those canyon walls and those cacti on that ridge, the moon appears bigger. They called this moon the harvest moon when I was growing up. This looks much bigger and more orange than I've ever seen it." The two stood and watched the beautiful sight for a while.

Karl traced the features of the moon's face with his eyes. "The man in the moon is looking at us," he mumbled.

Li unfolded his arms and draped one over Karl's shoulder. "It's always smiling at us. No matter what is going on in our lives, I believe the moon is there as a reminder that the future is bright."

The moon slowly rolled above the canyon like a guardian of the night, a gatekeeper to the mountains, always on watch.

Karl drew an invisible line from the moon to the canyon. "See how it's exactly in the middle of the canyon walls?"

Li nodded. "Yes. The window is in direct line with the moon. I think the builders planned this view. Spectacular."

Karl noticed a smile worm its way across his father's face. "See why I like this place so much? I wouldn't be here all the time, just to sleep and stuff."

Li ruffled Karl's hair. "I'll talk to your mother. We may be able to work something out."

# Chapter 5

# A Coyote in a Dream Speaks of Strange Things

Later that night, Karl couldn't sleep again. He tossed and turned before finding himself at the window, looking up the hill. Trevor snored away in his peaceful slumber, while robbing the peace and quiet from Karl. This desert life may not be so bad if Karl was allowed to sleep in the little house.

The moon had made its migration and was tiny again. Tonight the desert was quiet. Only a small breeze blew through the trees and bushes. Karl moved back to his bed and, finally, when exhaustion took over, he fell asleep.

Karl dreamt that he was sitting on his little porch, and Greycoat slowly walked to his feet and sat.

"Hi, friend," Greycoat said. "It has been a long time since I've seen a human live in this house. I'm glad to see it being used again."

Karl smiled and petted the coyote. "I'm glad to see you again."

"If you put water out for me, I'll help you to travel safely in this canyon," Greycoat said.

Karl scratched Greycoat behind the ears. "You have no water?"

"No, and I am stuck in this canyon for reasons I cannot understand." Greycoat continued, "There is no natural ebb and flow here. The plants and animals struggle here, holding a great secret. Townsfolk don't come up here, and they keep their cattle away at great cost."

"What secret?" Karl asked.

"I cannot say for sure. But I will share what I've heard." Greycoat moved to Karl's side so he could see into the canyon. "There is an evil here. It has become part of all life. It has lasted for many summers. No one knows exactly what it is, but it's real. I stick to the trails. I think you should do the same."

Karl nodded. "I will. And I will be happy to put some water out for you."

Greycoat thanked Karl and trotted away into the night leaving Karl alone in the dark desert. But he shouldn't be alone, he thought. There should be crickets or other night-time critters, but in his dream there was utter silence. Maybe he was being watched. Karl looked around. There probably was a spider lurking about, waiting for the right time to come out.

# Chapter 6

# A Delivery to Jerry Turns Out to be Scary

Karl followed his family to the SUV. They were going to the store for supplies but first they had to make a delivery. They were on their way to return the backpack that was left in the house. Jennifer had cleaned off the webs and called the phone number written on its tag.

Li drove down the street and stopped at the address Jennifer had been given. It was the first neighborhood Karl had seen in Tucson. He was astounded at the size of the houses. They were huge, not quite as big as their mansion in San Francisco but close. "Are these million-dollar homes like ours?" Karl asked.

"They don't look like mansions to me," Trevor mumbled.

"No kiddo. The houses out here are big but they're not worth as much as the houses in San Fran," Li answered as he shifted the SUV into park and got out.

"Do I have to go with you?" Karl asked.

"Yup," Li replied. "This Jerry kid is your age. You might be able to make a friend. You too Trev."

Karl followed his father. "Why are houses that are this big not worth as much as in San Francisco?"

"Well, houses have two basic criteria that determine their worth," Li said as the Chen family walked up the long driveway to the front door. "One criteria is how new the house is but, the other more important factor, is where the house is located. The better the location, the higher the value."

"More people want to live in San Francisco so a similar house is worth more," Karl replied. He felt hot under the morning sun after just a minute of walking. "I can't imagine why more people want to live by the ocean than in this hot dusty desert," Karl mumbled sarcastically.

Li rang the doorbell, Jennifer stood by his side. The woman who answered was happily surprised to see the backpack. Li introduced everyone to her and to the boy hiding behind her leg. He must be Jerry.

The woman took the backpack and dropped it at her feet. "Thank you for returning it," she said questioningly. "Where did you say you found it?"

"We moved into the old ranch house down the street. It was left by the window and covered in spider webs," Li answered.

The woman grabbed Jerry's arm and shook him lightly. "You lied to us. That's not okay. Go to your room, you're grounded for a month." Jerry ran off in silence. The woman thanked Li and Jennifer. "Jerry told us a bully burned his backpack in front of him after pushing him down and stealing his lunch money. He said the backpack burst into flames after some older kid put a lighter to it. The whole story was a lie." She shook her head in disgust. "I'm so disappointed." She smiled weakly through her sad face. "Thank you again," she mumbled then closed the door.

Karl followed everyone to the SUV, hopped in and buckled his seat belt. "Why would Jerry make up a crazy story like that?"

Li shrugged, "Don't know. The house was boarded up so maybe he knew he wasn't supposed to be in there." Li drove off. "You know, lies always catch up to you. It's best not to lie at all."

"I guess so," Karl mumbled as he watched the house recede from view. Something wasn't right about the story and the backpack. Karl could feel it in his guts.

"Except for the strange lie, Jerry looks like a nice boy," Jennifer mentioned. She smiled at Karl.

"Maybe I'll be in his class in school," he replied.

When the Chen family returned from the store everyone helped take the bags of groceries and supplies inside. Karl set his bag on the counter top as his mom pressed the 'listen' button on the answering machine.

"We've got a message," Jennifer said enthusiastically. "It's the first call at our new number."

The machine beeped and played the recorded message. "Hi, my name is Jerry. It was my backpack you returned earlier. I found your number on our caller ID and. . ." His voice sounded nervous and weak. "I wanted to warn you about your house. It's haunted. Me and my friend Casey, snuck in there a little bit ago and we saw something really weird. I don't want you guys to disappear like the last family did." The voice paused for a second. "My mom's coming, I have to go. Be careful. Watch out for big mean vultures." The phone connection clicked off. The Chen family froze, shocked at what their first message turned out to be.

Finally, Li walked up to the phone and deleted the message. "There are no such things as ghosts. This house is not haunted. They're just scary stories people tell each other for fun. Just like scary movies can be fun to watch, scary stories are fun to tell."

Jennifer returned to unloading the groceries. "You're right. This house has been empty for a long time and that has led to the stories being so exaggerated. They are all fictional tall tales."

Trevor shrugged, "No such things as ghosts? Tell that to Casper." He laughed and went to his room.

Karl nervously helped his mother unload the bags. "I know there's no such things as ghosts. I'm not a baby."

"It was nice of him to call, though." Jennifer said cheerfully. "Maybe he'll be in your class when school starts."

"Mom, did a family really disappear?" Karl asked quietly. "You said they did when we first moved in. Do you remember saying that to us?"

Jennifer nodded.

Chen put his hands on Karl's shoulders and stared straight into his eyes. "They're just stories like Peter Pan or Red Riding Hood. You don't think there's an actual Never Never Land? Or a wolf dressed up as grandma, do ya?"

Karl shook his head. He wasn't at all convinced this house was safe. In fact, in his guts he felt afraid.

# Chapter 7

# The Whispered Canyon Warnings and the Tickled Toe

Two weeks slowly passed, and the work on the house neared completion. Every day the chores thinned, and more and more leisure time opened up. Trevor had a makeshift basketball court to play on, and Karl found escape reading books from the local library. Nothing out of the ordinary happened and his fear subsided but, like the tickle of a healing cut, he was always on guard. Li found a job with the city and was gone most of the day. Jennifer kept the house in order.

The heat of summer persisted, but the daily monsoon rains kept the desert clean. Karl would sit and watch the angry afternoon clouds roll over the blue sky, throw lightning around, and water the earth. Karl soon noticed that there really was something different about this canyon. When he rode to the library with his mom, he noticed that other surrounding hills and canyons were filled with healthy-looking grasses and many varieties of thick trees, green bushes, and huge cactus clusters—all of which were almost completely absent from their five acres and surrounding the canyon. It almost looked as if God had run around and plucked all the plants and moved them elsewhere.

Karl paid the desolate canyon little concern because he'd grown to filling his head with books of adventure and insight. With no TV or Internet, there wasn't much more for him to do. He rarely thought about his computer games, which surprised him because that's all he used to do.

Karl had put a water dish out in front of his little house for Greycoat, and he had seen the shy coyote drinking from it a few times. There was something strange about Greycoat. In addition to his skinniness, his behavior was unusual for a wild animal. The coyote never looked frightened or aggressive. Someone must have fed him in the past.

During an occasional quiet afternoon, Karl would venture up the canyon a distance—but never beyond the trail's end. Greycoat's warning about sticking to the trail kept Karl tethered. Occasionally, he would think about bushwhacking deeper into the canyon, but he always lost his nerve. The desert was still strange, and this canyon whispered warnings that prickled Karl's skin and stood his hair on end.

One afternoon, as the clouds swarmed overhead, Karl whipped the door to the little house open, soda in hand, and flopped on the cot which was now covered with a mass of thick blankets and pillows. His little house was looking good these days. He'd fixed the wobbly table with a few nails and painted a nice clean coat of white over the rotting wood. The walls were more colorful now that he'd hung up posters. Karl used the wood planks that once littered the floor to fix the roof. It still leaked a bit, but mostly on the other side of the room.

He wasn't able to sleep out at the little house, but he spent most of his summer days there—aside from the time he'd spend on his video games, that is. All his games were old and he'd beaten them all, so he found himself playing less and less. He wondered how his friend, Carlos, was doing on Dragon Lands. When he'd last talked to him, he was gathering a group to storm the Castle of Darsien.

In his extra time, Karl acquired a stack of books from the library which sat on the table next to an old lantern he'd found in the attic of the main house.

The only strange thing on Karl's mind was that every time he'd cleared away the spider web that covered the window it would return almost instantly. Karl had grown tired of clearing it away and decided to leave it be. As long as he didn't see the spider that made it, he was happy.

Today, Karl was reading about a kid who was lost in the desert and had to survive for years by himself. His name was Trapper Baron. Karl had gotten the book because it was set in a desert like this one. Trapper Baron was cool because he was smart and knew everything about finding food and water, as well as what to do if you ran into a bear or rattlesnake. It was based on a true story, so Karl took notes so he would remember the important pointers.

Karl flipped the page and continued reading. Trapper Baron had just built himself a shelter and was setting out to hunt for dinner when suddenly Karl felt a little tickle on his toe. As he bent to scratch his foot, his muscles seized. A large brownish and white spider was sitting on his big toe. Startled, Karl jumped to his feet. The spider landed on the floor and scampered away as Karl ran to the main house in a panic.

Li was reading on the couch, and he caught Karl as he ran by. "Whoa there, kiddo. What are you running from?"

Karl was out of breath but answered anyway. "A spider. As big as a bird . . . a small bird . . . but a big spider."

Li chuckled, "Must have been a tarantula. They don't really hurt people. I think you'll be okay."

"I've seen tarantulas, and this wasn't one. This one had skinny legs and a big fat body. It was on my toe!" Karl shivered. "It's the spider that's been spinning the web over the window—I just know it."

"Well, if it's in your home, you need to kill it," Li said with a serious look on his face. "When you have a home to take care of, you sometimes have to be the man of the house. It may be poisonous, so you have to be careful."

"Could you kill it for me? I'll kill the next one, I promise," Karl pleaded.

Li shook his head. "This one's all yours. All you have to do is get up the courage to do it . . . and then do it. Someday you'll have a girlfriend, and she'll ask you to kill a spider for her. You can't be scared. So this'll be good practice." Li smiled teasingly. "Besides, you won't have to clean up the web all the time once it's gone."

Karl thought for a minute. "How do I kill it?"

Li pulled a section of the newspaper from his stack and rolled it up neatly. "You swat it with this, and then pick up the mess with a tissue. The faster you do it, the better."

Karl took the rolled-up paper and reluctantly went back to the little house. He tiptoed inside and looked around. The sun was going down, and the thunderclouds spoke in rumbles. It was hard to see under the table where the spider had crawled, so he grabbed his flashlight and searched the dark areas. No giant spider. When he was satisfied that it wasn't hiding under the cot or the chair, he put the flashlight back and lit the lantern.

No sooner had he picked up his book when he felt a tickle on his neck. Fear flooded his body instantly. He slowly forced his eyes to move and tried to look at his shoulder. He couldn't see the spider, but he knew it was on him. His neck tickled again as it moved. It was getting ready to bite him—he just knew it. He slowly lifted the newspaper his hand, planning to swat the spider before it bit him. He could feel the spider touch his ear. On the count of one—three, two, one . . .

"Please don't kill me," the spider said in a soft, feminine voice. Then it jumped off Karl's neck and slowly lowered itself down to the floor on a web filament that was connected to the ceiling.

Shaking violently, Karl leapt onto the cot. "Eeew, eeew, eeew!"

The spider crawled to the table and climbed up to the top. It stopped directly under the lantern, picked up its two front legs, and waved them in the air, almost beckoning Karl to come to it. Karl folded his arms and stared at the creature. It was ugly and big. No way had that spider spoken he reasoned. Karl stepped off the cot and sat on the chair. He leaned toward the little creature cautiously.

The voice was soft, but he could hear it well enough. "Please don't kill me," it repeated. "I won't hurt you . . . I really won't." The interesting pattern on the spider's back resembled a figure eight. Green-colored eyes made it look less spidery and more human.

"Am I dreaming?" Karl asked. He'd talked with Greycoat in his dreams, but that wasn't real life. It was . . . fantasy, or was it?

"It is not you that is dreaming," the spider said. "For years, I thought I was in a dream. But I've concluded that I am neither in a dream nor in heaven. I'm in hell and have been here for a long time."

"But I'm not in hell. I'm in the desert," Karl corrected himself, "At first, I thought this was hell, but it's turned out to be okay."

"This is my hell. I'm under an enchantment. I used to be a young girl of thirteen. My name is Mary."

The walkie-talkie buzzed with a page from Karl's mom. Karl turned the volume up on the handset.

"Dinner time. No dawdling. The food's hot on the table," Jennifer said through the walkie-talkie.

Karl looked at the spider. There were clearly only two main eyes on the creature. The other eyes, if that's what they were, were dotted around the large eyes like jewels painted on a Hindu queen. The spider's head was round, like a person's. And those eyes, that voice. Karl could barely talk, "I . . . have to go but . . . I'll be back. Will you be here?"

"I have always been here," Mary said. "Be careful, it's nighttime," she added.

Karl stood. He couldn't look away. What if he was seeing things? Would she disappear if he looked away? He could almost see a human behind her eyes. The shimmer of green across their black surface, and a touch of white in the corners, made those eyes look as sad as if they were on the face of a crying girl instead of a spider.

Karl ran home to dinner as fast as his legs would carry him. He wondered what she'd meant by being careful. He leapt across the porch and flung himself inside locking the door behind him. Was he dreaming? If his brother had grown another head or his sister was a squid, he would know he was dreaming. Karl pleaded silently, please let me be fast asleep in my bed and all warm and snuggly.

Karl wasn't dreaming. He sat down at his place and joined the family for chicken enchiladas and beans.

"The Mexican food here is unbelievable," Li said, as he helped himself to a large scoop of salsa.

"How come we never ate Mexican food in San Francisco?" Trevor asked with a mouthful of food.

Jenna burbled. Jennifer spooned food back into her mouth she'd just spit out. "Not everyone likes it. I can't get Jenna to eat the beans."

Karl was wide-awake. His alertness was unmistakable like the sun in a cloudless sky. He thought about the Spider-Mary. Because he knew he wasn't dreaming, he was feeling weird, as if his nerves were vibrating guitar strings. He thought he must be crazy and his mood sank. There was nothing exciting about being crazy.

Li got Karl's attention. "How's the survival book and the famous Trapper Baron? You feel like camping anytime soon?"

Karl snapped out of his thoughts. "I like it. Trapper Baron does all kinds of cool stuff. And there are lots of things to eat in the desert. You just have to know what to eat and what not to. Trapper Baron was forced to eat a scorpion. You just cut the stinger off and eat the whole thing."

Trevor scooped up beans and carne on a chip. "You know, we're basically camping now—eating out of coolers, cooking off a camping stove, and drinking bottled water."

Li smiled. "We are camping. It's fun, huh?"

Trevor stabbed his fork into the burrito. "See, I just caught a prairie dog, and now I'm eating it. Next, I'll find a deer, and I'll eat that. I'll bet that's not in your book."

"Eeew!" Jennifer playfully cried out. "Deer are too cute to eat. Remember Bambi?"

Karl perked up as he dug into his burrito. "Mmmm. I love eating prairie dog."

"If you're lost in the woods, how are you going to kill a deer?" Li asked Trevor.

"I'm gonna steal it from some animal that already killed it." Trevor stuffed another bite of food in his mouth and continued to talk, "Like a lion's kill . . . or a coyote's kill."

Karl pointed his fork at Trevor. "You leave the coyotes alone. They're our friends. Take the mountain lion's food."

"I don't care whose food I take, as long as I'm not going hungry or eating scorpions like your hero, Trapper Baron, did."

Li dropped his fork and picked up his burrito with both hands, biting into the middle of it. He mumbled through his mouthful, "If I couldn't find a lion or bear kill to steal, then I'd find food anywhere I could." Li mushed his food up in his hands a bit. "Mmmm, road kill is tasty!"

"Gross, honey!" Jennifer cried. She tossed a napkin at Li. "That's enough."

Karl and Trevor joined in and grabbed at their burritos with their hands. Karl moaned, "I love road kill, too!"

The family continued making gross food jokes and laughing as they ate. Karl looked around and noticed a smile on everyone's face. He couldn't remember eating with everyone at the table, ever.—that is, before moving to the desert. In San Francisco, his dad would never get home until ten or later, Trevor was always with friends, and Karl always ate in front of his computer. He never knew his dad was so weird.

As the boys started cleaning the table, Karl decided to say something about the spider girl, "Hey, Dad, you know that spider I told you about?"

"You take care of business?" Li asked.

"Not exactly. The spider talks."

Trevor started laughing louder than before. "Can't kill a little spider, huh? You're really gonna be stuck eating road kill, huh, nerd face."

"I'm serious," Karl said.

Li wiped his mouth with his napkin saying, "It's okay to pretend that an animal has feelings and personality like humans. It's called personification. But you have to remember that some creatures are dangerous to humans, and they don't care what kind of personality you give them—they are what they are."

"Oh, it's just fine," Jennifer said. "What's its name?"

Li shook his head. "No, it's a spider. And if it's not a tarantula, then it could be a black widow or a brown recluse. Both of those spiders are poisonous. If you were bitten, your heart would stop and you'd die. An adult may not die, but you're still young enough that you might. Why don't you give a bird or a rabbit a nice name? They can't hurt you."

Karl nodded. He wasn't going to push the subject. There was no point in trying to convince anyone he was telling the truth, especially, since he wasn't sure he was seeing the truth himself.

"I told you that you couldn't kill that spider," Trevor sang. "You're chicken. It takes a man to kill a spider, and you just ain't one."

"Ain't isn't a word," Jennifer reminded Trevor.

Karl could see a fire behind Trevor's eyes. He knew he wouldn't end this conversation anytime soon. "I . . . was just kidding. I killed it."

"You did not!" Trevor jumped from his seat and grabbed a nearby magazine. "I'm gonna do the job for you 'cause you'd just fail and get bit and end up in the hospital." Trevor ran out the door. Karl bolted after him.

"No running!" Li called out.

Trevor ran fast and hard. Karl couldn't keep up. His lungs burned, and his clumsy feet kicked dirt as he pushed himself to go faster. He couldn't let Trevor hurt Mary. Karl jumped a bush and then another. He'd been out here more than Trevor had, and he knew how to get up the hill quickly. At the top, he cut across the path and caught up with his brother.

Trevor looked over his shoulder and sprinted. As Trevor approached the small house, his foot slipped on a rock. His body twisted awkwardly and tumbled over a small, thin cactus. Karl skidded to a stop as he watched Trevor roll down the hill to the wash below.

Li and Jennifer finally reached the top of the hill. Jennifer pulled Karl close, Jenna in her arms. Li continued down the hill to reach Trevor, calling out, "Don't move, son. I'm coming!"

Karl gasped for air. "He slipped on a rock. I saw him fall. I just wanted to stop him from killing Mary."

Jennifer hugged him. "Its name is Mary?"

Karl nodded. He remembered Mary's warning—be careful of the nighttime.

Li climbed back up the hill carrying Trevor in his arms. Blood ran down Trevor's legs, arms, and forehead. He was crying. As they came closer, Karl could see Trevor's leg. It was badly cut and looked bent out of shape. Karl tightened his grip on his mom.

"Honey, go call the ambulance. I don't think I can drive to the hospital with Trev's leg like this."

When the ambulance arrived at the house, the paramedics strapped Trevor onto a gurney. Li rode to the hospital in the ambulance with Trevor, while Jennifer, Karl and Jenna followed in the SUV.

Five hours later, the Li family returned home—Trevor with a broken leg and many bandages. Exhausted, they went to their rooms to get some sleep.

Trevor, under medication, was sound asleep but Karl had trouble sleeping. After a while, when he was close to sleep he heard a ticking sound coming from the window. The ticking sounded like someone tapping on the glass. Karl, reluctantly, got up from his bed and went to the window. A loud tap on the window startled him. He slowly reached for the curtain and pushed it aside. The curtain rod snapped in half and fell from the window taking the curtain with it. Karl's heart collapsed inside his chest.

There was an old woman on the other side of the glass looking at him. She reached out and tapped on the glass.

Karl screamed and jumped on his bed pulling the sheets over his head.

Li and Jennifer burst into the room. Jennifer grabbed Karl and hugged him. She pulled the blanket off his head.

"Honey, did you have a bad dream?" Jennifer asked. Li picked up the curtain and the rod.

Karl looked at the window. The old woman was gone. "I saw someone at the window looking at me," he said through gasping breath.

"The curtain just fell and the rod is broken," Li said as he tried to re-hang it. "When it fell, it must have woke you up."

"I wasn't asleep," Karl said, shivering.

Jennifer tucked Karl in and kissed him on the forehead. "Then it was just your imagination. We've all had a crazy night."

Karl didn't reply. It was no use trying to convince his parents the woman was as real as the desk or the chair or his bed.

"I'll fix the rod and re-hang the curtain tomorrow," Li said.

"Dad," Karl begged. "Can you please fix it tonight?"

Li took a deep breath. "Alright." He got a hammer and some nails and nailed the curtain in place. "There you go. Now get some sleep."

Karl tucked himself into the furthest corner of his bed.

#  Chapter 8

# Greycoat Stops by—Mary Says Hi

Karl dreamt of Greycoat again. The thin coyote came to the little house and nudged his way inside.

"Hello, friend," the coyote said. His voice was old and wise, like a grandfather's should be. "There was a disturbance in the canyon tonight."

"My brother fell. He broke his leg." Karl sat up and added, "Then I saw a scary old woman outside of my window."

"I told you there was an evil here in this canyon. You must be careful. Whatever you do, don't let that woman into your house."

Karl's eyes widened, filled with fear. "How do I do that?"

"She was outside, right?"

"Yes."

"Don't let her inside under any circumstances," The coyote stressed.

"I've felt her presence for a long time. She is looking for a way back to the world of the living. Be warned, she will do whatever it takes to live again."

"Can she hurt me?" Karl asked.

"She does not have a physical body, so no. But there are other tricks up her sleeve. Just be careful," Greycoat said.

"I knew moving here was a big mistake," Karl mumbled. "There was another thing that happened yesterday that was strange. A spider spoke to me."

The coyote cocked his head curiously to the side. "Well, that is strange."

Karl's mood lightened. What was strange was a talking coyote who says a talking spider was strange. "She spoke to me in real life. Not like you—I know I'm dreaming when I talk to you. In real life you sneak around me."

The coyote licked his paws, strangely detached from Karl's confusion. "I hope your brother is okay. I have no family here."

"I'm sorry," Karl said.

"I stay in this canyon because I'm not allowed to leave. There are packs to either side, but they stay far away from this place. I don't know why. I'm okay here, but I feel it stalking me. I don't want it to catch me. Sometimes I think it's close."

"Will the evil here or that old woman catch all of us? I mean, my mother told me that a family disappeared here and was never heard from again. Then Jerry said the same thing. Will that happen to my family?" Karl whispered. He didn't want to speak too loud, afraid of a curse or jinx.

"I don't know." Greycoat looked at Karl with a fixed glare. "It would not surprise me—not with this strange canyon. The evil was brought here, though it was not always so. When it came here, it stayed. I cannot tell you if the old woman is the evil or just a victim. Be wary of her, in any case." Greycoat nodded and nudged his way out the door.

Sweating, Karl woke up in his bed. He couldn't hear his brother snoring, so he sat up. Trevor was fast asleep with his cast hanging out of the sheets, the medicine keeping the pain at bay. Karl shook his head. He'd gotten so used to the snoring that now Trevor was silent, he couldn't sleep. Karl threw on his robe and found a flashlight. He wanted to go see if Mary was around.

Karl paused at the back door. What if that old woman was out there? Greycoat told him she didn't have a physical body so she couldn't hurt him. There were tricks up her sleeve though. In any case he'd better be prepared. Karl went to the closet and took out a large hammer for defense.

Karl opened the back door slowly and sneaked out. He moved silently keeping his eyes on the lookout. The door to the stable swung open loudly with a bang. Karl ran. He leaped over a skeleton bush and flung himself into the little house, slamming the door behind him. His heart beat like a bass drum. After he calmed down, he lit the lantern and looked around. "Mary?" he called.

The spider lowered herself to the tabletop from the ceiling. Karl pulled up a seat and leaned close to the spider. "Hi."

"Hello," Mary said, her voice very small. "Something bad happened earlier, didn't it?"

"I saw an old woman at my window. She was trying to get in," Karl said. He trembled at the memory.

"I know she's around. I've felt her. She's an evil woman," Mary said.

"What does she want?" Karl asked.

"It's a long story," Mary replied. "I don't think she can hurt you or your family. But she is most powerful at night so I'd try to stay indoors and keep the doors closed and locked."

"Is that why you keep spinning webs over the window?" Karl asked.

"Yes," Mary said. "My web keeps Vira out. So I have to keep the openings to the two houses covered with web. Now that your family lives in the main house and all the windows and doors are fixed, I only have to worry about the window in here."

"Because there's no glass," Karl added.

"That's correct."

"Why can't she get by your web?" Karl wondered.

"I don't know. She's haunted this area for as long as I've been here. My web seems to repel her for some reason." There was a pause. "I like to think I cast a spell on her," Mary concluded brightly.

Karl's eyes widened, "A spell? Who are you? And who is that old woman?"

"I'll tell you everything I know. First, explain the yelling I heard earlier. I was worried," Mary said.

Karl told Mary about Trevor. "He was coming here to kill you. He didn't believe me when I told him you talked."

"You shouldn't tell anyone about me. It would be safer that way," Mary said. She crawled over to Karl's finger and climbed onto his hand.

"May I sit in your hand? I like the warmth."

Karl nodded. "I won't tell anyone about you."

"I haven't heard of the word . . . um . . . ambulance."

"Really?" Karl wondered how she could have been a girl of thirteen and never heard of an ambulance. "Well, it's a car that takes hurt people to the hospital," Karl explained.

"What's a car?" she asked.

"How can you not know what a car is? You said that you used to be thirteen, right? I'm twelve, and I knew what cars were when I was five."

"I don't know. My father worked for the mint, and he took me to the fair often, but I've never heard of a car. What is it?"

Karl thought about it for a second. "It's an automobile that has—"

Mary interrupted. "Ah, I've seen an automobile. They are also called cars?"

"Well, where I come from, they're called cars, but automobile is another word for a car. How old are you?"

"I was thirteen," Mary repeated. Her front legs felt the groves in Karl's hand playfully.

"I mean . . . how long have you been a spider?"

There was a long pause. Then Mary answered, "A very long time. I don't know specifically, but I've seen many sunsets. You won't leave me, will you?" She crawled to the tip of Karl's thumb and straightened her legs to get closer to Karl's face. "Can I be your friend forever?"

Karl smiled. "You'll be my very best friend. But you have to tell me how you became a spider.

Mary crawled back to Karl's palm. "I will tell you everything. Including what I know about that old woman."

# Chapter 9

# Mary Delves into Year 1912

The year was 1912. My papa, a red-bearded Scottish man, named Adam O'Donnell, used to work for the Boston government as a precious metal smith. That was someone who purified melted gold and silver and made them into coins or bars. In 1912, after Arizona won statehood, the new government offered a job to my papa in the mines and smelt shops. He took the job and moved us out West. I remember it well.

We sold most of our belongings and the rest we carried in boxes. It wasn't much fun. Train after train took us here and there. Some of the train rides were long and uncomfortable because most of them were overflowing with people going out West. Most men we talked to were going to find gold. Papa always said, "You dig it, I melt it."

I turned thirteen in the middle of our journey to Arizona. My party was a simple birthday pie, with Mama and Papa singing to me outside of some city in Colorado. I was really starting to miss my friends. I thought about Becky and Christy, my good friends back east.

When we got to Phoenix, we stayed in a hotel for a few weeks while Papa went to government meetings. One afternoon my papa picked Mama and me up in a brand new ruby-red Abbot-Downing stagecoach. It was a small carriage-style wagon, but I loved it. There was a lot of room inside—no more trains for us. We left for Tucson the very next morning.

I rode in the stagecoach by myself for most of the trip because Mama had to ride shotgun. It was a lonely ride, but I understood that robberies were common, and I sure didn't want to get attacked by a beggar.

"How long until we get there?" I hollered as my papa slowed the wagon to maneuver around a dead, bloated horse lying smack in the middle of the road.

"It's only about sixty miles or so," Papa called back. "We should be there by sundown. The house is ready and waiting for us, little one."

The Arizona government built the house for us and had paid for the stagecoach as part of Papa's contract.

The ride to Tucson was bumpy, and it hurt my tummy pretty bad. I would lie on the seat in all manner of positions, but I still felt icky most of the way. The air was much drier than it was in Boston, which was by the ocean and was always cool and windy. I thought about Boston a lot. So far out here, all I saw was a lot of nothing. No cities, just tiny towns. No harbor or telephones, no department stores or candy stores . . . It was like moving to an ancient city. Well, it was out West.

Then suddenly, a loud noise shook the wagon, and it fell noisily to one side, bringing it to a quick stop. I hit my noggin on the windowsill. Papa cursed and hopped off the wagon–we had broken a wheel. He walked by the horses and calmed them with a few soothing words. My papa was very good at caring for horses.

I watched him pull the spare wheel off the back and dig out the broken one. Many hours passed, and Papa was still struggling to get the new wheel on. He tapped and tapped at it with the mallet, but it wasn't settling into place.

I got bored watching and decided to stroll around. I skipped down to a stream and dipped my hands in the water to wash my face. The dust was so irritating to my eyes and skin. I remember not liking the hot weather.

As I dried my face on my dress, I noticed someone lying on the other side of the river near a small tree. I hiked up my dress and crossed the stream–which wasn't deep, just wide. With caution, I tiptoed to the figure. It was an old woman. She was fast asleep and filthy. I didn't want to bother her, so I quietly ran back to get Papa.

"Papa, there's a woman sleeping by the river over there."

Papa took the shotgun and followed me to the sleeping woman. He tapped her with the end of his rifle.

The old woman yelled, startled by the rude awakening. "Ah . . . oh, hello?" she said, as she sat up.

I about jumped out of my bones. "Papa, what's wrong with her?" I whispered.

Papa put a burly arm around me and squeezed. "She's blind; someone has stitched her eyes shut."

The woman's face was filled with wrinkles, and her hair was a dusty gray. She was very old and had a strange ring in her nose. But that wasn't what scared me. The most upsetting thing about the woman was her eyes—her lids were sewn shut with thick metal stitches.

The woman pushed a lock of hair from her face. "Yes, sir, I am blind and in desperate need," she said in a wavering voice.

I had never seen a woman in such a horrible condition before. "Why did someone do that to you?"

"My eyes were stolen," the blind woman replied. "By bad men."

"You out here by yourself?" Papa asked.

The woman struggled but soon got to her feet. She was hunchbacked and barely taller than I was. "I was traveling with my two sons when they got sick and died. I've been lost for a week or so. Please, sir, could you take me to the nearest town?"

Papa sighed. "I will take you as far as Tucson, but that's where we stop."

The woman nodded and bowed in rapid succession. "Thank you, thank you. I will not be a burden."

Papa took her hand and walked her to the wagon. "What's your name?"

"My name is Vira Scuvioch. I am from Romania." Vira replied.

Vira proved not to be a burden at all. She carried only a bag and a large book with her and helped me and Mama with dinner while Papa secured the wheel to the wagon. Changing the wheel took so long that we would not reach Tucson before sundown. We had to make camp right there on the side of the road.

Vira and Mama's dinner was fantastic. It was just cooked, potted meat, but by using local sage and mesquite wood, it had a brand-new flavor.

After dinner, Vira cleaned dirt and mud from her face. Her stitched eyes frightened me, but her voice and graceful movements soothed my nerves. She was very exotic for a woman out here in the desert. Vira's thick dress was bright red and blue—under the dust and grime, of course—and she wore such pretty beaded necklaces. Her wrists also had many bracelets, and on her fingers were large, beautiful rings. I'd never seen anything like them before—not even in the store frontages in Boston on Main Street.

The sun set in a brilliant way, filled with reds and purples and yellows. Mama finished washing the cooking pot, while Papa stoked the fire.

"Why have you come West?" Mama asked Vira. "Romania is very far away."

"Some would call me a gypsy. I like traveler better. I come from a village called Wallachia which is close to the Black Sea."

Papa tapped me on the shoulder. "Do you remember where the Black Sea is?"

I had to think, but I did. "It's northeast of the Mediterranean, between Ottoman Turkey and Russia."

"Very good memory," Papa said. He gave me a caramel drop. They were my favorite candies. I would answer a thousand questions for just one.

"I'm a historian." Vira continued, "My family has been collecting religious text and traditions and writing them in this book for hundreds of years," She took out a large book and handed it to me. "I'm finishing their work. The book is written in Slavic characters, but there are lots of pictures." She smiled.

I took the book. It was bound in thick leather and was very heavy. There was a symbol on the cover that looked like a figure eight. The book felt strange and it almost vibrated in my hand. I handed it back to Vira without thinking much of it. I was finally feeling comfortable talking to Vira and looking at her, too.

"I traveled to Western Europe to collect more text and traditions, but the Catholic church forced me to leave every town I stopped in," she said. "I met an American Indian slave in Spain who told me of the traditions in the Americas, and I had to include them in my book."

"There were Indian slaves taken to Spain?" I asked.

"Yes, child. Many men and women of Native American descent were enslaved by European powers," Vira said.

"I'm glad the North won the Civil War so America doesn't allow slavery anymore," I said. When I thought about men being treated like animals my tummy would get sick.

"I'm glad too, child," Vira smiled. "My Indian friend was a nice man with a powerful spirit. I taught him some of the traditions I'd learned and he taught me some of his. I helped him escape his captors. My two sons, our Indian friend and I traveled to America by sea over ten years ago. To our surprise, we found that European cultures had replaced many native cultures. We came West and eventually found the tribes I was looking for—a very spiritual people they are. They believe the animals were guides and played an important role in our everyday lives." Vira flipped the book to the last page.

I recognized some of the pictures instantly. They were Indian rock carvings and we'd studied them in school.

Vira continued, "I lost my eyesight over a year ago, and my sons were helping me add to the book . . . until they got sick."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Mama said. "How did you lose your eyes?"

Vira lightly touched the metal stitches, remembering. "My eyes were taken from me. . . .While I was in Phoenix, I was arrested. The local authorities accused me of witchcraft. They tried to force a confession from me, but I would not give in. Even after they took my eyes, I still would not confess. My two sons helped me escape from the jailhouse."

Mama took Vira's hand and held it. "They shouldn't have done that. Long ago, back on the East Coast, there were similar witch trials. I always thought of them as an abomination of superstition and fear."

"I am not a witch," Vira said softly and quietly, withdrawing into her thoughts.

The night brought a cooling breeze to the sun-dried landscape—everyone silently prepared for bed. Only one time during the late hours did I wake. I peeked at Vira. She was facing the fire, sitting strangely still. I couldn't help but stare at Vira's sewn eyelids. I watched her for a moment before trying to go back to sleep. Life must be hard for someone who is blind. I could only imagine what Vira must have gone through. Who would be so cruel as to steal a woman's eyes? It didn't make much sense. I tightened the blanket around my body, but still the cold seeped in. I wanted to touch Vira's face for some reason, to feel the stitches in her lids and the deep wrinkles on her brows. She looked a thousand years old.

I peeked at Vira again. That's when Vira slowly turned her gaze in my direction. Startled, I pulled the blanket over my face. How did she know I was looking at her? Goose bumps rose all over my skin, and my ears pounded loudly. After a few silent moments, I slowly pulled my blanket from my eyes—and Vira was right next to me! My heart imploded in my chest, and a scream caught in my throat.

Vira smiled. "Now, child, I know I look like death's good friend, but I am just old and wrinkly. That's all."

I sat up, feeling guilty for being a scared little girl. "I'm sorry. I did not mean to stare."

As if Vira had been listening to my every thought, she found my hand and pulled my finger to her face. She let me trace the stitches on her eyelids. They were warm and slick to the touch, the edges crusty with dried tears. The little rings pulled the skin into thick wads. My finger started shaking as I felt the eye socket. It was squishy because there was no eyeball under the lid.

"It's okay, child," Vira whispered. "They do not hurt anymore."

I withdrew my hand. "Why did they think you were a witch?"

Vira handed her book to me and said, "I was asking questions about Indian religion. I was not interested in Christianity; I had studied that faith in Europe for twenty years. I found the Papago here in this valley more interesting. Anyway, I was seen with a Tohono O'odham medicine man. The sheriff took my book and . . ." Vira had me open the book and pointed to a few symbols. "You see, they didn't understand the pictures or language, so they arrested me. They hurt me in other ways besides taking my eyes. I should have died. If it weren't for my boys, I would be dead." Vira dabbed away a sticky fluid that oozed from her eyelids. "They rescued me from that prison and we hid in the foothills for months. It wasn't long before Gabel got sick, then his brother, Joana. I . . . don't know how I survived."

Her story nearly brought me to tears. Poor Vira.

Vira moved back to the other side of the fire. "Sleep now, child."

The next day, we broke camp and were soon on our way to Tucson. Vira sat with me inside the coach. I enjoyed her company was nice. She told me stories of her travels the whole ride.

When we finally reached Tucson, it was midday on Sunday, and all the markets were closed. There were a few crowds around the Presidio church, and a sheriff in front of the station, but the town was mostly silent. Papa got directions from the sheriff, and we found our new house here at the base of the Rincon Mountains. It was everything we'd been promised. The house was beautiful sitting comfortably at the mouth of a deep canyon. It was far from the town of Tucson but close to three mines in the mountains.

Our family settled in and embraced Vira as a member of our family. Papa even built her a little house at the back of the ranch, overlooking a stream that trickled from the canyon above.

# Chapter 10

# A Scull and a Powder Makes for Horrible Chowder

The summer thankfully ended as cooler fall air pushed away the heat. It wasn't like the fall in Boston, which was my favorite time of year because of the colors the leaves changed into. Here all the plants stayed the same color, but at least it wasn't hot anymore.

One cool afternoon, I stood on the porch of the main house, waiting for the water wagon. Every other day a boy named Daniel Hall would ride up to the house on his wagon with water bags and sell them for a penny a bag. I always liked it when Daniel came. He was nice, close to my age and always tried to talk to me. I bought the usual four bags, left three in the main house, and took the other to Vira.

"Good day, Vira," I said, as I entered her house and set the water bag in the corner.

"Hello, young one." Vira sat up in her bed. "I need you to find a plant for me today." Vira often sent me out into the desert to find things for her. Over the previous month, I collected small animal skulls, desert sage, volcanic rock, and a turquoise stone. The items sat on Vira's table. She struggled to her feet, grabbed her book, and after some page counting, she pointed out a picture to me. "I need a plant called Hohocan Tea. The O'odham Mak'ai medicine man told me that they used it to stop bleeding."

I took the book and studied the plant drawing, committing the leaf and thorn patterns to memory. "Okay," I cheerfully said. "You promised to tell me a story about the Arabian Ottomans." Stories were Vira's payment to me. When I found the things Vira wanted, she would share a story about her travels throughout the world.

"I'll tell you about a sultan who wanted me to curse his brother-in-law."

"Did you do it?" I asked with my mouth agape.

Vira turned away and put her book down. "No, child. I cannot do such things, but I pretended to. The sultan paid me handsomely and funded my travels." She sat back on her bed. "Now go find me the Hohocan Tea plant, and I will tell you more."

I skipped out to the desert on my quest. I hiked deep into the canyon to find the plant. Hours later, I found it in a thicket of cattails and returned with the bush in hand.

Vira waved me inside. "You are such a good helper. How would I ever survive without my friend?"

I handed the bush to Vira. "Take it. It smells funny."

Vira sat at her table and began crushing the plant into a stone bowl that I had found next to the stream. "Sit. I will tell you about Sultan Mustafa the fourth."

I sat on the floor Indian style, like I did in school.

"My family and I took our wagon south along an old silk trail."

I had to interrupt, "What's a silk trail?"

"It was a trail used by traveling traders specifically to get to China. The most luxurious silk fabrics in the whole world are found in China." Vira continued, "I was searching for an Arabian people who lived in the desert and knew about the stars. After a month I found an old Arabian city carved out of a stone cliff. Unfortunately, it was a dead city—ravished by the plague a century before. Strangely, that night both of our horses fell sick and one of them died. The sickness was still strong there, like a curse. In the twilight of morning we left, our wagon only pulled by one sick horse.

We traveled deep into the Arabian lands and eventually found a tent city at the base of the Crooked Hills. The people there were lovely but they did not know about the stars. They showed me the way to their capital city. We replaced our sick horse with a camel−he was stubborn but strong. After restocking our food and water, my sons and I set out for the capital city of Istanbul.

"One afternoon as we crossed a shallow river my boys and I were surrounded by Sipahi Warriors."

"Who are they?" I asked, my chin cradled in my hands.

"They were like English knights. The best horse warriors in the Ottoman Empire. They took me to see Sultan Mustafa." Vira said. "I was given access to Istanbul's observatory. If you were a Christian living there, the city was called Constantinople. At the observatory, I learned all about how the stars move, and some of the effects they had on the spiritual world.

"One day the Sultan took me into his chambers and told me of a plot to overthrow his rule. His son-in-law was the conspirator. He begged me to cast a spell to prevent the attack. So I took his money and faked a curse on the son-in-law." Vira turned to me and leaned closer, "You would like to know what happened?"

I nodded vigorously.

"The son-in-law died a week later."

I gasped. I was about to ask how she'd cursed the man, when she waved and continued.

"But not for anything that I had done. It was a coincidence. I was celebrated and thought to be sent from God. I stayed in that magical city for four years, treated practically as a queen." Vira pushed her tunic to the side and pulled a lock of her hair from behind the robe. The hair was wrapped in gold jewelry so intricately carved it looked magical. "This was my parting gift from Sultan Mustafa. I have hidden it in my hair ever since."

I touched the gold and ran my fingers across the embedded gem stones. My breath caught in my chest. "It's beautiful."

Vira tucked the jewelry back into her robe.

"My father works with gold. He can tell you what it's worth. Maybe you could sell it."

Vira chuckled, "It's priceless to me. I would never sell it." There was a moment of silence. "Speaking about your father, I hear him walking up to the canyon quite often, always whistling—every Friday it seems. Is he building in the canyon?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. I've heard him talk of moving again. He says that the Santa Cruz River is drying up and is mostly mud now. Our little stream is drying up, too. He also closed a mine last week because they mined all the gold out of it. If the other two mines close, he won't have work here. I don't know why he'd build in the canyon if we might have to move."

"If the water runs dry, the whole town will have to move," Vira said.

I had a cup of tea with Vira before heading back to the house. It was strange that Papa would go into the canyon every Friday and not say anything. What was up there? I never saw him walking out there. This was my backyard, and I was always running around. I had grown to love the canyon. The fresh smell of water and creosote bushes filled the grand rock hallway. There was shade by the cool walls and a lot of animal life.

Not far into the canyon, at one of the narrowest points, the trail dead-ended at a tall waterfall. Water fell in a constant stream from twenty feet above and there was no way to climb the slick rocks. If Papa was going deeper into the canyon, he must be following a different trail, one that I didn't know about. I wanted to know where the trail was so I could go exploring.

After dinner one night, I jumped on Papa's lap, crinkling his newspaper.

"Whoa! Don't tear my paper, sweetie," he said. He folded the paper and set it aside. "What's on your mind tonight?"

"I was just wondering about the canyon. Will you take me farther up the stream?" I asked, making my voice as soft and cajoling as I could.

His smile flattened. My cute face hadn't worked. "Now, Mary, that canyon is jeopardous. A tricky breeze flows through those walls. Above the waterfall are rock slides, mountain lions, snakes, and other dangerous things. It is easy to get lost." He picked me up and set me down on the floor. "Promise me you will not travel up there. Promise?"

I nodded, averting my eyes from Papa's judgmental gaze.

His warm smile returned, "Well, I can share with you one thing."

"What is it?" I asked, my spirit perking up.

"I have found something that needs to stay a secret for a while. I do not know who I can trust in this town yet. I will show you the upper canyon soon, okay?"

I nodded. Papa took something from his pocket then closed his fist around mine after dropping it into the palm of my hand. "Here is a preview. Keep it safe and secret for now," Papa said.

Opening my hand, I gasped as I saw a bright shiny blue sapphire. "Oh my," I gasped. It was cut like a diamond in the shape of a star.

Papa laughed, "There may be more where that came from, but for now, keep it safe and keep it hidden. Don't even tell Vira."

I nodded while feeling the solid coolness of the gem. My breath was taken away by its brilliance and my body stilled so that I could see every detail.

# Chapter 11

# Vira Becomes Estranged as Mary's World is Rearranged

Many more weeks passed, and my curiosity grew. One day I followed Papa into the canyon. He was carrying a large heavy sack. I stayed far enough behind so that he wouldn't notice me. I wondered what could possibly be in the sack that was slung over his back. It confused my thoughts. He seemed to be doing a lot in the canyon. Did he find a big treasure or a small one? Whose treasure was it? Was he taking it up there or did he find it up there? A part of me wanted to run to him and ask him, but I thought he would get angry and tell me to go home. I felt the sapphire in my pocket. It felt so nice and solid. I guess I'd just have to be patient.

Papa entered the canyon, still unaware I was even there. By the time I arrived at the waterfall, he was gone. I searched the rock cliff to see if he'd climbed it, but I saw nothing. I looked around and noticed that his footprints ended at the water's edge. It was as if the river opened up and swallowed him whole. He must have taken another trail—a hidden one. I listened to the wind but heard nothing. After a while, I gave up.

I returned to Vira's little house and walked up to her. She was waiting at the front door with her arms crossed and a deep frown on her face.

"Hi, Vira."

Vira upturned her frown. "Good day, child. Your mother went to the market. She will need help with dinner when she returns."

"Okay," I said, looking back at the canyon.

"You followed your father, didn't you?" Vira asked.

"Yes. It's like he just disappeared, though." I was a bit sad that Papa didn't want me around. All I wanted was to help him or at least keep him company.

Vira made me a cup of tea. "I don't suppose there's a secret he's hiding, do you?"

I wasn't supposed to talk about the secret Papa had in the canyon—not even to Vira. "I don't know what's up there." I didn't want to lie to her so I made my excuse and hurried back to the main house. I reached into my pocket to hold the sapphire but it was gone! I spun on my heals and headed back to Vira's house. Could it have fallen out of my pocket? I should have hidden it away like Papa asked. He would be very upset with me.

I slowly retraced my steps all the way to Vira's little house. That's when I heard Vira laughing a loud, heavy laugh. It sounded odd. I peeked into the window closest to me. Vira was on her knees drawing symbols with some dust she'd sprinkled on the floor. She pinched her finger until a drop of blood beaded on her skin. I watched her rub her finger in the dust. She spat and stood while speaking strange words, "Karkin grounda falset." She then stomped on the symbols with a powerful and quick motion like the strike of a rattlesnake. The ground shook under my feet for a few seconds.

I jumped, startled.

Vira jumped, startled, too. She turned to me, her hand over her heart. "Child, don't sneak up on an old woman like that." Her foot quickly erased the symbols on the floor.

"What was that?" I asked.

Vira shrugged, "I haven't a clue, child."

Moments later, a faint noise echoed off the canyon walls— it was a scream. I was Papa's voice. It scared me, and I ran down to the stream as fast as I could. He was at the bottom of the waterfall, lying in the stream. His face and chest were covered with blood.

"Papa!" I yelled, as I fell to my knees, splashing in the water.

"Oh, my beautiful girl." He coughed blood into his hands. "I have fallen. I cannot move my body." He coughed again and took out a rolled piece of paper from his vest. "I love you so much, dear. And I love your mama too. I was blessed to have you two for my family."

Papa looked bad. He must have fallen from the waterfall. "I'll get Mama," I said, but Papa caught me by the arm.

"I can feel death near. I'm hurt badly." He pressed the paper to my chest before his arm went limp and fell back to his side.

I took the paper and held it in my hand tightly.

"Give . . . it to your mama and tell her I. . .have found a conquistador chest filled with gold and gems buried up in the canyon. I've hidden it again in a special place to keep it safe. This note will help you find it. Tell no one about the treasure—there are bad men who would kill to have it. Use it wisely, my child." Papa's eyes closed, and he was soon dead.

I pounded on his chest and cried, "No, Papa. Wake up! You can't die!" I cried and cried. When I got up, I saw Vira standing a few feet away, leaning against the canyon wall.

"Child," she said.

"Vira! Papa's dead!" I ran to Vira's arms.

"Let's go find your mama." Vira whispered.

The three of us returned to Papa's body and sat around crying for what seemed like forever. I gave Mama the rolled note. She opened the paper to find a message from him. Mama read one side of the note aloud: "If you are reading this, I am no longer with you on Earth. I want my two women to know that I love you both like the plant loves the sun. I need you my wife like fish need water. I love you Mary for you are the smartest, strongest girl in the whole world."

Mama had a hard time reading through her tears. She wiped her tears away. "He found a treasure and secretly hid it in the canyon? Why would he not tell me?" The question would never be answered. She glanced at the other side of the note.

A fresh wave of grief passed through my thoughts as Mama put the note in her corset pocket. I asked her to read the other side of the note. She tried to smile and whispered, "we will read it later, darling."

That night, we buried Papa right there in the canyon. Mama laid with me in my bed to sleep, but we did little of that. For hours we talked about memories and when sleep did take us, it held fast into late morning.

The weeks went by, but the pain of losing Papa remained fresh in my mind. I was still not able to sleep without Mama by my side.

One morning I woke all alone. I rolled over on my side and looked out the window. The sun was already hot and I was very thirsty. I sat up and stretched, listening to my tummy rumble.

Suddenly, I heard something break somewhere in the house. I ran to the door, but it was locked. "Mama?" I called out. There was a sick feeling slipping over my body, I was scared. I ran to Mama's dresser that she'd moved into my room and found the small key in the back of a drawer. I knew that the door needed the key to lock it. Someone locked it on purpose. Something indeed was very wrong.

I quietly unlocked the door and tiptoed down the hall. Mama's bedroom door was open a crack. It shouldn't have been open at all. Neither of us had been in there since Papa died. Then I heard Vira's voice, which was very odd because Vira never came to the house in the morning.

I peeked into the room and saw Vira bent over Mama, sprinkling a white powder on her face and saying things I could not understand. I burst into the room and ran to Mama to stop her. Vira grabbed me by the hair and threw me into the corner with a strange strength. I opened my mouth to speak, but Vira sprayed me with a liquid that burned my eyes and tongue. Tears filled my vision. I tried to move, but I couldn't get my muscles to respond. I blinked and blinked, trying to see what was happening.

Mama lay in her nightgown on the floor in the middle of strange symbols painted in white—symbols that I recognized from Vira's book.

She picked up Mama's limp body then glanced at me. "I'm sorry, child, but this is my destiny. I'm writing our fate in stone. No better time for a shift than now, with grief so near." She then covered herself and Mama with a bed sheet and began chanting more unfamiliar words.

"Nicanta, Huron! The Shifted Balance Becomes!" Vira cried out.

I tried so desperately to move, but I was paralyzed. Panic filled my chest, and my thoughts became fuzzy. Then, my eyes shot open and started to burn because I couldn't blink.

I could see the two body shapes under the sheet. The shape of Mama seemed to be getting smaller while Vira got bigger, like she was sucking on a balloon and inhaling the air.

I screamed inside my head until I fell over, still completely paralyzed.

Vira lifted the sheet away and Mama was gone. A tall, thin and much younger Vira stood there. She pulled the stitches from her eyelids, one by one, until she could open her eyes. Vira knelt next to me and lowered her head close to my face. Those bright blue eyes peppered with green specs were unmistakable—she had my mother's eyes.

"This is our destiny, child," Vira whispered, fresh blood running from the bolt holes. "Your mother was too broken a woman. I actually helped her. Will you not live with me as you lived with your family? Will you not live with me as you did with your mother? Your mother and I are one and the same now."

You killed my mama, you witch! I yelled inside my head.

"I can read your thoughts, child," Vira growled. A younger and stronger monster had replaced the sweet old Vira. "I had to take your mother's life force. She is in me now! I am your mother, and you will be my daughter!" Vira shook me like a rag doll.

A fuzzy pain filled my mind as I shut out Vira's awful voice. She was an evil witch after all.

I don't know how much later it was, but I woke up in a dark closet no longer paralyzed. Silence surrounded me. The door was locked. I still had the small skeleton key in my blouse pocket so I quietly let myself out. Down the hall, I heard Vira speaking to someone in the living room. I tiptoed to the end of the hall then poked my head around the corner. She was talking to the sheriff! I ran to him, crying, "She killed my mama. She stole her eyes!"

Vira laughed.

The sheriff pushed me away and gave me a stupid smile. "I know you've had a tough summer. It'll get better, darlin'. Your mother will help you get over your father's death."

I couldn't believe what he'd just said to me. "She's not my mother!"

Vira pulled at me and backed us into the kitchen. She turned to the sheriff. "She's awfully confused. She has been traumatized. You see, I wasn't there when Adam died. I think she blames me for everything."

The sheriff stood and moved to the door, slowly flipping his hat in his hand. "I understand, Beatrice. You take care. I'll send Father Francisco over this Sunday to give you guidance." The sheriff politely left, closing the door behind him.

Why had the sheriff called her Beatrice? He should have known who her real mother was. The two women looked nothing alike—at least to my eyes.

I pulled away from Vira and ran toward the back door. Vira caught me with viper speed. She dragged me to Mama's bedroom, where her dress lay on the floor. Vira tied my hands behind my back and tossed me down. I buried my face in my mama's dress and inhaled. I could still smell her.

Vira paced back and forth for a long time. Finally, she flipped open her book and uncorked some potions and powders that sat on the table by the window. Whispering to herself, she mixed some ingredients together while reading passages from her book.

Long after the sun had gone down, Vira picked up her potion and sat down on my chest. "I will not have you destroy my new life. But I cannot kill you. That would leave me powerless. You will live forever but not as a girl." She shoved the gooey mixture into my mouth, forcing me to keep it shut. "Swallow it!" She Demanded.

I struggled, but Vira was so much stronger than I was. So I swallowed.

It took only a few seconds, but it seemed like forever. Pain ripped through my body. I saw Vira grow larger and larger. The bed and the whole room grew. The ropes loosened on my wrists, and when I got them free, I looked at them. My arms grew like stretching taffy until they were so long that they looked less like arms and more like sticks. My skin changed to a dusty white. I saw Vira sit up looking like a giant.

That's when I ran. I moved faster than expected. Soon I was under the door and moving faster. The house was gigantic. I turned to look behind me and saw Vira chasing me with a jar in her hand. I looked at my feet and saw that I was running on many legs.

Suddenly, the jar edge landed in front of me. I bumped into the glass then turned around.

Vira's new young face looked distorted like a fun house mirror as she looked at me through the glass jar. "You're a spider now. But don't worry, you'll like it. And you won't die either—not unless something kills you. You should be careful of birds and lizards."

I looked over my new body, at least the parts that I could see. I really was a spider. My legs still felt like legs, and I could still feel my fingertips and toes, but they weren't there.

Vira laughed like a madwoman as she lifted the jar. She stood, her gigantic body towering over me. "You should watch out for feet, too." That crazy laugh burst from Vira's throat again as she teased me with her huge foot.

I ran as fast as I could, slipping under the closet door and came to a stop in the dark corner. Oddly enough, I could see quite well in the darkness. My arms controlled my two front legs, and my feet moved the other six legs.

I touched the wall with my front legs. They stuck to the wall like sticky paper. Before I knew it, I was climbing the wall with ease. At the top, I turned and noticed a thin, sticky string coming from my body. I pushed on my abdomen and felt more web spewing out. It was easy to grasp the web. It was like I'd been a spider all my life. I jumped off the wall and slowly descended, while hanging effortlessly onto the web.

I crawled around the house staying out of sight—all the while watching Vira closely. I watched her pace back and forth, talking to herself about the conquistador treasure. She repeatedly loaded up a large pack and hiked into the canyon. She seemed like she was losing her mind trying to find the gold. I happily watched her struggle and find nothing. Papa must have hid it well. I prayed she would never find the gold—I prayed so hard.

Day by day my hate swelled for that woman. Sometimes I would steal or knock over her powders during the night, but she'd fill them up again. I was consumed with finding ways to make her life miserable. It was easy to hide from her but at the same time, I knew she was hunting me.

One morning she saw me on the counter top eating one morning and chased me with a spatula.

"I never should have let you go! I should have kept you in that jar!" Vira yelled.

I slipped into a crack in the wall and got away, safely scampering between the walls.

One afternoon, I saw Vira sleeping on the back porch. She was sitting in the rocking chair with her feet up on a wooden box. I spun a web while I crawled across the ceiling. Once I was over Vira's feet, I grabbed my web and lowered myself to her foot. I lightly landed on her toe. "You are banished from these houses," I yelled as loud as my little voice could. Then, I bit her toe as hard as I could.

Vira yelped and jumped out of the rocking chair. I was flung from her foot. When I landed, I scrambled away as fast as my eight legs could carry me. I turned and watched Vira inspect her big toe. Suddenly, Vira's body went into convulsions. She clutched her neck and fell back. She never moved again.

# Chapter 12

# Found in the Walls—an Adventure Calls

Back in the present time, an eerie calm had settled over Karl and Mary. The invasive breeze that swished through the little house had stalled, and the crickets let up their symphonies, as if they, too, were entranced by Mary's story. Mary crawled off Karl's hand and he rubbed his eyes. It seemed he hadn't blinked for the entire story, and after a quick bit of math, Karl shivered. "You've lived almost a century as a spider?"

Mary lowered her head. "Has it been that long?"

Karl scooped up Mary in his hand and moved to the bed. "That's so awful. I'm sorry."

"I still wake up sometimes and think it was all a dream. Then I move all my legs and remember it's not," Mary said.

"The old woman I saw in my window was Vira?" Karl asked.

"Yes." Mary answered. "I don't know how powerful she is now that she's dead."

"Why does she want in the house?" Karl asked.

"I think she wants her magic book and it's hidden in the house. With her book she'd be quite dangerous again. Right now I don't think she has much power."

"So you were the one that spun the webs over the doors and windows," Karl said, connecting the dots.

"Yes. I have kept her out of the two houses for many years."

"Why does she want in this house?" Karl asked.

"There are powders and potions in here that I don't want her to have," Mary said.

"Freaky," Karl mumbled. "I wish I didn't have to live here."

"I'm glad you are here," Mary said. "I have a friend now."

"I'm glad I met you, too," Karl said. "We're like twins or something, but a hundred years apart." Karl looked at the glossy eyes of the spider. "Well, not quite . . . but close."

"What do you mean?" Mary asked, her voice quivering.

"We were both dragged from our homes to the desert by our parents."

"I was very du—"

"Dusty," Karl finished, and then laughed.

Mary's laugh was tiny but Karl heard it. He wondered if she ate bugs, sucking their guts, and the other stuff that spiders do. He wanted to ask but held his tongue. The subject was probably a sensitive one, and he didn't want to bring up anything weird. Maybe later he'd ask about the details of spider life.

Mary hopped to the pillow by Karl's head. She did an acrobatic flip in the air. "How else are we similar?"

"Well," Karl started, then it clicked in his mind, "We both had someone close to us betray us."

"Who betrayed you?" Mary asked.

"My father had a friend back in San Francisco, Richard Bentley. They worked together at a big law firm. He was a family friend, too. Sometimes he was around so much that I thought he was an uncle or something. Then one day . . . poof. He was gone. And he'd taken all of my dad and mom's money. My dad says that he and Richard invested in a business that sold stuff that made people sick. Rich kept things from my dad, secrets that almost killed a lot of people. I heard my parents talking in their bedroom late one night, and they said that Richard stole the money and tricked the investors. I don't understand all the details. It's very confusing. Then some people sued us. They blamed us for making them sick. We lost everything—we had to sell everything to pay off the lawsuit."

"At least you're still alive," Mary said.

"You're right. So are you." Karl snapped his fingers. "And we both got flat tires or, uh, broken wheels on our way here."

"Yes," she said. "We are similar. I want to give you something for being my friend and for not squashing me."

Karl's face warmed at his cheeks. "You have something for me?"

"Yes, for being my best friend." Mary crawled off the bed and scuttled to the far corner of the room. She crawled up the rocks that supported the lower half of the wall and stopped where the wood began. She waved her two front legs in the air.

Karl got the lantern and followed Mary.

"You see where these wood planks are?" She touched two dry rotted wood panels with her front legs. "Behind the two pieces of wood is a compartment. Use the something to pry them open."

"What's in there?" Karl asked.

"You'll see," Mary replied with playfulness in her tone.

Karl grabbed his screwdriver from the table and scraped at the gap between the wood. He dug at it until the wood panel gave way and fell to the floor. Dust filled the dark compartment. He raised the lantern to see inside. There sat a rolled paper, yellowed with age, a collection of powders and a large blue sapphire.

Mary jumped on Karl's arm and crawled to his shoulder where she sat like a parrot. "The note is kind of a map. It's a clue that will lead you to my Papa's treasure."

Karl picked up the note and the sapphire. "The stone is so . . .pretty," Karl said. "How did you manage to hide this stuff in here?" Karl asked looking at the hole in the wall.

Mary giggled. "I didn't. I'm much too small. This is one of Vira's hiding places. She hid everything from me. There are more hiding places in the main house. Long after she died, I crawled around inside the walls and eventually found most of her stashes. Her magic book is in the walls of the main house—in mama's room."

Karl unrolled the yellowed paper. Sure enough, there was Adam O'Donnell's note. Karl read the sweet words written to Mary and her mother then flipped it over to the other side and read aloud:

The spring of your journey is where your dream ends and the elephant waits. Find the arrows and connect north with south then connect east with west. The center of the compass is the marker where you will find a verse written on hemp hidden in golden dreams.

"This is a riddle," Karl said.

"Yes," Mary said. "Vira tried to figure it out but she failed. It was written so only Mama and I would understand."

Karl's eyes widened, and his heart quickened. "There's gold in them there hills!" he said playfully. He reread the note. "So it should lead us to a map of sorts," Karl said. "I think we can figure this out together."

"Yes, I think we can," Mary said excitedly.

"How awesome is this?" Karl said. "But we can't go running around the canyon at night because Vira might get us. So we'll have to wait till daytime."

"I want you to have the magic book, too," Mary reminded Karl. "But it's late so we don't have to get it now."

Karl nodded then yawned. "It is getting late." Karl mumbled. He moved the pillows around then cozied into the blankets. "I'll sleep here tonight and tomorrow, before anyone gets up, we'll go get it." Karl watched Mary snuggle by the note her father had written as it lay on table. He was glad for her company. Without her he wouldn't be able to stay in the little house at night because he was too scared of Vira's ghost.

# Chapter 13

# Find the Magic Book and have a Look

When morning came, Karl pocketed the sapphire then took Mary and the note to the main house. No one was awake yet so the house was quiet.

He tiptoed to his parents' door. "Where is the hiding place?" he asked Mary in a whisper.

"Not in that room. When I lived here, my parents' bedroom was the last room down the hall," Mary said.

Karl tiptoed to the room Mary pointed to. "No one stays in here because the roof still leaks pretty bad when it rains." Karl quietly opened the door. The room smelled musky but it was clean. There were unpacked boxes in the corner and pans on the floor that collected the drip from the roof. "This was supposed to be my room. But we don't have the money to fix the roof yet," Karl whispered.

"This was my parents' bedroom," Mary replied. Her tone was low and solemn. Karl knew this room held bad memories for her.

Karl silently moved into the room. Mary pointed to the far wall. "The corner down at the base of the wall is where the hiding place is," she said.

Karl sat and felt along the wall. "It's been painted over. I'll have to scrape it." He returned after retrieving a butter knife from the kitchen. There was little time so he worked fast. Soon, he found the spot in the wall and pried the wood panel away. Inside the wall was Vira's magic book. He blew the dust from the cover then replaced the wood. The paint was badly damaged but no one used the room so Karl didn't worry about the mess he'd made. He took the book to his bedroom.

Trevor was still fast asleep so Karl quietly crawled into his bed.

"The symbol on the cover is like the one on your back," Karl mentioned. "I wonder what it means."

"That one means forever," Mary answered.

"So you'll be a spider forever?" Karl mumbled.

"Maybe." Mary sat patiently on Karl's shoulder as he opened the magic book. The book was divided into four obvious sections, separated by colorful patterns on the page corners.

Mary crawled onto the pages, saying, "Vira showed me this book many times. The first is the flora section. The second is the water section, the third is the star section, and the fourth is the beast of burden section."

Mary moved out of the way as Karl flipped through pages. "You see the sections?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Vira said the text is written in Slavic so I can't read it," Mary said regretfully.

Karl flipped the pages slowly and carefully avoiding hitting Mary with the edges.

Mary continued sharing what she knew about the magic book, "Vira talked a lot about this book. She said that God planted the secrets of his knowledge all over the world. She was gathering it for her book. She got the beast of burden section mostly from the Indians."

"Why the Indians?" Karl asked.

"She said that the Indians understood animals better than anyone else in the world. The animals commanded their spiritual journeys and showed them how to adapt to the changing land. She wanted to know how to speak to the animals, and she said the Papago would teach her."

"Did she say where she got the other sections?" Karl asked.

"Yes. They were compiled from the other great world religions. The flora section was an Eastern or Asian text; the water text came from Mediterranean areas of Pagan and Christian people; and the star section was from the desert people of Arabia. When you put the sections together, they can give you great knowledge—godlike knowledge."

"More like evil power," Karl said. "She was definitely evil."

"She was definitely powerful. I mean, look, I'm a spider." Mary giggled.

Karl liked her laugh. He knew it had been a long time since she was with another human. His imagination developed an image of what she would look like in human form.

She would have brown or maybe red flowing hair, soft pink lips, and gemstone green eyes.

He continued flipping through the pages then stopped. "This is the forever symbol that's on your back and on the cover."

"Too bad we can't read it," Mary replied.

"I'll bet this page has the spell that turned you into a spider," Karl said. "Is there a spell to reverse it? I mean, what if we can change you back into a girl again?"

"I would like to believe there is," Mary said. Karl noticed her voice perked up a bit at the idea of changing back to a girl. She'd told him that before she met him, she hadn't thought about being a girl in a very long time. "I know only what Vira and I talked about. But because we can't read the words, we will never know."

As Karl flipped through a few more pages he thought of his friend, Carlos, in San Francisco. Carlos didn't know much English, and when he needed to know the meaning of a word in his homework assignment, he went online to an English-to-Spanish translation site. Karl also remembered writing a paper with him, and he'd used the site to translate Spanish words into English. "I could use the Internet, scan the pages in, and send them to a translation company."

"What is this Internet you speak of?" Mary asked.

Karl shook his head. He would have to remember that he was talking to a girl who was many years removed from his time. "Uh, the Internet is like the mail, the shopping mall, and the library all wrapped up together. It comes on our computers and reads like a book or. . . magazine." He struggled with his words because he knew that Mary didn't know what a computer was. "The computer is like a robot. You can tell a computer to do something, and it will do it."

"Like a slave?" Mary said sheepishly.

"Well, no . . . 'cause computers aren't alive. They're machines, like cars, but they are much smaller." Karl pointed to the computer monitor that sat on his desk. "That's my computer."

Karl knew if he turned on his computer Trevor might wake up and that was dangerous. If Trevor saw Mary he would kill her. Even if she was heard, who would believe the voice really came from a large spider? Karl barely believed it himself. There was a good chance he was kooky crazy and was imagining this intricate delusion. However, the risk was negligible at that moment. It was very early and Trevor was on medication that kept him oblivious to the waking world.

Karl kept an eye on Trevor. He knew the risk of a Trevor-attack and kept extra quiet. Karl slid the magic book into the drawer then jiggled his mouse, bringing the computer to life.

"Wow," Mary said. "It's pretty."

Karl moved the mouse pointer over to a music file and pressed play. He picked up the small headphones and held the earpiece close to Mary.

"There's a band in your computer!" she yelled naively.

"Not really, but we can keep recordings of music inside computers and play songs whenever we want."

"A record machine . . . a phonograph?" Mary remembered. "I had a friend who had one in her house; they were a rich family."

"Yeah, it's similar but much smaller," Karl said. He stopped the music and watched to see if Trevor was stirring. He wasn't.

"The Internet is like a big public book. Like"—Karl struggled with his explanation—"a library. But this library comes to us. We don't have to go to it." He looked at Mary for a sign that she understood.

"I don't understand, but I believe you," Mary said.

"Well, unfortunately, I can't get on the Internet now because you have to pay for the Internet, and we're too poor to do that. The next time I go to the library, you can go with me. The Internet is free there."

"The Internet library is at a library?" Mary was clearly more confused now.

Karl laughed. He couldn't imagine a world without the Internet or even computers. Mary's world was much different than his. The computer monitor went out of focus as Karl's eyes relaxed. He was very tired—he didn't get much sleep and there was only an hour or two until everyone was awake. "I'm gonna get some more sleep. Let's talk about it in a few hours."

"Okay, can I stay near you?" Mary asked. "I feel so much better when you are around. I can hide really well. No one will see me."

Karl nodded. "Sure, but stay out of sight." He scooped her up and let her crawl onto the black metal headboard of his bed. It had many places for a spider to hide. "Sweet dreams," Karl whispered.

"I always have good dreams." Mary answered.

Karl was surprised by her answer. "What do you dream about?"

"I have human dreams," Mary said. "When I dream, I have lots of friends and many exciting things happen. The best part is I'm human. Sometimes I feel like my human dreams are real life and when I'm a spider I'm dreaming."

"You'll have to share a dream with me some time," Karl said as he tumbled gently out of his body and into a dream world of his own.

# Chapter 14

# Elephants and Arrows, A Butt-Chin and Cheese

The sounds of the house woke Karl and Mary around seven o'clock. Jenna started crying, followed by Li and Jennifer getting ready for the day. Karl stretched out and searched his headboard. Mary was sitting on a small web she'd made for herself during the night. It was nicely tucked in a corner of the metal frame, and it looked safe enough to Karl.

Jennifer poked her head in the room, causing Karl to jump. "A new day, boys. Karl, help Trevor get to the couch when he wakes up. Oh, and give him the medicine that I put on the counter. I have to take Jenna on a few errands this morning. Can you entertain yourself until lunch?"

Karl nodded and got up from his bed.

Trevor awoke and grumbled, glaring at Karl with red eyes and a deep frown, "My whole body hurts and it's your fault. I'm totally gonna get you back when I'm better."

Karl knew Trevor was serious. He didn't know what his punishment would be, but it would come. Trevor always got him back, even if it wasn't Karl's fault at all. Karl almost tossed an insult at Trevor but remembered that there was a girl in the room. He thought better of it and moved on.

Karl pushed the wheelchair to the bed and silently helped Trevor get into it. Driving him to the living room and turned on the TV. Channel 4 would have to do for now. He gave his brother his medicine and served him some of the waffles that were cooling on the counter. Karl took his share of the waffles to his room and ate breakfast on his bed.

"What are you eating?" Mary asked.

"Waffles with syrup," Karl said with his mouth full. "Do. . . you want some?"

To Karl's surprise Mary jumped off the headboard and lowered herself gracefully to the sheets on a thin filament. She dashed over the rumpled sheets like obstacles in an obstacle course and dipped her front leg into the syrup, licking at it with her small mouth. "Oh, how sweet it is!" She laughed her little laugh.

Karl watched in awe. She must not have tasted anything sweet in a long time. Goose bumps prickled on his arms. Mary jumped into the syrup and continued licking. She clumsily struggled in the thick liquid.

"I . . . uh . . . I'm stuck," Mary said.

Karl chuckled a bit and pushed her out of the mess. "You have to be careful. It's gonna be hard to give you a bath."

"I'm all sticky," she laughed. She didn't seem to be complaining. She must be experiencing something she hadn't in a long time. Until meeting Karl, her life was probably flavorless and stale. That's assuming eating bugs was a tasteless chore.

Karl took a bottle cap from the desk and filled it with a few drops of water. "Here, in case you want to wash off."

"Thank you," she said as she fastidiously cleaned her legs.

"Now that we've had breakfast, let's find that treasure," Karl said. He pulled the note out from under his pillow and read the first line, which was supposed to tell them where to start. "The spring of your journey is where your dream ends and the elephant waits," Karl read. "Let's work out the symbols first. The spring is the starting point of our journey. I get that. Next would be where your dream ends. Where does a dream end?" He looked at Mary.

"Dreams end when you wake up," she said.

"Okay, that's easy." Karl picked up Mary and ran to the empty bedroom. The bedroom had one window and wasn't much bigger than the other bedrooms. It faced east and you could see most of the five-acre property. The stable was to the left and the shed to the right. The canyon rose majestically on the other side of the hill. You couldn't see the little house at all.

Karl focused on the next line. "Where the elephant waits. Well, that's odd 'cause there are no elephants in the desert."

"My mother had an elephant charm bracelet. She thought that elephants with their trunks pointed up were good luck."

"Where would the elephant wait?" Karl asked.

Mary thought for a minute. "She wore her elephant charm bracelet every day. At night, I think she'd put it and her necklace on the windowsill."

"That's it. The elephant waits on the windowsill."

Karl read the next clue, "Find the arrows and connect north with south then connect east with west." Karl thought for a moment. "Find the arrows." Karl stood at the window and stared at the windowsill. He looked around then beyond at the stable and shed, still not knowing what he was looking for. Mary moved off his shoulder and looked out as well. The two of them thought about the riddle in silence, but they weren't getting anywhere. "I don't see any arrows," Karl mumbled.

Karl grabbed a chair from the kitchen, pulled it up to the window and sat. He sighed and rested his arms on the sill. He stared blankly outside. "We have to connect the arrows somehow but where are the arrows?" Karl grunted then set his chin on the sill between his hands. He had never dealt with frustration too well.

"It's okay," Mary said. "I don't even understand. This was written over a hundred years ago and things have changed."

Karl let the weight of his thoughts dissipate as his chin rested heavily on the wood that framed the window. He closed his eyes. After a few minutes, Karl pulled his head off the windowsill. Frustration threatened to turn to anger. He didn't like it when he couldn't figure something out, especially when he was usually very good at decoding riddles.

Mary giggled.

"What are you laughing at?" Karl felt hot with frustration.

"Your face is red, and there's a dimple on your chin. My father had a deep dimple there," she said. "It looks painful. Is it?"

Karl felt his chin and felt the deep groove from resting his chin on the sill.

He almost brushed aside Mary's comments but instead ran to the bathroom and studied the dimple in the mirror. He fingered his skin, thinking there was something strange about the impression.

Karl went back to the room where Mary was still waiting on the sill. "It's a perfect line that doesn't follow the wood grain," Karl said. He leaned close to the windowsill. Sure enough, there was a bump there in the wood but it wasn't cut into the wood. It stood out from the wood surface like a small hill on a flat plain. He scraped at the paint with his fingernail until he'd exposed the raw wood. Karl's pulse quickened as he realized what he was looking at. It was an intentional carving in the shape of an arrow. The arrow was pointing outside.

"There's the arrow!" Karl hooped. "It was painted over."

Mary scampered over to the arrow. "That made the mark on your chin?"

Karl nodded and felt for the mark, but it had faded. His eyes followed the edge of the wood to the side of the sill. There was another faint bump on the side of the window. He scratched the paint away. There were now two arrows. His fingers found the third and fourth arrows. Karl knew what they meant. He ran to his room and returned with a roll of tape. "Now we connect north with south, east with west." He stretched the tape from arrow to arrow, picked up Mary, and stood back. There was an X on the window.

"X marks the spot," Karl said.

"This is the start," Mary added with glee.

Karl leaned back to the window to look at the specific place where the X pointed. "The last clue is: The center of the compass is the marker where you will find a verse written on hemp hidden in golden dreams." A huge smile grew on Karl's face. "The X is pointing to a pile of rocks between the stable and the shed." Karl put Mary on his shoulder. He grabbed his backpack from the hall closet then ran to the kitchen. There he filled a bottle with water and threw it in the pack. He took two pieces of bread and stuck a piece of cheese in between and packed the sandwich away. He almost ran out the door in his excitement but at the last second ran to the closet and grabbed a small trowel. He was ready for adventure—he was ready to find gold.

Trevor woke from his spot on the couch and noticed Karl loading up. "Where you going?" Still heavily medicated, he didn't even bother pushing for an answer.

Karl didn't say a word as he headed out.

"Hey! I need some water!" Trevor yelled as Karl left.

# Chapter 15

# Does this Journey End on a Gurney?

Karl, flush with energy, ran to the pile of rocks that the X had marked. After a second of study, he carefully turned them over. Nestled under the protective larger rocks was a large gold rock glimmering in the midday light. Karl picked it up and looked it over. It was lumpy with varying square features. "Is this the gold?" Karl asked, a bit confused.

Mary took a closer look. "It's fool's gold, or pyrite. People mistake it for gold all the time," Mary said. "Papa even told me that there is real gold in pyrite, just not very much of it."

"Golden dreams, huh. I guess fool's gold dreams that it's real gold," Karl said. He playfully patted the gemstone. "Awe, jealous pyrite." He turned the weighty lump over and noticed a clump of clay stuck to the bottom. He flicked it away only to expose a hole in the stone. Rolled neatly inside the hole was a note written on a canvas fabric. It read:

"Wow," Karl said. "This is some list of clues."

"My papa loved games," Mary replied. "It's no wonder Vira never found the treasure. She never had these clues."

"Let's get going then." Karl was filled with excitement. This was going to be a great adventure. He started toward the canyon. "The first line says: Prepare to enter the mountain, you start by ascending the fountain."

"The fountain is the waterfall," Mary said. "I knew my papa did that somehow but I never figured it out."

"Let's go see if I can," Karl said. He walked over the hill, passed the small house, then followed the wash to the canyon entrance.

"This wash was once filled with water," Mary said.

"I wonder what that would look like," Karl replied. "I'm reading a book about desert survival, and Trapper Baron said that dry washes sometimes aren't dry at all and that the river still flows under the sand." Karl kicked at the dirt and looked around. "I guess when there was water here there was more plant life?"

"Yes," Mary replied. "It used to be green and filled with thick plants and bushes. One day everything just died or shriveled up."

The canyon walls shaded Karl and Mary from the sharp sunlight. Karl could feel the coolness of the rock as he walked deeper into the canyon. The waterfall, which was dry like the sand under his feet, appeared up ahead. "There's the waterfall," Karl said. When he got to the dry waterfall he inspected the rock. "See these holes in the rock?"

"Yes," Mary said. "It's like a ladder carved in the rock."

"Yup. That's how your dad climbed the waterfall."

"That's why I didn't see the trail." Mary laughed. "The water flowed over the footholds. I told you my papa was smart."

Karl easily climbed the rock. At the top he noticed more hand holds on the rock wall to his right. "I wonder if we keep climbing?"

"What does the next clue say?" Mary asked.

"It says: find the tunnel passage by quarry the pyramid stones," Karl recalled. "But I don't think we're at that clue yet. These foot and hand holds are just like the ones I climbed." Karl followed the rock ladder with his eyes but he couldn't see the top. "I don't want to climb it if it goes nowhere. It might be a dead end."

"How about I go up there and take a look around," Mary suggested.

Karl smiled. "Great idea." He placed Mary on the rock face and watched her easily climb the rock. When she got to the top, Karl couldn't see her anymore. He paced impatiently.

Mary returned and hopped onto Karl's outstretched hand. "There is a wide ledge up there that leads to a pyramid-looking structure. The ledge is big enough to walk on."

"Great," Karl felt a rush. "You saw something on the ledge that looked like a pyramid? We're already on the next clue." He carefully climbed the remaining rock ladder. "There's a beach in San Fran that had a rock-climbing wall. I was pretty good at it. I never fell once." Karl pulled himself close to the rock as he was pressed by a fresh gust of wind. "Whoa. That almost pushed me off." Karl knew they must be thirty or more feet off the ground. He started to shake and noticed his palms were getting slippery, but he kept going.

At the top he stepped on the wide ledge and accidentally looked down. The floor of the canyon was over fifty feet below. His head spun and he turned from the edge. "Never look down," he mumbled. That's what Trapper Baron said all the time, but he never followed his own advice. Karl now knew why, it was hard not to look.

"Please be careful up here," Mary pleaded. Karl knew why she was being so cautious, her own father had fallen from up here.

"Don't worry," Karl pleaded. "I'll be super careful." Karl took a deep breath and walked to the pyramid. It turned out to be a stone pile, chest high to Karl, made from square stones. It was an obvious replica of the great pyramids. It also happened to be the end of the ledge. "It says to find the tunnel by quarry the pyramid stones. What does quarry mean?"

"My papa worked the mines before he was a smelter and quarry just means to dig." Mary stretched her legs and raised her body like an expanding accordion.

"Then, we dig away the pyramid," Karl said. He began dismantling the pyramid replica carefully. "This is cool looking. I hate to take it down." He stacked the stones behind him on the ledge. "He must have gotten these stones from somewhere far away."

"Yes, they're dark red," Mary said, "not like the other rocks around here. I see gray and yellow rocks, too. There are even white rocks over there but no dark red ones."

"They're like rocks from Mars." Karl thought about the red planet as he disassembled the pyramid.

Mary crossed from one shoulder to the other. "I was told about Mars and other planets that cross the sky. I often look up at night, and I think I can see them sometimes. I wish I could see them better."

"Mars is way cool," Karl said. "I read a book about possible sports on Mars—the gravity is lighter, so you could jump twice as far." Karl loved talking about space, so he let his mind be distracted. "I can show you what they look like. We have huge telescopes that take pictures of them. There are even robots that landed there to explore the surface."

Mary snickered. "I'd have to see that to believe it."

Karl's arms started aching as the stones got bigger toward the bottom.

Mary switched shoulders in her excitement. "My turn. What does 'Mars could be way cool' mean? That it's cold or will be cold on Mars?"

"Well, it is cold on Mars, but 'way cool' is an expression. It's like saying that something is really neat. Something that is cool means it is great, or you like it a lot."

"I like your backpack," Mary said. "So I would say, I think your backpack is way cool." Her little voice sounded proper and made the expression sound less appealing.

Karl laughed at her inflection. "That's right. I'll teach you more new slang words later."

"Cool," said Mary.

Behind the pyramid was a cave, a dark cool cave that tunneled deep into the mountain. Karl had never been in a real cave. He'd been in a replica in a museum but it was just plastic rocks and wasn't scary at all. This was a real cave and alien to him.

Karl climbed over the remaining pyramid stones and entered the cave. After hearing a few crunches, Karl bent down to look at the floor. There were little bones scattered everywhere. "Looks like a rodent battlefield covered with the dead soldiers of two small animal armies," Karl said playfully.

"They're owl pellets," Mary said. "Owls eat the animal whole and regurgitate the bones because they can't digest them."

"Gross. This means I'm stepping on owl barf?" Karl asked.

"If barf means vomit, then yes."

Karl shook his head. "Maybe stepping on owl barf is better than stepping on owl poop."

"I agree," Mary giggled.

Karl opened the note and read the next clue. The light was dim and he struggled to see. "Follow the serpent, not the escape; deep in the mountain you go, no mistake." Karl pocketed the note, retrieved his water bottle and gulped some cooling water. "I think we're on the right track." He continued following the tunnel cave.

"There's light up ahead," Mary said.

Karl approached the light. It was a vertical shaft that led to the surface. "That must be the escape. So let's take the passage farther into the rock." The light from the escape created a shaft of light illuminating the far wall of the tunnel. On the wall was a drawing of a snake. "See!" He ran to the drawing.

They then followed the path deeper into the rock. Soon the ambient light began to brighten slowly. Karl followed the light around a bend, eager to leave the dark cave. The passage opened up and Karl found himself standing at the edge of a cliff. The other side of the canyon was only about twenty feet away, but it was a hundred feet to the bottom. There was a thick rope that stretched across the canyon held by large steel bolts anchored to solid rock.

He read the next clue: "At the serpent's head, which isn't too far, you will cross the ancient desert scar. How does this rope help us get across?"

"I wonder if this was the same when my father was here," Mary said.

"What if there was a bridge here? Then, after a hundred years, the rope rotted and fell away leaving only one rope." Karl inspected the rope. It was dusty and sun-rotted but thicker than any rope he'd ever seen.

"I don't know if there used to be a bridge," Mary mumbled. "What does the next clue say?"

Karl pulled out the note. " Kitty Hawk is far away, you'll need passage this day. Take care going this way." He shrugged. "It says nothing about a bridge."

"I know Papa wouldn't want me or Mama to cross the canyon on a single rope," Mary said. "There has to be more."

"What do you think Kitty Hawk means?" Karl asked. He recognized the name but couldn't remember what it meant.

"Kitty Hawk is where the Wright brothers flew the first controlled airplane," Mary said matter-of-factly.

Karl snapped his fingers. He did learn that in school. "We already know we're flying. So where's our airplane?" Karl questioned. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a carving on the rock. It was like the rock answered his question directly. He inspected the carving. It clearly looked like a biplane.

Underneath the carving there was an arrow that pointed down to the ledge. "I think our airplane is right here . . . look."

There was a metal box buried on the ledge. Karl brushed the sand away and pulled the lid open. Inside was a metal hook with two wheels on the top. A rope connected, a few feet from the hook, was tied in two loops. Karl recognized the harness. "Your dad was a genius." He put each leg through a loop. "See, this harness is our airplane." Karl fiddled with the pulley and wheel. "It all works just fine."

Karl accidentally looked down and felt a dizzy rush. "Oh, I wish the bottom wasn't quite so far away. What if I fall?"

"Don't say you're going to fall!" Mary snapped.

"Sorry, cancel that thought," Karl said.

Karl hooked the harness to the rope and took a deep breath. He sat, with Mary firmly on his shoulder, letting his legs hang over the ledge. He scooted a little more from the ledge putting all his weight on the rope. "I can't believe we're doing this. This rope is ancient!" He bounced on the rope a bit. "Here goes!" Karl kicked off the ledge.

"Wahoo!" The rope sagged but held his weight. "Oh, whoa! Eh!" He grabbed the rope above his head and pulled. The wheels turned with a squeak, and he moved over the canyon. "It's working! Oh, man. . .nice and easy." His heart pounded loudly in his ears.

Slowly, Karl moved across the rope. Halfway across, there was a snapping noise, and Karl sagged another foot. His grip tightened. There wasn't much time before the rope would snap completely.

"Hurry Karl!" Mary cried.

Karl picked up the pace and pulled himself along as fast as he could. Hand-over-hand he pulled. The roped sagged even more as it began to unwind at the end behind him. Karl reached the other side but, because of the sagging rope, he was below the ledge. Karl grabbed the ledge and tried to pull himself up but the ledge broke into crumbles. He grabbed blindly for a sturdy grip. The rope sagged lower and lower. Karl's fingers found a piece of metal. He flicked it with his fingertips. It was a chain bolted to the wall and it was just out of reach. His fingers barely reached the chain. All his muscles tightened as he stretched his body out as far as he could. Finally, Karl grabbed the chain with one hand. He stretched some more and grabbed the chain with his other hand. The unwinding rope snapped. Karl fell, but only a few inches. The chain he held in his hands supported his entire weight. He took a deep breath. Then his grip slipped a bit. Panic filled his mind and his muscles so he kicked at the cliff until his foot grabbed hold of the rock. He pulled himself onto the ledge. Gasping for air, Karl scooted as far away from the ledge's edge as he could go. "Mary?" he called out through his gasping breath.

"I'm still here," she said. "That was scary. Too scary."

Karl turned away from the canyon and caught his breath. "Okay, that's the last rope we use. I don't care how strong it looks, it's old enough to disintegrate into dust." Then it occurred to Karl that they'd have to find another way home.

The afternoon sun scorched the ledge. The rock was hot here and Karl wanted to be out of this canyon, desperately. He looked to the sky and guessed the time to be around noon. He pulled out the riddle and read the next line: "If farther is your desire, remember Alexander the Great and conquer Tyre," Karl moaned. "Who's Alexander the Great?"

"My father loved history. He'd ask me these types of questions all the time. Then, if I got a question right, he'd give me a candy."

"You have to answer questions to get candy?" Karl asked, shocked. He could have candy whenever he wanted.

"Yes. I had to earn my candy by knowing things. It was a fun game."

"I guess that's funner than eating handfuls and getting sick," Karl said, remembering his last Halloween binge.

"My papa loved games and challenges. I guess that's why he invented this game," Mary said.

"Your dad sounded cool," Karl replied. "So what's the answer? Who is Alexander the Great?"

"He was a king, a pharaoh and a god to many people across the ancient world. Tyre, though, was his strangest conquest. Tyre was an island city. He had to build a bridge to conquer it."

Karl noticed that the ledge he was sitting on was blocked by a large bush to one side with a gap on the other where a large chunk of the ledge had fallen away. "I get it. We have to build a bridge to get across the gap in the trail." Karl took a deep breath. "How did Alexander the Great build the bridge?"

"The water was shallow around the island, so he built it up with rocks and large stones then tied boats together until they reached all the way across," Mary said. "Look! There, behind the bush. You could use that to build a bridge."

Karl reached behind the bush that grew out from the ledge. Boards and steel posts were stashed there. He carefully stacked the posts and the wood planks across the gap in the ledge. "Just in case this stuff is crumbly. . ." Karl mumbled as he ripped branches from the bush. "Trapper Baron had to make a bridge one time. He tied strips he'd torn from his shirt around the wood to hold everything in place." Karl ripped two thin cotton strips from the bottom of his T-shirt and tied up the branches.

After the bridge was made, Karl tested it with his toe. It barely moved when he stood on it, and with three quick steps, he was over the gap in the ledge. "I really hope it doesn't get harder than this," Karl said as he shuffled along. The ledge thinned out until it was barely wider that Karl's feet. He nervously chewed on his lip as he crept along.

Thankfully, the ledge rose quickly and, with a few hops, Karl landed on the top of the canyon wall falling promptly to his knees. "Oh that was freaky!" he cried out. He caught his breath under a bushy tree.

Mary cheered, "We're finally on top!"

"Yeah!" Karl hollered. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and remembered why he was doing these crazy things. It was all for the gold.

# Chapter 16

# Exploding Rocks and the Cat that Plots

Karl pulled out the poem. "The next line reads: The summit awaits, and a break you must take. Eat an apple; for your sake. Ha, sound advice, wouldn't you say?" Karl said. "How 'bout a cheese sandwich, too?" he said. A lush tree sheltered Karl as he ate his lunch all while sharing tasty morsels with Mary.

"It's pretty up here, and cooler," Mary said. "And the poem says: Like Lewis and Clark, you see the new land. The vegetation is different up here."

The scenery was definitely plusher. The bushes were thick and leafy, with grasses and tall, healthy cacti filling the landscape. It was a huge contrast to the canyon below, which was mostly dead and dry. It was higher here in the mountains, too, but Karl didn't know by how much. "We're doing good so far," he said.

"How much farther could this be?" Mary asked.

"I don't know and there's no trail." Karl read the next clue. "The riddle says: Parallel the Dragon is the Qing Dynasty's demand. I know this one. I know lots of Chinese history. The Dragon is the river in China, and the Qing Dynasty is a period of time in China. It was called Empire of the Great Qing back then. So..."

"We parallel the river," Mary and Karl said almost at the exact same time.

Karl corrected himself, "Uh, I guess, now it's a wash." He felt proud that he'd remembered some of his father's history lessons. It was part of his history, too, after all, and it felt good to contribute to the hunt.

Karl had rested enough so he hopped up to get going again. The wash was a hundred or more feet below, and Karl followed it by hiking along the top edge of the canyon.

"How much gold do you think is up here?" Karl asked.

"I don't know," Mary replied. "Papa said it was a conquistador stash and that people would kill to get their hands on it. I was supposed to keep it a secret."

"So it could be a lot."

Karl and Mary continued talking while Karl hiked. The shrubs around them changed again, to plump bushes with round juniper leaves. The cacti thinned even more, replaced by tall evergreens. The wash below the canyon muddied, and soon they could see a trickle of water. Taller, more majestic walls rose on either side of the widening canyon. The stream rose to meet the trail. They were no longer on top of the canyon walls but between a new set of huge rock walls. Karl hopped up on a large rock outcropping and jumped from rock to rock in what seemed like a maze of boulders.

"I'll bet my mom is looking for me," he said. "She only left to run errands."

"Should we go back?" Mary asked. "We can mark our path, and then we won't have to cross the canyon like we did."

"No, I need to finish this. I'll probably get in trouble, but it won't be so bad if I have a backpack full of gold," Karl said confidently. "My dad's gonna be so happy. We'll be rich again. All our problems will disappear. This'll be great. I can get Internet again and play Dragon Lands. Then I'm gonna get . . ." Karl withdrew into his thoughts about life in San Francisco.

"Get what?" Mary asked.

"Well, I don't know. I guess I don't need much. You know, before moving to Tucson, we would never eat together or sit around the TV together. We were never in the same room unless something was messed up. I don't think I ever saw my dad laugh about dumb stuff like he does now." As Karl thought about it, he realized he hadn't seen his parents fight since their first week in Tucson.

"If you move back to San Francisco, will you take me with you?" Mary asked. "I would love to see the city."

Karl frowned as he hopped from boulder to boulder. "Well, for sure, but I want to see if we can find a way to turn you back into a human again. Besides . . . I'm not sure I want to go back to the city." His frown lifted as a weight flew off his shoulders. "Maybe I don't want to go back."

The afternoon was getting late, and a cool breeze displaced the heat. Karl rounded a large cluster of boulders and came upon a trail. The trail split off into three separate trails, which were broken up by the splitting of the stream into two tributaries. He placed his hand on the large boulders and leaned into the rock. "Are you guardians?" Karl asked comically. He backed up a few steps to look at them. The rocks that hid the trails clustered in a group of five large boulders all lined in a neat row.

"It does look like a family lined up for a photo," Mary said.

"Where the family of guardians wait, push away the stubborn plate. By show of the gunnery's tool, fire at will; don't stand close like a fool." Karl spied a thin rock sitting curiously on top of the largest boulder. "That's the stubborn plate. So the gunnery's tool will show us which trail to take."

"I've heard of a gunnery," Mary said. "Papa was in the Navy, stationed out of Boston, when he was young. He had lots of stories about the sea. He ran into pirates and Dutch assassins on his travels. I used to love hearing his stories."

"What's a gunnery?" Karl asked.

"Someone who fires off the cannons," Mary replied.

"So a gunnery's tools would be the cannon and the fuse." Karl looked around.

"Don't forget you need the cannonball and the fire." Mary crossed to Karl's other shoulder.

Karl climbed to the top of the tallest boulder and pushed the thin rock off the top. There was a hole and a depression with two objects sitting in the depression.

"See that thing that looks like a carrot?" Mary asked.

Karl nodded and picked it up. Underneath the carrot-looking thing was a black stone.

"The stone is the flint. That'll light the gunpowder. The carrot thing is the cannon fuse," Mary continued. "Unwrap the fuse and place it into the other hole."

Karl followed Mary's directions.

"Now use the flint to spark it," Mary said.

Karl looked into the hole in the rock. There was a lot of powder in the hole. With the flint carefully cradled in his palm, Karl lifted the rock over his head and brought it down on the edge of the hole. Sparks flew, so Karl tried again. After the fifth try, the powder caught on fire.

Smoke poured from the hole as the fire disappeared into the boulder. "Whoa, let's back up in case it blows." Karl ran from the smoking rock. "Don't stand close like a fool!" He laughed. Huge barrels of smoke poured from the guardian stone.

An explosion belched from the stone as a fizzy fire grew from the top of the rock. Another pop sounded, followed by two more pops. It was like a fireworks show. The fire changed color after each explosion. When the rumpus died out, Karl inspected the trails behind the rock. The debris littering the middle trail clearly showed the way forward.

"That was awesome," Karl uttered as he crossed the stream.

Farther up the trail was a large waterfall. The canyon widened out considerably, until the two walls were a hundred yards or more apart. The waterfall poured into a large pool before draining down a jumbled cluster of boulders. It was beautiful. Surrounding the water was a lush landscape filled with green grasses, thick trees, and swarms of bugs.

Karl filled his water bottle and took out the riddle. "Now on the straight and narrow you walk, until you can no longer. In Eden lay the fruit—now there's one more thing to ponder. Under our past is your future. Let our history be proud forever.

The treasure is around here somewhere," Karl said confidently. He noticed a strange black boulder off to the side of the trickling stream. It stuck out like a jumbo jet on a freeway. The other rocks around were white like the canyon walls. "Yup, this has to be it. It's a lump of coal in a white rock forest," Karl said, beaming. He took off his backpack and set it down.

Mary launched herself off his shoulder and landed on the black rock. "Are you sure? This is a big rock."

Karl knelt in the soft dirt and dug with his trowel. "Remember, at the bottom of the last line is a drawing of three wavy lines. When the stream was higher back in the day, this rock would have been in the water. I'm sure this is it." Huge scoops of sand flew into the air and over Karl's shoulder. He dug and dug but found nothing. The afternoon casually morphed into early evening, the shadows growing long and taking over completely.

Karl got out of the hole he'd dug. "I guess this isn't it. Nothing's here."

"I wish I were bigger so I could help dig," Mary said solemnly.

Karl knelt next to his rather large hole, closed his eyes, and leaned on his hand. Frustration frothed in his mind. He was starting to miss home.

"Uh, Karl."

"Hold on. I have to clear my head."

"I see a big cat over there," Mary hollered in her little voice. "It's looking at us!"

Behind Karl, across the stream, was a crouched mountain lion.

Karl slowly turned his head.

A mountain lion was crouched across the river, pouncing clearly on its mind. Karl's mind raced. He didn't know what to do. He'd never seen anything this big outside of the zoo before. Trapper Baron had survived attacking bobcat. Fortunately, he had a pocketknife. Karl had only a small trowel, plus a bobcat is much smaller than a mountain lion.

Larger than life, with its hunter's eyes, it waited for Karl to make a move. Karl never took his eyes off the lion, afraid to look anywhere else. He'd seen how cats crouch just before they pounce. If he moved the wrong way, the cat would leap, and then it would be too late.

Karl slowly got to his feet, never taking his eyes from the powerful stare of the mountain lion. The lion took a cautious step forward. It was now perched on the edge of the rock that sat at the edge of the stream. At least it would have to jump over the water before getting to Karl. He thought about running. He thought about using his trowel as a weapon. Neither was a good idea. If he'd only brought a rifle with him . . . If only his dad owned a rifle and had taught him how to use it. That would be the preferred scenario. At this point, Karl didn't care what weapon he should have, he just wished he had one, period.

Without taking his eyes off the lion, he whispered, "Mary, what do I do?" There was no answer. Karl raised his hands as he would for a cop. "Hello, kitty . . . blood-thirsty kitty. I don't taste good. I promise. I would be horrible to eat." Karl was pleading. "Please don't hurt me." He wished the lion could talk. Then he'd explain himself, and they could move on and do their own thing. He'd even help the lion catch dinner so they'd both be happy.

The lion lowered itself even more, and then it jumped, claws outstretched, eyes wide, bloody mouth open. It cleared the water and jumped again. Karl screamed and turned to run. His foot didn't catch the ground but the air above the hole he'd dug. He tumbled into the hole, curled up into a ball, and waited for the ripping claws and teeth. The lion landed short of the hole and then, surprisingly, took a step back. It sat on its haunches and mewed at its back leg. The mountain lion seemed to panic as it feverishly licked its back paw.

Karl yelled as loudly as he could, "Get out of here already!"

The lion ran off limping on three legs.

Mary jumped on Karl as he lay in the hole. She scurried up to his shoulder. "Hi," she said.

Karl grabbed his chest and moaned. "Holy crunches, cheese crackers and grits! I think my guts jumped out of my rib cage and ran away. I. . . ."

"Are you okay?" Mary asked.

Karl nodded. "I'm not mountain lion chowder, so I'd say I'm pretty good. Something weird happened to that cat, though. He was gonna eat me, and then he freaked."

"I bit him," Mary said, her voice proud and sharp.

Karl laughed. "You saved my life. Wow, I'm impressed. Thanks. Your venom must pack a punch." He remembered her story about biting Vira. "Will the lion die?"

Mary made a small noise. "Maybe."

Karl looked at the boulder the lion had jumped from. It was on the edge of the water, and just above the water line was a carving in the rock. "Do you see that?" Karl pointed.

"Yes. It looks like a coat of arms. A shield with two soldiers on either side holding spears."

Karl pulled himself from the hole and ran toward the carving, splashing carelessly across the stream. "This is the rock. Now it makes sense. It's the past and your future—buried right here. That has to be a conquistador coat of arms."

"Dig, dig, dig!" Mary yelled. "What are you waiting for?"

Karl felt around the rock. He grabbed the boulder and pulled. Slowly it dislodged from the mud and gave way. Karl saw a large metal box partially sitting in mud. "There it is! We found it!" He tried to lift the box out of its burrow but failed. "It's big and really heavy."

He felt around the edges of the lid. The lid opened easily. To Karl's surprise the gold glowed. It was warm, too. Karl reached inside and pulled out a handful of gold coins. "Wow!" He yelled, "Treasure!" Next to the coins, there were gold bars. He pulled one out with both hands, his mouth wide open and almost drooling. Even in the darkening evening, he could see the brilliance of the solid block of gold. He reached back into the box and pulled out another gold bar. They were so heavy. He saw twenty gold bars. Next to the bars was a silver conquistador helmet filled with coins and gems of all colors and sizes.

He picked up the helmet.

It was in perfect condition. Karl examined the coins next. The picture carved into the coin was a shield with soldiers on either side. Karl felt more alive than he'd ever felt. He was short for his age and in many situations felt weak and small but now, at this moment, he was larger than life.

Karl packed away some coins and two gold bars; that was all he could carry. His father would be so proud. They would get everything back. They would have Internet again, along with Dragon Lands. They could move into a real house and watch real TV. And pretty soon things would be like they used to be. He'd be in his room on his computer, and his brother would be out back shooting hoops. His father would be buried in his laptop, and his mom would be delivering dinner like room service in a hotel. Then Karl shivered. Not because he was cold, but because he realized how lame their life had been in San Francisco. Would this money really turn them back into strangers?

"Thank you for helping me find the way and watching my back," Karl said, just wanting to hear her voice. After nearly being attacked by a mountain lion and then finding tons of gold and gems, he was feeling exhausted . . . and strangely on the verge of tearing up.

# Chapter 17

# Homeward Bound, Greycoat is Found—Is Vira Around?

Mary wearily asked, "Can we go home now? How long is it back to the house?"

Karl didn't know for sure. "I'm betting around three miles. Hiking from these mountains to the valley floor should take a few hours at least. We can't cross the canyon again, so finding a new way down might take longer." He noticed the evening setting in. "We have to make this fast. I don't want to be outside in the dark for too long. That's Vira's time." Karl struggled with the weight of his backpack then started the trek home.

Karl thought about Mary when she was a girl. It would be nicer to have her walking by his side instead of sitting on his shoulder. "What was it like living in the early nineteen hundreds?"

Mary thought for a second and said, "I had to walk everywhere. We didn't have a car, computer or anything like that. When we were in Boston we had a telephone and electric light but a lot of people didn't. In Tucson, though, we didn't have those luxuries. I never minded using candles and I never used the telephone so it didn't matter that those things were gone."

"Wow. It seems like telephones and electricity have always been around," Karl said.

"For you, they have. Not for people in my time. Very few people had those things. We were blessed in Boston but in Tucson I didn't much care," Mary said. "When the sun goes down we would stay up for just half a candle and then we would sleep. And when the sun came up, we'd get up."

"Getting out of bed when the sun just comes up is weird to me. I like to sleep in and stay up late. I guess if your light was candle light, that would waste candles." Karl looked at the cobalt blue sky and the sliver of light leaving the horizon. He wished he had brought a flashlight or at least some candles. He picked up the pace, trying to make up for lost time. "What about school?"

"We had school. I had to go every day. I loved it. We did so many fun things."

"Huh?" Karl replied as he approached the guardian stones–which were now silent and, after serving their purpose, reduced to ordinary stones once again. Karl touched the stones one last time before moving on.

"You did fun things at school?"

"Don't you have school?" Mary asked.

"Yeah, but I hate it," Karl grumbled. "I haven't been to school here because it's summer break."

"Why do you hate school?" Mary asked, astonished.

"I don't know. I used to like it." Karl didn't really know why he didn't like school. "I still like learning. Maybe it's cause I don't like what I'm learning in school. I don't know." Karl thought for a moment. "I'm the shortest twelve year old that I know and people used to call me names. Maybe I don't like school 'cause I don't like most of the kids I go to school with."

"I love to learn. Maybe you could take me to school with you," Mary said excitedly. "School in Tucson may be different than in San Francisco."

"I hope so."

An hour passed, and Karl had to sit down. His back and neck were screaming in pain. He took off his backpack and drained his water bottle. "This is too heavy. I can't walk anymore."

"You can make it," Mary said.

Karl grunted and got back up. He noticed a handful of stars opening their eyes, awakening for the night. The stream dropped faster than the trail until Karl couldn't see or hear the water anymore. The upper canyon's towering walls ended, and he was soon walking on the top ridge of the lower canyon walls. He stood at the trail that led to the ledge with the broken rope and the subsequently useless harness. "I can't go back that way. There's no way to cross the canon without the rope. Plus, it's too dark to climb down the rock face to the first waterfall."

"There has to be another way down," Mary said.

"Yeah, we're gonna have to find it, and make it quick," Karl sighed. His eyes were straining and he'd stubbed his toe twice already.

Karl followed the canyon ridge−it was the only choice that took him toward his house. Sooner than expected, the canyon wall turned sharply to the north. Karl reluctantly continued hiking the ridge. He knew that going north would take him away from his house, but there was little choice. It was his hope that the north ridge would drop down and let him find a path to the bottom of the canyon. He remembered that canyons were formed by water erosion and knew there was a wash at the bottom of every canyon. Find the wash and follow it until he'd find his house. He wished again he had a flashlight. The shadows of the dark night covered everything until he couldn't see where he was going. Fearful thoughts flooded his mind. What if he got lost? Where would he find water? Or food? He remembered Trapper Baron's adventures and shook off the fear. He would find his way, one way or the other. The circuitous route would add many hours to his trip. Well, at least the sun was no longer burning his neck.

"What are you thinking?" Mary asked.

"I'm thinking I'm going to have a search party after me before I can get home. Everyone must be worried sick about me. And if I follow this ridge to the next canyon, it might take me all night to find home. It is so dark and what if Vira comes back? Plus," Karl moaned, "I think I'm gonna have to leave the backpack." Although the pack contained only the two bars and some coins, it felt like he was carrying a ton of bricks. "If I don't have any gold with me, no one will believe that I found it." Karl slipped a handful of gold coins in his pocket and then hid his backpack under a bush. The gold coins would be all he needed to convince his mom and dad that he wasn't lying.

Karl continued following the canyon ridge under an impressive canopy of stars. The three-quarter moon rose over the Rincon Mountain's silhouette, shedding blue light over the landscape and casting moon shadows over the rough features.

Karl was in a good mood, but every step brought a nagging thought closer to realization. He was starting to feel lost. When the thought of losing his way poked its head into Karl's thoughts he quickly banished it, but it was still there nagging his mind, distracting his positive thoughts.

Out of nowhere, some kind of flying creature flew into Karl's head knocking him off his feet. He landed on a sharp rock, which tore his shorts and bloodied his knee. The creature flapped wildly at Karl's face. "Get off me!" he cried. Finally, his fist landed a punch on the flying creature and it flew away as quick as it'd come.

"What was that?" Mary asked. She was frantic and hiding under Karl's sleeve.

"I got bit a couple of times by that thing," Karl snapped. "What was it?"

Mary crawled to inspect the bite. "Maybe it was a bat," she guessed. "It doesn't look like bird peck at all."

"I'm bleeding a little from that rock," Karl mumbled. He carefully inspected his wound to make sure he wasn't bleeding heavily. It stung but was not too deep.

"Great!" Karl cried. "Dumb bat," he mumbled. "I'm gonna have to tell Trapper Baron about this. I'll bet he never got attacked like that."

"I thought Trapper Baron was a character in a book," Mary remarked.

"Yeah, but the stories were true. The kid's real name was Ricky Baron."

Karl continued walking by moonlight, though he struggled.

Rocks tumbled onto the trail behind Karl. A twig snapped. He spun around—his eyes straining in the night. "Did you hear that?" Karl whispered.

"I did. It sounded like an animal," Mary said nervously.

"Another mountain lion?" Karl moaned, "Just my luck." He crouched as low to the ground as he could and listened.

Then, out of the shrubs, trotted Greycoat. He looked up at Karl and, with a nod, moved past him. A few yards ahead, the coyote stopped and turned.

Karl took a deep breath, stress and anxiety melted away. "Hi there, Greycoat."

Greycoat trotted ahead. It was hard to see him, but Karl followed anyway. "Do you think he's showing us the way home?" Karl asked.

Mary laughed. "Of course he is."

The little coyote moved fast. Karl picked up his pace. Greycoat disappeared around a large jumping cactus.

Out of the darkness strange cries pierced the air. As Karl ran to catch up, he was swarmed by bats. Not just one but many. Karl fell back- his butt landing in the arms of a jumping cactus. The bats scattered.

Thorns stabbed Karl's skin in thousands of places. Pain networked its way from thorn to thorn, and Karl cried out in pain. He ripped himself from the jumping cactus. Karl tried to walk but he couldn't. There were too many thorns in his butt and legs. Every move sent pain throughout his body. He teared up and knelt down.

"Take your shorts off!" Mary suggested. "Most of the thorns will remain in the cloth."

He flung off his shorts. For the most part it worked, but a few big ones remained stuck in his legs. "I'm never going to get out of here," he mumbled as he picked at the obvious thorns in his legs. He felt hopelessness swell in his gut. "Why am I being attacked by bats? Why won't they leave me alone?"

"We're not that far from home. You just have to keep going," Mary encouraged.

Greycoat returned and sat a few feet away. The coyote seemed to apologize for running off. Karl lay back on the ground and scanned the sky for more vicious bats. The sky was quiet. "I told you about Greycoat, didn't I?"

"Yes, and how he spoke to you in your dreams," Mary said.

"I wish he could talk in real life, like you," Karl mumbled. "Then we could find out how he's getting us home."

"Vira told me about the special connection Native Americans had with the animals. She told me that some connections were so strong that one could communicate with their animal totem," Mary said. "I think you and Greycoat are connected."

Karl looked at the twinkle in the coyote's eyes. "In my dream, he told me this canyon was filled with evil. I think he was talking about Vira and what she did to your family."

"Yes," Mary said. "I have a feeling it was Vira behind the bat attack."

Greycoat nodded in a slow, obvious way.

"He told me in the dream that he would watch out for me." Karl reached out his hand. The coyote took a step toward him, then another, continuing until its nose was inches from Karl's fingers. Greycoat leaned in and licked Karl's fingers and then ran back to a safe distance.

"The coyote is my spirit guide," Karl whispered, getting to his feet—keeping one eye on the sky. "Show me the way, buddy. Just go slower this time, please."

Greycoat turned and trotted away. Karl followed, limping along, trying to ignore the pain in his legs.

The three followed a cliff edge for a few miles. The bottom of the cliff rose steadily, until it appeared to be no more than ten feet or so below. There was a stream at the bottom—the sounds of trickling water echoing off the canyon walls. It was a wonderful sound. The edge of the cliff was no longer a straight drop. Now the rocks and trees created a boulder maze to the bottom. Greycoat found a good path and bounded over the rocks with the nimbleness of a creature with wings. Karl stumbled a few times, but after a few minutes, he was safe at the water's edge, drinking from the cool trickle of water. "Trapper Baron says that if you have to drink from stream water, always drink from running water and not from water that is sitting," Karl said as he gulped.

Greycoat continued his lead down the stream. Karl constantly searched the sky, flinching at every move. His pace was quick. When he spoke to Mary he spoke in whispers.

The shrubs and cactus thinned out as he entered the familiar deadness of the canyon where he lived. At the turn of midnight, Karl found the wash that led to the edge of the little house. Firefly-looking lights dotted the hillside and zigged back and forth. He started running toward the lights.

Out of the dark night the bats attacked again.

Their cries piercing and tortured. They swarmed in front of Greycoat blocking the way home. Karl scooped up a large stick for defense. Greycoat snapped at the bats repeatedly. Karl swung wildly. Greycoat's teeth found bat flesh then Karl hit one square on the head.

"Take that, stupid bat!" Karl yelled. Mary hid under Karl's sleeve. She was the most vulnerable. A large bat, the largest of the bunch, landed on Karl from behind. Its sharp claws tore skin from Karl's neck. Karl cried out. They were being overwhelmed. They were losing ground.

The lights that speckled the hillside swung wildly toward Karl. Someone yelled out, "I heard a cry!"

The bats scattered. Karl fell to his knees. Greycoat limped over to Karl and nuzzled against his side.

A spotlight landed on Greycoat. The coyote disappeared on cue. His job was done. Another light landed on Karl, followed by the shouting of strangers. Karl, while on his knees, waved his arms wildly. He was going home. The thought of being inside his own house filled his chest with warmth. He wanted to cry out, to yell or run, but his body was tired. So Karl waited to be scooped up and taken home. It wasn't long before Karl was inside his house drinking water on the couch. Paramedics and police surrounded him bandaging his wounds and asking questions.

"I wasn't attacked by the coyote," Karl explained.

"I saw the thing right next to you," said a deputy sheriff.

Karl looked at his mom, "He wasn't hurting me. I was attacked by bats."

One of the paramedics laughed. "That's funny. Bats don't attack people."

Karl rolled his eyes. Jennifer put her hand on his and squeezed.

"You'll have to take him to his doctor tomorrow. He may need shots to prevent rabies," the paramedic said, then packed up his gear and left.

Jennifer ushered out the last remaining police officers and thanked them for their help. She returned to the couch with heavy lines under her tired eyes. The house grew quiet. Karl sat on the couch covered in small bandages when he suddenly remembered the gold. He put his head in his hands.

Li paced back and forth looking furious and tired.

"I'm sorry," Karl mumbled. He wanted to stomp and cry for having forgotten the gold. They would never believe that he'd found an old treasure. No one believed that bats attacked him even with strange wounds on his face and arms. They would surely question his return to safety by his spirit guide, Greycoat, the coyote. Not to mention the mountain lion that attacked him but was stopped by the powerful bite of a spider. He groaned and decided to keep his story to himself. An explanation would be given, but he would simplify it to believable levels. "I went on a hike. I wanted to see if there was water farther up in the canyon. I got lost. Then I got attacked by bats."

"Oh, honey," Jennifer said as she hugged Karl. "What happened to your shorts?"

"It got dark. I couldn't see, and then I fell into a cactus." Karl lowered his head and cursed himself. Why hadn't he taken a gold coin from his pocket? He wanted to pound his hands into the couch. Why couldn't he have kept one coin?

Jennifer got some tweezers and plucked the remaining thorns from Karl's legs. All Karl wanted to do was crawl into bed. He knew his punishment was coming, and it would be awful.

Li finally spoke, "I'm not going to ground you this time. Being lost is scary enough. Besides, you're allowed to make this mistake once and only once."

Shocked, Karl looked up at his dad.

"How easy was it to get lost?" Li asked.

"Before I knew it, I found the water. When the trees got thicker and bushier, I kept going. I didn't even notice how late it got, and how fast." Karl wasn't completely lying.

"Are you sure they were bats that attacked you?" Li asked.

Karl nodded. "Pretty sure. It was dark."

"No more going out at night." Li said. "There are so many strange things out there. I'm starting to think you're right, this place is haunted."

"I won't go out at night again. I promise, never again," Karl replied eagerly.

"Now go get some sleep." Li pasted a smile on his tired face. Karl stood, and Li pulled him in for a hug. "We're glad you're okay."

Jennifer joined in on the hug.

Karl went to his bedroom and took Mary out from under his sleeve. He placed her on his headboard.

"We'll go back for the gold in a few days," Mary said. "Maybe with your dad so he doesn't get mad."

Karl nodded, "And only during the day." He wished through every fiber of his being that he could tell his dad the truth. Maybe one day he could.

# Chapter 18

# The Book is a Hook, its Power will Cook

The next day came quickly. The sun woke Karl at daybreak. He was sore, his body aching and displeased. He turned to where Mary was hiding. "I'm glad that night is over."

Mary agreed, "I'm afraid Vira will continue to try and get in the house. I think she's getting desperate for her magic book."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere at night, no joke. I've had enough of bats and lions, and slamming doors and that creepy old woman standing outside my window," Karl whispered. "Jerry said on the answering message to watch out for the vultures. Not once did he say anything about bats." Karl remembered all the gold and gems in the hills. "We're all rich again. This is so awesome. We may be famous! I can't wait to tell my friend Carlos."

"We won't be rich at all if Vira gets us," Mary reminded Karl. "She wanted that treasure from day one. We need to burn sage in the house to protect us," Mary said.

"My mother may not like that," Karl mumbled. "Could we hang garlic over the doors or something?"

Mary giggled. "I don't think Vira is a vampire."

"It wouldn't surprise me at this point." Karl pulled Vira's magic book from under his pillow and flipped through the pages. "We need to read this so we can cast a protection spell on us or something," Karl said. "Maybe there is a spell that'll turn you into a human again." Karl said in a whisper, hoping not to wake up his brother.

Trevor stirred anyway. "Hey punk, where'd you go yesterday?" the sleepy-eyed Trevor asked as he leaned up on one arm. "There were a ton of cops and neighbors looking for you all night."

Karl was about to answer when his mom knocked and entered the room. She sat on Karl's bed. "Good morning, guys," she said in a peppy voice. The pep was fake—her tired eyes gave away her true mood.

Karl closed the book. "Morning."

Jennifer noticed the strange leather cover of the book and took it from Karl's hands. "What have you got there?" She flipped a few pages. "I didn't see you get this from the library."

"I, uh, found it yesterday," Karl said. He glanced over to where Mary was hiding, making sure she couldn't be seen.

"This looks really old." Jennifer flipped a few more pages. "This is a magic book."

Karl's eyes popped open like toast from a toaster. "You can read it?"

Jennifer shook her head. "No, but I recognize some pictures in here." She pointed to a star and a circle. "This is a pentagram. Pagans used this symbol in their magic rituals. The star signifies a deity, or a god, and the circle represents the earth. Nowadays, people who worship Satan and evil things use the pentagram but it wasn't always a bad symbol."

Trevor hobbled over to Karl's bed and sat on the opposite side of Jennifer. He noticed all the bandages on Karl. "Boy, you got messed up didn't you? It's like I got you back but I didn't have to do anything. This is great!"

Karl ignored him.

Jennifer studied the book slowly flipping through the pages. "I took a few classes on historical symbolism when I was in college, but it's been a long time." She curiously inspected the drawings. "I think this is the symbol for time." Jennifer pointed to another image that was the same as the one that was on Mary's back. "This one looks like the symbol for forever. It's a bit different but I'm sure that's what it means." She flipped another page. "Oh, and these are Native American symbols. Very interesting. Where did you find this again?"

"I found it in the wall of the third bedroom," Karl said. He desperately wanted to tell his mother about Spider-Mary and the gold in the hills. With great self-control, he held his tongue.

His mother looked at Karl strangely. "The room that has the leaky roof?"

Karl nodded.

"How on earth did you find it?" She was stunned. "Why were you even in there?" she asked.

"I was just playing in there," Karl replied softly. He didn't want her to keep pushing for explanation because he didn't want to have to lie to her. And he knew she wouldn't believe the truth.

Jennifer's eyes narrowed and returned to the book. She slowly flipped pages. "These are Christian and Jewish symbols. You see this one?" She pointed to four squiggly letters. "This one means God, or in Kabala, it means earth, air, fire, and water. This is old European stuff. Whoever wrote this book took some time to compile what looks like ancient religions from around the world."

Karl reiterated what Mary had told him earlier. "If the secrets of magic were seeded throughout the world, and someone found the seeds and put them in one book, then this could be a powerful magic book, huh?"

Jennifer laughed. "Well, I think the idea is interesting, but you know there's no such thing as magic, don't you?"

Karl nodded sheepishly.

Trevor laughed. "Yeah, right. He probably still believes in Santa Claus."

"I do not," Karl snapped.

"Many people think that magic is real or used to be real," Jennifer said. "Some think that humans just forgot how to use magic." She flipped through a few more pages. "I wonder what language this is written in. It would be interesting to read it."

Karl sat straight in giddy anticipation. "What if there are translation web sites that would translate some pages for us?"

"Let's go to the library and find out how much," she said, her smile warm as usual.

"My leg is hurting, Mom," Trevor complained.

"You don't have to go with us. We'll be back in an hour or so. I'll get some movies for you while we're out so write down what you want to see."

Trevor nodded.

Karl threw on some clothes and went to the library with his mom and Jenna. Unknown to Jennifer, Mary had tucked herself under the collar of Karl's shirt.

A short while later, Karl was sitting in front of the library computer reading a translation to English web site. "Here we go. They only want five cents per word to translate, with a starter fee of thirty dollars."

"Five cents a word could get expensive, but let's do it anyway," Jennifer said enthusiastically. "Send them just one page to start with."

Karl placed the book on a scanner next to the console and scanned a page. It wasn't a random page. Karl chose it precisely because it bore the same symbol that so delicately adorned Mary's spider body. Two clicks and off the page went.

"They'll get back to us tomorrow. This is exciting," Jennifer said. "Let's go get your brother some movies and get home."

"Uh, mom?" Karl asked as he got in the SUV. "I was serious about the bats attacking me last night."

"I believe you, honey," Jennifer said. "It shouldn't happen again. It is very unusual behavior for bats."

"Can we do something to make me feel better?" Karl asked. He squirmed in his seat. He'd never asked to do anything like what he was about to ask and he didn't want his mom thinking he was crazy. "Can. . .can we burn sage around the house?"

Jennifer gave Karl a confused look. "Sage?"

Karl nodded.

"If you would like, it's okay with me," Jennifer said. "Why sage?"

"I heard on some TV show that it would protect the house," Karl lied.

Jennifer stopped at a local herb store and bought some sage. When they got home she lit the sage and walked around the house.

"It smells good," Karl said, following Jennifer closely.

"I like it, too," Jennifer said. "You know, I'm glad we're doing this. I have felt an odd nervousness lately. I often feel like I'm being watched."

"You were right about this canyon being haunted," Karl mumbled.

Jennifer looked at Karl in a strange way. A way she'd never looked before. She was scared. "Ghosts can't hurt us. Remember that," she said.

"But they can freak us out," Karl replied.

Jennifer smiled, "Yeah, they can."

Late in the day, Jennifer picked up Li from work and returned home. The family gathered at the dinner table to eat. It was becoming a tradition, and Karl loved it. When everyone ate together, they always laughed.

Karl and Jennifer told Li about the magic book while flipping through the pages. Li seemed interested and approved the expense. He also didn't mind the sage protection.

Karl, feeling secure in their home, stayed up late with Mary. She had seen many things on the way to the library that needed explanation. She asked about all the pretty automobiles on the roads and inquired about the traffic lights, an airplane in the sky, and a pizza delivery sign. Karl explained as best as he could, during which he realized that the world was pretty cool.

Karl made a tent from his bed sheet and, under the glow of his flashlight, talked with Mary until the wee hours of night. He could talk to her about anything. Say anything. It felt good to be himself.

# Chapter 19

# Waiting for the Next Day is Torture for Today

Finally, the next day Karl and his mom, with Mary under his shirt collar, returned to the library. Karl feverishly downloaded their translation page. The translation company included a message with its e-mail:

Dear Customer,

This was the most interesting page I personally have ever researched in my entire life. The language is an old Glagolitic script, which eventually became Croatian. That means the language is about as old as the dark ages of Eastern Europe. This language hasn't been spoken or written in this form for over a hundred years. May I ask where you came across the text?

Sincerely,

Professor Bernard,

Language Studies, Eastern University

P.S. I would enjoy translating more pages, if there are any, free of charge.

"Wow," Jennifer said. "I think we found a new friend. He seems very excited."

"He said he'd translate the rest for free," Karl said, bursting with enthusiasm.

Karl opened the translated page and read aloud: "The balance of power from god of our gods shift like the earth by Vesuvius and can swallow the whole of the marrow that feeds the bones of Julius. The East brings us the lotus flower; in its heart of gold flake lays the power of lightning. The Desert Man shows us the star path to point the lightning to our crop. The Christian West tells of the blood of Christ as a path to our god of gods, and the men of the Western tribes know of our brother in matted fur that will be our guide and part change our balance of power. Fifty parts hazel tree in the circle sign of our pagan brother's homeland with the alignment of stars to the Karka. Two pulls of our feather with knowledge of the path of raven. Fill your body with the life of your enemy. The shifted balance becomes."

The next paragraph was even more abstract, but Karl was beginning to get the feel of the text. It was a recipe for a magical spell. Fill your body with the life of your enemy. That sounded like the very spell that Vira used to kill Mary's mother and steal her eyesight. Karl felt a tickle on his ear. "That's the spell," Mary whispered. "I heard Vira yelling about shifted balance."

Karl nodded.

Jennifer looked up from the computer screen. "Wow, this is a book of spells all right. And it's surprisingly straightforward. Except what the Karka stars are." She typed the word 'Karka' into the Internet search engine, and two seconds later, she had her answer. "That was the old name of the Cancer constellation. Interesting."

"Can we get the rest translated?" Karl asked.

"Absolutely. The subject is so interesting. If we had the translation, we could sell this book for a pretty penny."

"I don't want to sell it. It's mine. I found it." Karl's grip on the book tightened. He wouldn't let his mom sell this book. Especially now that he knew positively that soon he would be able to read the other spells. For all he knew, it was more valuable than the gold treasure and definitely more dangerous, especially if an evil person like Vira got hold of it.

"Okay . . . you're right. We'll get the rest translated, but out of order so Bernard can't piece it together. Just in case." She winked at Karl then got serious. "I want you to understand something. Magic isn't real, but chemistry is and chemistry has origins in alchemy. This book may be filled with what seems like potions, but they could just be chemistry experiments or something. You see, chemicals can do all sorts of things. This book might tell you to mix two substances that could explode or be poisonous. We can read the book and learn something about the past, but under no circumstances are you to try to recreate anything in this book. Do we have a deal?"

Karl and his mom shook hands. He then scanned in a number of odd pages, marked the order on notepaper, and e-mailed them to Professor Bernard. Karl and Jennifer thought that getting ten pages translated at a time would be enough to keep the professor in the dark.

The next day, Jennifer drove Karl to the library and printed out the translation pages. A note from Professor Bernard stated that he wanted to translate more and wanted additional pages immediately. Karl sent more pages enthusiastically.

Back at home, Karl, Li and Jennifer sat on the couch reading the pages, with Trevor sleeping next to them, and Mary tucked away under Karl's sleeve.

Jennifer read the translation, "God sees the truth and is not bound by the daily motions of our sun and moon. God's time is not man's time. To think such reeks of immeasurable arrogance. No time marker is stone, even with the stone itself."

"What does that mean?" Karl asked. The language was extremely hard to understand. He remembered reading Shakespeare in school and feeling the same way. He could understand the words, but not how they were put together.

"I think it means that God doesn't play by the rules of our ideas of time," Jennifer answered. "Christians believe this, as well as Jews. I'm not sure about other religions, but they say that God sees all time at the same time. This, I think, is saying the same thing. The way 'stone' is used here tells me that everything is reversible.

Because set in stone is a cliché that means something is permanent. If the stone itself is not set in stone, then nothing is permanent."

"So the spells in this book are reversible?" Karl asked. He was intentionally being vague, but he knew exactly what he was asking. Maybe he could turn Mary back into a girl after all. Goose bumps surfaced on his skin as he thought about giving Mary her life back. He looked at the small bump on his sleeve where Mary was hiding and no doubt listening to every word.

"I think that's exactly what it's saying," Li said.

Karl read aloud, "Overthrow is the name of the reversal spell. It says, to disallow a spell is a road to the heart. Replace others Will with thine own. Anyone, anytime, if your body and mind share the iron way." Karl looked at his mother. "What does that mean?" He was still a bit confused.

"Iron is a strong metal and road to the heart is a difficult road...I think it means that you can reverse any spell but you must want the reversal bad enough." Jennifer looked to Li for agreement.

"You have to disallow someone's spell." Li looked up from the text. "You're right. This is great!" he said. "What an amazing find. It's all folklore, but amazing that someone took the time to compile religious superstition into one text. It's not just a compilation; it's a guide. There are passages that sound like magic spells. Those spells, if they were real, would kill a person."

"The professor who did the translation is very excited about it," Jennifer said.

"Which means that it's real," Karl replied.

"It's folklore, son. Clever fiction. It seems real because it's based on real-world ideology." Li lightly touched the leather cover. "So old. This place was built in the early nineteen hundreds, but this book has to be much older than that. Ha! It's probably worth thousands of dollars!"

Karl sat up straight. "Mom said she wouldn't make me sell it."

Jennifer playfully slapped Li's shoulder. "We won't sell anything."

Karl noticed the playful actions of his parents. They never used to be happy together until they moved to this house–at least in his memory. It was as if someone had cast a spell on them.

"Maybe we could try to cast a spell, one of the harmless ones," Li said.

Jennifer coughed on her tea and raised her hand in objection. "No, no. I don't think that's a smart thing to do."

Karl didn't say anything. The fact was, he was planning on casting the reversal spell as soon as he could.

"You're right, honey. That would be . . . ." Li didn't finish.

"Irresponsible," Jennifer concluded.

The lights in the living room dimmed with no one at the switch. Silence swam through the home. No crickets, no dishwasher or radio, nothing. The quiet shattered as a large squawking buzzard burst into living room having torn through the screen door. Jennifer screamed. Karl leapt over the couch cushions to the backside. Trevor woke and screamed. The buzzard was an amazing size, its wings over five feet in length. It landed in Li's lap flapping wildly. Li struggled with the bird. "Get off me!" he yelled.

Motion on the front porch caught Karl's eye. He leapt from behind the couch and ran to the door. There was the ghost-Vira, floating inches off the porch. She saw Karl and dashed to enter the home. Karl slammed the door on her face. He would not to let her enter the home.

The buzzard squawked non-stop and jumped from Li's lap carrying the magic book. It flew to the door then turned once it realized it had been shut.

"The magic book!" Karl called out. Vira must be using the bird to try and steal it.

The buzzard sped to the back door. Karl and Li ran after it. It slammed itself into the small window, cracking it. The bird dropped the book and landed. Its red wrinkly face looked ferocious. The buzzard's jet-black feathers ruffled as it stood on the book in a fighting stance. "Book, mine!" It screamed through its craggy unnatural voice.

"You're not getting that book." Karl snapped.

Li grabbed a broom and swung it at the bird. The buzzard jumped from the book. It flew down the hall and smashed through Karl and Trevor's bedroom window then flew away into the night leaving only a trail of feathers.

Karl ran to his bedroom. "It broke the window dad!" He yelled out. He grabbed one of Trevor's posters from the wall. Vira could get in through an open window. Karl quickly placed the poster over the window. Li ran into the room.

"What are you doing?" Li asked.

"Help me close this window," Karl commanded. Li helped Karl tape up the poster and reinforce it with cardboard. When they were done Li gave Karl a strange look.

"Why the urgency?" Li questioned. Jennifer ran into Li's arms. Trevor hobbled to the doorway on a crutch. He was out of breath and white as a ghost.

Karl took a deep breath. "I don't want any bad ghosts to get in."

Li laughed. "Hey, me either," he said. "I guess the sage didn't work."

Karl frowned.

A loud bang startled the family. Li ran out of the room, Karl following behind.

A gang of buzzards were taking turns bashing into the back door. The door was hanging on its hinges.

"What on Earth is going on?" Li yelled. He flung the back door open. "Get outta here!" He screamed at the buzzards. They squawked loudly with their wings held partially open and refused to move. Li ran outside and kicked at the birds. "Get!" he yelled.

"Dad! Don't go outside!" Karl yelled.

The birds flew off the porch and landed a few feet away. Li ran to them kicking and screaming. The buzzards attacked Li simultaneously, pecking, clawing and screeching loudly. Suddenly, the ground opened up under Li's feet. He fell into the Earth and was gone. The hole closed. Jennifer screamed and ran after him.

"No MOM!" Karl burst out.

As soon as Jennifer stepped off the porch the vultures attacked her. She, too, unknowingly stepped inside a circle drawn in the dirt and fell into a hole that opened up under her feet. It swallowed her whole then closed. Trevor hobbled outside.

Karl pulled him back. "Don't go outside," he pleaded, tears rushed to his eyes.

Trevor pulled from Karl's grip. "Don't tell me what to do." He was swaying on his feet, the medicine in his body confusing him. "What happened to mom and dad?" Trevor said in a slur. Karl pulled Trevor away from the door. He hit the wall and fell then he passed out under pain and pressure.

Mary scuttled up to Karl as Karl fell to his knees. He scooped her into his hands. "What do I do? Vira has my mom and dad." Karl couldn't catch his breath. His lungs heaved, stressed and burned. "This is going all wrong," he mumbled. Thunder bit the quiet night with a heart-stopping clap. Karl's heart skipped a beat. Red filled his vision then turned to black.

"No, Karl," Mary pleaded. "Stay with me."

Karl didn't hear her plea. He passed out landing on top of his brother with the back door wide open.

One after the other, the vultures landed on the porch. They squawked in the shadows just outside the light.

# Chapter 20

# Karl Escapes to A Familiar Place

Mary shook Karl vigorously. "Wake up!" she pleaded.

Karl moaned like a wounded wildebeest then opened his eyes. "Where are we?" he asked, bewildered by the change in scenery.

Mary looked around. "I haven't a clue," she said.

Karl jumped to his feet. He was talking to Mary and she was human! "You're you!" he stammered. "I mean not you. . .but you."

Mary looked over herself. "I guess I am," she concluded. She looked over her freckly pink skin and fluffed her crazy red hair. "I don't remember my hair being this out-of-control."

Karl liked the way she looked except she was taller than him. Not by much but it still made him a bit self-conscious. He straightened his posture and tried to deepen his voice. Although he wasn't quite sure why it mattered.

A rumble, off in the distance, demanded Karl and Mary's attention. It was then that Karl realized they were in a thick wooded forest. Tall evergreen trees towered above their heads letting only a small fraction of sunlight through.

Someone was coming–the rumble grew.

"Where are we?" Karl asked. Mary shrugged. Karl remembered his parents and the vulture attack. "Is this where my parents disappeared to?" Mary didn't have time to answer– an army rounded the bend and headed straight for the two, marching in unison. Four horses wide and hundreds long, the army was impressive . . .and familiar. Red and green flags adorned their saddles and identified them while steel helmets hid their faces. Full body armor clinked in the menagerie of noises. Crossbows, swords, hammers and axes sheathed from hips and saddles, sharp and ready.

Karl pulled Mary off the road and allowed the army to pass. It suddenly hit him. He turned to Mary. "We're in Dragon Lands."

"Your Internet computer game?" Mary asked, clearly confused.

Karl nodded, "I recognize the flags. They're King Gordion's army."

A heavily armed man rode his horse up to Karl and Mary. He bore the flag of captain. "You are trespassing. State your purpose before you are slain." He drew a crossbow from his hilt and pointed it at Karl.

Karl's mind raced. "I, uh, I'm Milon the Protector of the Town of Wayne. I have been robbed of all my belongings by a Tree Spitter and three Orcs." It had been a long time since he played Dragon Lands but he remembered the game well.

"The town of Wayne is destroyed." The captain laughed. "You have done well Protector Milon," the soldier said sarcastically. His demeanor shifted back to serious. "Now you can leave this world with nothing but a burned legacy."

"Run!" Karl yelled. He and Mary turned and took off.

The captain steadied his crossbow and fired. The bolt flew straight and landed in Karl's shoulder. He fell and landed in a pile of pine needles.

Mary pulled him off the ground. "Keep running! They're still after us," Mary yelled.

Karl struggled but kept going.

The captain turned to a conscript. "Take one man with you and don't come back without their heads," he ordered then continued with his army.

Two conscripts exited the ranks and galloped after Karl and Mary.

Mary pulled Karl around a large tree so they could catch their breath. Karl fell to his knees. The bolt in his shoulder caused a strange pain in his chest.

"There are two soldiers coming after us," Mary said.

Karl turned to look and found himself looking at a fist-size hole in the tree. "A stash! I found someone's stash!"

He reached in and pulled out a bottle of black liquid. "It's a poison cloud potion."

Dragon Lands was filled with potions that did all sorts of things. He handed it to Mary, "Throw this at the soldiers. It has to break when it hits them."

"Got it," Mary said. She waited for the right moment. . .then jumped out from behind the tree. The startled soldiers reared up on their horses and drew their swords. Mary chucked the potion. It landed on the breastplate of the soldier and exploded. The men were surrounded by a churning black cloud. Instantly they fell from their horses clutching their throats.

"Yeah!" Mary hollered.

Mary helped Karl over to the two fallen soldiers and their horses.

Karl fumbled through one of the saddlebags. He pulled out a small bottle of white liquid. "Everyone in Dragon Lands keeps healing potions on them." He handed the bottle to Mary. "Pour it on the wound," he ordered.

"What about the bolt?" she asked.

"Just pour."

Mary poured the healing potion over the wound. It bubbled and fizzed. The bolt turned slowly and worked its way out.

"Hey, that tickles a bit," Karl said, surprised.

The bolt dropped from his back and the wound healed completely. Karl jumped up and started putting the soldier's armor on himself. "Put on as much armor as you can. We're going to save my parents."

Mary looked sideways at Karl. "Your parents are in the game, too?"

"I'm not really in the game," Karl said. "I must have followed my mom and dad outside and fell through the ground just like they did." It all seemed to make sense to Karl. "Vira made this place. She's playing with us."

Mary shook her head. "I don't know about that."

"No, it's true," Karl reasoned. "All we have to do is find my parents here and save them. Then, in real life they'll be saved." The armor Karl tried to wear was way too big. The metal hung painfully on Karl's narrow shoulders. He took it off and tossed it aside. "Forget the armor, it won't fit us."

A great shadow passed overhead. Karl looked to the sky. "We need to get to Wayne," he said. "We need weapons and a plan." The conscript's sword was almost as long as Karl was tall and he couldn't hold it up let alone swing it. He instead found a dagger hidden in the boot. "I have a small house just like the one in real life. There, I have all sorts of potions and weapons."

The giant shadow passed overhead again. Mary looked around, nervous. "I think you need to wake up," Mary mumbled.

"I need to find my parents," Karl replied. He ran to the soldier's armored horse and grabbed the reins, "Come on." he pleaded.

Mary followed reluctantly. Karl mounted the horse and helped Mary into the saddle behind him.

The trees behind them crashed and exploded sending splinters and logs into the air. Fire burst from the trees and rolled toward Karl and Mary.

The horse burst into a gallop as a huge black dragon appeared from behind the fire and destruction. Its head was adorned with long horns, its eyes red like blood. It lifted off its front legs and spread its wings. Fire burst from its mouth. The flames kissed the back of the horse burning its hair. Karl and Mary held on for dear life.

The dragon leapt into the air and dove toward the horse. Karl looked over his shoulder then kicked. "Heaw!" he yelled. The horse picked up speed. The dragon burst through the trees like they were tissue paper. The ground shook with every roar.

They approached a river with a narrow wooden bridge. The horse instinctively used the bridge.

Karl looked over his shoulder again, but the dragon was gone. He turned back around only to watch it land in front of them. Fire burst from its mouth. The horse reared up on its hind legs knocking Karl and Mary off its back. The two fell into the water.

A strange hand pulled Mary and Karl under the bridge. Fire burst all around them but they were sheltered, for now. The dragon used its long neck and horned head to knock away the wood bridge.

"Keep your heads down!" the stranger yelled.

Karl did what he was told but kept his eye on the stranger, who was a bit familiar. The dragon prepared to breathe fire on them.

The stranger lifted a hollow tube up to his lips and blew a dart at the creature. The dart landed square in the dragon's chest.

It recoiled and fell on his haunches. Where the dart struck the beast, its black leathery skin turned gray and brittle. The dragon leapt into the air and flew away.

The stranger helped Karl and Mary cross the river. On the other side he sheathed his blow gun in his hip pouch. "It'll be back. I only stunned it," the stranger said.

Karl recognized him. He wore a hat made from a metal pan and over his shoulder was a tin can that held a plastic water bottle. "Trapper Baron?" Karl asked.

Trapper nodded. "Hey buddy." Trapper casually drank from his water bottle. "It's nice to see you, but. . .you do need to wake up," he said.

Karl shook his head. "No, Vira made this world. She took my parents here." Karl's eyes teared up. "I can fight her here. On my terms. I know this game like the back of my hand."

Mary put her hand on Karl's shoulder. "If she made this place, then it's on her terms."

Trapper ushered the two out from the open and back under the canopy of tall evergreens. "When I was alone in the desert, I wished I was in some video game. I was so scared to be all on my own like that." Trapper continued as they walked, "I used to love video games just like you. In the game I could control everything. I could heal instantly, start over or save my game and return when I was rested. I beat every game I played."

The shadow of the dragon passed overhead.

"It's back," Mary said nervously.

Trapper stopped Karl with his hand. "You can't control everything in real life. You can't fight a powerful witch like Vira in Dragon Lands so you can have healing potions or so you can start over if you want." Trapper continued talking even as the dragon's shadow got larger and closer, "You have to fight Vira in the real world."

"But she's too powerful," Karl mumbled.

"That's a problem, but there are always solutions to every problem. All you have to do is be creative."

"I don't know how."

"Everyone knows how," Trapper insisted. "It's instinct. All you have to do is try and never give up."

The black dragon burst through the trees violently. Trapper spun around and pulled his blowgun and his knife from his belt. He lifted his blowgun to his lips but the dragon was faster. One of its wings knocked Trapper off his feet and into a thicket next to the trail. The dragon's front claw snatched Karl's leg and hoisted him upside down directly in front of its inferno-of-a-mouth. Karl tried to pull himself free. He felt the cool slick scales of the dragon flex as its massive claw tightened around his leg. The blood rushed to his head. The dragon opened its mouth, readying a fireball of death.

Mary screamed, "Wake up Karl!"

# Chapter 21

# Karl Fights Back with a Magic Attack

Karl woke in the real world to the roar of a dragon. His eyes snapped open. The dragon was hissing and dripping liquid fire from its mouth. Its head filled the doorway which was still open but covered in Mary's web. Karl's foot was the only part of him outside the doorway and outside the web and it was being pulled vigorously. Karl yanked his foot inside the house. The dragon in his dream had grabbed him by the foot, too, but this was definitely not a dream. "You're not real!" he yelled. The dragon morphed and blurred. It wasn't a dragon at all, it was the vulture.

"Karl!" Mary cried out. "I'm so glad you're awake."

Karl scooped Mary up. "I'm sorry I passed out," Karl said trying to ignore the noisy bird. "I didn't think I could beat Vira. I kinda freaked out."

"Your parents aren't dead," Mary said. "We can save them." She scampered up his arm.

"Yeah, I know." Karl picked up the magic book—it weighed heavily in his hands. The book vibrated lightly, its owner close by. Karl looked out the open back door. His parents were out there somewhere, trapped. He had to save them somehow.

The vulture flapped and screamed angrily then flew away. It was a good thing it couldn't touch or break Spider-Mary's web.

Vira stepped out of the shadows and onto the porch. "Give me the book, child," she scowled. She reached out for it with her old thin hands.

"Sorry lady, not till I'm done with it." Karl slammed the door in her face.

"I need to know some magic," Karl said. He opened the book and read through the translated pages. After realizing the translations were incomplete Karl closed the book and stood up. He kicked Trevor lightly but his brother was still out cold. "Come on Mary. We've got some driving to do." Karl ran to the front door and looked out the peephole. The SUV was right by the front door.

"Where are we going?" Mary asked.

"We're going to the coffee shop's Internet cafe. I need to reverse the spell Vira used to capture my mom and dad. I don't have all the translated pages for the reversal but they should be on my e-mail." Karl got his mother's purse off the counter.

"What if the professor hasn't completed any more translations?" Mary asked.

"Then I'm going to call him personally and get his help," Karl explained. He flung the door open and ran to the SUV.

Keys out. Door unlocked.

Karl jumped inside and slammed the door. Re-locked. Engine started. Foot reached the pedals, barely. Car in drive. Gas punched.

The SUV's tires squealed as it took off. Karl turned the wheel too hard to the left then too hard to the right. He plowed over a bush then smashed the mailbox to pieces. Karl turned onto the street. The tires jerked the SUV as they gripped the pavement.

"It's too dark!" Mary called out. "Stop, please."

Karl fumbled around the steering wheel. "It's got lights." He flipped a few levers. The windshield wipers came on. "Where are they?" He hissed.

The lights turned on as the SUV ran off the road. Karl corrected the steering wheel and found the road again. He was driving!

"How far is the Internet cafe?" Mary called out.

Karl sped down the road. "Not far." He swerved when an approaching car swept by. "Whoa! That car almost hit us."

"Do you know what you're doing?" Mary asked in her panic.

"Nope, I'm too young to drive!" Karl swerved again rocking the SUV dangerously.

The shopping center came into sight. Karl swung off the road and into the parking lot. The SUV bounced over the curb and ran over a newly planted tree. Karl hit the brakes and jumped out.

"Oh, thank God we stopped!" Mary cried, shaking.

Karl ran across the parking lot toward the coffee house with his mother's purse, her cell phone and the magic book in hand. Out of the dark night, hundreds of bats descended upon Karl. He sprinted, pushing his body to the limit.

The bats clawed and bit, mostly grabbing cloth. Karl slipped into the coffee shop and held the door shut. Only a few bats got through, but it was enough to send a panic throughout the store. No one headed for the door. The hundreds of other bats bashed into the glass, repeatedly.

"Lock the door!" Karl cried out.

The store manager ran to the door, keys in hand.

The screams died down as the few bats were chased into vents and ceiling crevices. People stood and watched the chaos outside with fear and awe. It was sad to see the bats hurting themselves like they were. A small pile of injured or dead ones piled up outside the door.

"I need to use the computer," Karl demanded. He tried to calm himself as he handed his mother's credit card over to the manager.

The manager waved the card away. "Use anyone you want, the code is 764." He was distracted by the bat attack. People were taking photos and calling their friends. A girl started crying in the corner.

Karl logged onto the computer then opened his e-mail. He printed out more pages that Professor Bernard had sent over. "The rest of the reversal spell isn't here." Karl re-read the pages. "Bernard hasn't interpreted the page we need." Karl pulled out the phone and dialed Bernard's phone number. No one answered. He watched the commotion the bats made, oddly disconnected. "Am I going to lose my parents?"

"Not if I can help it. I don't want you to go through that like I did," Mary said. "What does the translation say?"

Karl shifted the pages until they were in order, "There's a spell here called the Hourglass spell." Karl perked up a bit. "It's a different reversal spell," he realized. He read the last line of the paragraph. "As the Hourglass passage is cast, so does the earthly time rewind, sending the sprout back into the earth to be grown once again."

Karl understood what it said. "We don't have the spell reversal, but we have a time reversal spell. Time can be returned to whenever we want."

"That helps us. So reverse time to just before Vira put the spell on the buzzards," Mary replied. "That way your parents would never have been caught."

"Exactly." Karl folded the translation pages and tucked them in his pocket. Unfortunately, they were stuck in the coffee shop. "The spell needs flowers, salt and I need chalk for drawing symbols. How are we going to get any of those things?"

"It took me a long time to find ingredients for Vira," Mary said solemnly.

Karl grunted. There was a grocery store next door. "Everything we need is in there."

"That's convenient." Mary noticed.

"You're right, it is. Too bad we're held hostage by a bunch of bats." Karl looked at the crowd in the coffee shop. He stood on his chair. "Does anyone have chalk or a large marker?" he yelled. No one paid any attention. Karl screamed, "HEY PEOPLE!" The crowd silenced. "I need a large marker!"

An employee handed a marker over.

Karl read the spell and continued his demands. "Okay, now I need a flower, a real one with pollen."

A girl in a blue dress pulled a daisy from her hair and handed it over.

"What are you doing kid?" a man asked.

"Getting rid of the bats," Karl answered, jumping from his chair. "Help me clear a space."

A crack appeared in the window. The bats were not giving up.

A woman and a kid around Karl's age sheepishly approached Karl. "Hi, I think we've met before," the woman said.

Karl recognized them. "Jerry?" Karl remembered the frightened kid who'd left his backpack in his house and then tried to warn him the house was haunted. "What are you doing here?"

"We were getting hot chocolate," Jerry said.

The bats continued their assault.

"I have to sit down," Jerry's mother said. She stumbled to a booth and sat.

"Well, for what it's worth, thanks for the warning," Karl said. He reached out and shook Jerry's hand.

"Why are the bats trying to get in?" Jerry asked.

"They're after me," Karl replied.

The noise in the coffee shop grew as people's voices got louder in the confusion.

Karl grabbed Jerry's shoulder and got his attention. "You were right, the house is haunted. It's not just the house though. It's the whole area. The bats are possessed by a witch. So was the vulture you saw."

Jerry nodded.

"I can get rid of them," Karl said. "But I need help." Jerry agreed. The two rounded up salt, water and oil from the kitchen.

Karl needed some more plant material. Hanging on the wall was a piece of art made from real desert plants. Karl ripped it from the wall and took the saguaro ribs, creosote leaves and the sand.

Sirens approached. Two cop cars and three fire trucks pulled up outside, but the bats wouldn't let the men out of their vehicles. It seemed that the bats now numbered in the thousands. Ten vultures joined in the attack. Most stood on top of the cop cars but others were helping destroy the coffee shop windows. Vira seemed to be making her final move. She would have that book even if she called upon every bat and vulture in existence.

"You need to grind up the plant samples," Mary said.

"There has to be a coffee grinder behind the counter," Jerry said. "My mom drinks a lot of coffee," he mumbled.

Karl handed the ingredients to Jerry. "Grind these things to a powder," Karl ordered, then started copying the symbols on the floor.

"Draw them bigger," Mary urged. "Keep them inside the circle."

A small hole in the window grew until a bat squeezed through. Screams broke out.

"Cover that hole!" Karl yelled. He continued drawing on the floor.

The crowd managed to cover the hole in the window with tape and cardboard.

Shots rang out outside as an officer tried to shoot one of the animals.

Karl kept drawing. "How am I doing?" he asked Mary.

She was being awfully quiet. It took her a moment to answer. "You need to make sure the star diagram is perfect. Measure the distance. Make sure it's equal." All urgency had left her voice.

Karl was taken back by her sullen mood. "What's wrong?"

"If we reverse time to before the attack on your parents Vira would still be out there, waiting. She'll still try and get the magic book. She won't stop until she does," Mary said.

Karl thought for a moment. "So we'd still be at risk. Everyday I'd be afraid that she'd get my parents for good. Like she did with yours." Karl remembered how Vira used spells to kill Mary's family. She could do the same now to his family. What was stopping her? She didn't have her book. If she got it, her power would increase tenfold. "I know what to do. I know how you felt when your mother and father died. I felt that tonight, or at least I felt something like that. I don't want that to be a similarity between us."

"What are you going to do?" Mary asked.

"I'm going to send you back in time. I'll send you back one day before your dad fell from the waterfall," Karl said. Confidence filled his body like an expanding balloon. "I'm pretty sure the spell you saw Vira casting shook your father off that cliff."

"I've thought about that a lot. I know Vira caused my father to fall." There was a short pause. "If time reverses to that point, everything would go back to nineteen twelve." Mary said, "I'd miss you very much."

Karl thought about that for a while. "This whole summer will be different. No Vira's ghost and no mountain lion attack."

"Yeah . . . I could get the sheriff to arrest Vira." Mary concluded, "You're right, I could save my mother, too. I would like that."

"All of my time with you would be gone. Like it never happened. That's weird to think about." Karl's energy flat-lined like Mary's. He almost didn't want to say what he thought, but he did anyway. "That means you'd be ninety-five years old in my time?"

"Well, I was thirteen when my mother died. I'd be one hundred and eight years old. That means I'd be dead before you would be born."

"There was a woman who lived to be one hundred and twelve years old. She spoke to my class two years ago. She was nice but . . . wrinkly."

"So many things can happen in a hundred years."

"Two world wars. The Great Depression. Landing on the moon!" Karl stopped himself. His mind couldn't wrap itself around the unnatural movement of time.

He zoned out on the shapes the panicked people made as they dashed back and forth taping more holes in the glass. Another shot rang out as the police grew increasingly desperate. The electricity suddenly went out.

Karl's eyes stopped focusing; his muscles froze; and he felt as if he were falling, turning, and drowning in confusion and dismay. It was as if the fruit of his mind had rotted and been devoured by fungus and bacteria until there was nothing left. The light seemed to fade and fall away like a boat leaving him onshore, or the tail lights of a car driving away.

Someone lit a table top-candle. Then another until they were all lit.

"Hey," Mary said. "Don't worry. It will be okay. Just save your parents and turn me back into a girl whenever you get the translations. Then we can be together."

Karl held out the translated pages. "With these I can reverse time! I want. . . no, I'm going to send you back to save your parents." He paused in thought for a moment. "I don't care about the gold. I like it here. I like eating with everyone for dinner. My mom and dad have never been this happy. If we're rich again, who knows, maybe it'll be like it was, but I don't want it to be like it was."

Mary didn't reply. She was sobbing. If she wasn't shedding actual tears, she was crying inside. He could hear it in her voice. "I will miss you."

"I'll miss you, too," Karl continued. "I want you to write about your life. All of it . . . good and bad. Put it in the wall of the little house. That way I can know if your life turned out okay."

"And if it doesn't?"

"It will," Karl said with confidence.

Jerry returned with the ground ingredients to Karl. "Here, the power went out so it's not all ground up."

"Thanks," Karl replied then took the mixture. "This has to work."

Mary crawled under Karl's shirtsleeve and held on tight. She would miss her friend.

The bats continued their bashing of the windows, which were now filled with, cracks and seconds from being destroyed.

The vultures leapt from the police and fire vehicles and flew toward the coffee shop windows. They flew into each other and stuck together forming a shape like puzzle pieces. The shape that emerged was Vira. She raised her hand. The remaining glass shattered. Everyone in the coffee shop took cover.

"Now, Karl!" Mary urged.

"Seedus totim reverset!" Karl yelled. He pictured the part in the story where Vira was casting the spell that shook the ground. "Kodum bedow!" He raised the bowl of ingredients and sprinkled them into the air. The powder sparkled and swirled around Karl. The symbols at his feet glowed.

Vira launched herself through the window frames surrounded by thousands of bats.

The air around Karl exploded in a brilliant white light.

# Chapter 22

# Way Back We Go-How will Time Roll?

Mary opened her eyes slowly. The light fell around her from her bedroom window. She looked at the wall– tears flooding to her eyes. She couldn't help but cry. Her human fingers touched her human face. She sat up in bed. The day was just beginning, and the year was 1912. She fondly remembered Karl and all the work it had taken to reverse the spell. He never spoke of the gold. That thought made the tears flow. She loved him very much and by his actions, she knew that he loved her.

A bang came from her mother's room. Mary shook off her thoughts and hopped off the bed. This was her time, and now her parent's time, to live again. She had to stop her father from going into the canyon this last time and warn her mother of Vira's powerful and evil nature. This time, things would be different. She was armed with the most powerful weapon of all: knowledge.

Mary's mother screamed and Vira laughed out loud. What was Vira doing in the house? Where was her father? What time is it?

Mary grew worried the spell didn't quite work right. She grabbed the door key, unlocked it, then slowly pushed the door open and tiptoed to the living room. In a closet by the front door was her father's shotgun. She was going to stop Vira by any means necessary.

The bullets were gone. The rifle was useless without them. Mary checked the boxes lying around but didn't find them. Time was running out so she moved on. Over by the fireplace, the ambers still smoked from the fire the night before. An idea popped into her head. Next to the fireplace was the fire poker, a shovel, and brush. Mary grabbed the shovel, quietly removed the fire screen, and scooped up a mound of glowing embers.

Mary kicked the door open on Vira and stepped in the room. Vira was holding Mary's mother in the middle of the room. She was just finishing wrapping Beatrice in a blanket.

Vira was caught off guard. "Now, child, I won't hurt you. I'm not hurting your mother; I'm helping her." Vira was pleading as she eyed the smoking shovel in Mary's grip. Vira was wrinkle free. The old, blind, frail gypsy woman was no longer there. Was it too late? Mary started to shake. It was too late. Fury exploded inside her, and she swung the shovel at Vira. Vira dropped Beatrice's body and tried to shelter her face. The shovel smacked Vira's arms—the hot embers spraying into her new young face. Fire burst from Vira's hair as she panicked and slapped at the hot ashes that covered her.

Mary recovered from the first swing and swung the shovel again—this time landing on the backside of Vira's head. She'd just pulled the shovel back to hit her again when Vira reached out and snatched the weapon from Mary's hands. Mary turned to run but was caught by her nightdress and thrown into the corner.

Vira flipped her tunic over her smoking hair and patted the fire out. "Child, you will not like what I do to you! You know the sultan's brother-in-law? It wasn't a coincidence. I killed him. He gave me fifty more years of youth!" Vira's face was turning red and bleeding. The dust of the ashes turned from gray to black as the blood mixed in and ran down her cheeks and neck.

"Now I just want to kill you, again and again and again!" A barrel laugh escaped Vira's chalky face. "You didn't think you could beat me, did you? You think I don't know you reversed time?" She leaned toward Mary, her destroyed face looming—her bloody, muddy face and bloodshot blue eyes nearly stopping Mary's heart. "I'm the witch here, little girl!" Vira reached in her pocket and pulled out a handful of shotgun shells, throwing them at Mary. "I hope you liked being a spider for a hundred years. 'Cause you're gonna do it all over again." Vira dabbed at her face with a washcloth that she pulled from her table of powders and liquids. "Nice touch with the ashes. That was good."

Mary tried to stand, but Vira's swift kick put her back on the floor. Mary burst into tears—her tears flowing over her swollen cheek and bleeding nose.

Vira snatched a vile off the table and uncorked it. She knelt next to Mary and forced the vile into Mary's mouth. "Swallow for Mama, won't ya, child?" she menacingly growled.

Mary rolled the thick liquid on her tongue. She would get to see Karl if she swallowed, although not for a long time. Of course she would be a spider again. Mary swallowed.

Vira smiled. "Now that's a good little spider girl." She said, laughing a crazy wide-mouthed laugh.

Mary had faked the swallow. She lunged toward Vira and spit the thick liquid in Vira's gaping mouth. The liquid hit the back of Vira's throat. She choked and thrashed on the floor, but her muscles instinctively swallowed.

Mary spit and spit until she was sure her mouth was clean.

Vira's body convulsed, but she managed to crawl to her table of potions.

Mary picked up the shovel and bashed it on Vira's outstretched, searching hand. "Bad witch." She smacked Vira on the head. "Turn into a spider like a good little bad witch."

Vira's tunic fell off her shrinking head. Her maddened face cracked like splintering glass. Her bright blue eyes faded and disappeared altogether, leaving gaping holes in her head. Her burned hair thinned even more and fell from her head. She collapsed to the floor, her body folding in on itself.

Mary rushed over to her mother's limp body. She pulled the sheet away and listened for a heartbeat. Mary pounded on her chest. "Mama!" she cried. "Come back." Mary buried her face in her mother's chest. It was too late after all.

Mary sat up and watched the completion of Vira's transformation to spider. Vira's spider body was deep red and hairy. It was also blind with deep pits where her eyes should be.

The light from the warming afternoon reflected off the shovel in Mary's hand. It winked at her like a suggestion. Mary spun the shovel and pointed at Vira. "You're not just cursed; you're dead." Mary brought the shovel down on the spider as hard as she could. The shovel hit the floor but was upside down. The space under the shallow shovel was deep enough for Spider-Vira to survive. Mary lifted the shovel up. Spider-Vira was still alive with her eight legs neatly folded under her. Mary flipped the shovel over, flat side down, and raised it above her head. She froze, she couldn't kill Vira. Her arms trembled. Pity was all Mary felt.

Mary snatched up a jar on Vira's table, dumped its contents out and scooped up Spider-Vira. "I think I'd rather you lived for a hundred years. See how you like it."

#  Chapter 23

# The Witch is Powerless—for Good it's Said—Let the Canyon Never Again be Dead

Mary found Vira's magic book and flipped through the pages. She couldn't remember any of the translations. Unfortunately, there was no Internet back here in 1912, so she probably couldn't get it translated. She threw the book against the wall and buried her face in her hands.

There was a knock at the door. "Water delivery!"

Mary answered the door and stared at Daniel Hall, the delivery person.

"Are you okay? You have blood on your face," Daniel said.

"My mother's dead," Mary said through tears. "Vira killed her." Saying the words out loud made it hurt worse.

"Is this Vira still in the house?" Daniel asked. He put his hand on the pistol he wore on his belt and peaked into the home.

Mary shook her head, "She's gone, gone for good."

Daniel put a gentle arm around Mary and hugged her. "I'll send the Sheriff over to your house."

Mary nodded and continued to cry.

Sheriff Dolan arrived a short time later.

He knew about her father's accident and was shocked to hear what Vira did to her mother.

The next day some townsfolk from Tucson helped clean up the house and bury Mary's mother.

Mary stayed, not in her mother's room, but in Karl's. Her grief was powerful, but not for her mother or father. She'd grieved for them for a hundred years as a spider; now her thoughts were filled with memories of Karl. She thought that reversing time would reverse her memory, but it hadn't. Everything around her went back to the way it was, but her memories remained.

Mary was comforted by some of her thoughts. She didn't want to lose the memory of Karl. It was worth the time spent with him. He'd showed her many things about the future. A laugh escaped her. They'd both loved salsa and science, loved the canyon, and laughed at the same things. He even showed her how to speak in future slang words.

The weeks passed. Mary tried to take care of herself as best as she knew how. Many people from the local church visited her and brought her food and money. The company was nice. They kept her mind occupied. Every now and then, she would break into tears—sometimes for her mother, but mostly because she wanted desperately to talk with Karl. She would have to wait many years to see him again. Every day, she would go for long runs and eat plenty of vegetables, thinking that if she was healthy enough, she would live long enough to see him before she died. In her heart, she knew that was a long shot.

On the night of her fourteenth birthday, she made herself a small cake, poked a candle into the top of it, and lit it with a match. Her sadness took control and she instead watched the flame on the small candle burn into the frosting. The candle melted away, and the flame disappeared. She slept at the table with her arms cradling her heavy head.

Sometime during the night, a knock came to the back door. Mary pulled herself from the table and answered the door. In front of her stood Greycoat the coyote. Surprised, Mary slowly got down to her knees.

Greycoat sat. "Hello, Mary," he said. "I think you know why I'm here."

Mary shook her head. "No, I don't. But I'm glad to see you."

"I woke up from a long dream. I feel younger. I have more fur . . . and an energy that I have not had for some time now."

Mary wiped crispy dried tears from her eyes. "Are you growing young?" she asked.

"I cannot say. I was very old. I saw winter after winter pass me by, but I lived on. I watched this very house weather and fall apart. I saw a boy and his family move in and fix up the house. I helped him when he was lost in the canyon. Now this house is like I remember it a very long time ago."

Mary told Greycoat of her living as a spider for a hundred years, as well as how Karl had tried to save her parent's lives by reversing time.

Greycoat seemed to be smiling, though it was hard to tell. "Now that the spell on you has been broken so has the spell on the rest of us." The coyote licked his paws.

"Everything was affected by the spell?" Mary questioned.

Greycoat looked up. "Everything always is. Thank you for your strength. Now all you need to do is show the canyon how to live again."

Mary shrugged. "I don't know how to do that. I'm not even sure I want to live."

Without saying a word Greycoat ran off.

From the direction Greycoat ran, an Indian approached the back porch. Mary didn't know what to do. She'd heard about violent Indians but also of peaceful ones.

The Indian casually strolled up to Mary. He wore a square top hat that reminded Mary of the city style, but he also wore tan Indian-style leather pants and a vest. He carried a walking stick but was not using it. He was tall and thin with friendly eyes. He stopped at the edge of the porch. "May I sit with you a while?" the Indian asked. Mary nodded.

"I am O'odham. The white man calls us Papago. My name is Sand Wanderer."

Mary recognized the name Papago. Her father had told her all about the local tribes, and she relaxed a little because they were a peaceful people.

"You are sad?" Sand Wanderer reached out his hand and took Mary's.

Mary nodded. Fresh tears ran down her cheeks.

"A bad spell that hung over this canyon has been broken. The evil woman? Where is she now?"

Mary nodded. "She is in a jar, living as a spider in the back room."

"She is powerless now. What about the rest of your family?"

Mary shuttered, "Dead." She tightened her grip on the Indian's hand. "Why did this happen to me?"

"That is for you to discover," Sand Wanderer said. "Follow me."

Mary followed Sand Wanderer into the canyon just as the morning sun rose. It rose faster than it should. Time sped up as the two walked in silence toward the canyon. Like video in fast-forward mode, the sun popped over the Rincon Mountains and over their heads before it quickly dipped back below the earth. Over and over, the sun rose and disappeared and, as it moved faster, it created a strobe-light flashing effect.

"Show the canyon how to live again," Sand Wanderer said. "Remember whom you love, and love them still."

The strobe light effect the sun made softened the brightness of the day and warmed the darkness of the night. With each step, Mary watched all types of trees and cacti grow around her feet in fast forward. The Palo Verde trees filled with bright yellow-colored leaves and then littered them on the ground, only to have them fill up again with green leaves. The grasses and bushes flushed with bright green foliage and flowers. Mary reached out and touched the growing plants around her. Pink and purple flowers bloomed at her fingertips and enveloped the lower canyon, like paint spilling on a blank canvas. Butterflies and birds filled the air around Mary. The warm, colorful growth followed Mary and Sand Wanderer as they walked until bright colors filled the entire landscape.

The Indian turned to Mary but kept walking slowly backward. "You have love in your heart. That love gave you strength—strength to succeed and to live on. You were a hundred years old once, same as every animal in this canyon that was trapped with you. But unlike them, you will live to a hundred once more."

Mary looked around at the beauty that surrounded her. The air was thick with whispering voices all thanking her repeatedly. She threw her head back and let the wind lower her body into a large thick collection of pink and purple flower petals.

Sand Wanderer kept walking on. "Show the canyon how to live again, and you, too, will live again."

# Chapter 24

# The Craziness is in the Mind, the Memory an Unstable Kind

Karl looked out the window of the little house and into the canyon. He hadn't moved for a while. His head was fuzzy, as if he were sick, but he wasn't. He was sad. He looked around the little house, at his stack of books on the table, the posters tacked to the wall, and the wire cot with all his pillows. He tried to remember the past few days but couldn't.

The door to the little house flung open, and in walked Trevor—without his cast.

"You took your cast off?" Karl asked.

"What cast, nerd face? I'm just here to tell you that it's dinner time," Trevor said and walked off. As he left, his voice trailed off behind him, "You'll need a cast after I kick your butt into two pieces."

Karl forced himself to get up. His legs had fallen asleep and his neck was sore. He rubbed his neck and wondered why he thought Trevor had broken his leg in the first place. It must be a memory. He vividly remembered Trevor chasing him back to the little house to kill the spider. "Mary!" Karl called out. He walked in a circle. "You're just dreaming, dummy," he said aloud. Did he ever meet a talking spider? The scenario seemed absurd. He rubbed his eyes and sighed. The spider girl in his dreams was such a perfect friend. He left the little house to go have dinner with his family.

Li and Jennifer were busy joking around with each other, and Trevor was laughing at little Jenna gurgling, the food making her face a mess. Li leaned to Jennifer and gave her a kiss.

Jennifer laughed and plopped a dollop of mashed potatoes on his nose.

Trevor stuffed his mouth with food.

Everything seemed so perfect, so why did Karl feel so horrible? His mind was playing tricks on him. He looked at his mom. "Hey, Mom?"

"What dear?" she asked, without looking in his direction.

"Can we look at the magic book tonight? I'd like to read it again."

Jennifer looked at Karl. "What magic book?"

"You know the one we had translated?" Karl remembered that book well.

Jennifer shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about. Are you feeling okay?" She leaned to Karl and placed her warm hand on his forehead.

"No, my head feels weird. I think when I got lost in the canyon, I may have . . ."

"Lost? When did you get lost?" Li said. "You didn't hike into the canyon by yourself, did you?"

Karl lowered his eyes to focus on his chicken leg. "No, no. Maybe I was just dreaming." He rubbed his eyes. "My dream. . . . It just felt so real, that's all. I'm confused in a weird way. . ."

A strong breeze rattled the windows. The front door swung open. The family paused and watched a dirty coyote step gently into the home.

Li slowly got to his feet. "Don't move. I'm sure it's lost. I'll just scare it away, and we'll get back to our dinner."

Karl stood. "No. . . wait. I've seen this coyote before. I think I gave it water." The coyote locked eyes with Karl and backed up slowly, until it was out on the front porch. It sat on the porch, never looking away. Then it hit Karl. "Greycoat!"

He ran out the front door after the coyote. Greycoat led Karl to the little house. He watched the coyote nudge the door open and then run to the corner and sit. Karl cautiously followed and stood in the middle of the room. "I've totally gone crazy. I can't tell what's real." Karl pointed to Greycoat. "You better be real or. . . ."

The rest of the family has followed and now stood clustered outside the door.

Greycoat jumped and scratched at two boards on the wall. He sniffed at the wood then jumped and clawed again. Two boards loosened, one falling to the floor.

Karl approached the coyote with his hands raised. "It's okay, Greycoat. I'm a friend." The coyote moved from the corner but kept looking at it. Karl picked up the rotten wood plank. A carving on one of the boards caught his attention. It read: Here is a piece of my world. I regret not being with you in yours. A gift to my good friend, Karl. From, Mary O'Donnell. Karl turned to the hole in the wall. He pulled the other loose piece of wood away. There was a black cloth covering something in the wall. Karl handed the wood to Li who joined Karl at his side.

"Why is your name on this piece of wood?" Li asked in utter confusion. He handed the wood to Jennifer who remained standing just outside the house with Trevor and Jenna.

Karl pulled the black cloth off the objects that were stacked in the wall. The low light in the little house sparkled on numerous gold bars, gold coins, a conquistador helmet with some jewels and a spiral gold piece of jewelry encrusted with more jewels. "It's a treasure!" Karl yelled.

The family filed into the little house as Greycoat quietly slipped away.

Karl removed a note that was on top of the gold. It read: For Karl's eyes, only. So he tucked it into his pocket.

The family stood around the gold, passing around the coins and bars.

"Is it real?" Jennifer asked.

"It sure is," Li replied. "Maybe a million dollars or so. Maybe more. We could pay off our debt and maybe move back to California."

Trevor hollered, "Yes!"

Karl lowered his head. "I like it here better." A part of Karl didn't want the gold. A memory flashed in his head. "I think I dreamed about finding the gold in the canyon."

# Chapter 25

# Rich Again but Spoiled No More

The gold sold to market for just over ten million dollars. The only pieces that were not sold were the spiral gold piece and the conquistador helmet. Karl insisted it was a Persian piece of gold studded with real gems and more valuable than the market was offering. The helmet was kept as a reminder of the gold's origin. Li and Jennifer agreed and kept the two pieces in the Chen family collection.

After long and careful consideration, the family bought the Tucson home from Aunt Kathy and stayed. Karl made them all promise to always eat dinner together and not let the money divide them as it had in the past.

That winter a knock landed on the door. Li answered and, after a few minutes, let the callers enter the house. A woman and man, around Karl's parents' ages, and their two children entered the home bearing holiday treats.

The man introduced himself as William O'Donnell and his wife, Amelia. The older daughter was Liana. She was a tall blond with a fierce stare. Then he introduced his youngest red haired daughter as Isabella.

Karl's heart froze over as he remembered the letter he'd found with the gold from a Mary O'Donnell. He suddenly remembered everything at once: Mary the spider girl, the treasure hunt, and the old witch. "Your last name is O'Donnell?"

The girl smiled and nodded. "My grandma's name is Mary."

William knelt by Karl. "My mother wants to see you. If you remember her."

Karl nodded.

A stunned Li and Jennifer cautiously agreed to take Karl to the hospital after a lengthy explanation from William—one that the Li family, all but Karl, had trouble believing.

"This is too strange," Li commented as he hopped in the SUV.

The two families drove to a retirement hospital. Karl was led into a room, while the others stayed behind in the waiting area.

Karl cautiously opened the door. There was an old woman lying on the bed. Her hair was bright white and her skin paper-thin.

"Come in, please," the woman whispered.

Karl approached the bed.

"I'm Mary."

Karl didn't know what to do. He stood frozen for a moment. He spoke only after noticing a familiarity in her eyes. He had known her. "I remember—you were my best friend. I never talked to anyone like I talked to you."

Mary's eyes filled with tears. "You saved my life. Even though you didn't know it at the time, you saved the lives of thousands of other creatures that lived in the canyon."

Karl looked at the old woman who lay before him. It was hard to see beyond her deep wrinkles though he could. She was beautiful, just as he'd pictured her. "The note you left me, when I read it, I couldn't quite remember everything, but I do now." He pulled out the note that was left with the gold, reading the last few lines aloud: "Just remember that the world runs on love. You have a great heart, and your unselfishness saved me. Now I wish to save you. I leave with you the remaining gold my father found. Remember one thing: the gold won't destroy your life if you have love in your heart." Karl looked at Mary. "I won't let my family lose our way, I promise."

Mary smiled, her tears running free. "You look just like I remember you."

Karl read the last two lines: "Even though our time was short, I've never known such an honest and good friend. It is a fact, Karl, that I will see you in your future."

Karl closed his eyes and remembered how Spider-Mary freaked out when she saw how the Internet worked at the library. He thought about their late night talks and blushed a bit. His eyes swelled with tears even as he fought to keep them under control. "Once a true friend, always a true friend," Karl said.

Mary smiled. Her eyes sparkled from her own tears. "Every year for the past five years, I passed by that old ranch house, waiting for you to move there. I couldn't quite remember the year I met you. I was beginning to think I'd never see you again." Mary squeezed Karl's hand. "Now that I have, I can rest."

"You're not going to leave the hospital, are you?" Karl whispered.

Mary shook her head. "No, but I did what you asked and wrote my life in my journals. They are left to you in my will."

Karl shook his head. "What if there's a spell in the book that could make you young again? We could try it."

"I hid the book many years ago. There was too much power in its pages. In my diaries, I have many more stories to tell you about that book. It gave me so many troubles. Everywhere I went, that book followed. I had to stop many bad people from getting their hands on it. A few times, I even used it to cast spells." Mary winked at Karl. "Throughout all my adventures, good and bad, I want you to know that I had a great life. I thought about you often." There was a long pause before Mary continued, "I've lived for over two hundred years and have experienced many things on this earth. Now it's my turn to meet God."

Karl wiped away his tears.

"My granddaughter knows our story well. Maybe you two can, well, maybe you can get to know each other like we did."

"I'll try."

Mary coughed a bit. Karl could see her struggle. Sadness swelled in his beating heart. "It's true," she mumbled.

"What's true?" Karl asked.

"That we'll see each other again." A wide smile grew on her face. She believed what she said. "You will be important in the future. You will be brave."

"Really? How?"

"Just know one thing, the magic book must not fall into the wrong hands. Evil people will use the power and destroy everything we love."

"That's heavy." Karl scratched his head, not knowing what to say.

"Keep the magic book and my diaries safe. That is your ultimate goal. The diaries will tell you where the book is."

Karl nodded. "I'll try. I mean, I will. I will keep the books safe."

Mary died at that moment. Her body peacefully went limp, her hand loosening on Karl's hand. He placed her arm next to her body and noticed something in her other hand. He pulled it from her frail lifeless fingers.

It was a black-and-white photo of her as a cute thirteen-year-old girl. She was holding a sign that Karl recognized as one of the words he'd taught her during their short time together. The sign read 'Karl rocks!' in big bold letters.

# The End

Thank you for reading _The Lost Spells_. This is Anderson Atlas's first book. "It is a big achievement for me and I'm very proud of it, spelling and grammar errors and all. If you enjoyed it please leave me a review on Amazon, Goodreads or any other site or blog.

The Lost Spells 2

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