The Longest Halloween, Book Two. Frank Wood

all there in black and white, Joel,” Grubb said. “It’ll take some time to account for how things might have shifted from a century ago, but you young’uns may have just found the location of Sebastian Silverbeard’s hidden treasure!”

      “Cooollll,” Dreyfuss whispered.

      Too soon, one of the clocks in the Grubb library chimed the fourth hour of the afternoon. “We’d better go,” Joel said, “Ma’ll be home soon and she’ll want the two of you as tucked in as soon as possible.”

      “Awww, Joel,” Jasper said, “just when things were getting good!”

      “I know, right?” Dreyfuss agreed.

      “Meet me back here tomorrow,” Eliezer Grubb told the boys, “and we’ll plot out our next steps. Whatever ye do, don’t let anythin’ happen to that map!”

      “We won’t, Mr. Grubb,” Jasper called back, “and thanks for everything!”

      Eliezer Grubb allowed the smallest trace of a smile to cross his weathered lips. He was so lost in thought that he nearly didn’t hear the heavy footsteps carelessly enter his front yard.

      “The trail’s leaving Grubb mansion, Mister Scroggins!” Mitchell Allister called out over the phone. “It’s headed back to the city!”

      “All right, we need to turn around,” Scroggins told Gribbett. “Head back to town!”

      Peering through the window, Grubb could make out the form of a heavily shouldered male in a tight-fitting silver windbreaker with thick, dark hair crowning his head who ordered his companions about in a voice deep and menacing. The others were also male and not dressed half as nattily. “Search the home,” the voice said, “leave nothing unturned. Bring me that map!”

      Eliezer Grubb swiftly moved to his closet and retrieved his rifle. “Looks like we might have some visitors tonight, Elizabeth.”

      Grubb recoiled as the silver windbreaker turned and the face of a wolf with a snout, snarling teeth and sinister eyes greeted him.

      “Of the lupine variety,” he added, and got himself into position right outside of the front door.

      “Things are coming together, my love,” McClafferty was saying, back at the farmhouse. “The schoolteacher’s got his followers circling, that’s for sure, but they won’t take away what was promised to us. Let’s see … the boys chased his bandits to just outside the middle school last night; my poor Barnabas took bit of a blow but he’s rallying already and I’ve sent Berethia into the game. She won’t fail us, Lucius. As for you, my darling,” she walked to the huge sleeping form in the corner, “Ian’s new girlfriend will do just fine for the waking recipe I’ve got brewing for you. He’ll need to prepare her a bit more but he’ll be successful in that, mark my word—and then you and I shall reclaim what should have been ours from the start! The dream is not over, lover, just delayed a bit. And those who would have tried to stop us will pay.” She leaned in and kissed the forehead of the large, shadowy form reposing in her bedroom.

      “Pull over here,” Scroggins ordered Gribbett as they made it back to town, his attention suddenly taken by something. Scroggins moved to get out of the vehicle. “Wait here,” he said, snatching what looked like a sack from the backseat.

      The kestrel Berethia wouldn’t know what had befallen it, and the small burlap sack would obscure its most valued asset—its vision. She was firmly scooped up and tossed unceremoniously into a larger bag before her ultimate placement in a cage, hidden deeply away from its mistress.

      “That’s one less looky-look for you, Beverly,” Scroggins muttered, tossing the sack containing the squawking bird into the backseat of the car. “We need to drop the bird off at the Adeline May,” he told Gribbett. “And then we need to find out just where those kids are headed!”

      “All right!” Gribbett replied.

      “Watch your speed,” Scroggins said.

      An IM from a Pirate

      “And I just thought that you should know,” Renee was telling Jasper and Dreyfuss in a video/instant message window that appeared at the bottom of the screen of the small laptop. Jasper and Dreyfuss had arrived at the Franklin flat that afternoon and had hurried to get online.

      “Thanks for the warning, Atherton,” Jasper replied. “You’re a cool dude, for a girl that is.”

      “All right, I’m out,” she said and her window disappeared.

      “She’s got that military thing down, huh?” Dreyfuss remarked.

      “But what do you suppose Scroggins wants with the map?” Jasper asked.

      “No idea,” Dreyfuss said.

       “I got a call from Mrs. McClafferty earlier this afternoon, Joel,” Joel’s mother said as she and Joel cleared the small kitchen table of the evening’s dishes. “She said that you really impressed her in your interview.”

      “Did she say anything else?” Joel asked, his excitement mounting.

      “Not much, “Joel’s mother replied, “unless you count the fact that she’d like you to start working for her in the patch first thing after school next week.”

      “Yesss!” Joel yelped with a fist pump.

      “I’m so proud of you, Joel,” she said.

      “I … I can do it, can’t I?” Joel paused.

      “You can,” his mother giggled, “but your grades have to stay up, understand?”

      “Yes ma’am,” Joel said.

      “When you worked for Mr. Grisson, it was over the summer; but it’s fall now, so you need to stay on point,” she went on. “And we’ll probably need to drop by the store and get you an extra set of jeans. Mrs. McClafferty said she already had a pair of gloves and some boots that you could borrow.”

      “That’s lame, don’t you think?” Joel asked.

      “Joel you’re working in a pumpkin patch, not the Gap,” his mother said.

      “Yeah but …” Joel began.

      “Joel, you’ll be fine,” she said, “it’s not a fashion show.” She took a deep breath and the tone of her voice changed. “I also heard from the vice principal today,” she said.

      Joel rolled his eyes. “Really?”

      “He said that you and Ian Samuels were getting into it at school,” she said.

      “Ma, it was his fault,” Joel exclaimed. “He’s a bully!”

      “I’m not denying that, Joel,” his mother said. “Just keep your distance. Mr. Hairston said that if he didn’t know you, you’d be spending this weekend in detention.”

      “Ma, I don’t know what you expected me to do. He called me out in front of everybody!” Joel protested.

      “That’s pride, Joel,” his mother said, “and I’ve told you about pride … it goeth before a fall.”

      Joel’s phone sounded and Polly’s face appeared on the screen. Good save; he knew that once his mother started quoting scripture, the disagreement was over.

      “Hello?”

      “Hey, it’s me,” Polly’s voice sounded. “So look, I just want to clear the air between us … especially now that you’re going to be working at Ian’s family’s farm. I just don’t want things to be weird is all, Joel,” she said.

      “Me either, and they won’t be,” he said. “It’s not like you’ll be out in the fields moving pumpkins.”