“No,” said Brian violently. “Don’t you remember? I’m Brian. Brian. We caught tadpoles in the creek when we were little. Your mom makes the best blueberry pie in the world. You were mad when I made the hockey team and you didn’t, but you never said one word to me except ‘way to go’—”
Suddenly Phil’s face moved more like a real face, just visible in the light of Coco’s phone.
“Brian?” whispered the scarecrow, in a different voice. “Brian, where are we?”
Brian’s hand was trembling in Ollie’s, but his voice was steady when he said, “I have no idea. How’d you get this way, huh? Can you tell me that?”
“He smiled at us,” breathed the scarecrow. “I only remember the smile...” Then the scarecrow’s limbs jerked in a way that wasn’t at all human. “Maze,” he whispered. “In the maze.” The brief humanity was gone from his face, fast as it had come. He was only a scarecrow, standing stiffin the straw. They stood in massed ranks, not looking up now, just standing, empty as dolls. Waiting.
Brian bowed his head. He was still shaking. Coco’s phone reflected a little light into their faces, making them look like specters in the darkness of that haunted world. They were all still holding hands. “At least Phil is still in there, somewhere,” said Coco. “He’s not—gone. He remembered you. I’m sure he did.”
Brian didn’t answer.
They didn’t say anything for a while.
“We ought to keep a watch,” said Ollie, rousing herself.
“If they could climb, they would be doing it already,” said Coco.
“Still,” said Ollie.
After another pause, she said, “I met Beth Webster’s ghost in the front bedroom.”
Brian and Coco both swung around to look at her. “She said that the smiling man was in the center of the maze,” continued Ollie. “That the maze is his doorway between worlds and that the scarecrows hold it open somehow. After what Phil said—I think that’s where we have to go. Into the maze.”
“It could be a trap,” Coco pointed out. She had begun to shiver as hard as Brian, as the shock from terror and climbing wore off. Ollie saw that her hands were full of splinters and bloodied. She realized that neither Brian nor Coco could takeany more thinking or speculation that night. “We should get some sleep,” Ollie said firmly. “And decide in the morning. Brian, where’s that first-aid kit? Coco’s hurt herself. And I definitely have splinters and you probably do too.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Brian said. “It doesn’t matter if your hands have splinters when you have trowels for hands!” He giggled hysterically.
Ollie whacked him in the arm. “Stop that right now,” she said. “That’s not helping. First-aid kit. Then Coco’s going to share some trail mix—no, wait, your backpack’s still down there, isn’t it, Coco? Well, I’ll share some granola, then, and we’re all going to drink some water and take turns getting some sleep. ’Kay?”
“Okay, Ollie,” Brian said, his voice thin and tired now.
He and Ollie took turns picking the big ugly splinters out of Coco’s hands. Coco didn’t make a sound. After a liberal application of alcohol and Snoopy Band-Aids, Coco said, “Thanks, guys.”
“Hey,” said Ollie, “you kind of saved our lives back there.”
Coco looked pleased. “I did, didn’t I?” she said.
They de-splintered Brian, then Ollie. They shared the granola, and Ollie again blessed her dad’s overpacking. “Peanut butter and jelly for skiing,” he used to say. “Ham and cheese for hiking.”
Ollie tried to let that memory warm her as the three took off their shoes and piled up their coats and backpacksto make something to sleep on. “I’ll keep watch for a bit. I want to do some thinking, anyway,” said Ollie. “Get some sleep, guys.”
Brian and Coco settled themselves among the coats. Ollie wished she had grabbed the dusty blanket from the bedroom upstairs. Eventually the others fell asleep. But Ollie did not. She sat peering over the edge of the loft for a long time. She thought about ghosts and scarecrows, of a world hidden under the real one. Of a person called the smiling man.
Of bargains.
Until at last, Ollie, unable to keep her eyes open, woke Brian and tried to get some sleep herself.
21
WHEN COCO WOKEher up, it was morning. Ollie glanced down at the space beneath them first. The scarecrows were still there, but the life was gone from them. They were only a mass of straw dolls. Ollie glanced at her watch. The countdown had resumed: 06:13:21.
MAZE.
Brian sat up, groaning. “Are they gone?” he asked.
“No,” said Ollie. “They’re down there.” They all peered over the edge and shuddered.
