by Jason Segel
“Charlie!” She jumped up to greet him. “You did it! I knew you would.”
He hadn’t seen his mother since the black sheep dreams had begun, and he hugged her like they’d been apart for years. “How did you hear?” he asked.
“Jack stopped by earlier,” Veronica Laird said. “He’s so proud of you, Charlie. He told me how you helped ICK—sorry, I mean Isabel—face her fears, and how you convinced Medusa to let her return to the Waking World. He said you were incredibly brave.”
Charlie could feel himself blushing at the praise. “I really thought Jack would be the one who’d figure everything out.”
Charlie’s mom put an arm around him. “Oh, I’m sure Jack will save the world someday too,” she said. “But I always knew the ICK and INK dilemma was yours to solve. It needed someone who’d felt enough fear to open a portal, and Jack doesn’t know that kind of darkness the way you do. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Your dark side helped you save three worlds.”
“But in order to bring Isabel back to the Waking World, I had to promise Medusa we’d destroy the portal so the twins can never return to the Netherworld,” Charlie said. “The purple mansion’s tower is being demolished in the morning.”
He hadn’t known how his mother would take the news, but she seemed thrilled to hear it. “It will be worth it,” she said. “I can’t imagine how happy those two girls must be.”
“Yeah, and it’s a good thing it all ended when it did. It was getting pretty hard to keep hiding everything from Dad,” Charlie said. “I can’t believe he didn’t figure out what was going on.”
His mother raised an eyebrow. “Do you really think he didn’t suspect anything?” she asked.
“Did he?” Charlie asked, surprised.
His mom shrugged mischievously. “Don’t worry. I think I smoothed everything over.”
“What do you mean?” Charlie asked, but there was no time to probe for an answer. Isabel and India Kessog had just appeared together at the bottom of the drive. They spun around on the sidewalk, taking it all in. “Indy! Izzie! Up here!” Charlie shouted down to them.
The two girls ran up the hill to the porch. “Is this it?” Isabel asked.
“Are we here?” India added. “Is this really the Dream Realm?”
“You’ve made it,” Charlie told them. “I’d like you guys to meet my mother.”
“Hello,” said Veronica Laird, holding out a hand to each of them. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you both. My sons have told me all about you.”
“It’s our pleasure, ma’am,” Isabel said. The words were polite, but she was staring at Charlie’s mom with a strange expression. “We owe your sons everything.”
“It’s true. We’re very grateful,” India said. She had the same unusual look in her eye. “May I ask you a question, ma’am?”
“Of course,” said Charlie’s mother.
“Are you…” She couldn’t seem to finish.
“Dead?” asked Veronica Laird. “Yes, in the Waking World, I’m dead. But in Charlie’s dreams, I’ll always be alive.”
“Does that mean…” It was Isabel’s turn to be flummoxed, but Charlie knew exactly what she wanted to say.
“Yes,” he told her. “Your parents are here too. If you want to see them, you just have to imagine them.”
The girls gave each other a nervous look. “Do you remember what they looked like?” India asked Isabel.
“Down to the buttons on Mum’s favorite dress,” Isabel said.
“Try it,” Charlie’s mother urged them.
The girls closed their eyes. In an instant, a man in a uniform and a pretty auburn-haired woman in an old-fashioned dress appeared in front of them. When the girls opened their eyes, they all stared at each other as if they couldn’t possibly be real. Then the twins’ parents each grabbed a girl, and the four of them threw themselves into a hug powerful enough to make up for the last eighty years.
“Come on,” said Charlie’s mom, nudging her son with her elbow. “Let’s give the Kessog family some time alone.”
—
The next morning, the guests began arriving around seven-thirty. They gathered in the kitchen, where Andrew Laird was making the world’s biggest batch of waffles. He was in a good mood, Charlie noticed. It was almost as if he knew what it meant that the mansion’s tower was being torn down.
At eight o’clock, the small crowd moved out to the front yard of the purple mansion. There was no laughing and little talking. They had gathered for a very solemn event.
“Are you ready?” shouted a man holding a sledgehammer.
Charlotte didn’t answer at first.
“You okay?” Andrew Laird whispered to his wife, and she nodded. “Are you sure the tower’s too damaged to save?”
“ ’Fraid so,” Charlotte said sadly. “You have no idea how much it’s been through in the last one hundred and fifty years.” She cupped her hands around her mouth. “We’re ready!” she called up to the man.
He lifted the sledgehammer and brought it down with a crash on the side of the purple mansion’s tower. Three of his colleagues did the same, and soon there was a gaping hole where one of the tower’s eight walls had once been.
Charlie felt a hand slip into his. He didn’t need to look to see whose it was.
They watched as the tower came down, bit by bit and board by board. When it was gone, Charlie saw his dad turn to Charlotte.
“Is it over?” Andrew Laird asked his wife. “Are we going to be a regular family now?”
“I’m sorry?” Charlotte asked, as if she didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”
“The secrets and the ghosts and all the monsters that go bump in the night?”
Charlotte’s jaw dropped. “You knew?” she asked.
“Charlie tried to tell me, but I didn’t believe him. It sounded so crazy. Evil twins and Nightmares and portals to other worlds. I thought he’d made it all up. Then I found out that it was all true,” Andrew Laird said. “I just wish you guys had let me help.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to burden—”
“I know,” he said softly. “It’s going to sound strange, but I had a dream and someone explained it all to me.”
Charlie knew who had told his father the truth.
“So is it over now?” Andrew Laird asked again.
“Yes, honey,” Charlotte told him. “It’s over. I promise.”
On a Tuesday just before Christmas break, the Orville Falls newspaper published three big scoops. Charlie and his friends read the news on Paige’s phone as they trudged through the snow after school.
TWO CHILDREN WRONGFULLY ACCUSED OF EXPLOSION THAT DESTROYED TOWN CENTER
In 1939, the fountain in the center of Orville Falls was destroyed in a massive explosion. For almost eighty years, two little girls have taken the blame. Their names are India and Isabel Kessog, and today those names have finally been cleared. After an extensive investigation by this reporter and the Orville Falls Gazette, it can now be said with absolute certainty that the explosion was the result of a ruptured gas main, and that the mayor’s office was directly responsible….
SEVENTH GRADER’S ARTWORK BRINGS BIG BUCKS
A mural created by Oliver Tobias, a seventh-grade student at Cypress Creek Elementary, was recently purchased by a Russian businesswoman for a price that is rumored to be in the high six figures. The mural came to the attention of the art community earlier this year after a photo of it went viral. Painted on four walls of a small house that was once located at the end of Freeman Road in Cypress Creek, the mural shows twin girls on an epic journey through a human body, battling viruses and “kicking some serious bacteria butt,” in the words of the twelve-year-old artist. The artwork’s new owner purchased the entire house and is having it shipped to the outskirts of Moscow, where she lives.
LOCAL TEACHER FINDS THE CURE
A teacher in nearby Cypress Creek is being credited with one of the most important scientific discoveries
of the decade. Ms. Samantha Abbot, who gives equal credit to her two adopted daughters, has developed a formula that treats some strains of the flu….
…Ms. Abbot’s daughters have been offered scholarships to Columbia University, and Ms. Abbot has been granted her own laboratory. The three will be departing for New York City in a matter of weeks.
Jack passed Paige’s smartphone back to her. “I can’t believe Izzie and Indy are leaving Cypress Creek,” he complained. “They only just got here!”
“I can’t believe they get to skip high school and go straight to college,” Alfie groaned even louder.
“Oh, don’t be jealous,” Paige chided him. “The Kessogs are eighty years old. I bet in five or six decades, you’ll be almost as smart as they are.”
“Gee, thanks,” Alfie said, sticking his tongue out at her. “But seriously! Ollie’s going to be a famous artist. The Kessogs are in college. Ms. Abbot cured the flu. Charlie saved the Netherworld. You’re practically MacGyver. Rocco will probably get drafted to play professional football any day now, and what am I? Totally, hopelessly normal.”
“Nobody would ever call you normal, Alfie,” Charlie assured him. “I saw what you’re wearing under that coat. How many other kids would go around wearing a shirt that says SUPER FUNGI?”
“Charlie’s joking,” Rocco said. “But you’re definitely not normal. Everyone in Cypress Creek knows it’s your special water that’s gotten the football team on this winning streak. Even Jancy Dare says so. I bet there are a million people who’d kill to know what’s in it.”
“You think?” Alfie said.
“Yeah, I heard Jancy’s dad saying he’d love to sell that stuff at his sporting goods store—as long as the competition couldn’t buy it,” Rocco told him.
“Hmmmm,” said Alfie. “I always thought I’d be an astrophysicist, but maybe I should go into business instead.”
“Just what the world needs,” Paige joked, giving Alfie a wink. “Another scientist turned entrepreneur.”
—
When they reached Main Street, Charlie and Jack said goodbye to their friends and headed for Hazel’s Herbarium. They reached the store just as the mailman was preparing to shove a load of mail through the slot. A sign in the window said TREATMENT IN PROGRESS. OPEN AGAIN AT 3!
“I’ll take that, if you don’t mind,” Charlie told the mailman. “I work here.”
“You guys Charlotte’s kids?” the man asked.
“We are,” Charlie said without a second thought.
“I sure was sorry to see the tower on your house get torn down,” said the mailman. “You know, when I was growing up, I was convinced it was magical. Sometimes I’d see a light coming from the windows, and I figured there might be a door to another world in there.”
“Can I tell you a secret?” Jack asked. “You were right.”
The mailman laughed. “I don’t know about that,” he said. “But it sure would make life more interesting. Have a nice afternoon, boys, and give Charlotte my best.”
“We will,” Charlie told him. He opened the door and put the mail down on the counter. As he did so, something caught his eye. He picked up the letter on the top of the pile. It was a nice, thick envelope, and even Charlie could tell that the paper was fancy.
He read the name on the return address. It belonged to one of the biggest publishers in New York. He couldn’t help but peek. He tore the top of the envelope a little—just enough to see that the first word of the letter was Congratulations.
The keys to Hazel’s Herbarium dropped out of his hand.
“Charlotte!” he shouted.
She stuck her head out of the examination room. “What’s going on?” she asked. “I’m just treating Mr. Hainey.”
“Forget the fungus—you’ve got to get out here!” Charlie told her. “Your book is going to be published!”
MICHAEL MULLER
JASON SEGEL used to have nightmares just like Charlie, and just like Charlie, he’s learned that the things we’re most afraid of are the things that can make us strong…if we’re brave enough to face them. Jason likes acting, writing, making music, and hanging out with his friends. Sometimes he writes movies. Sometimes he writes songs for movies. Sometimes he stars in those movies and sings those songs. You might know him from The Muppets and Despicable Me. Your parents might know him from other stuff. Nightmares! The Lost Lullaby is his third novel. Look for the first two books in the Nightmares! series, the New York Times bestseller Nightmares! and Nightmares! The Sleepwalker Tonic, available from Delacorte Press.
KIRSTEN MILLER grew up in a small town just like Cypress Creek, minus the purple mansion. She lives and writes in New York City. Kirsten is the author of the acclaimed Kiki Strike books, the Eternal Ones series, and the New York Times bestseller How to Lead a Life of Crime. Nightmares! The Lost Lullaby is the third novel Kirsten has written with Jason Segel. You can visit her at kirstenmillerbooks.com.
