The entryway was filled with junk—bags of cement, broken lawn furniture, dusty croquet mallets, weathered rowboats and oars—all stacked up against the walls. This part of the hotel had been closed up for such a long time that every surface was coated in dust. “Look there,” said Theo, pointing at the floor. “Footprints.”
“Someone’s been in here recently,” Carter whispered.
“The bellhop did say they use this area for storage,” Ridley recalled.
“At least the footprints are human,” said Izzy. When the others gave her a funny look, she shrugged. “I didn’t mean monsters. They could’ve been rabid raccoon tracks.”
“Or coyote,” Olly added.
“Or bear,” Izzy went on.
“Or monkey!” said Carter.
The Misfits cleared a path to allow Ridley’s chair to fit through, and then they made their way into the main hall. Several streaks of sunlight slanted across the space, dusty motes turning lazily in the beams. At the end of the hall, another door waited for them. This one, however, was chained shut.
Leila pushed forward. “This lock is nothing!” She pulled her tools from her pocket and got to work. In no time, the lock and chains were on the floor, and the Misfits were moving on. The next hallway was darker, packed with shadows and cobwebs and a musty smell that made everyone want to cough. Closed doors lined the hall on both sides.
“Did your dad mention where in the abandoned wing the Emerald Ring used to hang out?” Theo asked as they came to a staircase. One set of steps went up to the second floor; the other went down to a dark basement.
“Of course not,” said Leila. “Dad never gives away the answer to anything unless he absolutely has to.”
“Mr. Vernon is training us to think for ourselves,” Carter added.
“Training is for animals,” said Ridley. “I wish he’d spill the beans already!”
“I think we just need to look around a little bit,” said Leila.
“Olly and Izzy, you check the rooms on that side of the hallway,” Leila suggested. “Me and Ridley will explore this side. And Theo and Carter can keep a lookout at both ends.”
“Us?” Theo and Carter spouted out at the same time.
“Unless you’re scared,” Leila teased.
“I can only speak for myself,” said Theo. “The answer is yes. But that does not mean I will shy away from it. Neither shall Carter.”
Carter cringed. “Right.”
“Okay, then,” said Ridley. “Let’s meet out here in ten minutes. Or just holler if you find anything.”
“But be sure to scream if you see a ghost,” said Leila.
“Silly,” said Izzy. “Madame Esmeralda got rid of all the ghosts yesterday!” When no one said anything, she added, “Didn’t she?”
Leila and Ridley went door to door, peering into the shadowed rooms. Most were empty. In a couple, there was wallpaper hanging from the walls in great, droopy strips. Some rooms had furniture piled up in corners, and rugs were rolled and stacked in others. Except for a trail of dusty footprints that led down the hallway, everything looked like it hadn’t been touched in decades.
Ridley took Leila’s wrist and stopped her from opening another door. “You’ve been acting strange this week. I’m worried about you.”
Leila tried to play it off. “Strange? In what way?”
Ridley held out her hand for Leila to shake. Leila grasped it, wondering what trick her friend had up her sleeve. After Ridley let go, Leila glanced at her palm: The word strange had appeared in black ink on her skin.
“In that way,” Ridley smirked. “But seriously, is everything okay?”
Leila laughed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“At first I figured that Bosso’s monkey showing up at your place in the middle of the night was bugging you. But when I thought about it, I realized that something was wrong even before that. You haven’t been yourself ever since the incident with the stolen diamond.”
Leila found her hand drifting to the key on the string. “I guess it was kinda scary to see my favorite people in danger like that.”
Ridley stared at Leila in silence for a couple seconds, then nodded. “Fair enough. Just know that if you ever need to talk, you know, about anything… I’m here for you. We all are. The Misfits, I mean.”
“Oh, I know that, Ridley.” Leila squeezed her friend’s shoulder. “You didn’t even need to say it.”
“But that’s the thing,” Ridley replied. “I think that I did.”
Leila knew Ridley was right. There was a lot about Leila’s life she’d never told anyone in Mineral Wells, not even her fathers. She didn’t want to make anyone feel bad for her. It was just easier to lock her old memories away and hide them behind a smile.
You see, the thing about smiling is that if you do it often enough, it can actually make you happier. Leila had learned this early on. It was one of her best tricks.
Ridley’s concern touched Leila’s heart. She might cry or confess everything to Ridley if she didn’t do something. So she reached out and turned the doorknob. Peering into the darkness, she could make out framed posters hanging on the opposite wall. Names on the posters looked familiar. She’d seen them in books and on pictures that decorated Vernon’s Magic Shop. Thurston. Kellar. Houdini. Alexander: The Man Who Knows.
“We found it!” Leila rushed into the room with Ridley just behind her. In the dim light, they stared at the old posters, which were advertisements for long-ago performances at the Grand Theater. Leila reached toward a window curtain to draw it aside and bring light into the room.
But Ridley cried, “Stop!” and Leila froze. “Someone outside might see us. I know the outer door was open, but I doubt the manager would be happy that we strolled right in. I have a better solution.” Wheeling over to where Leila was standing, Ridley lowered her voice and said, “Behold.” Raising her right hand, she snapped her fingers. A flame floated a few inches above her pointer finger, providing just enough light for Leila to see by. Leila squeaked in surprise and then clapped.
By the flickering light of Ridley’s finger, Leila noticed a dozen or more symbols carved into one portion of the wall. “Wow,” Leila whispered. She ran her fingers over the carvings, as if she could read them that way. Many of them were simply the suits from playing cards: diamonds, clubs, hearts, and spades. Inside a few of the hearts, someone had carved what looked like initials:
“If these were left by the Emerald Ring,” Leila wondered aloud, “what do K and A stand for?”
“I don’t know,” Ridley answered, “but a few of these initials look like they were crossed out. Weird. Guess someone had a bad breakup.”
Leila considered the wall. “Or one person carved the initials, and someone else crossed them out. And the first person came back and carved them again. And the other person came back and crossed them out again.”
“Hmm. If that’s true, it could be one reason that the magic club broke apart. Love.” Ridley spoke that last word as if she were chewing a large mouthful of tripe stew.
“Do you think it could have turned into hate?” Leila asked, wondering what role her dad must have played in this old game.
Ridley sighed. “Love doesn’t need to transform into anything other than itself in order for people to get hurt. At least, that’s what I’ve gathered from reading my mom’s novels. I’ve never been in love.”
Leila snickered. “Me neither.”
She glanced at the initials and the symbols, imagining the drama that must have unfolded in this very room. Had her dad and Carter’s dad practiced their first magic tricks here? Had they argued about who should belong in the Emerald Ring, and who shouldn’t? Could this be the room where the old club had broken apart?
“Look over here. These symbols are different.” Just below the poster advertising a show featuring Alexander: The Man Who Knows, a few more carvings stood out. They were more detailed than the simple playing card suits. One looked like a stick with leaves growing
from it. The second was a star inside a circle. Another looked like a chalice. The last symbol was half-hidden on the wall underneath the poster frame. Leila removed the poster, revealing the carving to be a sword.
“I’ve seen these before,” said Leila.
Ridley’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Wand, coin, cup, and sword,” she said. “They’re suits from a deck of cards. Tarot cards. Fortune-tellers use them to divine your future.”
“Sandra brought over a pack this morning!” said Leila. “I think my dad keeps a couple tarot decks in his office. He doesn’t use them. He just likes the illustrations.”
“It would make sense, then, if Sandra carved these symbols here a long time ago,” Ridley noted. “The question is: Why?”
Leila glanced down at the back of the poster and gasped. She turned the frame so Ridley could see the black ink scribbled onto the cardboard. It was a sentence. A message. Ridley leaned close as Leila crouched and sat on her heels.
Leila handed the poster to Ridley and went to the door, calling to the others, “Hey! We found something!” The Misfits all came running.
Noticing the carvings on the wall, Carter said, “Tarot symbols.” He glanced at Leila, seemingly remembering her divination from that morning. “Was Sandra here?”
“Once upon a time, perhaps.”
They crowded around Ridley’s chair and examined the writing on the back of the framed poster by the light of her finger’s flame. Theo read the message aloud: “Where Action Meets Thought, We Discover Reward.”
“Seems like some sort of pledge,” said Leila.
Ridley nodded. “Maybe it’s a motto that the Emerald Ring once used to start their meetings.”
“Or maybe it’s a secret code,” said Carter.
“Or a riddle,” Izzy suggested.
“Oh, we just love riddles!” said Olly. “Right, Izzy?”
“Posi-tutely! Here’s one: What was the psychic medium’s secret hobby?”
“I know! I know!” said Olly. “She was a ghostwriter!”
“If it is a riddle,” said Leila, “maybe Sandra left it here to point somebody toward something.”
“Or someone,” said Carter.
“Or somewhere,” Theo added.
“Whatever it was pointing toward,” said Leila, “I’ll bet it’s still here, somewhere in the abandoned wing.”
“Even after all this time?” asked Ridley. “According to Dean the bellhop, there was that fire.…” She wiggled her fingers and the flame sparked. “And then the water damage…” She shifted in her wheelchair, and a fine mist shot out from the handlebars, spraying the group. They flinched and jumped away as Ridley chuckled. “And then the termites.” She moved her elbow, and one of the secret compartments sprang open, plastic bugs from Vernon’s shop leaping out, making everyone jolt in surprise.
“Clever,” said Carter, impressed.
Leila wouldn’t be distracted. “It can’t hurt to keep looking.”
“We didn’t find anything on the other side of the hallway,” said Olly.
“Except for some mousetraps,” said Izzy, “which I stayed far away from.” She peeked into her pocket to make sure her mouse was safe and sound.
“There was a set of stairs at the end of the hallway,” said Theo. “I think they lead down to a basement.”
The Misfits looked at one another with fear in their faces. Carter spoke up. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the scariest places have the biggest reward.”
“Reward,” Leila echoed. “Just like where action meets thought. Come on, everyone. Follow me!”
SIXTEEN
Staring into the darkness from the top of the staircase, Theo asked, “Are you sure you all want to do this?”
“You’re welcome to wait up here with me,” said Ridley. “There’s no way I can make it down these steps.”
“We’ll be quick,” said Leila.
Carter removed his flashlight from his satchel. “You know, there are things other than ghosts that should make us nervous. So, everyone, be careful,” he said, taking the first step down. Leila, Theo, and Olly crept slowly after him. Ridley and Izzy stayed behind.
At the bottom, Carter’s flashlight swept across the stone floor below and the cobweb-covered rafters overhead. Leila could barely see. She heard the others trample down the steps behind her. Theo and Olly brushed against her on either side, clutching at her arms. It was so quiet that Leila could hear her friends breathing. She felt something pull against her ankle, like a string or a wire, and she nearly tripped.
But before she could check it out, something tall and pale appeared in the far corner. Leila gasped as Carter shone his light at it. Like something from a bad dream, a human skeleton jumped out!
Its arms and legs shivered and shook as it slowly moved toward her. Carter froze in his tracks, the light trembling in his hand. Olly and Theo shrieked, and Leila leapt away from them. The skeleton jittered forward, then to her surprise, it dropped in a heap to the floor.
From up the stairs, Ridley cried out, “Is everyone okay down there?”
Carter crept toward the pile of bones, keeping the light steady. Leila gulped down a hard knob that had moved into her esophagus; she was worried that the thing might jump up again and attack. “Wires,” Carter whispered to himself. He reached out and grabbed what looked like fishing lines dangling down from a railing. Leila caught a glimpse of the light reflecting off them.
“How bizarre,” said Theo.
A rail was attached to the rafters. Following the light, Leila noticed where the rail originated: a far corner of the space. Her face lit up like a bonfire when Carter shifted his beam and briefly blinded her.
“Hey!” Ridley shouted. “You guys are scaring us up here!”
“Don’t worry yourselves,” Leila called. “Just had a bit of a fright is all.”
“I’ll go get them,” said Olly. He rushed back up the stairs.
Carter wandered toward the corner, exploring the spot where the skeleton had come from. Leila raced over to him, not wanting to be left in the dark.
“What is it?” said Ridley, edging down the stairs in her chair with Olly and Izzy’s help, step by careful step.
“A booby trap,” said Theo, staring up at the rail. “Someone rigged up a trip wire and a fake skeleton. There is probably a hidden system of pulleys somewhere nearby. Over time, the wires must have decayed. That is why it fell to the floor.”
“But why set up a booby trap?” Olly asked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his mouse. He nuzzled it with his nose.
Izzy nudged his shoulder. “Obviously, it was to trap a booby!”
Carter laughed. “No, they did it to scare people away. A classic trick.”
“Was this before or after the fire, the flood, the mold, and the infestation?” Ridley asked.
“I’m sure my dad would know,” said Leila. “I wonder what they were trying to scare people away from.”
“Pirate treasure,” said Izzy. “That’s usually what dancing skeletons are for.”
“Mineral Wells is landlocked, silly.” Ridley scoffed, and she rolled across the bumpy stone floor. “Would’ve been kind of difficult for pirates to get up through these hills to us landlubbers, don’t you think?”
“Maybe the Emerald Ring was trying to scare people away from this corner,” said Carter, who was focusing on the floor and the basement walls near where he was standing. There didn’t seem to be anything remarkable about the spot; the stones there were smooth and grouted with old, crumbly cement.
“But we all know that magicians are about misdirection,” Leila stated. “I doubt Sandra or the others in the old club would have set up a trap that pointed directly to the place they were trying to keep secret.” She nodded at the track that ran across the ceiling, the path that the skeleton had danced along. “More likely, they’d choose the other side of the room.”
Curious, Carter shone his light at the opposite corner. To Leila’s surprise, the sto
nes in the floor over there looked different—they had white markings on them. Together, the Magic Misfits rushed to check them out.
In the center of each stone was a faint image drawn in chalk. Leila gasped. “These are the symbols from the tarot deck,” she said. “Just like the ones carved into the wall upstairs.”
Ridley pushed through the others to get a better view. “Leila’s right. The suits—swords, cups, coins, and wands.” Every stone in this particular corner was marked with one of the small icons. They practically glowed under the flashlight beam.
“You think Sandra did this?” Carter asked.
“Maybe,” Leila answered, uncertain.
“Why here?” Theo studied the floor. “What is the significance?”
“The riddle,” Ridley whispered. “Where action meets thought, we discover reward.”
“Reward!” said Izzy.
“Wow, we found it,” said Olly. “We’re rich!”
“Flat-out, stinking rich!” Izzy did a little tap dance. “I’m gonna get a pony! And a pony for Illy.”
Olly’s eyes went wide as his imagination went wild. “And I’m gonna buy the world’s biggest ice-cream sundae. And a new mouse house for Ozzy!”
Leila shook her head. “We have to figure out what it means first. Ridley, what else do you know about the tarot symbols?”
“Way too much for me to remember right now,” Ridley said. “I do know that the symbols on these stones are connected to the suits on playing cards. Coins are like diamonds, representing wealth or security. Wands are like clubs, symbols of action and inspiration. Cups are hearts, vessels that can be full or empty. And swords equate to spades—sharp tools that cut and divide like thought and analysis, helping us reach the secret center of what we desire.”
Theo gasped, smacking his fist into his palm. “That’s it!” He glanced at the others. “Ridley just said it herself. Wands are like clubs. Action. Swords are like spades. Thought. Where action meets thought!”
The Magic Misfits: The Second Story Page 9
