Map of the Passages: 3 (Enchanted Emporium)

by Pierdomenico Baccalario

  “Shut up!” I screamed. “Just stop your incessant blabbering and give me back my dog RIGHT THIS MINUTE!”

  “So you don’t want the others back, too?” Semueld asked, jingling a set of four small keys in his hand. He pointed to the other trunks scattered around the tent. That’s when I realized where Aiby, Doug, and Mr. Everett had gone.

  “It’s up to you, young McPhee,” Semueld continued. “It’s all up to you. I believe I’ve been rather generous, all things considered. I’ve given you the box so you can win Aiby Lily’s heart, and you have until tomorrow night to decide whether to give me the key to the Enchanted Emporium or get eaten by the box.”

  Semueld began singing a song similar to the melancholy tune from before: “In a way, it’s mad; in a way, it’s sad; what I need for satisfaction, I can’t get through my own action . . .”

  “Stop it!” I shouted.

  “You have one day to think things over, Finley McPhee. You can have everything, or nothing.” He laughed. “When you’ve decided what to do . . . call me!”

  With that said, he retrieved the Cloak of Mirrors and donned it. Before I could do or say anything, the interior of the tent dissipated into a flock of fleeing ravens.

  I dodged past black wings and beaks, then fell to the ground shouting. The flock of ravens dispersed into the sky and vanished against the sunset.

  I picked myself up and looked around. The two campers who were reading didn’t seem to have noticed anything that had happened. Neither had the two cyclists with the carriage.

  I ran over to the bicycle attached to the trailer and hopped on. “I’ll bring it back as soon as possible!” I shouted at them, pedaling away. “Sorry, but it’s an emergency!”

  Despite their objections, I raced toward the village with all my might. I felt the weight of the cart behind me, but I didn’t stop pedaling even though I wasn’t sure where I was going.

  I saw the flock of ravens flying high in the sky and deluded myself into thinking that I could somehow follow them to find out where Askell was headed. Once on the coastal road, I saw that the ravens were heading inland on the peninsula, over the mountains.

  What is in the mountains? I thought. There’s the pass, there’s the dam . . . the dam!

  I was sure they were going to the dam! But why, exactly? What was Semueld Askell going to do all the way up there?

  I didn’t know, nor did I know why the two tourists whose bike I’d stolen were still screaming at me. I turned to see the man was running after me like a madman. Is his bike one of those ultra-light and super expensive ones? I wondered. Didn’t he hear me say I’ll return it?

  “Wah,” whimpered the little boy in the cart behind me. “Wah.”

  I slammed on the brakes. I was a perfect idiot. I took one last look at the ravens that were flying away, now impossible to catch up to, and climbed off the bike.

  “I’m so sorry!” I said to the little boy, not really knowing what else to do. He stared at me with his large, curious eyes and smiled. He must have enjoyed being carted around as I’d pedaled. His father, on the other hand, looked anything but pleased. If he caught me, he would throttle me. And he would be right to do so.

  The dad had almost reached me. With horror, I saw the Heart-eating Box scurrying behind him. My stomach tied in knots, I took off in a dash toward the village, running as fast as I possibly could.

  What should I do? I asked myself, unable to think anything but those words. The ravens had disappeared. Aiby was trapped in a trunk, and so were my brother, Mr. Everett, and Patches. Askell had the keys to the trunks and would only give them to me in exchange for the key to the Enchanted Emporium.

  “Never!” I snarled, continuing to run.

  Then there was the Heart-eating Box, which within twenty-four hours would either deliver Aiby’s heart to me . . . or eat me.

  Maybe I should have returned to the campground and tried to open the trunks. Maybe I should have run to the Enchanted Emporium to ask Mr. Lily for help. I could have run home, hoping that the box wouldn’t catch me, and then explain everything to Dad. “Listen, Dad! Doug, my girlfriend, and Mr. Everett are trapped in magical trunks, along with Patches. And the person who did it is Semueld Askell, an economist from Chicago who deals in magical objects and is staying at the campground in a magical tent. And you also should know, Dad, that this Askell is the same person who killed old lady Cumai, and that Cumai’s brother is ready to lead an uprising of magical beings against Applecross unless we deliver the culprit. But first, they’ll probably kill Reverend Prospero.”

  Knowing my father, he would have interrupted me before I’d managed to get halfway through that speech, and then he would’ve sent me to my room without dinner.

  Unfortunately, going to Somerled was out of the question since Scary Villa was too far away.

  What about Meb? I thought. It’s evening, so she might still be at her shop.

  “Please, please, please,” I said, running through the country roads like a maniac. “Please still be at work, Meb . . .”

  But Meb wasn’t there. The note on the door of her store read: CLOSED.

  No Meb, no Reverend Prospero, no Dad. I considered running to Reginald Bay to Mr. Lily, but I had no form of transportation. I briefly considered lying down and going fetal, hoping for the best.

  The sun had set, and the sky was tinged with violet. I tried to think and breathe. I felt smothered by the little time I had left to figure out what to do. I slipped off the backpack and dug inside it.

  “Maybe there’s something I can use in here,” I said to myself.

  I pulled out Aiby’s spare T-shirt, Mr. Everett’s handkerchief, a metal water bottle, and two Essential Pouches containing the shard from the cloak and the arrowhead. There was a pack of flowery tissues with words in the Enchanted Language written on the package, a pocket knife that looked anything but magical, and the case for the Fludd Lenses.

  “No magic ticket for quickly getting back home,” I said, failing to read the instructions in the Enchanted Language on the wrapper. “Come on, there has to be something useful in here . . .”

  I heard a clicking sound behind me and remembered the box was still chasing me. I shoved everything back into the backpack and headed toward the pub. Maybe someone there would be willing to give me a ride to Reginald Bay.

  I ran down the only alley in all of Applecross and headed toward the square. I heard shouting in the street ahead of me and ran as fast as I could toward the Curious Traveler.

  My jaw dropped. “No!” I cried out. “It can’t be. It simply can’t be!”

  In the middle of the road, between the shop and the Greenlock Pub, was one of Askell’s trunks. It was standing vertically. A crowd had formed around it.

  Even at that distance, I could hear Mr. Everett’s far-off voice and the furious pounding coming from inside the sarcophagus. Making my way through the crowd, I noticed a large mailing label that’d been glued to the side of the trunk. It read:

  FRAGILE! THIS SIDE UP.

  For delivery to the Curious Traveler

  Applecross Square (Scotland)

  Handle with care — contains Mr. Edwin Everett

  To be opened preferably before midnight

  To open, ask Mr. Finley McPhee of Applecross (Scotland)

  “What a coward,” I cried after reading the last lines.

  Mr. McStay grabbed me by the collar. “What happened to Edwin, kid?”

  I ignored him. Leaning on the trunk, I said, “Mr. Everett, it’s Finley! Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of there!”

  An eerie wailing came from inside the trunk that made my skin crawl. I dashed away, steering clear of the panicked crowd.

  What have I done? I wondered.

  Soon I’d reached the coastal road. I crossed it and leaped onto the stony beach, running until I felt water squish inside my shoes. I collapsed in a he
ap, unable to think or move. I was completely alone and panicked. Night was falling like ink pooling on an empty page.

  If Mr. Everett was delivered in front of his store, Doug should have also been delivered to the farm. Perhaps the headlights I saw flashing south of the village toward my house were from my father’s van as he left to look for me.

  And Aiby? Aiby might have been delivered to the Enchanted Emporium. That would be a good thing since it’d mean Mr. Lily and Meb would know about the danger.But they wouldn’t yet know what we’d discovered at the mill, nor about the island where Reverend Prospero was being held prisoner. Or about Cumai’s brother.

  I felt like I’d lost my mind. I was already hearing all the questions they would ask me.

  Why did you go to the mill without telling us, Finley?

  Why did you enter Askell’s tent, Finley?

  Finley, why is your brother trapped in a trunk?

  What did you do this time, Finley?

  Finley, aren’t you supposed to be the defender of the Enchanted Emporium?

  “No!” I screamed, panicked by anger and guilt. I got back on my feet, grabbed a rock, and squeezed it between my fingers until they hurt. “I never wanted to become the Enchanted Emporium’s defender! I don’t care at all about magical objects. I just wanted to fish quietly at the pond!”

  I hurled the rock into the sea.

  “It’s Aiby’s fault! It’s all Aiby’s fault!” I repeated. “If it hadn’t been for her — if she hadn’t . . .”

  I didn’t even understand what was making me angry. Hot, guilty tears flowed down my cheeks. I wiped them away with the back of my hand. Only a few hours before, Aiby too had wiped away her tears with Mr. Everett’s handkerchief.

  “This sucks,” I said.

  Clickety-clack.

  Clickety-clickety-clack.

  I turned and saw the Heart-eating Box scuttling along the stone beach with determined zeal. I saw the striped shells on its sides that looked like so many tiny mouths.

  It caught up with me, brushed against my foot in the sand, and stopped. I picked it up. “Everything’s gone wrong,” I said to it. “Everything’s all wrong.”

  Several cars arrived in the village. I heard distant voices. Some of the villagers were calling for Mr. McStay. I clearly heard the Reverend’s name mentioned.

  The sky grew darker still, like a curtain being drawn before the stars took the stage. I wanted to dissolve. Disappear. To erase my birth from the history of Applecross.

  I gazed at the empty interior of the box, thinking it would be just big enough to put the four small items inside. I thought that even if I gave my key to Askell and the Emporium closed, at least I would still have Aiby. The Heart-eating Box would link the two of us together forever, which was a magnificent and terrible thought.

  Everything was in my hands. I could choose to do nothing and let myself get eaten by that box, or I could offer up Aiby’s heart instead. I could hold onto the key as the Enchanted Emporium’s defender and try every possible means — magical or otherwise — to open the sarcophagi that Doug, Aiby, Patches, and Mr. Everett had been trapped in.

  Then, without even thinking, I slipped Everett’s handkerchief — still wet with Aiby’s tears — into the box. Then I stuffed her shirt into it. It didn’t take much time to find a few of her long hairs inside the backpack — she left them everywhere, like a mark of her passing. I held one of her hairs before my eyes, examining it in the little light that remained. It reminded me of a question mark.

  I placed it inside the box, too.

  Something from the body, something that’s liquid, and something that is worn were all inside the box now. I was only missing the last item: something from the dead. I needed something that had belonged to one of her ancestors. And I had that, too. I took the Second Chance Watch and, watching it shine in the darkness, thought back to Aiby’s words when she had given it to me. As if she had already foreseen everything that would happen.

  Is that why you insisted on going into Askell’s tent? I asked Aiby in my thoughts.

  I was about to place the Watch inside the box when I heard someone call out. “Finley! Finley, are you there?”

  In the distance, I recognized Dad’s voice as well as Meb’s. They had seen the trunks and were looking for me, unaware that I was very near them, shielded only by the shadow of the boats beached by the fishermen.

  My name, as spoken by my father, echoed in my ears along with each new wave from the sea. I looked inside the open box at Aiby’s hair, her shirt, the handkerchief with her tears, and the Second Chance Watch that was ticking in my hand.

  Aiby had told me that if something irreparable should happen, I could try to move the single hand of the watch backward and have a second chance. Just once. Once in a lifetime.

  I had already made so many mistakes. I couldn’t afford to make any more of them. I had to figure this out. I had to do the right thing. For Aiby. For Doug and Patches, too.

  “How far back do I need to go?” I asked the Watch, as if it would answer me. “And what will happen to everyone else? And to everything I have with me? Will it all disappear, too? Will this box disappear along with it?”

  The monkey’s head on the box was watching me. It seemed to be whispering something, its mouth moving ever so slightly. I brought the box closer to my face.

  “What?” I whispered.

  I couldn’t hear it say anything, but up close it looked like the monkey’s head was saying, “Six inches and six months. Six inches and six months.” Clearly, I was losing my mind. That, or the box was a mind-reading jerk.

  Neither option boded well for me.

  “Aiby,“ I murmured, “how does this watch work? Why are there so many things I should know, but don’t?”

  I felt the water squishing between my toes in my shoes. From the sounds of the voices nearby, it seemed as if everyone was gathered in front of the pub around Mr. Everett’s trunk. They sounded angry. And they kept saying my name . . .

  I heard a sound in the air above me and looked up to see the ravens departing from the mountains.

  I was tired of thinking things over.

  It was time to act.

  “To hell with it!” I said. “I don’t owe you anything, Askell!”

  I furiously pulled back the single hand of the Second Chance Watch.

  The watch jumped out of my hands like a spring and struck the rocks on the beach. The glass cover shattered and the hand broke off the face. I picked it up, wondering if I’d done something wrong.

  I looked around. The stars were still out. The sea was black and sleek just like before. The waves continued to lap at my shoes. The ravens that had come down from the mountains were now heading south. Toward my house.

  Something bumped my foot. The Heart-eating Box was still there. The handkerchief, Aiby’s hair, and her shirt were still inside.

  The villagers hadn’t moved from the front of the pub and Mr. Everett’s shop. I saw the parked cars and heard the same shouting as before. I shook my head, gripped by a profound weariness.

  “Figures,” I said to myself. “Nothing’s ever that easy.”

  I felt naive to have believed that there could be a magical object powerful enough to let me turn back time. Instead of giving me a second chance it had fallen to pieces and now lay useless in my palm.

  “I might as well toss it into the Heart-eating Box and forget about it,” I said.

  In the distance, I saw a few torches in a line leading down a path. At the top of the hill, the embers of a bonfire burned brightly.

  My eyes went wide. I couldn’t breathe. I put the watch in my pocket and the box into my backpack. I began running along the beach. I stumbled over the rocks until I reached the coastal road where the first group of men dressed in black were entering the pub. I opened the door and a ball of fur darted between the legs o
f the patrons and ran to meet me, barking all the while.

  “Patches!” I cried out, unable to believe my eyes.

  It’s the previous night! I realized. The night of Cumai’s funeral!

  I bent down to pet Patches behind the ears, happier than ever. “It’s amazing, Patches! It worked, little buddy! The Second Chance Watch really worked!”

  I saw my brother. “Doug! Oh, Doug! I’m so happy!” I ran to him and hugged him, thrilled he was no longer trapped in a trunk. Doug just stood there with his arms at his sides, vaguely embarrassed.

  “What’s gotten into you, Viper?” he whispered, glancing back and forth. “And how did you change clothes so quickly?”

  Doug was surprised because from his perspective he’d only lost sight of me for a few seconds. I let go of him, explaining that I’d brought a change of clothes in my backpack. He shrugged in response.

  I tried to recall every detail about that point in the evening. By then, Aiby had already handed me the watch and had asked me to come see her at the Enchanted Emporium the next morning . . .

  “Where’s Aiby?” I asked Doug.

  “Seriously?” Doug said. “We were just saying a few minutes ago that she and her father disappeared, tapping their heels! What’s wrong with you, Viper?”

  “Oh, right!” I said. “Of course!”

  I quickly added up all the differences from the first time I’d been through that evening. I no longer had the working watch, but I did have the key to the Enchanted Emporium in my pocket. So the key wouldn’t be under my bed where the ravens would look for it shortly.

  I still had the Heart-eating Box, so Askell could no longer deliver it to me if I went back to his tent. Aiby’s shirt was with me instead of at her house, and Mr. Everett no longer had the handkerchief he’d given to her. And the evidence we’d gathered at the mill was . . . where? I felt like my head was about to explode.

  I walked through the pub just as I had the previous evening. The other villagers acted exactly as I remembered. Each of them was living through their own time, unaware of my second chance. I spoke again with Piper and Seamus about the stones around the fire. Then, just as it had occurred in the previous version of that evening, Reverend Prospero interrupted Seamus, who then pointed out that it was nearly midnight.