by R. L. Stine
Zach let out a little cry. “You’ve got the new Tomb Raider? Is it cool?”
Peter nodded. “Yeah. It’s awesome. The graphics are unbelievable.”
Mojo slipped an arm around Peter’s shoulders. “You’re my MAN! Where is it? Let’s check it out.”
The three boys pushed past Addie and me to get up the stairs to Peter’s room. A few seconds later, the door slammed behind them.
Addie and I stood frozen in the front hallway, as if in shock. “What just happened?” Addie asked finally. “Was it something we said?”
“Peter strikes again,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’m serious. Is there any way I can become an only child?”
Two days later, I would feel very guilty for saying that.
Two days later, my nightmare started with a knock on the front door.
Sunday morning my parents were getting ready to leave on one of their short business trips. As usual, Mom packed the entire suitcase while Dad decided which neckties to bring.
I was leaning against the doorway to my parents’ room, watching Mom pack. Yellow morning sunlight filtered through the window blinds, making stripes on the unmade bed.
Peter kept jumping up and down on the mattress, making their suitcase bounce. “Why can’t I come?” he demanded. “Why don’t you ever take me with you?”
Mom frowned at him. “There is a little thing called school tomorrow,” she said softly.
“I can make up the work,” Peter insisted. “Why can’t I come? Why do I always have to stay home with Danielle? She’ll only invite all her friends over and have a party, and tell me to get lost!”
“Whoa, Peter—” I shouted. “That is so untrue!”
Dad narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you having a party tonight?”
“Of course not,” I told him, glaring at Peter. Then I added sarcastically, “I’m going to spend all my time taking good care of my sweet little brother.”
“I can take care of myself,” Peter grunted.
Dad tilted his head, the way he always does when he’s thinking hard about something. “Danielle, are you sure you don’t want Aunt Kate to come stay over?”
“No way!” I cried. “We don’t need her. Really, Dad. I’ve taken care of Peter before, haven’t I?”
“We have to go,” Mom said, checking her watch. She slammed the suitcase shut and clasped it. “We’ll call you from Cleveland,” she told me.
“Hey, wait. You forgot my ties!” Dad cried.
A few minutes later, after hugs and kisses all around, and more promises to call and warnings to be careful, my parents backed down the driveway and headed for the airport.
I watched their car until it disappeared around the corner. Then I turned to Peter. “Help me clean up the breakfast dishes?”
“I can’t,” he said. “I have to go watch TV.” He spun around and ran out of the kitchen.
I let out a sigh. It’s going to be a long couple of days, I told myself. Peter is always at his worst when Mom and Dad are away and I’m in charge.
I started carrying the dishes to the sink. And that’s when I heard the knock on the front door. Three sharp raps.
At first, I thought Mom and Dad had returned. They probably forgot something.
But why wouldn’t they just open the door?
Three more sharp raps.
“Coming!” I shouted. I hurried down the long hall and pulled open the front door.
“Addie!”
She had a purple sweater pulled down over electric blue leggings. Her blond hair fell wild around her face. “I tried the doorbell, but I don’t think it works,” she said.
“It isn’t hooked up,” I told her. I stepped back so she could come in. The bright sunlight seemed to follow her into the house.
“My parents just left for the airport. I’m alone here with Peter the Great.”
“Fun time,” she said. She followed me into the living room.
“What’s up?” I asked, gazing at the large book she held in her arms.
“I figured out what we can do, Danielle.”
“Huh?”
“You know. For the talent show.” She crinkled her nose. And then sneezed. “Is it dusty in here?”
“A little,” I said. “My parents have been so busy unpacking, there hasn’t been time to dust. What’s your big idea for us?”
“Hypnotism,” Addie said. Her green eyes flashed with excitement. “I’m going to hypnotize you!”
I took a step back. “You’re kidding, right? You don’t know anything about hypnotism, and neither do I. Why would I ever let you hypnotize me?”
Addie groaned. “I don’t mean I’m really going to hypnotize you. We’re going to fake it. You know. Pretend. That’s why I brought the book.”
She held it up so I could read the title: Hypnotism for Everyone.
I squinted at her. “You’re serious about this, aren’t you!”
“This book will tell us how to make it look real,” Addie said. “I’ll pretend to put you in a trance. And then I’ll have you go back, back, back in time, back to your previous lives.”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “What previous lives?”
“We’ll make up something,” Addie replied. “It’ll be great, Danielle! You’ll tell some wild stories about living in the past. The audience will love it. They’ll believe it!”
I stepped over to the living room window and felt the bright sunlight warm me. On the street, two boys sped by on bikes, chased by a big, yapping dog.
I started to turn back to Addie when something caught my eye. A man. Half-hidden in the shadows of the twisted old maple tree at the bottom of our front yard.
Who is that? I wondered, feeling a flash of fear.
I squinted to see him better. He leaned away from the tree, and I could see that he wore a black raincoat over black slacks. I couldn’t see his face. It was still hidden in the shadows. But I could see him staring, just standing there, hiding behind the gnarled tree trunk, staring up at our house.
Why was he staring at our house? What was he watching for? Who was he?
“What’s wrong?” Addie asked, stepping up beside me.
“Uh … I’ll be right back,” I said.
My heart pounding, I crossed the room and made my way to the front door. I stuck my head out and squinted into the bright sunlight.
“Hello,” I called to the man behind the tree. “Hey.”
He didn’t answer. A gust of wind made the brown leaves rustle over the ground. All of the old trees in the yard trembled and creaked.
I cupped my hands around my mouth and tried again. “Hello? Can I help you?”
No answer.
Without thinking, I pushed past the storm door and began running toward the tree. It had rained the day before, and my shoes sank into the soft, wet ground. The gusting wind made the dead, brown leaves dance around me.
I hugged myself against the autumn cold. “Hello?”
I stepped into the shadow of the maple tree—and gasped.
No one there.
The man was gone. Vanished.
I took a deep breath.
And two hands grabbed me roughly from behind.
I cried out. And spun free.
“Danielle, what’s your problem?” Addie asked.
“You—you scared me to death!” I told her breathlessly. “There was a man—here.”
“Huh?” She looked past me to the tree. “What man?”
“I don’t know. He—he disappeared. But look—” I pointed to the ground. Deep shoe prints in the wet dirt behind the tree.
“Maybe it was the mailman,” Addie said. She put an arm around my shoulders and led me back to the house. “You’ve been so tense ever since you moved here, Danielle.”
I closed the door behind us and bolted it. Addie headed back into the living room. But I had a sudden urge to get out of the house.
“Let’s get our bikes and ride up to Summerville Park,” I suggested.
Ad
die shook her head. “No. We have to rehearse. We have to do this hypnotism thing.”
I dropped down onto the couch. “Addie, why do we have to do this? Why do we have to be in the stupid talent show, anyway?”
She sighed and set the book down on the coffee table. “Because of Zack and Mojo, of course!”
My mouth dropped open. “Huh?”
“Danielle, those guys came over here, and they went right to Peter’s room. They think a nine-year-old kid is more interesting than we are!”
She tossed the book aside and plopped down beside me on the couch. “Look. We’ve been in high school two years, and hardly anyone knows we’re there. I want to be noticed. I want kids to say, ‘Hey, there goes Addie. She and Danielle are really cool.’”
“But, Addie—” I started.
“Don’t you want Zack and Mojo to think we’re more interesting than Peter’s stupid computer games?” she asked.
“Well, yeah. Sure.” Once Addie gets worked up like this, there’s no stopping her. “There’s also a two-hundred-dollar prize, right?”
“Right.”
“Let’s do it,” I said.
“Excellent!” She picked up the hypnotism book. “This is going to be a great act. We’ll make it look so real that—”
“Just one thing,” I said. “I’ll do this crazy act only if I can hypnotize you!”
She stared at me. “You want to be the hypnotist?”
I nodded.
She thought about it for a few seconds. “Okay. Deal.” She laughed. “I’ve got some awesome ideas about my previous lives!”
So we set to work. First we flipped through the book, reading the parts about how to put someone in a trance. It was all pretty much the way I’d seen it on TV and in movies.
“We need a coin,” Addie said. “A big, shiny coin.”
“I have a silver dollar on a chain,” I remembered. “It’ll be perfect.”
I found the silver dollar in my jewelry box, and we started practicing with it. Addie sat on the couch, and I stood in front of her. I waved the silver dollar slowly back and forth in front of her and said in a soft, calm voice, “You’re getting sleepy … sleepy…. Your eyelids are beginning to feel heavy….”
Addie let her head fall back against the couch and started snoring really loudly.
“Very funny,” I groaned. “I thought you wanted to be serious about this.”
She opened her eyes and sat up. “Yes. I do. You’re doing great, Danielle. That whole coin thing. The way you whispered everything. Terrific. I almost believed it myself.”
“Well, let’s practice taking you back in time,” I said. “First you have to be a little girl, you know. Then a baby.”
“Goo-goo,” Addie said in a tiny voice.
I raised the coin and began swinging it slowly again. “Watch the coin,” I whispered. “Follow it closely.”
“What are you doing?” a voice called from the doorway.
The chain fell from my hand. The coin rattled onto the living room floor and slid toward the door.
Peter darted into the room and grabbed it before I could reach it. “What’s this, Danielle? What were you doing?”
“Hypnotizing me,” Addie told him. “She’s very good at it.”
“I’m an expert,” I said. “I can put anyone into a trance in seconds.”
Peter stared hard at me. “You can really hypnotize people?”
“Of course she can,” Addie said. “She can hypnotize anyone.”
“Hypnotize me!” Peter demanded.
“No way,” I said, reaching for the coin. “Addie and I are too busy.”
He swung it out of my grasp. “Hypnotize me, Danielle. I won’t give it back to you unless you hypnotize me too!”
“Peter, we’re doing this for school,” I said. “Give it back!”
Behind his red glasses, his dark eyes flashed excitedly. Waving the coin at me, he began to chant, “Hypnotize me! Hypnotize me! Hypnotize me!”
I grabbed for it again. Missed.
Addie jumped up beside me. “Okay. Let’s hypnotize him,” she said. “Why not?”
I turned to her. “Excuse me?”
“Go ahead. Put him in a trance. Turn him into a chicken or a puppy or something.”
“Yeah! Turn me into a puppy!” Peter cried. He let out a loud cheer. “Go ahead. Hypnotize me. This is so cool!”
I grabbed the silver dollar away from him. “I’ll do it if you promise one thing, Peter. After I’m finished hypnotizing you, you have to promise to leave Addie and me alone and not pester us.”
“No problem,” he said. “Where do I sit?”
I pushed him toward the couch. “Sit down there. Lean back. Get comfortable. You have to relax if I’m going to put you in a trance.”
Peter leaped onto the couch. He bounced up and down several times on the cushion.
“What are you doing?” I snapped.
“This is how I relax,” he said. Then he stopped bouncing, and his face grew serious. “Danielle, am I going to feel weird?”
“You won’t feel a thing,” I told him. “You’ll be in a trance, remember?”
I knew exactly what I was going to do. I was going to do my coin routine, swing it back and forth. Then I would pretend to put him in a trance.
Of course, Peter would say he didn’t feel anything. It didn’t work. And then I planned to tell him it was because he was in such a deep trance, he just didn’t remember.
What a shame it didn’t work out the way I had imagined.
“Come on, sit still, Peter.” I pushed him till his head rested on the couch back. “And don’t talk.”
Addie had wandered over to the front window. She sat on the window ledge with her arms crossed over her purple sweater, fiddling with her glass beads, watching us.
Outside, the sunlight faded in and out. Shadows seemed to reach up and swallow Addie.
I turned back to Peter. “Keep your eye on the coin,” I said. Holding the chain high, I began to swing the silver dollar. “Follow the coin…. Follow it closely….” I whispered.
Peter burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” I snapped.
“You are,” he said. “You’re a total fake, aren’t you?”
“Of course she isn’t,” Addie chimed in. “We both studied that hypnotism book.” She pointed to the book on the table beside the couch. “We’ve been practicing for weeks, Peter.”
Peter stared at the book. “Really?”
I sighed. “I can’t hypnotize you if you keep laughing and asking questions.”
Peter pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Well, what are you going to do to me when I’m hypnotized?”
“I’m going to make you remember things you’ve forgotten,” I told him. “And then we’ll see if you have any past lives.”
“Cool,” he said. He settled back. “Do it.”
Addie flashed me a thumbs-up. I raised the silver dollar and turned back to Peter. “Watch the coin, Peter,” I whispered. “You’re getting very sleepy … very sleepy….”
He didn’t burst out laughing this time. He didn’t say a word. His expression was solemn. He rested his head against the back of the couch, and nothing moved but his eyes. Back and forth … slowly, so slowly … back and forth.
“You feel so drowsy now, Peter. Your eyelids feel heavy … so heavy…. You can barely keep them open….”
Perched on the window ledge, Addie shifted her weight. She seemed to fade deeper into the shadows.
“Sleepy … so sleepy …” I whispered. “Your legs are asleep…. Your arms are asleep…. Close your eyes, Peter…. Close them now.”
Peter obediently closed his eyes. I expected him to burst out laughing, or shout “BOO!” or something.
Instead, a long breath escaped his throat, and his head slumped forward.
Addie laughed. “Your brother is such a good actor,” she whispered.
I lowered the coin and stared at my brother. A smile crossed my face
. It was totally cute how he was playing along, pretending to be hypnotized.
His eyes were shut tight. He was slumped on the couch, his head tilted forward. He was taking slow, steady breaths.
“When I snap my fingers, you will come out of the trance,” I said. I snapped my fingers.
Peter didn’t move.
I snapped my fingers again. “That’s the signal for you to open your eyes,” I said. “You will come out of the trance and feel totally normal.”
Peter didn’t move. As he breathed, so slowly and softly, his chin bobbed on his chest.
I snapped my fingers again. Then I hit my hands together in a sharp clap.
He didn’t open his eyes. Or jump up. Or anything. In fact, his breathing seemed to get slower, softer.
“Okay, Peter. Cut the joke,” I groaned.
“Yeah. Forget about it! Enough already,” Addie said. “You’re starting to scare us.”
“This is so not funny, Peter,” I said. I leaned over him and clapped my hands right in his ear.
He didn’t react at all. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t move.
Addie and I frowned at each other. “Come on, Peter,” I pleaded. “Get up. You promised you’d let Addie and me practice.”
“It isn’t funny,” Addie said. “We know you’re faking. We know you’re not really in a trance.”
Peter’s head bobbed steadily on his chest. His eyes didn’t open.
My throat suddenly felt tight and dry. My legs were trembling. “Peter, it’s not a good joke,” I said. “Stop it. Just stop it, okay? Open your eyes and get going!”
He didn’t move. His steady breaths—whoosh … whoosh … whoosh—suddenly sounded deafening to me.
“What are we going to do?” I gasped.
“Tickle him,” Addie suggested. “That’ll wake him up!”
“Yes!” I cried. “Peter is totally ticklish.”
I plunged both hands into his ribs and started to tickle. His head bounced around lifelessly. His eyes remained shut. His mouth dropped open, but he didn’t laugh.
I tickled harder. Harder. I dug my fingers into his sides, so hard I knew I was hurting him.
“Wake up!” I screamed. “Peter, wake up!”
“Open your eyes, please!” Addie begged. She had her hands clasped tightly in front of her as if praying. I saw tears in her eyes. “Please, Peter, please!”
