C HAPTER T WENTY-SIX
“How good are you at keeping secrets?”
“Good.”
Toby shook his head. “That’s not enough. I need you to be the biggest secret keeper in the entire world. Even better than the president. Do you know how many secrets the president keeps?”
“No,” Garrett admitted.
“He keeps thousands of secrets. He knows things that could destroy the entire United States if he let them get out. That’s how serious I am.”
Garrett looked doubtful. “You’re going to tell me something that could destroy the entire United States?”
“No, not that extreme, but I would like to show you something that you can never tell. You can’t tell Mommy, you can’t tell Hannah, you can’t tell Mrs. Kingston, you can’t tell anybody in your class…nobody. No matter how much you want to tell, you can’t tell this secret to anybody, no matter who asks.”
“What about the president?”
Toby pointed to the ground. “If the president were standing right here, right now, I wouldn’t tell him. He might say, ‘Darn it, Toby, I demand that you tell me this secret or I’ll have the entire Secret Service punch you for hours!’ and I would say, ‘No, I refuse to tell my secret.’ But if you can keep it to yourself, I’ll tell you.”
Eyes wide, Garrett nodded. “I won’t tell.”
“Do you swear?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do you blood swear?”
“What’s that?”
“It’s where we cut our hands and press them together, and swear in blood that we won’t tell.”
Garrett looked a bit tentative, but nodded.
“I won’t really make you blood swear. Mommy wouldn’t like that. But I think you’re old enough, so we’re going for a walk in the woods…”
“If you get scared, it’s okay,” Toby assured him. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. Just know that you’ll be safe, I promise. I’ll take care of you. Are you scared now?”
“No.”
“Good.”
They weren’t far from the shack-maybe another two minutes of walking. What if this was a really, really, really bad idea?
It wasn’t. He’d taken almost absurd safety measures. There was no possible way Owen could escape. Even if he somehow developed supernatural strength and broke free from one of the chains, there’d be two more holding him, each fastened to a different tree so even if the tree itself ripped in half he couldn’t get loose. And if a chain broke, Garrett wouldn’t be anywhere near close enough to get hurt by a swinging claw.
It was completely safe.
Maybe not safe from weeks of nightmares, but Toby just knew that Garrett would understand. He’d be delighted.
The three of them, friends forever.
The shack came into view. “Remember your promise,” Toby said. “It’s a blood swear.”
“I know.”
“We’re almost there, then. It’s behind that little house.”
Owen looked extremely unhappy in his chains, but that changed as soon as he saw Toby and Garrett. His face lit up and he stood up straight.
Garrett stopped walking. He gasped and clenched Toby’s hand tight.
“It’s okay,” said Toby. “He can’t get loose.”
“Daddy, I want to go home.”
“He won’t-”
“Daddy, I want to go home!”
“Okay, okay, we can go.” Toby led him back through the trees, away from Owen, who let out a whine of disappointment. “I should’ve told you what we were going to see, it was my mistake, I’m sorry.”
“What is it?”
“It’s my friend.”
Garrett scowled as he tried to process that. “Is it-is it a guy in a costume?”
“No. He’s real. He won’t hurt you, I promise. He lives in the forest. I’ve known him since I was a kid.”
“You have not.”
“I have! I blood swear that I have. I wouldn’t play a joke like this on you. He’s my best friend. His name is Owen.”
“Owen?”
“Yep.”
“Is he always locked up?”
“No. I did that for you. He won’t hurt you, but I didn’t want you to be scared of him. He’d like to say hi to you.”
“He talks?”
“Not like you and I talk, but he can do hand signals. I’m going to leave it up to you. We can go home, and maybe come back some other day, or we can go over now and see him. Just remember that you promised not to tell anybody.”
“I won’t.”
“Do you want to see him?”
Garrett considered that for a long moment. “Yeah.”
They walked back around the shack. Twenty feet away, Owen’s chains rattled as he signaled: Hello.
“Say hello,” Toby urged.
“Hello, Owen.”
Hello, Owen repeated.
“Is he a Bigfoot?” Garrett asked.
“I don’t think so. He might be a Bigfoot’s cousin. I don’t know what he is, for sure. Nobody else knows about him, though. Just you and me.”
Well, nobody else alive…
“Can I go closer?”
“No.”
“Does he like the chains?”
“He hates the chains. Don’t you, Owen? You hate those things.”
Yes.
“See? He can do thumbs-up to mean yes. Ask him a question. He doesn’t always understand, but he can get it a lot of the time.”
Garrett seemed hesitant, but Toby nudged him. “Go ahead.”
“Owen, are you going to eat me?”
No.
“Owen,” said Toby, “are we best friends?”
Yes.
“And are you and Garrett going to be friends?”
Yes.
“And would you ever do anything to hurt Garrett?”
No.
“See, Garrett. He understands. Ask him something else.”
“Owen, is one plus one two?”
Owen didn’t respond.
