little extra cash. A tall Faerie in a Stetson hat has adult beverages on hand for the right price. Fortunately, the city is trying to close it down and replace it with a twenty-space parking lot. Thank goodness someone can still see the value of a good parking lot.
^ 56 Cooties, like mumps or measles, is usually a childhood affliction that renders a person undesirable to other Human Beings. In adults it can be much more serious, leading to paralysis or even death.
^ 57 Not rhyme, as in a word that sounds the same as another word, but rime, as in a crust of frozen sea water that clings to ships’ rigging in cold weather. Granted, the water was not sea water but lake water, but I like the word rime and I’m going to use it anyway. If you don’t like it, call the word police.
FAERGROUND
As soon as Brendan left the house, they’d gone into action. Delia had followed Brendan and Charlie at a safe distance. She called the others, conferencing in all three boys and telling them where Brendan was heading. She informed them when the targets had boarded the streetcar. Harold was waiting across the street from the subway station. Upon seeing Brendan and Charlie alight from the streetcar and enter the station, Harold informed Dmitri, who was waiting down on the platform. They had guessed right. Chester had said they were going to the island and that seemed to be what was happening.
In the subway the cell reception died, so they had to trust Dmitri to get on the same train without being seen and call them when Brendan got off at his destination. Dmitri wasn’t good at lying and was nervous about spying on his friend, but he convinced himself that he was doing this for Brendan. He hung back behind the newspaper kiosk and waited for Brendan and Charlie to pass. They wove their way among the holiday shoppers that clogged the station until they were halfway down the platform. Dmitri had little trouble following them in the noisy crowd without being seen.
When the train arrived, he hopped on the car next to theirs and sat down between a woman and an off-duty transit driver. Dmitri watched Brendan and Charlie through the glass door between the cars. Station after station slid past, but they didn’t budge. The pair looked serious. Sitting side by side on a bench, they didn’t speak.
As they headed south, Dmitri’s conscience started to bother him again. No matter how he tried to convince himself that he was following Brendan for his own good, he knew deep down that he was driven by relentless curiosity about the day he had lost. Whenever he thought about those missing hours, he was consumed with a longing he’d never experienced before. Inexplicably, he was certain that he had seen and done things that he needed to know about. It was as if he’d woken from a dream just at the moment when he was about to figure out what he was supposed to do, get the reward, truly understand the point of everything.
The screech of the train wheels as they rounded a corner jarred him from his reverie. The train was approaching the bottom of the U that made up the Yonge-University line, pulling into Union Station. Dmitri was sure Brendan would get off the train there. He was probably headed for the waterfront and from there to Ward’s Island. Dmitri would call Delia and Harold and tell them to head to the harbour, where Chester was on duty. They had no idea how Brendan and Charlie planned to get to the island with the lake frozen and the ferries not running. They’d just have to wait and see.
So here they were. Dmitri and Chester had followed Brendan and Charlie along the quay to the point where they’d suddenly disappeared. The fog was too thick to see them and the wharf ended.
“Where did they go?” Dmitri demanded in confusion. “They were right there ahead of us and then they were gone.”
“Tell me,” Chester said softly. “What do you see exactly?”
Dmitri frowned. “I see the boardwalk. It ends at that pole there with the red ribbon on it. Then the fog. Why? What do you see?”
Chester didn’t answer. He just chewed his lip, nervously. “Let’s wait for the others.”
Delia and Harold joined them a few minutes later, having shared a cab from College Street. When they heard that Brendan had given Chester and Dmitri the slip, they couldn’t believe it.
“He did it again,” Harold said in amazement.
“Where did he go?” Delia hissed, furious that Brendan had escaped their carefully planned tailing operation.
“Relax,” Chester grunted. He eyed the wall of fog before turning to them. “I’ll show you how they hide themselves. Dmitri, I want you to walk that way, into the fog.”
“What?” Dmitri squeaked. “I’ll fall into the lake.”
“You won’t,” Chester said. “It’s an illusion. There’s a dock out there. I can see it.”
Dmitri frowned. “I can’t see anything.”
“It’s there,” Chester insisted.
“Oh, come on!” Delia snarled. “I’ll do it.” She took a few steps toward the fog, her face rigid. With each step, her progress became more difficult. Suddenly, just as she reached the pole with the fluttering cloth, she stopped. Her face was a mask of confusion. She turned on her heel and started walking in the opposite direction.
Chester caught her by the arm. “Where are you going?”
Delia stared at him. “I’m… I’m going home.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Delia said. She frowned. “I just suddenly wanted to go home.”
Chester turned to the other boys. “See? They make you see things that aren’t there. They make you do things that you don’t really want to do. Listen to me. I told you before, I can see things, all right?”
Delia was shaking off her daze. Her eyes shifted to the fog and the end of the boardwalk. “So? What do you see?”
Chester took a deep breath. “I see… a dock. It’s made of wood and looks really old. It juts out into the water a ways.”
“That’s impossible,” Harold scoffed. “There’s nothing but fog and empty water.”
“If that’s what you want to believe,” Chester said angrily, “we can just call this off right now. Otherwise, you’re just gonna have to trust me.”
Harold, Delia, and Dmitri exchanged glances. Delia spoke. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if this will work. It’s just a hunch,” Chester said. “But I think we should all join hands.”
“Why?” Dee demanded.
“If I see what’s there and I walk out onto that dock and you’re with me, maybe we’ll all make it onto the dock.”
“And if we don’t?” Dmitri shook his head. “We end up in the lake with hypotherminus.”
“Hypothermia,” Harold corrected.
“Whatever,” Dmitri retorted. “We could die.”
“That’s the only way I see us doing this together,” Chester insisted. “Either we try it my way or I go on alone.”
Delia rolled her eyes and stepped forward. “I’m in. Don’t be such little girls!”
She reached up and grabbed Chester’s hand, holding out her other hand to Dmitri. When given the chance to hold a pretty girl’s hand, Dmitri decided death by frigid drowning was a small price to pay. He grabbed the proffered hand. Harold reluctantly reached out and took Dmitri’s other hand. Thus linked, Chester faced the edge of the boardwalk and, smiling grimly, stepped past the pole with the red ribbon fluttering on top.
One by one, the little group followed him. Each in turn disappeared into the wall of fog.
They emerged on a rough wooden dock. The boards creaked beneath their feet. They were all alone. The frozen lake vanished into the fog.
“Holy crap,” Harold breathed. “This is amazing!” Dmitri gasped. “It worked!” Chester laughed. “Now what?” Delia demanded.
As if in answer, they heard a bell ringing out over the lake. The sound of waves slapping on wood came to them an instant before a boat emerged from the mist. The craft was like a boat out of a storybook with a high prow carved in the shape of a dragon.^ 58 A tall man in an old-fashioned rain hat and oilskin coat stood in the stern.
