“What about it?” Tad asked, trying to keep his voice casual, but not quite succeeding.
“Remember the lamp we found in there?”
Tad tried to shrug, but again didn’t quite succeed. “Yeah, I remember.”
“You should see the lamp shade that goes on it.”
Tad knew Kent was baiting him, and part of him wanted to simply ignore it. But there was another part of him, too, which was suddenly far stronger. “You found it?” he breathed. “You really found the lamp shade?”
Kent nodded.
“Where is it?”
“Where do you think it is?” Kent countered.
“What does it look like?”
Kent and Eric looked at each other as if deciding whether to tell him, but then a strange, puzzled look came into Eric’s eyes. “I can’t really remember,” he said, his voice so soft it was almost a whisper. “That’s weird.”
“It was—” And now Kent, too, looked uncertain. “I can’t remember, either. All I remember is that I never saw anything like it before. It was—” He shook his head, and Tad could see him groping for the right word. “It was amazing.”
As Kent spoke the words, Tad felt his resolve never to go back into that room crumble. He was going to go back into that room after all, even though the mere thought of it made his heart pound and filled his mouth with cotton.
“Okay,” he breathed. “Let’s go.”
• • •
KENT LED THE way into the carriage house, then helped Eric move the sheet of plywood, while Tad hung back in the storeroom, gazing at the darkness beyond the hidden doorway. Deep in his gut, he knew he’d come to some kind of point of no return, and now as he stood gazing into the depths of the room, a small voice inside him still cried out, pleading with him not to cross that threshold — not to step into the darkness — again.
As he hesitated, Kent and Eric stepped into the hidden chamber. But instead of lighting the lanterns, Kent turned back, an odd smile curling the corners of his mouth, his eyes fixed on Tad’s. “Look at this,” he said.
He turned the switch on the lamp and an amber glow suffused the room. But it wasn’t merely a glow — no, it was far more than a gentle light that emanated from the lamp.
It was as if the lamp had illuminated a whole new dimension within the chamber.
As if guided by an unseen force, Tad stepped into the room and moved closer to the lamp.
He reached out and tentatively touched its shade.
And as he did, he heard the familiar chorus of murmuring voices.
He was back.
Back in the hidden room.
The voices sounded almost as warm as the soft light of the lamp felt, and finally that single voice deep inside him that had warned him away from this place fell utterly silent.
He was where he belonged.
The voices wanted him here.
He looked up at Kent and Eric, and once more stroked the lamp shade, this time almost caressing it. “This feels like leather,” he murmured, his voice sounding loud and foreign in the small room.
Eric shrugged, barely hearing Tad’s voice as he looked at the room in the soft glow of the lamplight. But it wasn’t just the light that made it different from the last time he’d been here. “It’s all of us,” he whispered, almost to himself. “It feels different with all of us here.” Moving as if in a trance — or as if he were being directed by some unseen force — Eric dropped down and sat on the floor by a stack of books, opening one of them.
Kent, too, felt the subtle difference the light — or Tad’s presence — had made. He began moving slowly among the boxes as if searching for something, but neither knowing nor wanting to know exactly what he sought.
But he would know it when he found it.
Tad finally lifted his fingertips from the lamp shade and, like Eric and Kent, gazed around the room. The soft amber light seemed to focus on something in one of the far corners.
A box.
A long box, white, like the kind flower shops used for roses.
It didn’t seem to fit in this room full of old, dusty things.
As Tad approached it, the voices grew louder, and though there were no words — at least none that he could understand — Tad knew they were guiding him.
They wanted him to go to the box.
He touched the box, and one of the voices seemed to rise above the others.
Gently, he picked it up and brought it to the table.
He moved the ledger, still open to the page where the purchase of the lamp shade was recorded, to one side.
Silently, responding to the voices, Eric and Kent joined him.
Tad ran his hands over the top of the box. It seemed to vibrate, as if pulsing from some energy hidden within.
He reached down to lift the lid, but something — something unseen and unheard — stopped him just before he touched the cardboard. As his fingers hovered a fraction of an inch above the box, Kent laid his own hand on top of Tad’s.
“Not yet,” he said.
Then Eric’s hand covered Kent’s as he breathed three words: “It isn’t time.”
Tad closed his eyes and listened to what the voices were telling him. They were right.
Whatever was in the box, its time had not yet come.
ERIC COULD HEAR the music long before the pavilion came into view, but as soon as the path turned and they stepped out of the woods and into the park, they saw it, lighted up like something out of Disneyland. It stood perched out over the lake, the sunset forming a perfect backdrop for its ornate white latticework. Tiny white lights covered not only the roof, but every post as well, and from beneath the floor, brilliant lights made the water itself take on a mystic glow. The band was playing an old Beach Boys song, and though it wasn’t quite dark yet, there were already at least a dozen couples on the dance floor.
And lounging against one of the railings, passing a bottle concealed in a brown paper bag back and forth, were Adam Mosler and Chris McIvens. As soon as Mosler caught sight of Eric, he whispered something to McIvens, and both of them fixed a surly stare on him. Eric sensed Tad stiffen on one side of him, and could almost feel Kent’s fist clenching on the other.
“Uh-oh,” Tad said quietly. “I told you guys we shouldn’t have come.”
“If we didn’t show up, people would think we had something to do with whatever happened to Ellis Langstrom,” Kent said. “Besides,” he added, nudging Eric, “we know Cherie is going to be here, and if Cherie’s here, Kayla will be, too.” He leered at Tad, and unable to pass up the opportunity to taunt him, he added, “Which means at least two of us will be getting lucky.” Then he looked around with an exaggerated air of bafflement. “Gee, I wonder which two it will be?”
Tad felt himself flushing in the gathering darkness. “Up yours, Newell,” he growled, which only elicited a snicker from Kent.
“Ooh, tough guy! If Mosler comes after us, will you defend me? Please?”
“If he comes after us, we’ll just ignore him,” Eric declared. “We’re here to dance, remember?”
“Can’t we fight, too?” Kent demanded, then relented. “So here’s what let’s do. Before you and I close in on Cherie and Kayla, let’s find a girl for Tad.”
Tad rolled his eyes. “Fat chance.”
“It’s all about attitude,” Kent said, and led the way up the ramp to the pavilion dance floor. “You’ve got to act
