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<The Spiderwick Chronicles> Tony Diterlizzi & Holly BlackTHE FIELD GUIDE
Book One Of Five
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Chapter Five
 IN WHICH Jared Reads a Book and Sets a Trap
Mallory and Simon were out on the lawn, fencing, when Jared found them. Mallory's ponytail stuck out of the back of her fencing helmet, and Jared could see that it was shorter than it had once been. She was apparently trying to make up for her earlier weakness by ruthless fencing. Simon couldn't seem to get a strike in at all. He was being backed against the side of the brokendown carriage house, his parries becoming increasingly desperate.
"I found something!" Jared called.
Simon truned his helmeted head. Mallory took that opportunity to strike, pushing the rubber tip of her fencing foil against his chest.
"That's three to zip," Mallory said. "I creamed you."
"You cheated," He complained.
"You allowed yourself to become distracted." Mallory countered.
Somin pulled the helmet off his head, flung it down, and looked at Jared. "Thanks a lot."
'Sorry," Jared said automatically.
"You're the one that always fences with her. I just came out here to catch tadpoles." Simon scowled.
"Well, I was busy. Just because I don't have a bunch of dumb animals to take care of doesn't mean I can't be busy." Jared shot back.
"Just shut up, both of you." Mallory took off her own helmet. her face was flushed. 'what did you find?"
Jared tried to recapture some of his earlier excitement. "A book in the attic. it's about fearies, real faeries. Look, they're ugly."
Mallory took the book out of his hand and looked it over. "This is baby stuff. A storybook."
"It's not," jared said defensively. "It's a field guide. You know, like for birds. So you know how to spot the different kinds."
"You think a faerie tied my hair to my bed?" Mallory asked. "Mom think you did. She thinks you've been acting weird ever since Dad left. Like getting into all those fight at school."
Simon didn't say anything.
"But you don't think that." Jared hoped she would agree. "And you always get into fights."
Mallory took a deep breath. I don't think you're stupid enough to have done it," she said, holding up a fist to show what she was going to do to whatever had. "But I don't think it was faeries, either."
Over dinner, their mother was oddly guiet as she slid chicken and mashed potatoes onto their plates. Mallory wasn't talking that much either, but Simon was going to and on about the tadpoles he had found and how they were going to be frogs in no time because they already had little arms.
Jared had seen them. They had a long way to go. What Simon called arms looked a lot more like fish zits.
"Mom?' jared said finally. "Do we have a relative named Arthur?"
Their mother looked up suspiciously from her dinner. "No. I don't think so. Why do you ask?"
"I was just wondering," Jared mumbled. "what about spiderwick?"
"That's your great-aunt Lucinda's surname," his mother said. "It was my mother's maiden name. Maybe Arthur was one of her relatives. Now, tell me why you want to know all this?"
"I just found some of his stuff in the attic--that's all," Jared said.
"In the attic!' His mother almost spilled her iced tea. "Jared Grace, as you know, half of the entire second floor is so rotted that if you step wrong, you'll find yourself in the downstairs parlor."
"I stayed on the safe side," Jared protested.
"We don't know if there is a safe side in the attic. I don't want anyone playing up there,especially you," she said, looking right at Jared.
He bit his lip. Especially you. Jared didn't say a thing for the rest of dinner.
 "Are you going to read that all night?" Simon asked. he was sitting on his side of the room. Jeffrey and Lemondrop were running around on the comforter, and his new tadpoles were set up in one of the fish tanks.
"So what if I do?" Jared asked. With each crumbling page, Jared was learning strange faces. Could there really be brownies in his house? Pixies in his yard? Nixies in the stream out back? The book made them so real. He didn't want to take to anyone right now, not even Simon. he just wanted to keep reading.
"I don't know," Simon said. "I thought maybe you'd be bored by now. You don't usually like to read."
Jared looked up and blinked. I was true. Simon was the reader. Jared mostly just got into trouble.
He turned a page. "I can read if I want to."
Simon yawned. "Are you worried about falling asleep? I mean about what might happen tonight."
"Look at this." Jared flipped to a page close to the front. "There's this faerie called a brownie--"
"Like Girl Scouts?"
"I don't know," Jared said. "Like this. Look." He pushed the page in front of Simon. On the yellowed paper was an ink drawing of a little man, posed with a feather duster made from a badminton birdie and a straight pin. Next to it was a hunched figure, also small, but this one held a piece of broken glass. <The Spiderwick Chronicles> Tony Diterlizzi & Holly BlackTHE FIELD GUIDE
Book One Of Five
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Chapter Four
IN WHICH There Are Answers. Although Not Necessarily to the Right Questions
Jared woke up to the sound of Mallory's screaming. He jumped out of bed and rushed down the hall, past Simon, and into his sister's room. Long pieces of her hair had been knotted to the brass headboard. Her face was red, but bruises that decorated her arms. Their mother was seated on the mattress, her figers tugging at the knots.
"What happened?" Jared asked.
"Just chop it," Mallory sobbed. "Cut it off. I want to get out of this bed! I want out of this house! I hate this place!"
"Why did this?" Their mother looked at jared angrily.
"I don't know!" Jared glanced at Simon standing in the doorway, looking puzzled. It must have been the thing in the wall.
Their mother's eyes got huge. It was scary. "jared Grace, I saw you arguing with your sister last night!"
"Mom, I didn't do it. Honest." He was shocked that she thought he would do something like this. He and Mallory were always fighting, but it didn't mean anything.
"Get the scissors, Mom!" Mallory yelled.
"Both of you. Out. Jared, I will talk to you later." Mrs. Grace turned back to her daughter.
Jared left the room, his heart pounding. When he thought about Mallory's knotted hair, he couldn't contain a shiver.
"You think that thing did it, don't you?" Simon asked as they entered the bedroom.
Jared looked at his brother in dismay. "Don't you?"
Simon nodded.
"I keep thinging about that poem I found," Jared said. "It's the only clue we have."
"How is a stupid poem going to help?"
"I don't know." Jared sighed. "You're the smart one. You should be figuring this out."
"How come nothing happened to us? Or to Mom?"
Jared hadn't even thought about that. "I don't know," he said again.
Simon gave him a long look.
"Well? What do you think?" Jared asked.
Simon started out the door. "I don't know what I think. I'm going to go try and catch some crickets."
Jared watched him go and wondered what he could do. Could he really solve anything by himself?
Getting dressed, he though about the poem. "Up and up and up again" was the simpleat line, but what did it mean exactly? Up in the house? Up on the roof? Up in a tree? Maybe the poem was just something that an old, dead relative was keeping around--something that wasn't going to help at all.
But since Simon was feeding his animals and Mallroy was being freed from her bed, he had nothing better to do than wonder how far"up and up and up again" he needed to go.
So, okay. Maybe it wasn't the easiest clue after all. But Jared figured it couldn't hurt to go up, past the second floor, to the attic.
The stairs were worn clean of their paint, and several times the boards he stepped on creaked so dramatically that Jared was afraid they were going to snap from his weight.
The attic level was a vast room with a slanted ceiling and a gaping hole in the floor on one end. Through it, he could see down into one of the unusable bedrooms.
Old garment bags hung from a clothesline of thin wire stretching across the width of the attic. Birdhouses hung in profusion from the rafters, and a dressmaker's dummy stood alone in a corner, a hat over its knobbed head. And in the center of the room, there was a spiral staircase.
Up and up and up again. Jared took the stairs two at a time.
The room he entered was bright and small. There were windows on all sides, and when he looked out, he could see the chipped and worn slate of the roof below him. He could see his mother's station wagon out in the gravel driveway. He could even see the carriage house and the long lawn that ran down into woods. This must be the part of the house that had the weird iron fencing on top of it. What a great place! Even Mallory would be impressed when he brought her up here. Maybe it would make her less upset about her hair.
There wasn't much in the room. An old trunk, a small stool, a Victrola, and rolls of faded fabric.
Jared sat down, pulled the crumpled poem from his pocket, and read it through again. "In a man's torso, you will find my secret to all mankind." Those lines bothered him. He didn't want to find an old, dead body, even if there was something really cool inside it.
The bright yellow sunlight splashing across the floor reassured him. In movies, bad things seldom happened in broad daylight, but he still hesitated to open the trunk.
Maybe he should go outside and get Simon to come up with him. But what if the chest was empty? Or what if the poem had nothing to do with Mallory's bruises and knotted hair?
No knowing what else to do, he knelt down and brushed cobwebs and grime from the top of the trunk. Heavy strips of rusted metal striped the rotting leather. At least he could take a look. Maybe the clue would be more obvious if he knew what was inside.
Taking a breath, Jared pushed up the lid. It was full of very old, moth-eaten clothes Underneath, there was a pocket watch on a long chain, a tattered cap, and a leather satchel full of old, odd-looking pencils and cracked bits of charcoal.
Nothing in the trunk looked like it was a secret, for mankind or anybody else.
Nothing looked like a dead body,either.
"In a man's torso, you will find my secret to all mankind."
He looked down at the contents of the chest again, and it hit him.
He was looking at a chest. A man's torso would be his chest.
Jared groaned in frustration. How could he be right and still have nothing to show for it? There was nothing good in the chest, and the other lines of the poem made no sense at all. "If false and true can be the same, you will soon know of my fame." How could that be answered with something real? It sounded like a word game.
What could be false, though? Something about this situation? Something about the stuff in the chest? The chest itself? He thought about chests, and chests made him think about pirates on a beach, burying treasure deep in the cool sand.
Buried underneath! Not a false chest, but a chest with a false bottom! Looking carefully, he could see that the inside seemed higher than it should be. Had he really solved the riddle?
Jared got down on his knees and began to push all over the floor of the trunk, threading his fingers through the dust to look for seams that might allow him to pull an unseen compartment open. When he found nothing, he began to touch the outside, pawing over the box. Finally, when he pressed three fingers against the edge of the left side, a compartment popped open.
Excited beyond reason, Jared pressed his hand inside. The only contents were a squarish bundle. wrapped in a dirty cloth. He took it out, untied it, and started to unfold the fabric from an old, crumbling book that smelled like burnt paper. Embossed on the brown leather, the title read:Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You.
The cover was ragged at the edges, and as he opened it, he noticed that it was full of watercolor sketches. The writing had been done in ink, grown smudged and spotted with age and water damage. He flipped the pages quickly, glancing at notes tucked into the volume. These were written in a spidery hand very like the writing of the riddle.
The strangest thing, however, was the subject matter. The book was full of information about faeries. <The Spiderwick Chronicles> Tony Diterlizzi & Holly BlackTHE FIELD GUIDE
Book One Of Five
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Chapter Three
IN WHICH There Are Many Riddles
Jared looked around the room. It was a smallish library, with one huge desk in the center. On it was an open book and a pair of old-fashioned, round glasses that caught the candlelight. Jared walked closer. The dim glow illuminated one title at a time as he scanned the shelves. They were all strange: A Historie of Scottish Dwarves, A Compendium of Brownie Visitations from Around the World, and Anatomy of Insects and Other Flying Creatures.
A collection of glass jars containing berries,dired plants, and one filled with dull river stones sat at the edge of the desk. Nearly, a watercolor sketch showed a little girl and a man playing on the lawn. Jared's eyes fell on a note tossed on top of an open book, both coated in a thin layer of dust. The paper was yellowed with age, but handwritten on it was a strange little poem:
In a man's torso you will find
My secret to all mankind
If false and true can be the same
You will soon know of my fame
Up and up and up again
Good luck dear friend
He picked it up and read it through carefully. It was as though a message had been left here just for him. But by whom? What did the poem mean?
He heard a shout from downstairs. "Mallory! Simon! What are you doing up?"
Jared groaned. It just figured that Mom would get back from the store now.
"There was a squirrel in the wall," Jared could hear Mallory say.
Their mother cut her off. "Where's Jared?"
Neither of his siblings said anything.
"You bring that dumbwaiter down. If your brother is in there..."
Jared ran over in time to watch the box disappear down into the wall. His candle chocked on wax and sputtered from his sudden movement, but it didn't go out.
"See?" Simon said weakly.
The dumbwaiter must have showed up, empty.
"Well, where is he then?"
"I don't know," Mallory said. "In bed, asleep?"
Their mother sighed. "Well, go on, both of you, and join him. Now!"
Jared listened to their retreating steps. They'd have to wait a while before they snuck back down to get him. That is, if they didn't just figure that the dumbwaiter had taken him all the way upstairs. They'd probable be surprised not to find him in bed. How could they know he was trapped in a room without a door?
There was a rustling behind him. Jared spun around. It came from the desk.
As he held up the makeshift lamp, Jared saw that something had been scrawled in the dust of the desk.
Click clack, watch your back.
Jared jumped, causing his candle to tilt. Running wax snuffed the flame. He stood in the darkness, so scared he could barely move. Something was here, in the room, and it could write!
He backed toward the empty chute, biting the inside of his lip to keep from screaming. He could hear the rustling of bags downstairs as his mother unpacked groceries.
"What's there?" he whispered into the darkness. "What are you?"
Only silence answered him.
"I know you're there," Jared said.
But there was no reply and no more rustling.
Then he heard his mother on the stairs, a door, and nothing. Nothing but a silence so thick and heavy that it choked him. He felt that even breathing too loudly would give him away. Any moment the thing would be upon him.
There was a creak from inside the wall. Startled, Jared dropped the jar, then realized it was only the dumbwaiter. He felt his way through the darkness.
'Get in," his sister whispered up the shaft.
Jared squeezed into the metal box. He was so filled with relief that he barely noticed the ride down to the kitchen.
As soon as he got out, he started speaking.
"There was a library! A secret library with weird books. And something was in there--it wrote in the dust."
"Shhhh, Jared," Simon said. "Mom's going to hear us."
Jared held up the piece of paper with the poem on it. "Look at this. It has some kind of directions on it."
"Did you actually see anything?" Mallory asked.
"I saw the message in the dust. iIt said 'watch your back,'"Jared replied hotly.
Mallory shook her head. "That could have been written there ages ago."
"It wasn't," Jared insisted. "I saw the desk and there was nothing written there before."
"Calm down," Mallory said.
"Mallory, I saw it!"
Mallory grabbed his shirt in her fist. "Be quiet!"
'Mallory! Let go of your brother!" Their mother was standing at the top of the narrow kitchen stairs wearing a less-than-pleased expression. "I thought we already went through this. If I see any of you out of your beds, I am going to lock you in your rooms."
Mallory let go of Jared's shirt with a long glare.
"What if we need to go to the bathroom?" Simon asked.
"Just go to bed," their mother said.
When they got upstairs, Jared and Simon went off to their room. Jared pulled the covers over his head and scrunched his eyes shut.
"I believe you... about the note and all," Simon whispered, but Jared didn't reply. He was just glad to be in bed. He though he could probably stay there for a whole week. <The Spiderwick Chronicles> Tony Diterlizzi & Holly BlackTHE FIELD GUIDE
Book One Of Five
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Chapter Two
IN WHICH Two Walls Are Explored by Vastly Different Methods
The leaks in the roof had made all but three of the upstairs bedroom floors dangerously rooted. Their mother got one, Mallory got another, and Jared and Simon were left to share the third.
By the time they were done unpacking, the dressers and nightstands of Simon's side of the room were covered in glass tanks. A few were filled with fish. The rest were crammed with mice, lizards, and other animals that Simon had confirned to mud-furnished cages. Their mother had told Simon he could bring everything but the mice. She thought they were disgusting because Simon had rescued them from a trap in Mrs. Levette's downstairs apartment. She pretended not to notice he'd brought them anyway.
Jared tossed and turned on the lumpy mattress, pressing the pillow down over his head like he was smothering himself, but he couldn't sleep. He didn't mind sharing a room with Simon, but sharing a room with cages of animals that rustled, squeaked, and scratched was eerier than sleeping alone would have been. It made him think of the thing in the walls. He'd shared a room with Simon and the critters in the city, but the animal noises had dimmed against the background of cars and sirens and people. Here, everything was unfamiliar.
The creak of hinges startled him into jerking upright. There was a figure in the doorway, with a shapeless white gown and long, dark hair. Jared slid off the bed so fast he didn't even remember doing it.
"It's just me," the figure whispered. It was Mallory in a nightgown. "I think I heard your squirrel."
Jared stood up from a crouch, trying to decide if moving so fast meant he was a chicken or if he just had good reflexes. Simon was snoring gently in the other bed.
Mallory put her hands on her hips. "Come on. It's not going to wait around for us to catch it."
Jared shook his twin's shoulder. "Simon. Wake up. New pet. New peeeeeeeeeet."
Simon twitched and groaned,trying to pull the covers over his head.
Mallory laughed.
"Simon." Jared leaned in close, making his voice deliberately urgent. "Squirrel! Squirrel!"
Simon opened his eyes and glared at them. "I was sleeping."
"Mom went out to the store for milk and cereal," Mallory said, pulling the covers off him. "She said I was supposed to keep an eye on you. We don't have much time before she gets back.
The three siblings crept along the dark hallways of their new house. Mallory was in the lead, walking a few paces and then stopping to listen. Every now and then there would be a scratch or a sound like small footsteps inside the walls.
The scuttling grew louder as they neared the kitchen. In the kitchen sink, Jared could see a pan crusted with the remains of the macaroni and cheese they'd had for dinner.
"I think it's there. Listen," Mallory whispered.
The sound stopped completely.
Mallory picked up a broom and held the wooden end like a baseball bat. "I'm going to knock open the wall," She said.
"Mom is going to see the hole when she gets back," Jared said.
"In this house? She'll never notice."
"What if you hit the squirrel?" Simon asked. "You could hurt--"
"Shhhh, " Mallory said. She padded across the floor in her bare feet and swung the broom handle at the wall. The blow broke through the plaster, scattering dust like flour. It settled in Mallory's hair, making her look even more ghostly. She reached into the hole and broke off a chunk of the wall.
Jared stepped closer. He could feel the hair on his arms stand up.
Torn strips of cloth had been wadded up between the boards. As she snapped off more pieces, other things were revealed. The remains of curtains. Bits of tattered silk and lace. Straight pins poked into the wooden beams on either side, making a strange upward-snaking line. A doll's head lolled in one corner. Dead cockroaches were strung up like garlands. Tiny lead soldiers with melted hands and feet were scattered across the planks like a fallen army. Jagged pieces of mirror glittered from where they had been glued with ancient gum.
Mallory reached into the nest and took out a fencing medal. It was silver with a thick blue ribbon. "This is mine."
"The squirrel must have stolen it," said Simon.
"No--this is too weird," Jared said.
"Dianna Beckley had ferrets, and they used to steal her Barbie dolls," Simon replied. "And lots of animals like shiny things."
"But look." Jared pointed to the cockroaches. "What ferret makes his own gross knickknacks?"
"Let's pull this stuff out of here," Mallory said. "Maybe if it doesn't have a nest, it will be easier to keep out of the house."
Jared hesitated. He didn't want to put his hands inside the wall and feel around. What if it was still in there and bit him? Maybe he didn't know much, but he really didn't think squirrels were normally this creepy. "I don't think we should do that," he said.
Mallory wasn't listening. She was busy dragging over a trash can. Simon started pulling out wads of the musty cloth.
"There's no droppings, either. That's strange." Simon dumped what he was holding and pulled out another handful. At the army men, he stopped. "These are cool, aren't they, Jared?"
Jared had to nod. "They'd be better with hands,though."
Simon put several in the pocket of his pajamas.
"Simon?" Jared asked. "Have you ever heard of an animal like this? I mean, some of this stuff is really odd, you know? Like this squirrel must be as demented as Aunt Lucy."
"Yeah, it's real nutty," Simon said, and giggled.
Mallory groaned, then suddenly went quiet, "I hear it again."
"What?" Jared asked.
"The noise. Shhhh. It's over there." Mallory picked up the broom again.
"Quiet," Simon whispered.
"We're being quiet," Mallory hissed back.
"Shush," Jared said.
The three of them crept over to where the sound came from, just as the noise itself changed. Instead of hearing the clatter of little claws scrabbling on wood, they could clearly hear the scrape of nails on metal.
"Look." Simon bent down to touch a small sliding door set into the wall.
"It's a dumbwaiter," Mallory said. "Servants used it to send trays of breakfast and stuff upstairs. There must be another door like this in one of the bedrooms."
"That thing sounds like it's in the shaft," Jared said.
Mallory leaned her whole body into the metal box. "It's too small for me. One of you is going to have to go."
Simon looked at her skeptically. "I don't know. What if the ropes aren't that good anymore?"
"It would just be a short fall," Mallory said, and both the boys looked at her in astonishment.
"Oh, fine, i'll go." Jared was pleased to find something Mallory couldn't do. She looked a little bit put out. Simon just looked worried.
The inside was dirty and it smelled like old wood. Jared folded his legs in and bent his head forward. He fit, but only barely.
"Is the squirrel-thing even still in the dumbwaiter shaft?" Simon's voice sounded tinny and distant.
"I don't know," Jared said softly, listening to the echoes of his words. "I don't hear anything."
Mallory pulled the rope. With a little jolt and some shaking, the dumbwaiter began to move Jared up inside the wall. "Can you see anything?"
"No," Jared called. He could hear the scratching sound, but it was distant. "It's completely black."
Mallory winched the dumbwaiter back down. "There's got to be a light around here somewhere." She opened a few drawers until she found the stub of a white candle and a mason jar. Turning a knob on the stove, she lit the wick off one of the gas burners, dripped hot wax into the jar, and pressed the candle against it to hold it in place. "Here, Jared. Hold this."
"Mallory, I don't even hear the thing anymore," said Simon.
"Maybe it's hiding," side Mallory, and yanked on the rope.
Jared tried to tuck himself deeper into the dumbwaiter, but there was no room. He wanted to tell them that this was stupid and that he'd chickened out, but he said nothing. Instead, he let himself be raised into the darkness, holding the makeshift lantern.
The metal box went up a few feet inside the wall. The light from the candle was a small halo, reflecting things erratically. The squirrel-thing could have been right next to him, almost touching him, and he would not have noticed it.
"I don't see anything," he called down, but he wasn't sure if anyone heard him.
The ascent was slow. Jared felt like he couldn't breathe. His knees were pressing against his chest, and his feet were cramping from being bent so long. He wondered if the candle was sucking up all the available oxygen.
Then, with a jerk, the dumbwaiter stopped. Something scraped against the metal box.
"It won't go any farther," Mallory called up the chute. "Do you see anything?"
"No," said Jared. " I think it's stuck."
There was more scraping now, as though something was trying to claw through the top of the dumbwaiter. Jared yelped and tried to pound from the inside, hoping to frighten it off.
Just as suddenly, the dumbwaiter slid up an extra few feet and came to a halt again, this time in a room dimly lit by moonlight from a single, small window.
Jared scrambled out of the box. "I made it! I'm upstairs."
The room had a low ceiling, and the walls were covered in bookshelves. Looking around, he realized there was no door.
All of a sudden, Jared wasn't sure where he was. <The Spiderwick Chronicles> Tony Diterlizzi & Holly BlackTHE FIELD GUIDE
Book One Of Five
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Chapter One
IN WHICH the Grace Children Get Acquainted with Their New Home
If someone had asked Jared Grace what jobs his brother and sister world have when they grew up, he would have had no trouble replying. He world have said that his brother,Simon, would be either a veterinarian or a lion tamer. He world have said that his sister, Mallory, would either be an Olympic fencer or in jail for stabbing someone with a sword. But he couldn't say what job he would grow up to have. Not that anyone asked him. Not that anyone asked his opinion on anything at all.
The new house, for instance. Jared Grace looked up at it and squinted. Maybe it would look better blurry.
"It's a shack," Mallory said, getting out of the station wagon.
It wasn't really, though. It was more like a dozen shacks had been piled on top of one another. There were several chimneys, and the whole thing was topped off by a strip of iron fence sitting on the roof like a particulary garish hat.
"It's not so bad," their mother said,with a smile that looked only slightly forced. "It's Victorian."
Simon, Jared's identical twin, didn't look upset. He was probably thinking of all the animals he could have now. Actually, considering what he'd packed into their tiny bedroom in New York, Jared figured it would take a lot of rabbits and hedgehogs and whatever else was out here to satisfy Simon.
"Come on, Jared," Simon called. Jared realized that they had all crossed to the front steps and he was alone on the lawn, staring at the house.
The doors were a faded gray, worn with age. The only traces of paint were an indeterminate cream, stuck deep in crevices and around the hinges. A rusted ram's-head door knocker hung from a single, heavy nail at its center.
Their mother fit a jagged key into the lock, turned it, and shoved hard with her shoulder. The door opened into a dim hallway. The only window was halfway up the stairs, and its stained glass panes gave the walls an eerie, reddish glow.
"It's just like I remember," she said, smiling.
"Only crappier," said Mallory.
Their mother sighed but didn't otherwise respond.
The hallway led into a dining room. A long table with faded water spots was the only piece of furniture. The plaster ceiling was cracked in places and a chandelier hung from frayed wires.
"Why don't you three start bringing things in from the car?" their mother said.
" Into here?" Jared asked.
"Yes, into here." Their mother put down her suitcase on the table, ignoring the eruption of dust. "If your great-aunt Lucinda hadn't let us stay, I don't know where we would have gone. We should be grateful."
None of them said anything. Try as he might, Jared didn't feel anything close to grateful. Ever since their dad moved out, everything had gone bad. He'd messed up at achool, and the fading bruise over his left eye wouldn't let him forget it. But this place--this place was the worst yet.
"Jared," his mother said as he turned to follow Simon out to unload the car.
"What?"
His mother waited until the other two were down the hall before she spoke. "This is a chance to start over ... for all of us. Okay?"
Jared nodded grudgingly. He didn't need her to say the rest of it -- that the only reason he hadn't gotten kicked out of school was because they were moving anyway. Another reason he was supposed to be grateful. Only he wasn't.
Outside, Mallory had stacked two suitcases on top of a steamer trunk. "I heard she's starving herself to death."
"Aunt Lucinda? She's just old," said Simon. "Old and crazy."
But Mallory shook her head. "I heard Mom on the phone. She was telling Uncle Terrence that Aunt Lucy thinks little men bring her food."
"What do you expect? She's in a nuthouse," Jared said.
Mallory went on like she hadn't heard him."She told the doctors the food she got was better than anything they'd ever taste."
"You're making that up." Simon crawled into the backseat and opened one of the suitcases.
Mallory shrugged. "If she dies, this place is going to get inherited by someone, and we're going to have to move again."
"Maybe we can go back to the city," Jared said.
"Fat chance," said Simon. He took out a wad of tube socks. "Oh, no! Jeffrey and Lemondrop chewed their way loose!"
"Mom told you not to bring the mice," Mallory said. "She said you could have normal animals now."
"If I let them go, they'd get stuck in a glue trap or something," said Simon, turning a sock inside out, one finger sticking out a hole. "Besides, you brought all your fencing junk ! "
"It's not junk," Mallory growled. "And it's not alive."
"Shut up ! " Jared took a step toward his sister.
"Just because you've got one black eye doesn't mean I can't give you another one." Mallory flipped her ponytail as she turned toward him. She shoved a heavy suitcase into his hands. "Go ahead and carry that if you're so tough."
Even though Jared knew he might be bigger and stronger than her someday--when she wasn't thirteen and he wasn't nine--it was hard to picture.
Jared managed to lug the suitcase inside the door before he dropped it. He figured he could drag it the rest of the way if he had to and no one would be the wiser. Alone in the hallway of the house, however, Jared no longer remembered how to get to the dining room.
"Mom?" Although he'd meant to call out loudly, his voice sounded very soft, even to himself.
No answer. He took a tentative step and then another, unitl the creak of a board under his feet stopped him.
Just as he paused, something inside the wall rustled. He could hear it scrabbling upward, until the sound disappeared past the ceiling. His heart beat hard against his chest.
It's probably just a squirrel , he told himself. After all, the house looked like it was falling apart. Anything could be living inside; they'd be lucky if there wasn't a bear in the basement and birds in all the heating ducts. That was, if the place even bad heat.
"Mom?" he said again,even more faintly.
Then the door behind him opened and Simon came in, carrying mason jars with two bug-eyed gray mice in them. Mallory was right behind hime, scowling.
"I heard something," Jared said."In the wall."
"What?" Simon asked.
"I don't know...." Jared didn't want to admit that for a moment he'd thought it was a ghost. " Probably a squirrel.
Simon looked at the wall with interest. Brocaded gold wallpaper hung limply, peeling and pocking in places, "You think so? In the house? I always wanted a squirrel."
No one seemed to think that something in the walls was anything to worry about, so Jared didn't say anything more about it, But as he carried the suitcase to the dining room, Jared couldn't help thinking about their tiny apartment in New York and their family before the divorce. He wished this was some kind of gimmicky vacation and not real life. 被迫迁移经营了7年之久的SPACE在一夜之间消失，带着过去的所有回忆...不告而别
别无选择。。。。被迫迁移～
给MSN客服写信寻求帮助，希望能恢复数据，但是得到了没有答案的答案，各位～切记保管好自己的网络财产...
这里正式更名为‘My Little Candy Fairy’.....用以抄录我最爱的E小说 |
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