by Jo Gibson
It seemed to take forever for someone to answer the door, but at last they heard footsteps approaching. And then it opened, and Rondelle stood there in the light.
“Rondelle?” Donna’s mouth dropped open. Rondelle looked awful! There were dark circles under her eyes and she was swaying back and forth as she held on to the doorjamb. “What’s the matter? Are you sick?”
Rondelle swayed again, and Steve grabbed her arm to steady her. But Rondelle just smiled a strange smile, and shook her head. “I’m fine, just fine. I’ve never been better.”
Donna exchanged glances with Steve. It was clear that Rondelle wasn’t fine.
“Come in, come in.” Rondelle’s voice was hoarse, and she leaned heavily on Steve’s arm as she led the way to the living room. “I was just sitting here reciting a poem. Do you know London Bridge is Falling Down?”
Steve exchanged another glance with Donna. There was something very wrong with Rondelle. “Sure, we know it. Are your parents home, Rondelle?”
“No, not yet.” Rondelle sank down on the couch. “I’m so tired of London Bridge. I had to recite it to the rats all night, to keep them from eating me. I was locked in the attic and they were very hungry.”
“I . . . see.” Steve nodded, as if he understood. And then he looked at Donna. His message was clear. Rondelle had flipped out, and he wasn’t sure what to do next.
Donna took a deep breath for courage. She hated to ask Rondelle about the red shoes, but if the curse was responsible for Rondelle’s condition, she might feel better if she gave them up. “We need the red shoes, Rondelle. Could you give them to us, please?”
“No, I can’t.” Rondelle began to rock back and forth. “I can’t . . . I can’t! One, two buckle my shoe!”
Donna put her arm around Rondelle’s shoulder and, gradually, Rondelle stopped rocking and chanting. Donna spoke again, very softly. “Why can’t you give us the red shoes? We really need them.”
“Because I had to give them to her! She went to the party with Craig. She stole my date, and she has to be punished!”
“She must mean Alice.” Steve reached out for Rondelle and held her tight, before she could start to rock again. “Listen to me, Rondelle. How did you know that Alice went to the party with Craig?”
“The answering machine told me.” Rondelle’s eyes glittered strangely. “I heard it through the crack in the floor. So near and yet so far. I could see it, but I couldn’t reach it. And I tried soooo hard.”
Rondelle started to rock again, faster and faster, and Steve reached out to calm her. “Donna? You’d better call Alice and tell her what’s happened.”
Donna looked up Alice’s number in the phone book, then dialed it on Rondelle’s phone, but no one answered. “She’s not home.”
“Keep trying. We can’t drive over there now. We have to stay with Rondelle until her parents get home.”
Donna dialed Alice’s number over and over but no one answered. “She’s not home, Steve. Or she’s not answering the phone.”
“Okay.” Steve nodded. “I guess we should take a run over there after Rondelle’s parents get home. I want to make sure that Alice is all right.”
Rondelle started to rock again, so hard that she bumped her head against the wall. “Alice? Who’s Alice?”
“Rondelle . . . take it easy.” Steve pulled her into his arms. He held her for another few minutes, and then they heard a car pull into the driveway.
“They’re home.” Steve got up from the couch. “You stay with Rondelle, and I’ll go out to meet them.”
Rondelle was rocking again, and Donna reached out to hold her close. She was quiet for a moment, but then she started reciting “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” in a hoarse, whispering voice. The first line was right, but then Rondelle changed the words in a very frightening way.
“One, two, buckle my shoe. Three, four, the curse locked the door. Five, six, I couldn’t get it fixed. Don’t look back, the mirror just cracked.”
“Rondelle . . . you’ve got to calm down.” Donna tried to hold her, but Rondelle just jerked away. She seemed possessed by the awful rhyme she was chanting.
“Craig drove by, and I started to cry.”
Donna wasn’t sure what to do, so she tried to reason with Rondelle. “Don’t worry, Rondelle. It’s all right now.”
“No, it’s not! I can’t stop! The rats are still here, and they’re very near. Three, four, five. They’ll eat me alive!”
“No, Rondelle. The rats are gone.” Donna did her best to soothe Rondelle, but it didn’t work. Rondelle shook her head, and kept on rocking.
“Seven, eight, Alice took my date. Nine, ten, she’ll die in the end! The cursed shoes are red, and Alice is dead!”
The frightening words that Rondelle chanted made the hair stand up on the back of Donna’s neck. The night in the attic had taken its toll. Rondelle’s mind had snapped.
As Donna held Rondelle, she felt her suspicions grow. Tammy had worn the red shoes, and now it would take painful months for her to learn to walk again. And when Rondelle had worn them, she’d lost her mind. Were the red shoes to blame? Donna still wasn’t sure, but the evidence was stacking up. She just hoped they’d be able to convince Alice that the red shoes were dangerous before they claimed their third victim!
Alice was in such a hurry, she almost tripped over the gift-wrapped package on her porch. She picked it up and admired the wrapping, beautiful silver paper with a large, red bow. There was a card on the top with her name. It was a gift for her. And Alice knew of only one person who’d send her a beautiful gift like this. It was from Craig!
“How sweet!” Alice’s fingers were shaking in excitement as she tore off the paper and opened the box. Craig had given her a pair of red shoes. It seemed like a strange gift, but the shoes were beautiful.
The moment Alice slipped them on, she began to smile. They looked absolutely wonderful and they fit her perfectly! Craig must have asked one of her friends for her shoe size.
Alice stood up and twirled around. The shoes were comfortable and they were gorgeous. She could hardly wait to thank Craig in person!
In no time at all, Alice was heading down the road in her old green Chevy. When she saw the blue and red sign for Eddy’s Drive-In in the distance, she had an absolutely brilliant idea. Craig had told her he was crazy about the stuffed mushroom appetizer they served at Eddy’s, and it wouldn’t take long to go through the line at the drive-up window. Craig would be impressed that she’d remembered, and it would be a nice way to thank him for her gift.
There were only two cars in line as Alice drove in. She gave her order to the crackling voice on the speaker, and drove up to the window to park behind the other cars. While she was waiting, Alice turned on the radio and smiled as she heard her favorite song. She was so happy, she started singing right along with the music.
Alice was delighted as she belted out the lyrics to the song. She really sounded good, much better than she had in the shower. All the notes were right and her voice soared out the open window. Their chorus director was crazy. She had a fantastic voice!
Alice was still singing as another car pulled up behind her. The driver heard her singing, and he leaned out his window to stare at her. Alice sang even louder. If he didn’t like her voice, that was just too bad. But the driver was smiling as he got out of his car and walked up to hers.
Alice kept right on singing, but she raised her eyebrows in surprise. Something about him was very familiar. When the song had ended, Alice stuck her head out the open window. “Did you want something?”
“Yes.” The man smiled. “I want you.”
“Excuse me?” Alice started to laugh. It was a great pickup line, but she was taken.
“I’m serious. We just lost one of our backup singers, and we need to replace her.” The man reached in his pocket and handed Alice a card. “You sounded really good, and I want you to audition. How about coming down to The Hot Spot around eight tonight?”
Alice glanced
down at the card. And then she almost fainted in shock. No wonder he looked so familiar! She’d seen his face on CDs and posters, all over town. It was Shane Summers, and his band was in Jefferson City for a concert!
“Well? How about it?” Shane leaned against her car. “The audition’s just a formality. I’d hire you right now, but I’d like the rest of the guys to meet you first.”
Alice was so excited her head was spinning, but she decided to play it smart. She shrugged very casually and smiled at him. “Why not? I guess I could be there at eight.”
After he’d thanked her and gone back to his car, Alice took out his card and stared at it again. She had an audition with Shane Summers tonight! This was incredible luck!
Alice pulled up to the window to pick up the stuffed mushrooms. She set them down on the passenger seat, and drove out onto the highway. Alice could hardly wait to tell Craig what had happened.
Alice zipped along the highway, lost in her dreams of fame and fortune. If she was a singer with Shane Summers’ band, she’d go on tour and meet all sorts of fascinating people. Maybe she’d even marry someone incredibly talented like Shane Summers, himself.
The turn for the lake was just ahead, and Alice was so excited, she took it much too fast. Her tires slid on the gravel road and she hit the brakes, fishtailing to a stop. She had to be careful. The gravel road around the lake had lots of tight curves and they hadn’t graded it recently. They would scrape it smooth before next summer, but the ruts were deep at this time of the year.
As she put the car into gear again, Alice laughed out loud with delight. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind. She’d really sounded fantastic at the drive-in and she would be sure to get the job. In the space of an hour, her singing had improved a thousand percent!
But why did she suddenly sound so good? Alice remembered the curse of the red shoes. Any girl who wore them was supposed to show incredible talent, but there was a price to pay. She’d have incredibly bad luck.
Alice glanced down at her feet, and then she shook her head. There was absolutely no reason to worry. Her red shoes weren’t cursed. How could they be when they were a present from Craig?
Donna and Steve took turns calming Rondelle while her parents called the doctor. He wanted to see her at the hospital right away, so they helped to get Rondelle settled in the backseat of her parents’ car. The moment they had driven away, Steve grabbed Donna’s hand. “Come on, Donna. Let’s go.”
As they drove to Alice’s house, Donna began to think about what had happened. “Poor Rondelle. She seemed totally insane. Do you think it’s because of the red shoes?”
“I don’t know. It could have been the night in the attic. She must have been terrified, all alone in the dark.”
Donna shivered. It wasn’t pleasant to imagine being trapped in a dark, spooky place with no way to get out. “When Rondelle was making some kind of sense, in between all that other stuff she said, she told me she saw something horrible in the attic mirror.”
“Was she wearing the red shoes?”
Donna nodded. “It was right after she put them on.”
“We’re here.” Steve said a few minutes later, when they pulled up in front of a pink stucco house. He shut off his engine. “I’m pretty sure that Rondelle sent the red shoes to Alice. And even if they’re not cursed, I think we’d better get them back.”
Donna held her breath as Steve rang the doorbell, but no one came to the door. He rang it again, with the same result, and Donna sighed deeply. “Alice must have left.”
“What’s this?” Steve pointed to a box by the side of the door. It was the size of a shoe box and there was a torn piece of silver wrapping paper beside it.
Donna knelt down to look at the box, and she saw the white card stuck to the paper. “Here’s a card with Alice’s name, but there’s no message. Do you think it’s from Rondelle?”
“I know it is. She’s the only person I know who dots her i’s with a circle. And if Rondelle gave this package to Alice, you can bet that the red shoes were inside.”
“But the box is empty!” Donna swallowed hard. “Do you think Alice is wearing the red shoes?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. I just wish we knew where she was.”
“Last night at the party, I heard her tell Craig she’d help him clean up. Do you think she could be out at the cabin?”
“It’s worth a try.” Steve grabbed Donna’s hand. “Maybe we’re making something out of nothing, but we’d better drive out there to make sure that Alice is all right.”
Alice stared down at the red shoes on her feet and they seemed to gleam dangerously. But that was ridiculous. These shoes were from Craig, weren’t they?
But Craig hadn’t signed the card and she’d only assumed that the shoes were from him. What if someone had sent her that package and tricked her into believing that it was from Craig? She could be wearing the cursed red shoes!
Alice glanced down at the shoes again. They had stopped gleaming, and now they looked perfectly harmless. But when she raised her eyes to the road, the fence posts were speeding by at an alarmingly fast rate.
What was happening?! Alice glanced at the speedometer and gasped. The needle was hovering at just below fifty, and that was much too fast for a gravel road in poor repair!
Alice tried to ease up on the accelerator, but something was terribly wrong. Her foot was stuck, and with each passing second, it was pressing down harder and harder.
The needle on the speedometer rose to fifty-five and then to sixty. And even though Alice struggled to pull up her foot, it just wouldn’t budge. She was wearing the cursed red shoes! And one of them was tromping down on the accelerator, trying to kill her!
Nine
Steve knew a shortcut and they took a back road to the lake. As they turned onto the gravel road that led around the shoreline, Donna clutched her hands together to keep them from trembling. Alice just had to be at the cabin. And she had to be all right!
The lake sparkled in the afternoon sun. It was a beautiful shade of blue that she would have appreciated at any other time, but now she was much too worried about Alice to give it more than a passing glance.
“Only four miles to go.” Steve looked at his watch, and Donna could tell that he was just as worried as she was. “Hang on, Donna. This gravel road is really rough.”
As they drove over the ruts made by heavy summer rains, Donna held onto the edge of her seat. Steve’s car was old and a spring poked her every time they bounced over a rut, but the last thing Donna wanted was for Steve to slow down. The faster they got to the cabin, the quicker they could talk to Alice. If she was wearing the red shoes, they simply had to convince her to take them off!
As they rounded a corner, they heard a loud bang. Steve stopped the car by pumping the brakes, and they both got out to look.
“It’s flat.” Steve frowned as he pointed to the right rear tire. “We must have picked up a nail or something.”
Donna nodded. “Do you have a spare?”
“Sure. Don’t worry, Donna. It’ll only take a couple of minutes to change. You can wait in the car if you want to.”
“No way!” Donna walked around the car with him and waited until he’d opened the trunk. Then she reached inside and grabbed the jack. “I’ll jack it up while you roll out the spare.”
It didn’t take long to change the tire with both of them working. Steve lowered the jack, put it back in the trunk, and handed Donna a clean rag. “Thanks for helping, Donna. I hope you didn’t get too dirty.”
“Only a little and that’ll wash off.” Donna smiled at him as she wiped her hands on the rag.
Less then five minutes later, they were turning onto the long winding driveway that led to the cabin. Donna held her breath as they passed the tall, stately pines and the cabin came into view.
“Craig’s here.” Steve rounded the corner, and parked next to Craig’s Thunderbird.
Donna nodded, but she felt her heart sink down to her toes. Craig’
s car was the only one in the driveway. There was no sign of Alice’s Chevy.
Steve seemed to read her mind, because he turned to give her an encouraging smile. “Alice might be here. She could have parked in the garage.”
They rang the doorbell and a moment later, Craig opened the door. “Hi, guys. What are you doing out here?”
Donna crossed her fingers for luck. And then she took a deep breath and blurted out the question. “Is Alice here?”
“Not yet.” Craig looked a little disgruntled as he motioned for them to come inside. “She told me she’d be here by two, but she’s late. She probably had car trouble. That old wreck of hers doesn’t go more than ten miles without breaking down. Which way did you come?”
“We took the shortcut.” Steve turned to Donna. “Let’s show Craig that card.”
Donna pulled the card out of her purse and handed it to Craig. “We found this with a gift-wrapped box on Alice’s front porch. Did you send her a present?”
“No. Not me.” Craig looked puzzled as he examined the card.
Steve nodded. “That’s what we were afraid of. We think Rondelle might have sent Alice the cursed red shoes.”
It took Steve and Donna several minutes to tell Craig what had happened to Rondelle. When they were finished, Craig looked shocked.
“And you think that Rondelle sent the red shoes to Alice for revenge?”
Donna nodded. “But we won’t know for sure, until we can talk to Alice.”
“This stuff about cursed shoes is crazy, but she is really late.” Craig started to frown. “Let’s give her another five minutes. If she’s not here by then, we’ll go out and try to find her.”
The needle on the speedometer was hovering at seventy, and Alice felt panic wash over her in waves. She couldn’t lift her foot off the gas pedal, and the road ahead climbed steeply. At the top of the hill was the most dangerous curve on the road. It was deceptively sharp and very steep, with a rock-filled ravine on one side. It had been the scene of several fatal accidents, and everyone called it Deadman’s Curve.