Artifacts

by Pete Catalano

“But it’s right there,” Skylights said, “begging us to go through.”

  “That’s the point,” Korie said, waving him off. “We need something to throw.”

  “If Mouth was still here, we could throw him,” Tank said.

  I laughed. “It would throw him back.”

  Korie scratched the ground for a rock. Finally, Tank knelt down and dug it out for her.

  “It’s a good-sized rock,” he said, tossing it in his hand.

  “Throw it through the opening,” Korie said.

  Tank shot me a look and tossed me the rock. “You’re up, Ace.”

  I rubbed it in my hands while looking at the opening. Taking a firm hold, I started my famous sixth-grade Little League stretch. Pausing to check both of the invisible runners on first and third, I kicked my leg high and threw a fastball toward the center of the opening.

  The rock sliced through the air, humming in its mid-fifty-mile-per-hour flight. The moment it crossed the line where the maze framed the opening, the wall reappeared and stopped the rock in midair. In seconds, large, gnarled, twisted branches of the dense Blackthorn crawled out from a thousand different places, swarming over the rock and swallowing it up under layer upon layer of branches.

  “That could have been you,” Tank said.

  “How would that have been me?” I asked. “You were the one Korie stopped from going.”

  “Yeah,” Tank said, “but your Spidey senses would have picked up on the danger before it happened and pushed me out of the way …”

  “Wait! What?” I looked at him like he was crazy. “Pushed you out of the way?”

  “Well, tried to push me out of the way,” Tank conceded. “But then you would’ve bounced off, falling through the opening and winding up all wrapped up like that rock.”

  I laughed. “You’re as bad as Mouth.”

  “Come on,” Korie said. “I wonder if the others had any luck.”

  “Touch, Grifter, and the Grumpkins have been in the maze far too many times to find the right pattern,” Skylights said. “Maybe we should have sent Mouth or Crunch with them to give them a new set of eyes.”

  I tried to hide the smile coming across my face at the thought of Crunch or Mouth being able to help anybody. “Mouth and Crunch have abilities that only Mouth and Crunch can appreciate. If they’d been with us, there would have only been one of two possible outcomes as we traveled through the maze. Either we would have given up and gone home, frustrated by how crazy the two of them were or …”

  Korie finished my sentence. “Or Tank would have thrown both of them into the Blackthorn so we could continue to go through the maze in peace.”

  “I’d have definitely thrown them into the Blackthorn,” Tank said. “I might do that anyway, even if they aren’t—”

  I jumped up and slapped my hand over Tank’s mouth to quiet him. I could feel the mixture of rage and confusion building inside him so I motioned to the edge of the far wall of Blackthorn while holding on for dear life. Turning his head, we caught glimpses of Hook, Smee, Butt-Kiss, and Jerkin moving steadily down the path on the other side.

  “How did they get in here?” Korie peeked out around my shoulder.

  “I don’t know,” I said, letting Tank go. “But this can’t be good.”

  “That’s the side Grifter, Touch, and the Grumpkin went in,” Tank said.

  “Oh, gosh.” I panicked. “I hope they’re okay.”

  “Who’s okay?” Skylights asked, not quite sure what we were talking about.

  “Grifter, Touch, and the Grumpkin,” I whispered.

  Skylights had the oddest look on his face. “Why wouldn’t they be okay and why on earth are you whispering?”

  “Hook,” I said, pointing to the villains I could see through the branches of Blackthorn, “and Butt-Kiss. They wouldn’t have passed them in the maze without harming them.”

  Skylights looked where I was pointing. “That is Grifter, Touch, and the Grumpkin.”

  “No,” Tank said. “It’s Hook!”

  Skylights laughed. “It’s the maze. Just one more of the tricks it offers as we get close to solving it. We must be very close.”

  “I don’t think …”

  “Boys!” Skylights shouted while still keeping his eyes on us.

  “I don’t know where you are, but we’re ahead of you,” Grifter shouted, his voice slipping and slithering through the gnarled, clustered Blackthorn thickets until it reached us.

  “See,” Skylights said. “We need to go.”

  Once we realized it was once again a “ghost” set up by the maze, we began to relax a little.

  “Don’t even think of slapping your hand over my mouth again.” Tank laughed.

  Even though he was laughing, I knew he really meant it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  After continuing through the maze, we found ourselves at a dead end that I thought we’d been at before.

  “I’m afraid we’re going in circles,” I said, looking ahead at the wall and then behind us.

  “No, actually we’re going in squares,” Tank corrected me. “None of these twists and turns we’ve been through has even the slightest arc to them.”

  I shook my head and smiled. “Everybody’s a comedian.”

  Korie was quiet again. That usually meant she noticed something nobody else had. My life was full of Korie noticing something nobody else had.

  “Okay, what doesn’t feel right about this?” I asked.

  “Wait, what?” Korie said.

  I shot her a look. “You’re never quiet. It only happens when you’re thinking, and something about this dead end has you thinking. So spill it.”

  “We definitely haven’t been at this dead end before,” she said. “Every time we ran into a dead end, I scratched a mark into the dirt near the base of the wall. The mark’s not here.”

  “I feel a lot better about that now,” I said. “It would have been awful if we were walking in circles …” I could hear Tank about to jump in. “… I mean squares.”

  “This Blackthorn isn’t moving like the others,” Korie said, putting her hand up to the wall. “The others are continually moving in and out of the other branches, tying them up and pulling them tighter together to reinforce the strength of the wall. These branches, however, are slipping and sliding in front of each other. They never actually touch.”

  Korie moved her hand closer to the branches, waiting for them to bow out to her and for the thorns to turn directly toward her … but it never happened.

  “Wait, let me do that,” I said, stepping next to Korie.

  “Be careful,” Skylights said.

  “I don’t think I have to this time,” I said.

  Reaching out for the branches, my hand slipped through. “I think we just beat the maze.”

  Taking a step forward, and closing my eyes, I walked through.

  Relieved I didn’t die, I opened my eyes and the house was directly in front of me. I was never so happy to see four-stories of an old, run-down ramshackle house as I was at that moment.

  Turning around, I reached through the wall and pulled Korie through.

  She squealed on the way through and then laughed out loud as she popped out.

  I looked at her. “When did you start squealing?”

  “About the same time I started walking through Blackthorn walls,” she said quickly. “And we’re never to speak about that again.”

  With Korie gone, Tank and Skylights came through and had big, broad smiles as they stood on the grass, the warm sun on their faces and the wind in their hair.

  “That was awesome!” Tank said.

  “We must be the only ones in the world who were ever able to defeat it,” Skylights gushed.

  “Hey, what took you so long?” Mouth cried.

  Mouth, Crunch, and the Grumpkin were sitting on the steps leading up to the porch.

  “But how did you … ”

  “Talent, ingenui
ty, and ability,” Mouth said quickly. “Gifts that get better and stronger with age. If I’m this good at thirteen, just imagine how good I’ll be when I’m, like, a hundred.”

  I waved him off. “No really, how did you …”

  “Grumpkin,” Crunch said. “We were sitting at one of the thousand dead ends and Mouth was crying—”

  Tank cracked up. “Mouth was crying.”

  “Mouth was crying,” Crunch continued, “and Grumpkin was trying to do something funny to take his mind off of it. He started digging these rocks out of the ground and throwing them at the wall. The rocks he dug up got bigger and bigger and the wall started sagging as it swallowed them up. It got to a point where we could see the house. Grumpkin then picked Mouth and threw him over the Blackthorn and sent me flying over the wall behind him.”

  “But how did the Grumpkin get over?” Korie asked.

  Crunch cracked up. “Those Grumpkins can jump! He flew over that wall in one leap and he had to have cleared it by, like, three feet.”

  I looked over to Skylights and he nodded.

  “Any sign of Hook or the others?” Korie asked.

  Mouth, Crunch, and the Grumpkin shook their heads. As Mouth and Crunch slowed to a stop, the Grumpkin kept shaking his.

  “Why didn’t you go in the house?” Tank asked.

  “Mouth was scared—”

  Tank cracked up again. “Mouth was scared.”

  “Mouth was scared,” Crunch continued, “and we heard you coming. I knew it wouldn’t take Korie long to figure it out, so we just sat here and waited.”

  “Have you seen Grifter, Touch, or the other Grumpkin?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” Crunch said.

  Dying to get a look inside the house, I took a few steps onto the porch. I could feel the planks give way slightly under my weight, and I immediately thought an alarm had been activated, setting in motion any and all booby traps that were hidden and ready to go off.

  I closed my eyes and waited.

  “Man, that’s an old porch,” Crunch said, hearing the sound the wood planks were making. “You better hope you don’t break through and fall to your death.”

  I looked over the side of the railing. “Crunch, it’s only, like, two feet off the ground …”

  The planks suddenly shifted, cracked, and fell away. Looking into the hole, the ground was gone below the porch and the wood had disappeared into the darkness.

  I had to correct myself. “Death is possible at anytime, anywhere in or around this house.”

  Carefully, they followed me onto the porch, each stepping into the footprint of the other.

  Looking into the window, the place was piled with junk and boxes filled with junk. We needed time to look through boxes, but we had no idea when Hook or the others would be back.

  Tiptoeing up to the front door, I reached for the doorknob … and it faded from view. Then it reappeared.

  Every time I reached, it faded. Every time it appeared, I reached.

  “Arrrrrgh!” I said, frustrated.

  Korie stepped up closer behind me until we really were thisclose. “Looks like you’re warming up to this whole pirate idea.”

  As I reached for the doorknob it faded, and Korie pushed the door.

  Without the latch to hold it in place, the door swung open, the sound of the hinges squealing so loud it was as if we were prying up nails that had been in place for a hundred years.

  “There’s absolutely no way of sneaking into this house,” Mouth said. “One thing is louder than the other.”

  Peeking through the door, I couldn’t see anything that made it feel like a pirates’ hideout, but I was sooo hoping there was.

  “Come on,” I said. “Let’s at least get off of the porch, so if any of them come driving up, at least we’ll be able to find a place to hide.”

  “This place has got to be booby-trapped out the wazoo,” Mouth said. “I’m not taking another step in here without a weapon.”

  Scrambling around this first room, Mouth was finally able to find a nice-sized table leg that he swung in front of him like a sword slash club. “Okay,” he smiled, “now I’m ready.”

  “What about the booby traps you’re not ready for?” Crunch asked.

  “I’ve got Tank.” Mouth laughed. “I’ll beat danger with my club unless it’s too big.”

  Tank cracked up. “And then I’ll pick you up by the feet and beat danger with you.”

  “Maybe it’s a good idea for everyone to have something, just in case,” I agreed. “Look around and see what you can find.”

  I picked up a piece of wood, Korie grabbed a hammer, and Crunch grabbed a paintbrush he had pulled out of one of the boxes.

  “What the heck is that?” I asked.

  “A paintbrush,” Crunch said proudly, holding it up high for all to see.

  “If either Hook or Butt-Kiss come to get you, what are you going to do with that?”

  Mouth cracked himself up. “Maybe he’s going to paint them into a corner.”

  “It’s a lot more than a paintbrush,” Crunch tried to tell us.

  “Leave him alone,” Korie said. “Spend a little more time looking for the artifact than abusing Crunch. If the paintbrush is special to him … then it’s special to me.”

  We all picked a box and one by one started to pull out the things that were crammed into them. Every time we pulled something out and held it up it was like finding a new treasure.

  “Hey, look at this,” Mouth called, pulling an old top hat out of his box. “Alice in Wonderland. I’m like The Mad Hatter.”

  I cracked up. “Mouth, that’s the first truth you’ve told since I’ve known you.”

  “Whoa!” Korie whispered. She pulled something out of her box wrapped in about a dozen newspapers. Peeling back layer after layer, she was finally able to tear away enough to catch a glimpse of the most beautiful mirror.

  “Guys! Guys!” Crunch shouted.

  By the time I looked over to him, he was just standing there, staring at his feet.

  “Hey, Crunch, you better do something,” I said. “You can’t just be playing around.”

  “I did,” Crunch said, his face beaming as he stepped out from behind the boxes.

  On his feet were these giant, 3D, cartoon-looking sneakers. They were nearly the size of hot air balloons and he was bouncing around on them like there were springs inside.

  “What in the world!” Korie laughed.

  “All I did was rub the tip of the brush over my sneakers.” Crunch laughed, jumping around the room.

  “Does it say anything on the handle?” I asked, nodding my head, almost mesmerized by the bouncing. “Like who owns it or who made it?”

  “It’s hard to read with all the movement.” Crunch giggled, trying to hold the brush still enough to look at the carving. “There are only a couple of initials.”

  “What initials?” I said. “Read them out loud.”

  “W.D.,” Crunch said, slowing down the bouncing. “W. D. W. D. HOLY HANNAH! It’s – ”

  Mouth grabbed him and pulled Crunch’s face close to his. “You don’t mean – ”

  “I do,” Crunch said. “It’s Wally Dodo’s paintbrush!"

  I was confused. “Who’s Wally Dodo?”

  “Seriously!” Crunch yelled. “He’s only the greatest comic book artist the world has ever – ”

  “Paint something else,” Tank shouted, waiting to see what would happen.

  Crunch bounced over to one of the old, ripped up, stuffed chairs that were in the room and painted quickly over the cushion, which regained all its color as an amazing 3D cartoon. Crunch turned around and left his feet, hitting the cushion square in the middle. He bounced so high he nearly hit his head on the ceiling.

  “Let me try it!” Mouth shouted, running at Crunch to get the brush.

  Crunch kept bouncing around the room, and every time Mouth thought he had him, he’d go flying through the
air and crash onto the floor as Crunch bounced away. Finally, after Mouth had fallen and dragged himself back up for, like, the thousandth time, Crunch painted a few of the steps going up the stairs and the ceiling right above it.

  Mouth never saw it coming.

  The moment he hit the first step he went flying to the ceiling, which sent him flying back to the steps. This movement continued back and forth for a few minutes until Mouth could grab onto something and anchor himself down.

  Korie, Tank, Skylights, and I ignored them, knowing that if you paid attention to them they could go on like that for hours.

  “Anything yet?” I asked.

  “Most of this stuff is junk,” Tank said. “And the rest has nothing to do with fairy tales.”

  I laughed. “I’d crack up if your bedpan was in there.”

  Korie stopped for a moment. “Skylights, you said the artifact could rewrite the stories.”

  “Yes,” Skylights said. “That’s the greatest fear. The villains would defeat the heroes, and that’s how the stories will be read to children all over the world.”

  “And what would happen to you and the others if that happened?” I asked.

  “The same that has happened to the villains,” Tank said. “Not a lot of kids growing up wanting to be us anymore.”

  “Not a lot of good out in the world,” Korie said.

  I shrugged. “Not a lot of Halloween costumes made to look like Peter Pan.”

  “Hook would be the hero of our story if that were to happen,” Skylights said. “Every vile, evil thing he has ever done would be forgotten …”

  Before he could finish his thought, there was a rumble outside. Looking out the window, we saw the Blackthorn disappear and a truck carrying Smee and Jerkin barreled across the grass, dragging another load of artifacts with them.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “They’re coming,” I shouted, trying to get Crunch and Mouth’s attention. “Crunch, get those sneakers under control and find somewhere to hide. Mouth, get your mouth under control and do the same thing. Hopefully, they’ll just drop the things off and get out of here.”

  Running past the front door, I slammed it shut. Grabbing Korie’s hand, I dragged her along behind me as we looked for a place where we’d be out of sight, but still able to peek out and see what they were up to.