Alley of Shadows

by Steve Brezenoff

  “Get back to bed. It’s late,” Dad said.

  Ben closed his door and sat on the edge of his bed.

  “It must have been Kaya,” Ben thought. “And I think something very weird is going on. This time, I’m going down to the alley as soon as Dad is asleep. Kaya needs help!”

  *

  Ben was asleep before he knew it.

  “Ben …”

  He woke up with a start and sat up on the edge of his bed. “Oh no!” Ben said out loud. “I must have fallen asleep.” He glanced at the clock.

  “One a. m.?” he thought. “I’ve been asleep for hours! I wonder if Kaya is still waiting for me.”

  “Ben …”

  It was the same gentle voice, as though Kaya had heard his thought and wanted to let him know that she was indeed waiting.

  The breeze coming through Ben’s open window gave him a chill, even though it was a hot night.

  Quietly, Ben got to his feet and got dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, which were lying on his bedroom floor. He slowly opened his bedroom door.

  The apartment was almost completely silent.

  He was glad to see that the lights and the TV were off.

  The only noise he could hear was his dad snoring in his room.

  The coast was clear.

  Minutes later, Ben was gripping his torch and slowly walking into the alley.

  This time, he wasn’t afraid of the little noises he heard. He was too busy worrying about the tough older boys he’d escaped from the night before.

  Once again, he pulled open the heavy door that led into the old brick building.

  “Kaya?” he whispered.

  Ben shone the torch in all directions, but the corridor was empty.

  He crept up to where the corridor ended in a ‘T’ shape. He shone his light in both directions.

  The whole first floor looked deserted.

  “Kaya?” he said. “Are you here?”

  “Ben …” The voice was as soft as a breeze.

  Ben heard some rustling coming from around the corner at the end of the hall.

  He pointed his flashlight in the direction of the noise and voice.

  A pale face stared back at him.

  It was Kaya.

  Ben almost yelled in surprise. There hadn’t been anyone in the hallway a second ago. He was sure of it. He had been alone.

  Kaya came from nowhere!

  He squinted down the hall. Kaya was standing there, but not completely.

  It was like she was only partly standing there.

  Partly there?

  Ben didn’t understand it.

  Kaya was standing there, but the beam from Ben’s torch seemed to shine right through her. It lit up the wall behind where the girl was standing.

  “That’s impossible,” he thought.

  The girl giggled.

  Then she darted around a corner, out of sight.

  “Kaya?” Ben ran to the corner, calling after her. “Kaya, where are you?”

  Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed his shoulder.

  The grip was so strong that it almost hurt.

  The hand spun Ben around and he found himself face to face with the boys who had chased him the night before.

  The taller one leant over and gritted his teeth in Ben’s face. “You shouldn’t have come back here, punk!”

  THERE’S NO GIRL HERE

  “What should we do with him?” the red-haired boy said.

  Ben sat on a box, feeling small and weak, while the two tough boys walked in circles around him. They punched their open hands like they were going to beat him up. They had tied him up with rope and tape, and the pressure hurt his wrists and arms.

  “I don’t know,” answered the other guy. “Maybe we should put him in the hospital, like we did with that girl!”

  Both boys laughed.

  Ben was more angry than frightened. He was angry that they might hurt Kaya, just like they had attacked that other girl, the Duran’s daughter, and the preacher.

  He was too angry to hold his tongue.

  “Which girl are you talking about?” Ben asked. “Are you talking about the girl that came running into this building?” Both older boys stopped laughing.

  “There’s no girl in this building,” said the redhead.

  “The little girl with the skipping rope,” Ben replied. “She comes running in here every night. I was looking for her. That’s why I came in.”

  Both older boys looked surprised. Ben thought they even seemed a little worried.

  “Take his torch and go and check it out,” the boy with the shaved head said to his friend.

  He frowned at Ben before continuing, “I’ll stay here and keep an eye on our ‘guest.’”

  “All right,” said the other boy.

  He picked up Ben’s torch, which had fallen on the ground when they’d grabbed Ben, and started searching the corridors.

  Ben heard laughter, Kaya’s happy laughter, coming from the one of the corridors.

  “This better not be a joke, brat,” said the guy with the shaved head. He sat down on a box across from Ben and stared at him.

  “Can’t you hear her?” Ben said. “She’s laughing.”

  “Shh!” the older boy said. He strained to listen.

  Ben heard the laughter again.

  Then, in the dim light, he saw the little girl run past the open door of the room.

  “I don’t hear anything,” the older boy finally said.

  “But she’s laughing, and running through the corridors,” Ben insisted. “Didn’t you see her run by just now?”

  The older boy stared at Ben. “I don’t know what your game is, kid,” he said, “but I don’t find it funny, you know what I mean?” He waved his fist at Ben. “Now knock it off!”

  Again Ben heard Kaya’s happy laughter.

  It rang through the whole building like a windchime through the rolling hills back in Montville.

  Ben couldn’t understand why his captor didn’t hear it, but he kept his mouth shut.

  “No use making the guys angrier than they already are,” he thought.

  “There’s no one else here, Jay,” a voice said.

  The redheaded boy was back and standing in the doorway.

  “This kid’s messing with us,” the redhead added. He looked at Ben threateningly and crossed his arms across his chest.

  “That’s what I thought,” said Jay. “And now he’s going to get it.”

  Both older boys started walking towards Ben, fists clenched, ready to attack.

  Laughter echoed just outside the doorway.

  “It’s her,” said Ben. “Right there. Right outside the door. Kaya, look out!” he yelled.

  “What are you trying to pull, kid?” the guy demanded. He crept closer to Ben.

  Ben felt his captors’ breath on his face as he struggled with the tape and rope on his wrists.

  “You think we’re dumb enough to fall for that old trick?” the redhead said. “Ha! There’s no one else here.”

  “That’s what you think!” someone shouted, and both older boys were grabbed from behind.

  SAVED!

  The older boys turned to throw punches.

  Jay was able to defend himself for a moment, but the redheaded boy fell to the ground.

  Ben squinted in the dim light to see who was saving him.

  He was able to make out two police officers, because of their hats.

  Someone else was standing behind them, but Ben couldn’t tell who it was.

  It was hard to see past the fighting figures in front of him, but then the other shadow stepped further into the room.

  “Forrest!” Ben called out.

  His older brother squeezed past the struggling police and thugs.

  “It’s a good thing you’re such a rubbish sneak,” Forrest said, untying his brother. “I heard you close the door to the flat and followed you.”

  Forrest sat on a box next to Ben.

  The brothers watched as the two
police officers handcuffed Jay and his partner and led them out of the room.

  “I saw you creep into the alley and then pull open that old door,” Forrest continued. “What in the world did you think you were doing over here?”

  “Where’d the police come from?” Ben asked. “How did you know I was in trouble?”

  Forrest wrinkled his forehead. “What? I didn’t know!”

  “What do you mean?” asked Ben. “Didn’t you come in with the police?”

  “Well,” Forrest replied. He looked at his hands and frowned before continuing. “That’s the weird thing. I was about to follow you inside. I just wanted to scare you a little, maybe pretend I was going to squeal on you to Dad, since you shouldn’t have been sneaking out in the middle of the night in the first place.”

  Forrest paused. He glanced around the room with a confused look on his face.

  “But then,” he continued, “then I heard someone calling me.”

  “Calling you?” Ben asked.

  “Yes,” his brother replied. “From somewhere outside the alley. Just this little tiny voice, saying, ‘Forrest … Forrest …’”

  Ben got a chill.

  It must have been Kaya!

  “For a second I thought it was you,” Forrest said. “I thought maybe you were fooling around. I thought that you’d come out another door of the building and were playing a joke on me, like I’d been planning to play on you. So I ran around to the front.”

  “And?” Ben prompted.

  “And there was no one there. At least no one calling my name,” Forrest said.

  “There were these two police officers, though,” he added. “I told them you were inside the building and they decided they’d better come and get you. The building’s condemned, so it’s not safe to be in.”

  “So who was calling you?” Ben said.

  Forrest shrugged. “I don’t know, but it was very lucky I found the police before coming in after you.”

  Ben knew it wasn’t luck.

  It was Kaya.

  HEROES

  “Well, it looks like you boys are heroes,” said one of the police officers.

  “Heroes?” Forrest said, getting up from the box he was sitting on.

  “What do you mean?” asked Ben, also getting to his feet. “All I did was get into some trouble, then get rescued!”

  Ben thought the police and Forrest had been the heroes.

  The police officer laughed.

  “You boys just found the two thieves who attacked the preacher,” said the other officer.

  He held up a wooden box. “This is the youth centre fund!”

  Forrest’s jaw dropped. “I can’t believe I was face to face with the Preacher Bandits!” he said, stunned.

  Forrest’s eyes lit up. “One of them actually punched me!” he cried out.

  He stroked his jaw and smiled.

  Ben wrinkled his forehead. “And I can’t believe Kaya led me here.”

  “Where was Kaya?” he wondered.

  *

  The rest of the night was a blur.

  Dad had turned up soon after the arrests were made. He was worried.

  Then the police had to take Ben’s and Forrest’s statements about everything that had happened.

  Ben tried to explain that a little girl had come into the building ahead of him.

  “You guys have to go look for her,” he told the police officers. “She’s probably still in the building somewhere.”

  But the policemen shook their heads.

  “She must have got out some other way,” one of them said.

  “That’s right,” said the other police officer. “Our officers did a very thorough search of the entire building. They didn’t find anyone else at all.”

  “That’s really weird,” Ben said.

  “Sorry, kid,” the officer said. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

  *

  It was almost sunrise by the time the Summers men made it back to their apartment.

  Dad wasn’t happy to have to rush off to work after getting no sleep. “I could really use a nap,” he said. He shook his head and walked into his bedroom as Forrest and Ben flopped down on the living room sofa.

  Dad reappeared a few minutes later, dressed in his work clothes. Then he stood over the sink to eat a quick bowl of cereal.

  “Forrest, you get out there and look for some work again, all right?” he asked as he left the apartment.

  “Okay, Dad,” Forrest replied as the door closed.

  Then he turned to Ben.

  “I’ll take you to the youth centre again,” Forrest said. “Sound good?”

  “Okay,” Ben replied.

  “We’ll probably be welcomed like heroes!” Forrest said with a laugh.

  After eating a quick breakfast, the brothers left the flat. They were tired, but they had a strange kind of energy from their exciting night.

  At the youth centre, they were indeed welcomed like heroes.

  Everyone cheered as they walked in.

  A big banner hung from the ceiling, saying “Thanks from River City Youth Centre.” A big chocolate cake sat waiting for them on a table in the middle of the room.

  Some icing spelled out “Hooray for the Summers boys!”

  “Well done, Ben!” said Will, patting Ben on the back.

  “Atta boy, Ben,” said the preacher.

  Mrs Duran gave Ben a big hug. “Thank you, Ben!” she said. She had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling.

  “Can I challenge the hero to a rematch of ping-pong?” Will asked, holding out two paddles.

  “Sure!” Ben said. For the first time, he realized that Will was becoming his first real friend in his new city.

  Ben grabbed a paddle from him, and the two boys started for the tables. But Mrs Duran and the preacher stopped them.

  “Before you do that, Ben,” said Mrs Duran, “I know someone else who’d like to meet you.” Her smile grew even bigger.

  “Yes,” said the preacher. “Mrs Duran’s daughter has woken up, and she’d like to meet the boys who helped catch her attackers!”

  THE HOSPITAL

  Mrs Duran, the preacher, Ben, and Forrest walked to the hospital together.

  “Don’t you have to go look for a job?” Ben asked his brother as they walked down the city sidewalks.

  Forrest shrugged. “Of course, but I can take an hour or so first. I really want to meet the little girl,” he replied. “Besides, Dad wouldn’t mind a little detour for his sons, the heroes!”

  The brothers laughed.

  Then they stopped in front of a large brick building. “This is it,” Mrs Duran said. The automatic hospital doors slid open, and the four of them walked in silence down the long white corridors.

  The tiles clicked and clacked under Mrs Duran’s shoes as they walked. Ben smelled bleach and cleaning fluid and flowers.

  “This way,” the preacher said, and the four of them stepped into a large lift.

  A man on a trolley was also in the elevator, along with two nurses in funny outfits. One of the nurses had little pictures of cats on her clothes, and the other had lollipops and other kinds of sweets on her clothes.

  Mrs Duran pressed the button for the fourth floor. The bell dinged three times, and then they all stepped out of the lift.

  A sign on the wall said “Children’s Ward.”

  Ben and Forrest quietly followed Mrs Duran and the preacher down the corridor.

  Finally they came to a door marked “424,” and Mrs Duran hurried in. The preacher followed. Ben and Forrest exchanged a look, then they went in too.

  Mrs Duran was talking to someone in a bed behind a curtain.

  “Kaya, dear,” said Mrs Duran. “Here are Ben and Forrest Summers.”

  “Kaya?” thought Ben. He stepped further into the room and peeked around the curtain.

  “Kaya!” he cried. It was the girl from the alley! But what was she doing lying in this hospital bed?

  Forrest stepped past the cu
rtain. “That’s impossible, Ben,” he whispered to his brother.

  “Thank you,” Kaya said to the brothers. “I knew it had to work.”

  The preacher and Mrs Duran looked confused. “What had to work, sweetheart?” Mrs Duran asked.

  “Do you kids know each other already?” the preacher asked. He looked from Kaya to Ben and back.

  Kaya smiled. “Not exactly,” she said. “Let’s just say I met Ben and Forrest in a dream I was having.”

  “A dream?” asked Mrs Duran.

  “Something like that,” Ben said.

  Kaya laughed. Ben knew the laugh as well as he knew the summer breezes back in Montville.

  “River City won’t be so bad after all,” he thought, smiling.

  - EPILOGUE -

  RIVER CITY

  Life in River City did turn out to be pretty good for Ben Summers.

  He spent a lot of time at the newly renovated River City Youth Centre, and his two new best friends, Will and Kaya, were always with him.

  One afternoon, Ben and Kaya were playing ping-pong. Kaya had beaten Ben for the third game straight, and he decided he needed a break.

  “Ha,” said Kaya. “Can’t take any more, huh?”

  Ben shook his head.

  The two sat down to watch Will playing basketball.

  “I still don’t get it, Kaya,” said Ben. “I mean, I know that somehow you helped me to find the youth centre’s donations. But how?”

  “I know,” replied Kaya. She took his hand. “I don’t really get it either.”

  “There’s no such thing as ghosts, right?” said Ben.

  He glanced down at his hands and blushed a little. “And besides, you weren’t, I mean, you were just asleep, right?”

  “Right. I wasn’t dead,” said Kaya, “if that’s what you mean.”

  Her face turned sad for a moment.

  “But I was trapped inside my own head, and all I had to do all day was wish and dream,” she said quietly.

  Ben knew how powerful dreams could be. He remembered how he had stood at the window of his new bedroom that first night in the city. And he remembered how he had thought about Montville.

  “So, you dreamt about me?” asked Ben.

  Kaya nodded. “Yes. I don’t know why, though. All I know is that I wished that somehow, by the time I woke up, the youth centre would be saved.”

  Ben sighed, and both of them were silent for a minute.

  Finally, Ben took a deep breath and said, “Well, how about a rematch, then?”