The Midnight Door

by Sam Fisher

  After another few seconds of absolute stillness, Morton could stand the tension no longer and he dashed out into the silent street.

  What he saw almost made him weep with joy. Never in his life had he imagined that the sight of Brad’s pink pimply face could have made him so happy, but there he was, covered in soot, sitting in confused silence like a lost puppy, and Morton practically wanted to run up and hug him.

  Brad looked back at Morton, then, realizing that something had changed, he quickly tore the bandages from his hands and stared at them as if they were the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. In the next moment tears were falling from his face and gathering in his sooty palms like small crystals, and his body began to heave in silent sobbing motions.

  Morton did hug him then, because he didn’t know what else to do.

  The others poured out of the store and began peering into the silent blackness around them. Brad quickly wiped his eyes and jumped to his feet and tried to look stern, but somehow the expression didn’t seem to fit comfortably on his face any longer.

  “Brad’s back to normal,” Morton said, feeling tears of relief welling up in his own eyes. “I think it worked.”

  “Do you feel normal?” James said.

  Brad took several seconds to clear his throat before he at last managed to respond. “Yeah, I do,” he said. “I feel … I feel great.” And then after a long pause he added, “Thank you.”

  Nolan meanwhile ran into the middle of the road and stood, straining his eyes and ears in the darkness. “I don’t hear any rats,” he said.

  “I don’t hear anything at all,” Melissa said. “Could they have just vanished into thin air like that?”

  “Probably,” Morton said.

  “But how can we be sure it worked?” Melissa persisted. “What’s to say the rats won’t just show up again tomorrow night?”

  “It definitely worked,” Robbie added, and Morton saw that he was wearing the X-ray Specs. “Here, try these.”

  Robbie handed the Specs over and Morton put them on. Instead of the eerily illuminated skeletons he’d seen when he last tried them, he now saw nothing but a dim blur of shadowy forms moving around him. He took them off and nodded to the others. “Robbie’s right,” he said. “The magic is gone.”

  “Well, that was easy,” Melissa said, sighing with relief. “No cats to shoo away, no books to hide, no gargoyles to get rid of, no loose ends at all.”

  “I don’t think that’s quite true,” James said. “I mean, our school looks like a herd of elephants were playing soccer in the hallways, and Nolan’s parents are going to want to know where he’s been for the last couple of days.”

  “Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Nolan said. “I’ll just tell them I fell and hit my head and woke up in an alley. That’s almost true anyway.”

  “What about you, Brad?” James said. “Surely your parents don’t really believe you’ve been on tour in the middle of the school year.”

  Brad shrugged. “Like I said, they don’t exactly notice what I’m doing. So long as Inspector Sharpe doesn’t come asking questions again, they’ll leave me alone.”

  “And leaving you alone is good?” Wendy asked, sounding confused.

  “As good as it gets,” Brad said, and something about the tone in his voice made it clear that he didn’t want to discuss it any further.

  Nolan turned away from the group and looked back toward the main street. “I think we should get going,” he said.

  “I agree,” Melissa said. “This night has gone on quite long enough.” And with that they all trooped off together along the street.

  “Listen, I wanted to say I was sorry,” Nolan said as they marched tiredly along.

  “Sorry? What for?” Melissa asked.

  “Well, if I’d trusted you sooner, things might not have gotten so messed up. I thought it was you guys who were responsible, but I was wrong. Turns out you’re pretty awesome.”

  “That’s us,” Melissa said. “The awesome foursome, except, you know, there’s five of us.”

  Nolan made a nervous laugh, and soon they arrived at his street and he bid everyone good night.

  The others continued to trudge through the night until Brad and Robbie also turned off to head home, leaving James, Morton, Melissa, and Wendy to walk the last few blocks alone.

  When Morton finally clambered into bed, he felt like he had climbed into heaven. He had never before imagined that a soft, warm mattress and the smell of freshly laundered sheets could feel so soothing and wonderful, and he tried to lie awake to savor the wonderfulness for as long as he could but inevitably he slid into a deep blissful sleep and dreamed of nothing at all.

  He awoke to the smell of freshly baked bread and thought he was still dreaming, but when he ventured downstairs he saw two crusty loaves on the table, which James and Melissa were already chomping through eagerly. Dad was reading the newspaper and sipping his tea with his feet up.

  “Good news about those rats,” he said, folding the paper forward and glancing over the top at Morton and the others. “The poisonous gas was a big success. They fired off the canisters at midnight and it seems it did the trick. There’s not a two-headed rat to be seen in Dimvale this morning.”

  “Oh, good,” Melissa said. “So we won’t need a babysitter breathing down our necks anymore, then.”

  Dad smiled sadly at Melissa. “I’m sorry she was such an annoyance to you,” he said. “She did try very hard to make you happy.”

  “Oh! I didn’t mean it like that,” Melissa said, her face going the color of the cherry jam on the table. “I just mean … Well, I’m too old to need a babysitter. We agreed to that, right?”

  “We did,” Dad said. “And in any case, I couldn’t impose on Mrs. Smedley any more than I already have. She has a job of her own and an aging mother to tend to.”

  “So, no more fresh-baked bread or scones for breakfast,” Morton sighed.

  “Well, I don’t know about that,” Dad said. “In fact, Mrs. Smedley has lent me one of her recipe books and it’s given me some great new ideas.”

  All three children groaned out loud.

  “What’s wrong?” Dad said. “Did I say something funny?”

  “No,” Melissa said, getting up from the table. “Just remember you can’t use bath salts instead of baking soda.”

  “Ah, yes. That was a bit of a blunder,” Dad said. “Although I still don’t quite understand why that didn’t work. Chemically they’re almost identical.”

  James, Morton, and Melissa left for school a few minutes later, and Morton was surprised to see Jake’s yellow car parked at the end of the driveway.

  “Oh no,” Melissa said with a sigh. “There’s a loose end I’d forgotten about.”

  James and Morton exchanged glances. “But we thought you liked Jake,” Morton said.

  “I do,” Melissa said. “I like Swiss cheese too, but it doesn’t mean I want it to follow me around all day.”

  “I’ve never seen you kissing Swiss cheese though,” James said teasingly.

  Melissa shot him an indignant stare. “How did you … ?”

  “We weren’t spying,” Morton put in quickly. “We just accidentally saw …”

  Melissa’s cheeks glowed vividly for the second time that morning. “I … I had to,” she stammered. “It was for a good cause.”

  “It’s okay,” James said. “This is our home now. You’re allowed to make new friends, put down some roots.”

  “Well, he’s not my type,” Melissa said flatly.

  “So what’s your type?” James asked casually.

  “More sort of … Well, um, I …” Melissa growled in frustration. “I don’t know, but it’s not that,” she said, and she pointed to the eager face of Jake waiting beside the back door of his car just as Wendy approached from across the street looking a little more disheveled than usual.

  The four of them arrived at Jake’s car at almost exactly the same moment.

  “Morning,” Jake said,
and the others all returned the greeting.

  “I feel like I could sleep for a week,” Wendy said. “My dad had to shake me to get me up this morning.”

  “It’s a good thing the tennis courts are closed then,” James said. “Tuesday’s our usual night.”

  “Actually, I’ve been looking into squash,” Wendy said, her face lighting up. “We could check that out at the sports club — oh, unless Melissa …”

  “Jake’s teaching me to drive,” Melissa said, “so you guys can go do whatever you want.”

  “Squash it is, then,” Wendy said. “Might as well start living normal lives right away.”

  “Start living normal lives?” Jake echoed, with a confused look on his face. “Has something bad happened?”

  “Oh, I’m just kidding around,” Wendy said, realizing her mistake. “Blame Melissa. Her dramatic ways are rubbing off on me.” And with that the three of them jumped into the car and drove off, leaving Morton and James to walk to school.

  “So, do you think it really is over this time?” Morton asked.

  “I don’t see why it shouldn’t be,” James said. “I mean we’ve definitely got rid of the last of our wishes, and I’m pretty sure we won’t be hearing from Crooks again any time soon, so yes, I really think it is.”

  Morton nodded thoughtfully, but he couldn’t help feeling that there was something they still hadn’t figured out. James could obviously read this from his face.

  “You don’t think it’s over, do you?” he said.

  “Well, there’s still King’s enemy,” Morton replied. “I mean, the one he wrote about in his diary.”

  James pressed his lips together thoughtfully. “You don’t think it was Crooks?”

  “No. Crooks didn’t know nearly enough about magic. And if you think about it, King would surely have mentioned if the enemy he was writing about was his own adopted brother.”

  “You’re probably right,” James said. “But you know what I think? I think now that The Book of Parchments and all the other books are gone, we’ll never hear of magic again.”

  Morton smiled. He hoped that James was right, that whatever strange and magical things had happened in the past, would now stay in the past, but no matter how hard he tried, he could never be quite as optimistic as James.

  When they arrived at school, Morton wasn’t at all surprised to find several police cars parked along the sidewalk. He was, however, surprised to find Julie waiting outside the school yard entrance with her back against the wall for the second day in a row, popping gum and looking unusually thoughtful.

  Morton got that churning butterfly feeling in his stomach that he always seemed to get around Julie, and he braced himself for the worst, but Julie actually smiled at them as they approached.

  “Hi, James. Hi, Morton,” she said in a friendly tone that Morton hadn’t heard before.

  “Hi,” James replied. “What’s up?”

  Julie shrugged and pointed at a group of police officers and teachers. Morton turned to look where she was pointing and saw the familiar hard face of Inspector Sharpe, talking with Principal Finch and a few other teachers. All of the teachers looked pale and confused, especially Finch, who was continuously rubbing the bridge of his nose. No doubt Sharpe was asking them if they remembered anything strange about yesterday, and they were all realizing they didn’t remember anything at all.

  “Weird thing happened last night,” Julie said. “Apparently some kids must have stayed behind and vandalized the school.”

  “That is weird,” Morton said, frowning in a way that he hoped made him look surprised.

  “Yeah, I don’t get it,” Julie went on. “I mean, why would anyone want to vandalize a school? And the weirdest part is, they left a bunch of cheap toys behind in one of the closets.”

  “Kids just being kids, I guess,” Morton said.

  Julie nodded and shrugged. “Yeah, I suppose. Well, catch you later,” she said, and turned to walk off.

  As soon as she’d gone, Robbie approached from the opposite side of the school yard.

  “I presume you’ve already seen Sharpe,” he said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.

  “Yeah, but there’s no way she could pin anything on us,” James said, “so I’m not worried.”

  Morton had to agree that they’d done a pretty good job of hiding any magical activities, but he wondered again how much Sharpe really knew.

  “Come, on, cheer up,” James said, nudging Morton on the shoulder. “We did it. Look around, everything’s back to normal.”

  Morton looked around and had to face the fact that aside from the huddle of police officers, everything did look normal. Kids were running and playing and kicking balls and trading cards and laughing as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

  “You’re right,” he said. “It’s just, I’d almost forgotten what normal feels like and it’s going to take me a while to get used to it.”

  For the rest of the day, Morton’s mood got brighter and brighter. The Mesmer Disk had worked perfectly and nobody seemed to have the slightest memory of anything to do with back-pages toys or Derek’s ghastly club, and Derek himself had reverted to being an eccentric loner.

  All the other kids seemed to be completely back to normal too, and Willow made good on her promise not to tell anyone what had really transpired. In fact, she seemed to relish the idea of sharing a secret with Morton. Every time she passed him in the hall she tapped the side of her nose and nodded knowingly.

  “Well, that looks about as normal as anything I’ve ever seen,” Robbie said as he and Morton watched the kids playing soccer at afternoon recess. “But, uh, there is still one thing I’ve been wanting to tell you.”

  “Oh?” Morton said, noting an odd, embarrassed look on Robbie’s face.

  “Well, it’s about all that stuff Julie was saying.” Robbie paused for a moment, seemingly at a loss for words. “Well, it wasn’t true, I mean, I do want to hang out with you, and you are my best friend, but, uh, I guess I might have said some things to her that made her think what she told you was true. I mean, it wasn’t anything much, just, uh, we were just joking around on Halloween and I guess I just kind of wanted her to think I was cool or … I don’t know. I don’t know why I did that. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” Morton said, feeling a strange sense of relief at Robbie’s words. “I think I already figured that out for myself. She was doing the thing on you, right?”

  For a moment, Robbie looked surprised by this suggestion, but then his face changed to one of annoyed recognition. “You know what, you’re absolutely right!”

  Morton made a grim smile. “And you don’t really think she looks like an albino turtle, do you?”

  “I guess not,” Robbie confessed with a heavy forlorn sigh. “She looks more like, I dunno, one of those marble statues you see in museums.”

  “A marble statue with a cool voice,” Morton added.

  This time the two of them sighed in unison and sat for a moment in silent reverie, until at last Robbie spoke up again.

  “Anyway, I’m done with all that,” he said. “I’m quitting the band.”

  Morton almost leaped up joyously at these words, but managed to make himself frown and looked earnestly at Robbie. “Oh, that’s a shame,” he said. “Why is that?”

  “Well, last night when Brad and I were walking home we got to talking and I realized that Brad really wants to be in the band more than anything. It’s all he has, and the truth is, I wasn’t that into it. So we just asked Nolan this morning if he’d take him back, and he agreed. So that’s that. Brad’s the new singer in Shatter Box. I hope you’re not too disappointed. I mean, I know you were really looking forward to that first concert.”

  “It is a shame,” Morton said. “But I guess we all have to make sacrifices, right? And I think Brad needs something to help him get back on his feet, so it was very generous of you.”

  Robbie shrugged. “I never thought I could forgive him for what he p
ut me through, but you know, he was telling me some stories about his dad, and it turns out we have a lot in common. Although, I think I’m a lot luckier than he is because I’ve got something I don’t think he’ll ever have.”

  “What’s that?” Morton asked.

  “Really great friends who pretend to like punk bands, even when they don’t,” Robbie said with a wry smile.

  Morton felt a wave of guilt and relief wash over him. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s just not my thing.”

  Robbie laughed and punched him on the shoulder. “It’s okay. I don’t mind that my best friend just happens to be the world’s worst liar.”

  Morton grinned broadly. He was very happy that the truth was out at last, and he was also very happy that the bell rang at that very moment so he didn’t have to discuss his feelings about the band or Julie any longer.

  Later that day the sun came out and warmed up the cold November air, making it feel just for a few hours like a late-summer afternoon. James headed straight from school to squash practice with Wendy, and Morton and Robbie walked home together talking about comics and old tin robots and all the kinds of random pointless things that kids are supposed to talk about.

  They parted company at the end of the driveway as usual and Morton sauntered down the path to find Dad crouched at the bottom of the yard, off beyond the old well, wearing his boots and gardening gloves.

  “I thought I’d find you here,” Morton said.

  “Oh, yes, I’m taking advantage of the last of the warm weather to get the garden back into shape, now that those infernal rats are gone.”

  “What’s that you’re planting?” Morton asked, noticing that Dad was packing fresh soil around a small sapling. “They’re not bulbs.”

  “No, actually, this is something special,” Dad said. “I didn’t want to make a big ceremony about it, but I was going to show you later. It’s a chestnut tree.”

  Morton felt his eyes moisten immediately. He’d never seen a chestnut tree before, but he knew at once why Dad was planting it. Mum had always said that one day they’d have a big house with lots of land and they’d grow all their own fruit and vegetables and plant a chestnut tree at the bottom of the yard. For reasons Morton never discovered, Mum had loved chestnut trees above all others. She even had a poem that she’d say to them every night when she tucked them into bed.