But first. Washroom. Soap.
Lots of it.
Not wanting to seem too eager to run back to the attic, but feeling so impatient he wanted to explode, Grim waited while his Aunt was busy in the kitchen. Aunt Patrice would soon return to her nap and Grim had no choice but to wait.
Benny and Barny were in their room playing with some of Poppa’s gadgets, among which was a mechanical one-eyed robot. Rudy was sitting on her bed with Ellen, whispering to her while Ellen brushed the hair of the missing head from one of her dolls. Its eyes were open. Grim shook his head.
He went back to his own room where Sam sat on the floor.
Sam said nothing, but looked up briefly.
“Whatcha doin’?” Grim asked.
“Machines,” he muttered.
It was always the same with Sam ― machines. Like Grim and Poppa, Sam was fascinated with mechanical devices. The biggest difference was that Sam was one most likely to take something apart to see how it worked where Grim was more likely to build things from out of his head. Pulleys, cogs, gears and metal pieces were strewn about the room.
“You going to stay inside all day?” he asked. Naturally, he didn’t want his plans interrupted.
“Maybe,” Sam said.
Grim almost always told Sam everything, but he wasn’t quite ready to share his discovery in the attic. And he was Rudy’s brother after all. He might tell her.
Sam then returned to his silent mangling of some device that Rudy had recently tried to build. It wasn’t bad, actually.
“Sam!” Rudy yelled at the door. Ellen was standing behind her. “I just built that!”
The pieces fell out of Sam’s little fingers and he hung his head.
Rudy pointed her finger at Grim. “You told him to do it!”
Grim shook his head. “No!”
“Yes, you did!”
“Get out of my room!” he yelled at her.
“It’s Sam’s room, too. I don’t have to get out, do I, Sam?”
Sam continued to look at his hands.
Grim smirked at her. Score one for Grim.
Rudy marched out of the room, her pigtails bouncing in fury. Ellen marched after her and the two headed downstairs and straight out the back door.
He looked at Sam. “It’s okay, Sam. I’ll fix it for you.”
Sam smiled, and then called Toby over. He, too, went outside.
That just left the twins.
Grim peered around the corner of their room. They were still busy with the robot. They were trying to teach it some kind of trick.
And Aunt Patrice was snoring in the front room.
Excellent.
Grim decided to take the risk. He yanked on the rope and the stairs glided down once more. He leapt up the steps and ran over to the chest and whipped off his goggles.
The colors of the stones were brilliant, but Grim was stumped as to what sort of stones they might be, especially with those creepy fingers clutching them. He had studied different types of minerals for a science project once, and these were nothing like what he had read about.
He lost track of time as he examined them, trying to sort out if they had any value.
Eventually, determining that they likely didn’t, he arranged them in a circle; green, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and black. Grim leaned in to have a closer look when there was a heavy thud at the front door. Aunt Patrice’s blood-curdling voice shrieked from downstairs.
“Grimwald! Get the door!” she called in a loud clear voice. It wasn’t muffled. Which meant —
He turned to look at the stairs.
Gah!
Rudy was standing there watching him. The twins, Sam, and Ellen were all with her. As Grim tried to stand, he put his hand into the circle of stones.
There was a swirl of color and some strange symbols that circled about him.
And he now stood in a forest of crooked, gnarled trees with black bark that stretched to the sky.
The attic was gone.
The chest was gone.
And Grimwald was alone.
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Acknowledgements
To my partner, Humberto, and my three wonderful boys, I owe a huge thank you for all your support. I am the luckiest man in the world.
To Geographical Consultant, Laura J. Drexler, thank you very much for your talented assistance with the map of Verne.
Dedication
This work is dedicated to my children - three boys that have enriched our lives and allowed us to relive our childhood.
Adopting you was the single, greatest event in our lives.
Also by David H. Burton
Visit David at http://davidhburton.com
Published by: Stonehenge Press
Copyright © 2011 by David H. Burton
Cover art and design by David H. Burton
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
License Notes
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. If you would like to share this book with another person, feel free to do so, or purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then feel free to purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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