Marigold Star

by Elise Primavera

  WOO! WOO! The whistle blew. Lenny raced up the steps into the train.

  Marigold and Priscilla climbed aboard as well. They followed Lenny through the mist that clung to the floor of the train. He walked through the car to the next one, and Marigold wondered when he was going to choose a seat.

  “Hey, Lenny!” Priscilla called from behind. “How about this seat?”

  Lenny ignored her. He passed to the next car.

  “Lenny,” Marigold said. “I think Priscilla is tired of carrying her cat. Let’s just sit here.” Lenny acted as if he hadn’t heard her. He hurried all the way to the last car and Marigold finally knew why: he didn’t want to have to talk to Priscilla and was hoping she would give up and take a seat in a car closer to the front. But Marigold kept her eye on Priscilla, making sure the girl didn’t fall too far behind. She waited until she could see Priscilla and her cat entering the last car. Lenny sat down in the very last seat facing backward and Marigold slid in next to him.

  “Phew,” Lenny said in a low voice. “I thought we’d never get to this part, Marigold.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “The part where we confront the villain—your archenemy! I can’t wait!” He wiggled in his seat, barely able to contain his excitement.

  “But Lenny . . .” Marigold closed her eyes and tried to stay calm. “I am not a superhero.”

  The boy would not be deterred. “We’re on our way to meet the Incredible Super Scary Shadow Boy and see his lair—and rescue Winnie!” Light glittered off his glasses, and his face beamed with joy, but a moment later his smile faded. Lenny immediately stopped talking.

  Priscilla flopped into the seat across from Lenny. She still held the big orange cat. “Wow! I never knew that Boing-Boing was this heavy!”

  Lenny didn’t say a word.

  Marigold tried to fill the awkward silence. “Can you believe that Priscilla has been carrying Boing-Boing all this time, Lenny?”

  He mumbled something inaudible and turned to stare out the window.

  WOO! WOO! The whistle sounded again. The dark mahogany paneling gleamed in the soft light, and the gold fringe on the curtains bounced as the train lurched forward.

  A disembodied voice echoed down the aisle: “Tickets! Tickets please!”

  Three tickets appeared before their eyes. They read: “Destination: Winnie’s Neighborhood,” and a voice called out, “Next stop: Priscilla’s Neighborhood! Priscilla’s Neighborhood, next stop!”

  Boing-Boing meowed loudly. Priscilla patted his head and kissed his nose. Marigold was about to suggest something that Lenny could say to Priscilla when Priscilla glanced up from her cat and said, “Lenny?” He continued to stare out the window. “Lenny?” she repeated, but he still wouldn’t look at her. Priscilla pressed on anyway. “I’m wondering . . . when the train came and the ghosts were all around us . . . why weren’t you scared?”

  “It’s not just a train—it’s a ghost train,” he said under his breath.

  “What?” Priscilla tilted her head because she hadn’t understood a word of what he’d just said.

  “A ghost train—G . . . H . . . O . . . S . . . T—ghost train.” Lenny turned his shoulder to her and stared out the window.

  Marigold intervened. “Lenny, tell Priscilla why you weren’t scared when you heard all the ghosts.”

  With his eyes still focused out the window, Lenny shrugged. “It’s just make-believe,” he whispered so softly that he could barely be heard.

  Priscilla leaned forward. “Make-believe?” she asked good-naturedly.

  Lenny shrugged again. “It’s all just made-up stuff, like in all the stories . . . about superheroes. . . .” His voice trailed off.

  Marigold stepped in again to help. “Lenny has read a lot about superheroes. How many comic books have you read, Lenny?”

  Lenny shrugged yet again. “Like a million.”

  “Wow!” Priscilla said, impressed.

  Lenny folded his arms and glanced nervously at Marigold. She quickly turned to Priscilla to keep the conversation going. “Do you like comic books?”

  “I love comic books!” Priscilla said.

  Lenny stole a look at the girl with the orange cat. “You do?”

  “Mm-hm.” She nodded.

  Just then a ghost’s voice announced, “Next stop: Priscilla’s Neighborhood! Priscilla’s Neighborhood, next stop!”

  Neither Lenny nor Marigold said a word as the train pulled into the very park by the very picnic area in which they had just found Priscilla. The train came to a halt by the very table. Priscilla didn’t budge.

  “Don’t you want to go home?” Lenny asked, his eyes averted.

  Priscilla shook her head slightly and pressed her lips together. This time it was Priscilla who seemed to feel shy. “I’d rather stay with Marigold and . . . you—i-if it’s all right.”

  “Of course it’s all right!” Marigold exclaimed. “Right, Lenny?”

  Lenny didn’t say—he looked out the window—but a little smile flickered across his lips.

  “Next stop: Lenny’s Neighborhood! Lenny’s Neighborhood, next stop!” the ghost conductor shouted. The train started up with them for the second time that night. They chugged along slowly and rolled to a stop only a few moments later. Marigold could see they were right in front of Lenny’s house.

  Priscilla craned her neck to look out the window. “That’s a nice house—is it yours, Lenny?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Lenny said, but he made no move to leave either.

  “All out for Lenny’s Neighborhood!” the conductor called.

  Lenny grinned and held up his ticket. “I’m headed to Winnie’s Neighborhood.”

  Priscilla held up hers. “Me too.” As the train started up for the third time, she had a mysterious smile on her face.

  Marigold felt encouraged. Maybe Lenny and Priscilla could be friends after all, she thought. She had to keep them talking. “Priscilla, Lenny has a little sister just like me.”

  Priscilla leaned forward to Lenny. “You’re lucky. I wish I had a little sister instead of a little brother.”

  “It’s not that great,” Lenny said softly.

  “Yeah,” Marigold agreed, but she couldn’t help smiling when she thought of how her little sister always called her “Mawigohd.” She thought of Lightning, who always kept her company when her parents were busy with Petal. She thought of her parents, who believed in her so much to say that they were sure she would be great at something “rare and wondrous” someday.

  WOO! WOO! The whistle interrupted Marigold’s thoughts. “Next stop: Winnie’s Neighborhood!” the conductor called. “Winnie’s Neighborhood, next stop!” Marigold would find Winnie and get her magic wand back—she just had to if she ever wanted to see her family again.

  The train gathered speed more quickly than before. The sound of the engine came fast and furious. Chugga! Chugga! Chugga! Faster and faster they barreled along, the noise from the locomotive so loud it made conversation impossible.

  WOO! WOO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-WH! The train ascended into the air. The car tilted to one side, pushing Marigold into Lenny and squishing him against the window. It tilted the other way, and Lenny slid into Marigold, squishing her against the other side of the seat. The train climbed skyward and flew between banks of clouds as tall as skyscrapers. Marigold and Lenny and Priscilla watched spellbound out the window as they swooped past the moon, which seemed close enough to touch. The night sky was bedazzled with stars as bright as jewels.

  Marigold watched the landscape change, and after some time, mountains came into view. When the clouds cleared, something caught her eye. It was a tall, lonely mountain with a skinny house several stories high. “It’s Winnie’s house! It’s Winnie’s house!” she exclaimed. “Now all we need to do is find Winnie!”

  They flew over Spookety Forest, to its farthest corner—an area that Marigold had never been to. Soon the train was spiraling down, down, down. It slowed and came to a halt. The ghost conductor ca
lled, “Last stop! All out for Winnie’s Neighborhood!”

  Marigold stepped outside and peered into the dark, where suspicious eyes gleamed back at her. She had heard that this part of the forest was where the shadow children made their homes, and she knew they’d been taken all the way to Spookety Cave.

  12

  Spookety Cave

  The ghost train had vanished.

  Marigold stood with Lenny and Priscilla on either side of her. The path was nowhere in sight. Marigold shivered and looked to Lenny.

  Without her even asking he said, “Eleven fifteen.”

  Marigold was running out of time.

  Priscilla held Boing-Boing tightly. A cold wind blew her black hair wildly about her face. “What’s so scary about Super Scary Shadow Boy?”

  Lenny spoke in an ominous tone and looked from Marigold to Priscilla. “Super Scary Shadow Boy lives only in darkness.”

  “Why?” Priscilla asked in a low voice.

  “Because he’s so hideous to behold!”

  Marigold pressed her lips together in consternation. It bothered her that the ghosts, and now even Lenny and Priscilla, couldn’t get past the shadow boy’s looks. So what if he was only a dark, scary shadow? All he wanted was to have friends.

  The ghost children were approaching. Their voices could be heard babbling excitedly.

  “I can see you!” said one.

  “I can see me!” shouted another.

  “We can see one another!” they yelled joyously.

  They were visible once more. They flew through the trees, their filmy white gowns glowing in the dark as they tumbled and swung from the branches and swooped through the air, plucking at Marigold’s pockets for candy like they always did.

  “Thank you, Marigold Star!” they called to her. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She threw candy up to them, and they caught it and ate it in a flash. But when she told them she wasn’t responsible for making them visible, they slowed and swirled about pensively. A ghost girl hovered by Marigold’s ear. “Was it . . . the shadow boy?” she hissed.

  “Find out, Marigold Star.” Another moaned. They all pointed to the dark, gaping hole that formed the mouth of Spookety Cave. “He’s in there!”

  Marigold squared her shoulders. She had less than forty-five minutes to complete the Invis-O-Friend Spell and get her magic wand back. The only way to do both was to find Winnie and the shadow boy, but Marigold hated caves. They were easy to get lost in, and she’d been warned against them. She took a few steps forward to where it was even darker—at least she had her star to light the way. Still, she hesitated. She didn’t want to go any farther alone, but she couldn’t ask Lenny and Priscilla to go with her—it was too dangerous. “You stay here,” Marigold said. “I’ll be back.”

  Lenny closed his eyes and bowed. “As your trusty sidekick, I am compelled to stick with you till the bitter end,” he said solemnly. Then he changed his tone and grinned. “Plus, I wouldn’t miss this for anything!” He took Marigold’s hand.

  Priscilla made a desperate little smile. “Me too,” she added, and took Marigold’s other hand.

  Marigold was surprised but also relieved. She thought how strange it was that she hadn’t known Lenny or Priscilla for very long, but she couldn’t think of anyone else, except Lightning, whom she would have wanted with her right now.

  Together, all three children entered the cave holding hands.

  Marigold’s star only partially lit the way, and she had visions of groping through the dark trying to find Winnie in a maze of paths that caves like this were famous for. She worried about getting lost or falling through a hole or being swarmed by bats—or worse.

  But they hadn’t gone far when Marigold called and a voice called back.

  “Winnie?” Marigold shouted. “Are you there?”

  “Help, Marigold!” Winnie cried, and she sounded near. “He’s made me play Candy Land with him for the last two hours!”

  They rounded a corner and entered a rocky chamber. A light twinkled in the dark, just bright enough for Marigold to see that it was coming from her own magic wand. She could see an inky shape with fangs and claws and a long pointy tail—a shape that sat crossed-legged on the magic carpet. Across from him—and with only a board game between them—was unmistakably Winnie.

  The girl jumped up and ran to Marigold. She pointed to the shadow boy. “He won’t give me back my magic wand!”

  Marigold was so happy to see the unpleasant girl that she didn’t even have the heart to argue over whose wand it was. “Are you all right, Winnie?”

  “I’m fine,” she snapped. “It’s just that he won’t give me my wand and—”

  “Marigold Star!” the shadow boy said angrily. “I’ve been looking for you!” A dark shadow rose and stepped toward Marigold. Lenny and Priscilla recoiled in fear that he might touch them with his scary claws.

  He crept closer still. The wand glittered, lighting the dark around him in an enchanted way, and Marigold could see for the first time that he wasn’t a shadow but a real creature. “I was supposed to be a superhero—like in your story, Marigold,” he said bitterly. He took another step closer. Lenny and Priscilla kept their distance but leaned forward to get a better look, surprised at how much smaller he looked up close than he had as a shadow.

  “I thought if I helped the ghosts, they would think I was a superhero and they would like me. But they didn’t. No one likes me.” There was a tone of defeat in his voice. “I’m just the same as I’ve always been—a super-scary-looking monster.” He held the wand out, and it trembled in his hands. “Didn’t you wonder how the forest appeared everywhere you went in the Human World, Marigold Star?”

  Marigold had wondered. The forest had first spontaneously appeared in Winnie’s neighborhood, then in Lenny’s, and finally in Priscilla’s. They were all the same Spookety Forest from Bramblycrumbly in three different human places!

  “You suddenly vanished. . . . I had to find you, Marigold!” the wretched creature said fiercely. “So I commanded the wand to take me to wherever you were in the Human World.”

  “But why?” Marigold whispered.

  “To give this back.” He set the magic wand in her hand. “It’s useless to me.”

  Winnie eyed the wand hungrily. Marigold held it once more, grateful beyond measure. She thanked the shadow boy and extended a hand to him. “Let’s be friends.”

  But he turned his back to her. “You have your wand and your Winnie and your ghosts. Now leave me alone!”

  Marigold was stunned. She slowly withdrew her hand. He’d gone to such great lengths to try to get the ghost children to be friends. It hadn’t gone well, and he was discouraged, but what was the alternative? “W-what will you do?” she stammered, for she really couldn’t imagine.

  He went to his corner, where he was no longer visible. “I will stay here in Spookety Cave by myself and think up make-believe friends to play with.” He sighed. “Make-believe friends are so much nicer than real ones!”

  No one uttered a word.

  Marigold was speechless as well. But there was something about this shadow boy that made her so curious to try to understand him, that even though he clearly didn’t want to be friends with her, she couldn’t stop herself. She went to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. “There’s no need for you to have to imagine a friend to play with because I will always be your friend.”

  He gazed up at her with distrustful eyes, and Marigold could tell he didn’t believe her. Perhaps he thought she was trying to be friends because she felt sorry for him. In any case, her vow of friendship simply wasn’t enough. She would have to show him . . . but how? That’s when an idea came to Marigold like a thunderbolt. Without a second thought, she reached over her head and took hold of her star. She lifted it from where it had been all her life. It was warm and soft in her hands like sunshine. She tentatively held it over the shadow boy’s head, hoping it would stay, and when she took her hands away, it did.

  Lenny, Priscilla
, and even Winnie gasped.

  The shadow boy became completely still, like a startled animal. The star lit him in such a beautiful way that you almost didn’t see his teeth or his claws or his sharp tail, and all that was visible were his kind eyes. “Can I keep it . . . forever?” he asked.

  Marigold hadn’t really thought about forever. She glanced upward to where her star had always been. She was used to seeing its glittery light. She was used to feeling its comforting warmth. Having it blink had been upsetting enough. Having it gone was worse than she could have ever imagined.

  The shadow boy watched her from beneath the star that sparkled in the most magical way. Of course Marigold had checked to see in mirrors what her star looked like shining over her head, but she’d never seen the star over anybody else’s. She had never noticed how it had flecks of silver and gold or the way in which it shimmered that made it look as if it was alive. It was truly stunning and she wanted it back.

  The others waited.

  Marigold hesitated. She wanted her star back more than anything . . . yet . . . with it shining down on the shadow boy, he wasn’t at all as scary as the shadow he projected. When he looked up at her with his soft brown eyes that had been sad for so long, she just didn’t have the heart to take the star away from him. “It’s yours to keep,” Marigold replied.

  All was quiet as the others took this in, until Lenny said in a hushed tone, “This. Is. So. Cool.” He rushed up to the shadow boy with such urgency that the creature shrank back in fear. Lenny seemed not to notice. “It’s the confrontation of two opposing forces!” He was bursting with excitement. “Light and dark! Good and evil! Yin and yang!”

  Marigold folded her arms. “What are you talking about, Lenny?”

  “Superheroes, Marigold, superheroes!” he said passionately. “It’s inevitable that superheroes who are opposing forces will confront each other—and you two just did!”

  “I’m not a superhero, Lenny!” Marigold said for the hundredth time.