key. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come back.”
“But I came here to save you.”
“You did. Now go.”
The nice man grabbed Christopher and pushed him up the tree. Plank by plank. Baby tooth by baby tooth. He reached the tree house door just as the hissing lady jumped into the clearing with David and the deer.
“STOP HELPING HIM!”
The nice man jumped down and rushed away into the shadows. The hissing lady ran at the tree. Christopher dragged his body into the tree house and quickly closed the door behind him.
Within seconds, the cotton candy air turned back to frozen December. Christopher opened the door and looked back down at the clearing. The hissing lady was gone, along with the rest of the imaginary people. He was back to the real side.
And Christopher had rescued the nice man.
Chapter 50
The moment Christopher came back from the imaginary side, he felt the price of his new powers. The tearing of the chain was now a throbbing in his hands. The lifting of the nice man to the window was now a pain in his shoulders that felt like torn ligaments.
But the worst was the headache.
It felt like a knife pushing his eyes through his eyelids. Compelling him to walk. Take a step. Take the next step.
He had to keep going.
He had to get back to school.
He climbed down the ladder and grabbed the white plastic bag from the low-hanging branch. He put it in his pocket for safety. Then, he limped his way back through the snow to school, making only one stop.
Jenny Hertzog’s house.
He walked up to the door, rang the bell, then ran away. He knew that would be enough to wake up Scott’s mother and buy Jenny Hertzog one more afternoon of peace.
He finally arrived at school five minutes before the final bell. Christopher snuck back in through the open window in the boys’ bathroom. Then, he waited outside his homeroom until the bell rang and the hallway was flooded with students.
“Where have you been all day?” Ms. Lasko asked him suspiciously.
“I’ve been in class all day, Ms. Lasko. Don’t you remember?”
Christopher smiled and sweetly touched her hand. Letting a little heat move from his fingers to hers.
“Yes,” she said. “You’ve been in class all day. Good work, Christopher.”
She patted the top of his head, and his brain soaked up the entire day’s lesson plan like a sponge.
Ms. Lasko is…
Ms. Lasko is…going straight to the bar after work.
Christopher went home on the bus and sat behind Mr. Miller, the bus driver.
Mr. Miller called…his ex-wife.
Mr. Miller is…going to spend Christmas with his children this year.
“Hello, Mr. Miller.” Christopher smiled.
“Sit down. Don’t distract me!” the man barked.
Christopher went home, where his mother was waiting for him with hot bread and chicken soup. He made sure not to eat the bread. Because he knew he would have to stay awake until the nice man told him it was safe.
My mom’s arm…
My mom’s arm…still hurts from the hissing lady’s coffee.
“How was school today, honey?” she asked.
“It was okay,” he said.
I can’t tell…
I can’t tell…my mom or the hissing lady will hear.
“What did you learn?” she asked.
“Not much,” he said, then recounted a few details from Ms. Lasko’s lesson plan.
My mom doesn’t know…
My mom doesn’t know…I will do anything to keep her safe.
That night, when his mother went to sleep, Christopher slipped down into the kitchen. He grabbed the milk carton and poured a big glass of milk. He looked at Emily Bertovich’s picture, searching for any clue as to whether or not the hissing lady was watching him.
But all he saw was Emily smiling.
He put Emily back, then quietly searched the cupboard and found some Oreo cookies. He put them on a paper plate. Then he grabbed the loaf of Town Talk white bread and chipped ham and made a sandwich with lettuce and mayonnaise. He put the evidence away and tiptoed down to the basement.
The basement was dry and clean. The furnace in the corner kept the room nice and toasty. Christopher didn’t think the nice man would ever come here. It would be the first place the hissing lady would look. But he wanted it to be ready for him just in case. And the truth was, Christopher was scared without him. He didn’t want to stay up all night by himself.
Christopher walked with the big glass of milk and the cookies and sandwich over to the sofa. He remembered when he used to leave out cookies for Santa Claus.