how he could use his tree house to spy on her during the day just like i showed you. but she was smarter than me. she knew what i was doing. she was just waiting for the right moment to strike.
Christopher’s perception split in two. In one eye, he saw a darkness fall over the nice man’s eyes. In the other eye, he saw the reason.
i was there that final night. she had captured me, but i managed to escape. just not in time. i tried to save him. david thought he was awake, but he was sleepwalking through a path that she had cleared for him. i saw the hissing lady walk over to the olsons’ neighbor. the family had a senile grandfather. the hissing lady preys on the old. the old man didn’t know where he was. so, he certainly didn’t know why he was putting on gloves and walking to the attic to grab an old baby carriage. he didn’t know why he recorded the sound of his granddaughter crying into an old tape recorder. he didn’t know why he brought it to his neighbor’s porch and pressed play for ambrose and his girlfriend to find. the hissing lady promised the old man that he would regain his memory. the next morning, he was dead.
Christopher could see the old man dead in a coffin. His family weeping over the open casket. He began to feel their tears. He had to push them away in his mind to stay with the nice man.
“What happened to David?” Christopher asked through his fingers.
at first, he didn’t understand. he had escaped from the imaginary world through his tree house before. day and night. but this time, the tree house door was locked. he didn’t understand that he was dying. he couldn’t get out. so, he tried to rebuild the tree house door from the imaginary side. but it doesn’t work that way. he would follow ambrose around, begging him to go to the tree house on the real side. ‘just open the door, ambrose!’ he would scream. but the hissing lady would just whisper in ambrose’s ear and lead him in the wrong direction. it was all a game to her.
Christopher felt it all play out in front of him. David’s anguish. Ambrose’s grief. For a moment, he pictured himself in the same situation. He saw himself following his mother around. Begging her to open the tree house from the real side. Seeing her weep night after night with him unable to touch her. He could almost feel his mother’s grief. It was unbearable.
i tried to give him things to make it easier. food. water. i showed him the stream to bathe in. i told him about safe places to go at night. places like this. if someone is dieting, their nightmare is a piece of cake. but to a little boy, a piece of cake is 5 minutes away from this horrible place. so, i showed him how to enjoy himself a little. i showed him how to survive. especially at night. but eventually, she caught me. she tortured me for years for helping him. but that’s nothing compared to what she did to david.
“What did she do?” Christopher asked.
she broke him like a horse. then made him her pet.
Through both eyes, Christopher saw tears fall down the nice man’s face. He felt the decades of torment. The guilt and the grief rushed through him in a single moment. His brain didn’t know if it could take any more. Until suddenly the clouds parted, and the darkness found little cracks to let the light in. The nice man’s hands warmed up.
i thought that was going to be the end of the story. but then you came along.
In his left eye, Christopher saw the slightest trace of hope on the nice man’s face. In his right eye, he saw the moment his mother drove them into town in their old land shark. His mother wore that old bandanna. Christopher was there in the passenger side. But he was as bright as fireworks. He looked like magic.
when you showed up, it was like someone turned on a light switch. it had been so long since david, it took a while for my eyes to adjust to you. but once i blinked, there you were. as bright as the sun. your light took away her shadows. you were so powerful, she was afraid of you.
“Afraid of me? I’m just a kid. I’m not