When the phone rang on Saturday morning, Eddie was still in bed. Moments later, his mother knocked on his door.
“It’s for you,” she said, and handed him the phone.
Eddie sat up and said, “Hello?” Harris was on the other end of the line. He asked Eddie to come apple picking with him and Frances. Eddie had never done anything like that before, but it sounded fun. It would be a pleasant distraction from everything else.
“I thought your mother’s store was open today,” Eddie said.
“It is,” said Harris, “but since we’re open later for the reading tonight, my mom thought she’d take the morning off. I heard your mother’s gonna read something she wrote. That’s so cool!”
“Yeah,” said Eddie. “I know.”
Around noon, Frances and Harris picked him up, and they drove west along Black Ribbon Road. To Eddie’s surprise, she turned left into Maggie’s driveway. Maggie was waiting for them outside the small house. She wore a long black coat and a red scarf. She ran to the car and got into the backseat, next to Eddie. “Hi, Ms. May. Hi, Eddie,” she said. Then she quietly added, “Thanks for inviting me, Harris.”
Harris mumbled something that sounded like “You’re welcome.” As Frances looked over her shoulder and backed out of the driveway, Eddie noticed that she wore a tiny smile.
The apple orchard a few miles north of Gatesweed was much larger than the overgrown one behind Nathaniel Olmstead’s house. Together, they picked four big bags of apples, tasting them as they went along. McIntosh were the sweetest-Eddie’s favorite. After that, they each chose a pumpkin from the farm stand.
When Frances wandered away to look for mums for the front porch, Eddie, Harris, and Maggie huddled together and sipped on cider.
“Do you think the Woman in Black will go away now that we finished reading The Enigmatic Manuscript?” said Maggie.
“Maybe,” said Harris. “Unless we figure out what she didn’t want us to know.”
Before they could continue, Frances waved to them from the counter near the cash register. She needed help carrying the flowers back to her car. Eddie lifted two small plastic buckets filled with burgundy blossoms off the ground and hugged them to his chest. As he carried them to Frances ’s car, their pungent scent tickled his nose. Harris and Maggie helped him place them into the trunk of the car, unable now to discuss what they were all secretly thinking about.
Back in Gatesweed, they spent the afternoon helping Frances organize the store for the reading. Eddie set up several rows of folding chairs. Upstairs in the kitchen, Maggie helped Frances put together a couple plates filled with cheese and crackers. Harris went through the store with a feather duster, cleaning places that hadn’t been touched in weeks.
As they worked into dusk, Eddie half expected the Woman in Black to appear again. Something told him she wasn’t through with them yet.
Eventually, a few people showed up for the reading. Eddie thought it was nice that Frances had some town support. It was not a large audience, but there were enough people to create a small din. When Eddie saw his own mother and father, he gave them both a big hug. His father wore a tweed jacket and a navy blue tie. His mother wore a simple charcoal-colored dress with a fuzzy red shawl draped across her shoulders.
“Mom, you look pretty,” Eddie said as he took a seat next to her. He saved two chairs on the other side for Maggie and Harris.
“Thanks, honey,” she said. She tapped her foot on the chair in front of her.
“Are you nervous?”
“A little bit. It’s silly, I know-this is a small bookstore in the middle of nowhere,” said Mom.
“It’s not silly,” said Eddie. “I can’t wait to hear your story.”
“Well, the story isn’t quite finished.”
“But you’re not reading the whole thing, right?” said Eddie.
“No, only the very first part. I’ll feel better once I finish. I think I only have a couple pages left. I’d like to be done by tomorrow.”
“Wow,” said Eddie. “It only took you a month to write a whole book?”
Mom smiled. “What can I say? Since we moved here, I’ve been feeling inspired!”
A couple minutes later, Frances stood before the audience and thanked everyone for coming. Harris and Maggie sat down next to Eddie. Frances introduced the first reader, who happened to be a substitute teacher at Eddie’s school. She read a short poem about her cat. Next came one of the high school students, who read an essay he’d written for his English class. That was followed by an elderly woman who read a picture book about tadpoles that her daughter had written. Eddie didn’t listen to a single word. In his head, Nathaniel Olmstead’s story churned around and around, like storm clouds gathering and growing.
Finally, Frances stood up and introduced Eddie’s mom. She clenched her husband’s hand, then leaned toward Eddie and whispered in his ear, “Wish me luck!” She squeezed past him and made her way up the aisle to the front of the audience.
“Good luck,” he whispered back.
She stood beside the table Frances had set up as a podium. In her hands, she held a small notebook. Eddie closed his eyes and leaned forward to pay close attention to his mother’s story. Eddie’s mother lifted the cover of her notebook and took a deep breath. “The piece I’ll be reading is an excerpt from a larger work called The Dark Mistress’s Desire.” Then she began to read. “‘In the town of Coxglenn, children feared the fall of night. It wasn’t the darkness that frightened them-it was sleep. For when they lay in bed and closed their eyes, she watched them.’”
Eddie felt his stomach turn to ice. What was going on here?
His mother was reading the story Harris had pulled from the hole in Nathaniel Olmstead’s basement earlier that week! She couldn’t have written these words, could she? The Dark Mistress’s Desire. The Wish of the Woman in Black. The titles were eerily similar, but the stories were exactly the same-the descriptions of the town, the main characters, the plot.
Harris reached out and grabbed Eddie’s arm. He mouthed the words, What is she doing?
Eddie shook his head and tried to ignore him. His heart pounded silently as his mother read the first chapter of her first book to her first audience. He wanted to stand up, to shout for her to stop, to explain herself, but he couldn’t do that, of course. Not only would he embarrass himself and his family, but it would bring attention to the fear he felt inside, and it was the fear that frightened him most. He was certain this was the work of the Woman in Black, that she was watching him even now. Was this merely one of the Woman’s illusions? Was it possible that Mom was currently reading a different story, but the Woman in Black was making him hear this one?
Eddie almost couldn’t stand to listen to the rest, but finally his mother finished. The audience slowly began to applaud. Eddie turned around. Though most of the crowd appeared to be enthusiastic, several people looked upset. He heard someone behind him say, “I think we’ve got another Nathaniel Olmstead in our midst…” Eddie couldn’t tell if it was meant to be a compliment.
The words echoed in his head.
Another Nathaniel Olmstead… Another Nathaniel Olmstead…
Slowly, the puzzle pieces started to fit together.
He leapt to his feet, stepping past Maggie and Harris into the aisle. Turning around, he waved to them and quietly said, “Follow me.” Without waiting for the audience to stop clapping, he made his way through the store, out the door, and onto the front porch. Harris and Maggie were close behind.
Harris shut the door and said, “What the heck is going on? Did you tell your mother about the book we found in Nathaniel’s basement? Is that why she wrote all that?”
“No,” said Eddie. “I didn’t tell her a thing.”
“Did she find the book? The Wish of the Woman in Black? Did she copy it?” said Harris.
Eddie shook his head.
“So how did she-” Maggie began, but then she interrupted herself, her realization dawning. “Oh my gosh…”
“Is someone going to tell me what’s happening here?” said Harris.
Eddie cleared his throat. “I think I know the real reason my family moved to Gatesweed.”
The door opened and Dad’s face appeared. He looked annoyed. “Edgar, come back inside and tell your mother what you thought of her story. She’s waiting for you.”
Eddie opened his mouth to speak, but words wouldn’t come out. He glanced at his friends. Harris nodded toward the door, and Eddie reluctantly followed his father back inside. Harris and Maggie trailed behind him. Mom and Frances stood chatting near the food table. As Eddie approached, Mom turned and smiled at him.
“So what did you think?” she said.
“I’ll let you two talk,” said Frances, ruffling his hair and wandering off to greet her other customers.
Eddie felt dizzy, but he managed to say, “It was really… creepy.”
“Thanks,” she said. She was hugging her notebook against her chest. “Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Eddie reached out and touched the cover. “Can I see it?”
“Sure,” she said, “but don’t read ahead.”
Eddie took the notebook from her. He felt Maggie and Harris come up on either side of him. They looked over his shoulder as he opened the cover. What he saw there nearly caused him to drop the book on the floor. He looked again, this time more closely, to make sure he hadn’t imagined it.
He hadn’t. His mother had drawn the symbol in the middle of the front page, over the title, like Nathaniel Olmstead’s handwritten books in his basement.
“Eddie, what’s the matter?” said his mother. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Why did you draw this here on the first page?” said Eddie, pointing at the symbol. He knew she’d seen it before-in The Enigmatic Manuscript the night they’d moved to Gatesweed-but after everything that had happened, it horrified him to see that she had drawn it at the beginning of her notebook too.
“Oh, that thing?” said Mom, almost distracted. “I don’t know. It just sort of popped into my head when I picked up the…” She didn’t finish. She suddenly looked embarrassed.
“When you picked up the what?” said Harris.
Eddie’s mother blinked. “When I picked up my pen,” she said, “the symbol popped into my head. For some reason, I wrote it down. For luck or something. I didn’t really have a reason.”
“What kind of pen was it?” said Maggie.
Eddie’s mom took a step backward. “I don’t know. It was something I found in one of my husband’s boxes of antiques,” she said. “In fact, I think it was in there with that book I gave you at the beginning of the school year, Edgar.” She waved to her husband, who stood several feet behind Eddie. “Honey, didn’t we find that pen at the same antiques fair as Edgar’s book?”
“Yeah,” said Dad. “I think so.”
“The pen… What does it look like?” said Eddie, his voice rising. He knew he was starting to sound paranoid, but he could barely think, never mind speak.
“It looks like a… small silver dagger,” said Mom. “It’s very pretty. When I hold it, I just… want to write.” The three kids stared at her. “What’s this all about, Eddie?”
“It’s nothing,” he heard himself say. “Do you still have it?”
“Of course,” she said. “It’s at home.”
“Where?” said Eddie. “Can we see it?”
She looked at him like he was crazy. “Yes, I’ll show it to you tomorrow morning. When I’ve finished my book.”
“No!” shouted the three kids together. Mom was so startled she nearly fell backward into the food table.
“Sorry, Mom. Can we see it now?” said Eddie.
“You’re being very strange, Eddie,” said Dad. He moved a folding chair as he took a step toward his wife.
“I know I’m being strange,” said Eddie. “But it’s really important.”
“Fine,” said Mom, exasperated. “We’ll be heading out in a few minutes.”
After Eddie’s parents said goodbye to Frances, they all piled into the blue station wagon. Eddie, Harris, and Maggie squeezed into the backseat.
“I really wish you kids would tell me why you’re so upset,” said Eddie’s mother.
“We’re not upset,” said Maggie. “We loved your story. We’re just curious about… how you wrote it. That’s all.”
“You’re curious about a pen?” said Eddie’s dad.
Harris coughed. “We… really like pens.”
Eddie nudged Harris in the ribs. His parents weren’t stupid. Harris turned red and shrugged.
It was dark by the time they arrived at the Fennicks house. The kids scrambled out of the car and tried to wait patiently in the living room. Eddie’s mom brought her “pen” downstairs, and when she finally handed it to Eddie, he felt a jolt. It was freezing cold. The tip was sharp. And its chain seemed to shimmer like the tail of a comet. It looked and felt just as he imagined it would. The weight of its history was overwhelming.
“Satisfied?” asked Eddie’s mother.
“Sure,” said Eddie, trying to control the fear in his voice as he headed up the stairs to his bedroom. “Can we borrow it for a second? I want to try something.”
“Well…,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “Okay. Just be careful. I need it.”
“We’ll be careful,” said Harris, following Eddie.
Upstairs, Eddie ushered his friends into his room, closed the door, and leaned against it.
“Can I see it?” said Harris, sitting at Eddie’s desk. Eddie handed the pendant to him. Maggie knelt next to Harris, reached out, and touched it too. “Do you think it’s real?” Harris added.
“If it is, then this all finally makes sense,” said Maggie.
Eddie leaned over Harris’s chair, opened his desk drawer, and pulled out a piece of paper. Harris handed the pendant back. Gripping it like a pen, Eddie pressed it to the paper. Miraculously, a black dot appeared there. Eddie dragged the tip across the paper, drawing a sharp black line from corner to corner. “It’s real, all right. Why didn’t I realize this before now?” said Eddie, his voice shaking.
“Realize what?” said Harris. “How your mom ended up with this thing?”
“Yes.” Eddie took a deep breath. “Remember the box that the search party found in the Nameless Lake? It was supposed to contain The Enigmatic Manuscript and the pendant that Nathaniel hid before disappearing?”
Harris nodded.
“The police lost its contents, and somehow the book and the pendant ended up at the Black Hood Antiques Fair.” Eddie put the pendant down. He didn’t like the way it felt. The cold seemed to be burning his skin. “My parents happened to buy both items. And just like the pendant led Nathaniel Olmstead to Gatesweed, it began to work its magic on my mother. That’s why we moved here. My mother said so herself. She came looking for inspiration and found it in Gatesweed.”
“So your mom’s been writing this book since you moved in?” said Harris.
“Yes,” said Eddie. “Somehow, the Woman in Black must have gotten her to write the story that Nathaniel Olmstead refused to finish. My mom didn’t realize what she was doing. She thought that she’d finally come up with a good idea.”
Maggie stood up, crossing her arms. “If your mother finishes writing the book, the gate will open. The Woman in Black will be able to come through.”
“We can’t let that happen,” said Harris.
“But how?” said Eddie.
“Tell your mother she has to destroy her manuscript,” said Maggie.
“It won’t matter if she destroys the manuscript,” said Harris. “First of all, according to Nathaniel Olmstead, it can’t be destroyed. Second, the Woman in Black has been waiting around since, like, the beginning of time for this to happen. She will just get someone else to write it someday.”
“You’re right. We can’t destroy the manuscript,” said Eddie. He stared at the black line he’d scratched across the paper. He thought about all of Nathaniel’s books hidden in his basement-a permanent record of the town’s awful legacy. There had to be something they could do to end it. “Do you think we can… destroy the gate?”
“The gate?” said Maggie.
“The stone child,” said Eddie. “In the woods. Maybe… if we destroy the statue, we destroy the gate? That way, the Woman in Black will never be able to come through!”
“That’s brilliant!” said Harris.
“But how do we destroy the statue?” said Maggie. “According to the legend, hasn’t it existed, like… forever?”
Eddie glanced into his open desk drawer. A shape at the back caught his eye. He reached inside and pulled it out. It was the hammer he’d brought with him when they’d snuck into Nathaniel Olmstead’s house. “Stone breaks if you hit it hard enough,” said Eddie. “Doesn’t it?”
“Let’s hope,” said Harris.
“When should we do it?” said Maggie.
“You heard my mother,” said Eddie. “She wants to finish her book tonight.” The light on the desk began to flicker. They all stared at it for several seconds. Then Eddie added, “So we need to go now.”