Once Upon a Midnight Eerie: Book #2 (Misadventures of Edgar/Allan) by Gordon McAlpine Read Free Book Online Page A

PIE, SIR!”
    NEITHER the Poe nor the Dickinson twins were of any mind to go to sleep when they got back to the Pepper Tree Inn.
    Actually, they weren’t sure they’d ever sleep again.
    So they crept through the silent, three a.m. lobby, careful not to wake the snoring front desk clerk, who reclined in his chair with a thick biography of George Washington Carver open on his chest. With Roderick at their heels, the four slipped up the carpeted stairway, past the third floor, to the roof, which was accessible through a heavy metal door.
    They stumbled outside into the moonlight.
    The view was beautiful.
    To the south, the shimmering Mississippi River twisted toward the sea, and to the north the moon illuminated lacy clouds that by morning would be dew on the wrought-iron handrails and ornaments of the French Quarter. But neither Poes nor Dickinsons noted the view. Instead, they stood facing each other, their expressions similarly composed of fifty percent wonder and fifty percent dismay.
    “Did we actually see what we just saw?” Milly asked the others.
    “Did we just hear what we just heard?” wondered Edgar aloud.
    After the Du Valiers had acknowledged their shocking condition, they invited the two sets of twins to return with them to Saint Louis Cemetery for a little socializing. There, after they had all settled on stone benches near the Du Valiers’ crypt, the kindly old couple answered a flurry of questions.
    Did death hurt?
Not at all
.
    Did they ever get hungry?
Only for beignets, the scent of which sometimes wafted on a river breeze all the way to the cemetery
.
    Why didn’t they just rejoin the living, since their appearances were so lifelike?
Because they could only materialize within a mile of their tomb and only for a few hours at a time.
    What did they miss most about being alive?
The feel of one another’s actual flesh when they held hands
.
    What hopes did they have for the future?
To move on to the next world.
    Now, atop the roof, the Poes and Dickinsons took long, deep breaths, hoping to appear more calm and at ease than they actually were. Only Roderick seemed truly composed, curling his body into a comfortable position for a long-overdue sleep.
    The four sat on the rooftop, legs crossed, as if around an invisible campfire.
    “We have to talk,” Allan announced.
    Everyone nodded.
    But where to start?
    Em spoke first, or, rather, recited:
    “The grave my little cottage is,
    Where ‘Keeping house’ for thee,
    I make my parlor orderly
    And lay the marble tea. . . .”
    “Well, one thing’s for sure,” Allan said, rubbing his hands to warm them, wishing that they were seated around an actual campfire rather than an imaginary one. “Clarence and Genevieve have been stuck here a long time.”
    Edgar reviewed aloud. “Clarence said the only way he and Genevieve could move on from this world to the next was for justice to be served.”
    “A public acknowledgment of their murderer’s identity,” Allan elaborated.
    The boys thought of their parents, deceased for seven years. Surely, Mal and Irma Poe had moved on by now to the next world, having been victims of a famous accident rather than an unsolved murder. But what if circumstances had been different? Edgar and Allan shuddered to think of their mom and dad stuck, like the Du Valiers, in a cemetery (or a satellite!) for eternity. That would be unacceptable. So, in that light, how could the boys not do all they could to help Clarence and Genevieve?
    “But how can we mete out justice at this late date?” Em asked, wrapping her shawl more tightly around her shoulders.
    “Especially,” Milly added, “since the Du Valiers’ murderer has been dead for two centuries?”
    “Well, obviously what we have to do is—” Allan stopped.
    But Edgar didn’t jump in.
    The girls waited.
    The Poe twins said nothing more.
    “Do what?” Milly pressed after a moment.
    “
That
is the question,” Allan answered dramatically.
    The Dickinson twins sighed