The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki Read Free Book Online

really annoying. Every few months something else appears. Wally usually blames me.”
    “‘The Woman Is Watching’ … Does the graffiti have something to do with the Olmstead …
Curse?”
Since Harris just mentioned the word, Eddie figured it was okay to say it now too.
    “That’s sort of hard to explain … and the bell’s about to ring,” Harris said, glancing down the hallway. “Which way are you walking?”
    Eddie shrugged. “Not sure. Mr. Weir’s English class?”
    Harris nodded. “This way. Come on.”
    Eddie closed his locker and spun the combination. His heart raced, partly because he thought he might start finding answers to his Olmstead questions, but also because Harris actually seemed pretty nice. He didn’t want to screw things up by saying something stupid like “tuba melt” again.
    Leading them down the hallway, Harris continued, “So you
really
don’t know anything about the stuff written in that book you showed me?”
    “No,” said Eddie. “Other than the fact that it’s some sort of code I can’t figure out by myself. I showed it to the librarian in town yesterday. She started acting really weird.”
    “What did she do?” said Harris, surprised.
    “She said she couldn’t help me,” said Eddie.
    “Did you show it to anybody else?”
    “Only my parents. They’re the ones who gave it to me,” said Eddie. “Do
you
know anything about the code?”
    Harris shook his head. “Not the
code …
” He paused for a few seconds, then quickly and quietly said, “You have to promise not to tell anyone I said anything. It’s really important, because I could get in a lot of trouble. … Some people in town don’t like that my mom still sells Olmstead books. They’d rather just forget Nathaniel Olmstead ever existed. Stupid. Sort of hard when his books are, like, everywhere. There’s been talk about shutting down the bookstore. Wally’s looking for any excuse.”
    Eddie didn’t hesitate before answering, “I won’t say anything to anyone about anything.” The hallways were starting to empty. He noticed the room number he was looking for on the door to his right.
    “You don’t have anything to do after school today, do you?” said Harris.
    “Not yet.”
    “Good.” Harris smiled. “I hope you rode here on that bike I saw you riding yesterday. You’re going to need it.”

6
    After the last bell, Eddie called his mother and told her he was hanging out with a friend, then the two boys rode their bikes up into the Gatesweed Hills. Black Ribbon Road carved a twisted path through their dark valleys. They headed in the direction from which his family had come on moving day. Eddie wasn’t sure where Harris was taking him, but at this point it almost didn’t matter—he was having fun. In Heaver-hill, the roads had never zigzagged like this, and the kids had never asked him to come along.
    While they rode, Harris told Eddie about growing up in Gatesweed. He explained that most of their classmates lived on the outskirts of town, out in the farm country. He and his mother had never lived anywhere other than here, and he couldn’t really imagine what it would be like to leave. Eddie told Harris about the car accident, leaving out the part whenhe’d thought the animal was a monster. He didn’t want to sound like a freak. He mentioned the weird people he’d seen in Gatesweed so far—the policeman, the tow truck guy, the librarian. Harris nodded, as if he knew exactly what Eddie was talking about. He agreed that some people in the town could be a little paranoid and protective of each other in a way.
    They rode in silence for a while before Harris brought up Nathaniel Olmstead’s books. They’d both read all of them at least twice. Harris told him that his favorite one was
The Ghost in the Poet’s Mansion
. He really loved the part about the secret passage behind the kitchen cabinet that led to the magical library. Eddie told him that his favorite book was
The Rumor of the