BELLYACHE Read online

  “We can’t possibly go to all three castles. That would take forever. How will we know which one to go to or even if going to them is what we should do?” Peter whined.

  “Look,” Lina pointed at Peter’s chest. “Your medallion.”

  Peter observed his medallion; it was lit up with a golden glow.

  “It started glowing when you said ‘castles.’ It’s as if it liked that idea.”

  “Your medallion, it’s glowing now, too.” Peter gave a nod of approval.

  “Well, that is that; we are going to those castles,” Lina commanded.

  With their medallions’ reassurance, Peter and Lina headed toward the shadowy castles, trying not to mind the awful smell. As they approached the castles, their surroundings grew dimmer. The grass appeared dark gray, almost black, and so did the few trees that were scattered about.

  Peter slowed in his tracks. “Listen.”

  Lina answered abruptly. “I don’t hear anything.”

  “Neither do I,” he confirmed.

  The dead silence sent shivers down both their spines. They continued forward, more cautiously. The grass beneath their feet had disappeared and turned into dirt and gravel. They came upon a narrow crossing that branched into three paths. Each of the paths led toward a different castle.

  “Great, now what?” Lina moaned.

  “I don’t know.”

  They stood there, taking in the sight of the three uninviting castles before them.

  “They’re creepy. I don’t like the idea of having to go inside,” Lina said.

  “Me, neither,” Peter responded, “but we have to, for Joe and Angela and their parents. Besides, I don’t want that mean ol’ Carol Winston strutting around, chanting how she knew we wouldn’t help them!”

  “The castles all look the same, dark with hardly any light coming from them. This is like something out of a scary movie,” Lina said, spooked.

  “Except it isn’t…it is real life.”

  Lina sank down on a large rock. “I am pooped. Look how much farther we have to go, and the smell isn’t getting any better, either.”

  “I am tired, too, but the sooner we find those two, the sooner we can go home and see our families.”

  “True. I can’t wait to tell them about all this!” Lina exclaimed, springing up from the rock. “Let’s ask the medallions.”

  “What?” Peter looked surprised.

  “Come on, Peter, like we did before when we said, ‘castles,’ and the medallions glowed. So maybe we could sort of ask them which one to go to.” She raised her shoulders and gave a little shrug.

  “It’s worth a shot, I guess. Should we go to the castle on the left?” The two fixed their eyes on the medallions but nothing happened. Peter looked up at Lina, and she gave him the “go ahead; try again” look his mother would give him when he couldn’t get a homework problem correct the first try. “Should we go to the castle in the middle?” Still the medallions did nothing. The children were beginning to think the medallions weren’t going to reply. Raising his hand, Peter pointed firmly at the last castle and asked more boldly, “Should we go the castle on the right?”

  The two stared hopefully at the medallions. They both had been holding their breath and let out the air as their medallions started glowing. They rejoiced, giving each other high fives.

  “I knew it had to work!” Lina sing-songed.

  Peter was relieved to hear a cheerful pitch in her voice. There was still hope.

  “Let’s get this party started!” Peter joked.

  They both laughed nervously as they moved cautiously towards the medallions’ choice. The air grew frosty as they approached the castle.

  “It’s closer than we thought it was and smaller than it looked from far away,” Lina stated.

  “Yeah, it is,” Peter agreed.

  The dark gray castle showed little life except for the occasional flicker of light. There were three towers. The center one was taller than the others. More light flickered from that tower than from any other room in the castle. They reached the massive castle doors, which looked an ill fit for the small-sized castle. The entire castle was composed of tiny gray pebbles.

  “It must have taken forever to build!” Peter observed, touching his finger to a single gray stone.

  “Jeez, it’s really cold right here,” Lina whined through chattering teeth.

  “And really quiet, too.”

  As if something was disturbed by what they said, there was a rustle in a tall gray bush behind them. Startled, the children jumped into the castle doors, and they responded with a crackling thud. The crackling turned into a cracking noise that continued to escalate.

  Peter wrapped his arm around Lina’s shoulders and dove forward into the gritty dirt and grass. “It’s coming down!”

  They hit the ground hard and shielded their faces. They were engulfed by puffs of dirt and smoke and the sounds of thousands of pebbles falling to the ground behind them. The ruckus lasted for a half minute, and it was that long before they were able to look back at the castle. Rubble coated the ground where the giant door had stood just moments before. In the midst of it all there was a thin, clear path leading inside the castle.

  The bush rustled again and from it darted a tiny dark blur. A mouse.

  “That was a rush!” Lina exclaimed, dusting off her knees.

  “Well, I guess we don’t have to knock,” Peter said sarcastically, catching his breath.

  “True,” Lina said, walking slowly toward the path. “You coming?” she said without looking back at Peter.

  “Of course I am,” Peter stated with a newfound sense of curiosity. He shuffled toward her, taking in the scene. “I should go first,” he said boldly, “in case it is dangerous.”

  She gave him the “you have got to be kidding” look. He had seen that look from her once before on Halloween, when they were about to ring Old Man Saget’s doorbell and run as punishment for him not giving out candy again that year. Peter suggested that he do it because it might be too dangerous. Lina rang the doorbell.

  Now she continued forward cautiously, in front.

  Forgiveness

  Once inside, it was frightfully cold and smelled just as unpleasant. Peter looked over at Lina, who was crossing her arms, rubbing them. Together they analyzed the mostly empty grand room. There was an immense rumble from behind them, and the children jerked around. They were hearing the same noises as before entering: cracking sounds.

  Oh spam! thought Peter.

  “Not again!” Lina crouched down to protect herself. Peter thought that wasn’t a bad idea and did the same.

  Lina shielded her face with open fingers so she could still see what was going on. Peter did not bother shielding his face; he realized right away what was going on.

  “The door’s rebuilding itself,” Peter said.

  Lina put her hands down and watched intently as the giant door began to take form again. Everything that had fallen was returning to its rightful place. Every pebble and every speck of dust swirled upward, a cloudy mass of dark gray flowing toward the ceiling. The cracking turned into creaking, and then, as quickly as it started, it was dead silent, except for the heavy breathing of the children.

  “Wow, that was amazing.” Lina said.

  They rose to their feet to find the room darker without the extra light coming in from outside. Only one tiny spherical window let in dim light from high above. Except for the two of them, the vast room was empty: no chairs, no couches, not even a side table.

  “We wouldn’t find this place on the cover of one of my mother’s home magazines,” Lina cracked, shivering. “Could you imagine?”

  “No way!” Peter remarked, imagining Lina’s mother relaxing at home, sipping her tea, turning the pages of her magazine to see “Ghastly Pebble Castle.” Then the tea cup goes crashing down.

  “She’d be cleaning that up for a while,” he said out loud.

  “Cleaning what?”

  “Oh, nothing,” he answer
ed.

  “Well, I don’t want to be in here any longer than we have to, so let’s get down to business, or should I say up to business?” Lina pointed toward a set of stone stairs. Their eyes followed the staircase. It wound around the room in a colossal swirl.

  “There doesn’t seem to be anyone or anything down here, but we should look around first to make sure.”

  “Lead the way, Sherlock.”

  Peter led Lina silently around the entire room. They found no one and no thing, as they suspected.

  “This place is strange,” Lina broke the silence.

  “No kidding, it gives me the creeps.”

  “Well, Nancy Drew, shall we see where those stairs take us?” Lina tried to lighten the mood.

  Peter gave her a look of disapproval. He did not like being called a girl. “Oh, go on, lead the way, Scooby.” She giggled playfully.

  A smile cracked from his lips, and he led the way to the steps. The staircase was sparingly lit by the lone window above. He took a breath and put his right foot on the first step.

  “Wait, Peter,” Lina said quietly. “We are about to climb all these stairs and we don’t even know what is up there.”

  They both looked at their medallions for reassurance. The medallions didn’t so much as flicker.

  Peter paused for a moment and called out, “Hello, anyone up there?” His words fell flat. There was no echo; it was as if his words did not travel more than a few feet in front of him. Peter and Lina looked at each other, stupefied. The familiar joyfulness of Maple Town seemed so far away now.

  “We have to at least take a look. We can’t turn back now,” Peter said strongly.

  “I’m scared. I don’t think I…” Her thoughts flashed back to seeing Carol Winston’s distorted face in the crowd, screaming. Lina started fuming as she heard those words repeated in her head. “We’re going up these stairs! No one’s going to tell me what I am going to do!” She grabbed Peter’s arm firmly and pulled him up the first few steps.

  A great wind came from beneath their feet and lifted them round and round the staircase in the flash of an eye, to the door at the very top of the tower. Then it stopped. The children’s hearts were racing, and their faces looked bewildered.

  “Some service,” Lina spoke excitedly. “We’d have been climbing those stairs all day if that…whatever that was hadn’t given us a lift.”

  “That was some ride,” Peter said, looking beneath their feet as if to find some sort of evidence of what had just happened.

  The children noticed the door now, tall and wide. It had a handle made of the same pebbles that formed the entire castle. The children half expected it to crumble to the ground as the one before had. They stood there waiting. Nothing.

  “I think we better open it,” Peter announced, looking at the medallions for some clarity.

  Lina noticed, “I think they might be broken.”

  “Or maybe it is time we do it on our own,” Peter responded.

  “Maybe, or maybe we are making the wrong choice,” Lina shrugged. “There is only one way to find out.”

  Peter and Lina grabbed the pebbled handle together and tugged. It easily opened. They were hit immediately by the thickened, pungent, icy air.

  Lina gagged. “Oh, it’s terrible, way worse than my brother’s sneakers!”

  “It’s so cold; I can see your breath.” Peter fanned his nose.

  “Look, up there.” Lina pointed, and Peter’s eyes followed.

  There, high above them, hanging from the ceiling in golden cages, were Joe and Angela. Peter was seeing Angela for the first time. She looked like a mini version of her mother, rainbow chips and all. They both leapt in the direction of Peter and Lina and were very excited and relieved to see them. Their mouths were moving, but Peter and Lina couldn’t hear anything.

  “The cages must be made of glass,” Peter concluded.

  “That’s a change in Angela’s attitude. The last time I saw her, she was spitting sunflower seeds in my hair. Who would have thought she would be happy to see me,” Lina huffed, with one hand on her hip. “Although I do kinda feel sorry for her, hanging up there hopelessly like that.” Lina’s body language softened.

  The children entered the tower and took a glance around. There was nothing except for the two hanging cages. They continued to move toward the golden cages. The only light coming from the tower was from the cages themselves.

  “How did they get up there?” Peter wondered.

  “Better yet, how do we get them down?” Lina replied.

  Peter and Lina gazed up at the desperate-looking children. Both of them were on their knees so they could get a better look at what Peter and Lina were doing. Lina and Peter both waved up at the Candonite children. Angela and Joe returned weak waves.

  “What are they doing now?” Lina questioned.

  “Looks like they are pointing.”

  “At what? There is nothing there. Just the wall. Wait a minute, now they are pointing at that wall over there. What are they doing?” Lina seemed annoyed.

  “Maybe they are trying to tell us something,” Peter suggested.

  “Or maybe they have just gone mad.” Lina gave attitude.

  “Let’s check it out.” Peter walked toward the first wall Joe and Angela had pointed to.

  “Check what out?” Lina asked.

  Peter ignored her and continued to walk toward the wall, turning back to take one more look at the Candonite children. They seemed intent on what he was doing and continued to point vigorously toward the wall. Lina followed close behind him. Peter felt a sudden overwhelming cautious feeling and abruptly stopped. Lina walked right into him.

  “Hey, what’s the matter?” Lina whispered, looking at Peter’s intense eyes.

  “I don’t know; probably nothing,” he responded, not wanting to worry her, although he wondered if she felt the eeriness, too.

  She did feel it. She sensed that Peter shared her feeling. “Step aside, mister. I’m going to prove to you that they are nuts and there is nothing here.” She shoved past him and walked straight up to the pebbled wall. She touched it, pushed it, rolled her fingers over some of the pebbles, and examined it closely. “Nothing but millions of pebbles here, as I suspected.”

  Peter looked back up at Joe and Angela. They both had their eyes covered with their hands, the way someone would if they were about to see a scary part in a movie.

  “What is the matter with those two?” Lina puzzled.

  Peter walked next to Lina, who was now leaning on the wall with her arms crossed. “Have a look for yourself. You won’t find anything.”

  She was right. He did nose around and found nothing, except for the same lingering pungent smell, which seemed to be even worse. His stomach turned.

  “We need to figure out how to get those two out of here fast. I think I am going to be sick.” Lina held her stomach.

  Above Lina’s left shoulder, two deep dark eyes, yellow where the whites of the eyes should be, appeared and vanished back into the wall before anyone had a chance to notice.

  Peter and Lina returned to the cages, where they observed Angela and Joe still looking around at the walls.

  “They must be frightened that this will be what they will stare at for the rest of their lives if we don’t save them. Dark, gloomy, pebbled walls. I don’t blame them at all for being worried. I’m not convinced we will find a way to get them out. I know they were terribly mean to us, but they don’t deserve this,” Lina said honestly.

  “Let’s continue looking; maybe we are missing something,” Peter suggested.

  “Looking at what? We checked. The walls look the same all the way around, and there is nothing on the floor except for thousands of those pebbles.”

  Peter’s mind flashed to Mrs. Baker’s sweet voice saying, “I have faith in you.”

  “We will get them down and safely home. I have enough faith for the both of us,” Peter stated, unwavering.

  “I am with you, Peter.”

 
They took a step back and peered up at the Candonite children.

  Peter did not know if the children could hear them, but he felt it necessary to encourage them. “We are going to get you out!” he said with big hand movements, trying to express what he was saying.

  Angela and Joe’s faces expressed immense shame. They approached the glass of their cages, put their hands up to it, and mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.” They truly looked genuine in their gestures.

  “I really think they are sorry, and not just because they want us to save them. They have no more a clue than we do about how to get them down,” Lina observed.

  “It’s all right. I forgive you!” Peter shouted. He looked over at Lina.

  She searched her feelings and shouted in the same fashion as Peter, “I forgive you, too!”

  Angela and Joe looked relieved and thankful for Peter and Lina’s forgiveness. All four children exchanged smiles.

  At that moment, Peter and Lina noticed two small cracks in the floor beneath the cages begin to glow.

  “What do you suppose it is?” Peter asked.

  Lina did not answer because she did not know.

  “They’re doing it again.” Peter sounded enthusiastic.

  Lina looked up toward Angela and Joe, who were staring back at them. “They are not doing anything,” Lina said.

  “Not them,” Peter replied. “The medallions…they are glowing.”

  Lina swung her head around to fix her eyes on them. “What does it mean?”

  Peter walked toward the light coming from the crack beneath Joe; Lina followed. Peter knelt down in front of one of the cracks and examined it. He could make out the form of the crack, and he traced it with his finger and stuck it in to measure. He couldn’t quite touch the bottom.

  “What are you doing?” Lina asked.

  “I don’t believe it is a crack at all.” He took his medallion off. “More like a slot.” Lina watched Peter closely. She was beginning to think he was on to something.

  “Forgiveness will set you free,” Peter said, barely above a whisper. He placed it in the slot on the floor. It fit perfectly, just like a quarter into an arcade game. With a deep breath, he let the medallion go, and it disappeared, with the ribbon flapping down into the floor. The light that shone from both the slot and the medallion was abruptly gone.