The Slice by Greg Taylor

Author:Greg Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

16

Toby woke in an instant.

He lay perfectly still, listening for the sound that had jolted him awake. All was silent, then …

Yes, there it was again. Something had hit his window. Definitely. Toby slid out of bed and cautiously approached the window. When he pulled down the bottom slate of the shutter and peeked outside, he couldn’t believe what he saw in the middle of his backyard.

Calanthe.

Seeing Toby at the window, she held up her hand in a hello gesture. Toby responded by holding up his index finger, then wondered if Calanthe knew that meant he’d be outside in a minute or so. Probably not.

So Toby quickly dressed and headed downstairs. Since becoming an MCO he had developed superior sneaking-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night abilities, so he wasn’t concerned that he might get caught. But what about Calanthe? How had she managed to slink out of the Oshiro household at two o’clock in the morning without anyone noticing? Stepping onto his back porch, Toby spotted Calanthe’s silhouette at the edge of the neighbor’s yard. As he approached her, she turned and disappeared into the woods. Following Calanthe, Toby felt a strange kind of thrill. He’d been woken up by a wildly unpredictable girl in the middle of the night who was leading him … where? What did Calanthe want to see him about?

Toby had no idea, and he didn’t really care. At some point he would discover what this after-midnight excursion was all about. In the meantime, he was kind of loving the surprise of Calanthe’s nighttime visit, the suspense of it.

It took about a ten-minute jog through the woods before Calanthe revealed their destination, a railroad bridge that passed over the stream Toby and Calanthe had been following. Calanthe led Toby under the bridge, stopped directly beneath the trestle, and leaned up against the rock wall.

When Toby joined her, the two stood side by side, staring silently into the darkness. Toby thought maybe Calanthe was allowing him to catch his breath before revealing what she wanted to see him about. He didn’t want to break the moment by asking any questions. He was perfectly okay just standing next to Calanthe under the bridge, surrounded by the still and silent woods.

Some time passed before Calanthe finally spoke. When she did, her opening line was a good one. “I’d like to tell you a story…”

* * *

A spellbinding story it was.

It was about a secret cave near Calanthe’s village that she would sneak out to visit in the middle of the night. It was a place only a few villagers knew about. Anyone who dared go there was well aware that if it was ever discovered that they had left their beds after curfew, they would be dealt with very severely.

To Calanthe, the risk had always been worth it. The cave was a magical place, after all, with illustrations painted on the walls by villagers of generations past, who had dared to even contemplate what was referred to in the village as the Beyond. The primitive paintings were of automobiles and airplanes and tall buildings.

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