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She slipped into the cemetery. Green gravestones stood in messy rows with their inscriptions blurred by time. 79
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She stared into eyes white as two cooked eggs and she could barely breathe. 194
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She was also hungry, and she wanted to tell her dad about the woman beside the swimming hole, but it didn't seem like the time. She did not want to be in detention until Christmas. 23
Small Spaces
She was crying dusty, waterless tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But what was the use? You're never leaving this place. Nevernevernever..." 172
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She was frowning at the bus driver. He was big, with a thick gray beard. In fact, he was sort of gray all over. 61
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She was going to ride her bike down along the creek as far and as fast as she could go. Maybe she'd jump in the water. The creek wasn't that cold. 5
Small Spaces
She was gripping the watch on her wrist, white-knuckled. Tears still ran freely down her face, but she managed a smile. "No thanks," she said. 203-204
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She was looking past him, out through the curtains of rain. Who was that? A little boy in a brown coat, standing just at the edge of the cornfield. But his face was still and colorless. 67
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She was more than halfway to the loft. The old shovel handle was bending. With a crack, it gave. Now the door was sliding open. A soft painted-on face thrust itself into the gap. 178
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She wasn't going to get out. Not before dark. What would her dad do when she never came back? 190
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She would go home at dusk—sunset at 5:58. She had lots of time. Her dad would be mad that she got home late, but he was always worrying about something. 5
Small Spaces
She'd not imagined a kind smile, the sort that would make a scared kid not be scared anymore. 198
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She'd quit the softball team last year too, but her aim was still on. 8
Small Spaces
Snappish because of memory. Her mother had been a math professor at Evansburg College. 62
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So much for sneaking off. She couldn't very well say she'd gotten lost now. 84
Small Spaces
Somehow, they were not looking into the house anymore, but were watching the kids run, still smiling their wide smiles. The laundry was rotting on the line, the shutter banging and banging and banging... 149
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Sometimes I hope desperately that Jonathan is with them. That he has never left me at all. But mostly I hope he is safely dead, and that I will see him in the next world. 28
Small Spaces
THE CLASS WANDERED IN, or sprinted in just as the bell rang, to find the promised donuts nestled in a white box at the front of the room. 50
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The mist was so dense that it threw the headlights back into their eyes. The bus was rolling along at a crawl. 95
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The mud and cold and fear of the past days was like a bad dream. 210
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The night had gone very quiet. There was no noise at all except for their breathing in the little cave. They were all jammed together, but no one suggested getting out. 128
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The noise began. Ms. Mouton, that day's lawn monitor, finally noticed the commotion. "Now," she said, hurrying over. 9
Small Spaces
The weather was changing; the wind that had rattled the leaves by the swimming hole was now tearing down the mountain, singing arcs of sunset shadows across the Egg. 20
Small Spaces
The whole class shifted in their seats. Long-dead romances were not as interesting as ghosts. "But one night the older brother disappeared," Mr. Easton continued. 55
Small Spaces
The woman didn't look alive anymore. Her face was shriveled, her mouth had fallen in. "Tell them to come in," Cathy whispered. "Please—tell them to come in." 148
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The woman shook her head. "He said water. Upstream. Where Lethe Creek runs out of the mountain. I'm here. I'm doing it!" 14
Small Spaces
The woman smelled sour—frightened. 14
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The woman was pretty, with amber-honey hair. But she had circles under her eyes like purple thumbprints. Streaks of mascara had run down her face, like she'd been crying for a while. 12
Small Spaces
The woman was sobbing. 12
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The woman went on, half to herself, "That's the bargain. Make the arrangements. Then give the book to the water." 13
Small Spaces
The yellow autumn trees had turned black and spindly, as though winter had come in the last three minutes. 95
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Then the screen flickered. ALWAYS, it said. 165
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"'Cause it was bound and printed in Boston and it would be really weird if they'd only printed one copy. I have my copy right here. I guess you forget about that sort of thing when you're a super-old corn-maze monster." 206
Small Spaces
"A tree branch rubbing the roof. And that means a tree, which means a way down. The roof tiles are all rotten." 186
Small Spaces
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about chess club. We're missing you this fall." 4
Small Spaces
"All her pretty dreams sold in bankruptcy court, and all her sunlit life in nature cut short by bars. I'll do anything, she said. 200
Small Spaces
"And one day, a long time from now, when I knock on your door, you have to let me in. That's what I call a good deal." His eyes were earnest, kind. 203
Small Spaces
"Are there only two bodies buried in those three graves?" She pointed to the three at the back of the graveyard. 82
Small Spaces
"Avoid large places at night," the woman said. "Keep to small." 15
Small Spaces
"Back in the 1800s, it was called—oh, foggy—smoky—something. I forget now. It gets foggy after dark because of humidity off the river." 54
Small Spaces
"Because before them, there were the Abenaki, and they had this land and farmed it and died on it and wrote their own ghost stories while people died of plague in the streets of London." 83
Small Spaces
"Before tomorrow," said the woman. Almost to herself, she whispered, "Tomorrow's the day." 14
Small Spaces
"Besides, it probably wasn't her. If there was a rock, I definitely didn't see her throw it." 46
Small Spaces
"Besides, we have to drink the water, and that comes from here too." She shook her empty bottle for emphasis and pointed to the foaming creek. 154
Small Spaces
"Beth and Cathy. You can hear them crying at night, or calling the boys. But they don't answer." 84
Small Spaces
"Bus broken down? I'll just notify the farm—and the school—we'll have to get a replacement out, if we can't fix it. We might be here awhile. Well, no day is perfect." 97
Small Spaces
"But on this side of the mist—at night—there's only his rules. They'll grab you if they can." 103
Small Spaces
"But people here only climb outside and my mom says it's not safe. I haven't climbed in a while. I miss it." 131
Small Spaces
"But," she burst out, "to burn bone to ash, the fire would have had to burn at fourteen hundred degrees at least, for two hours or more." 58
Small Spaces
"Call me by my name," he whispered in to her ear, "if you need." 210
Small Spaces
"Cats are convenient. They go between worlds, their nature unchanged. The only creature that can. How do you think I kept track of you?" 198
Small Spaces
"Come on," said a blurry chorus of voices. "He just went to the farm. He'll be back soon. He's not gone. He can't be gone." 107
Small Spaces
"Don't even think about that snooze button! Rain boots, extra sweater, brush your teeth, and get down here now! You're going to the farm, remember?" 31
Small Spaces
"He doesn't feed me good things," he said. "Only souls, sometimes. The used-up ones, dry as dead corn." 196
Small Spaces
"He enjoys what he does, you know, and that is why he's always smiling—" She smiled too, a joyless pumpkin-head grin. 14
Small Spaces
"Hello," she said delightedly to the cow, and reached up to give Cora a pat. Some of the farm kids snorted. 76-77
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"Hello," the woman said, trying to smile. "You surprised me." Her white-knuckled hands gripped a small, dark thing. 12
Small Spaces
"I depend on my boys to tell me the day. They're due back soon. If we all sit down together and eat gingerbread, they'll be back before we know it." 146
Small Spaces
"I didn't want to get a girl in trouble. You could say thanks, you know. I just got you out of detention until Christmas." 47
Small Spaces
"I don't hate anyone." That was true. She just didn't care enough to try to be friends anymore. She hadn't cared about much of anything in almost a year. She looked down again, finding her place on the page. 88
Small Spaces
"I sent him to bring you to me; folk can wander this maze until they die. It is bigger than it seems. Rather surprising you avoided him and came to the center on your own. Shame about your poor friends." 199
Small Spaces
"I think the others are in the horse barn." He gave her a push in the right direction and started off toward the cornfield, whistling. 83-84
Small Spaces
"I told her what she had to do if I was to save her farm for her, save her freedom for her. How she wept when I told her. But she paid the price. Mostly." 200
Small Spaces
"I understand. But next time, tell me. Don't just sneak off. Now we're going to harvest some sunflower seeds and then it'll be time for lunch." 86
Small Spaces
"I will be back," he said. He didn't say it like a promise, but a fact. "Nevertheless, I thank you. I do not lose very often." He added, with a quirk of his mouth, "There is something you will want of me. One day." 206
Small Spaces
"I wouldn't say there are ghosts," he said. "Not exactly. But there are certainly some sad episodes in Misty Valley's past." 53-54
Small Spaces
"I'll let you go, you and your mother. You can even take your two friends with you. Four lives. Not bad, hm? But you can't have the rest." 202
Small Spaces
"I'm going to find the center. I'm getting out of here. We all are." 191
Small Spaces
"I'm going to tell you one thing, because I'm not a bad person. I just didn't have a choice. I'll give you some advice, and you give me the book." 15
Small Spaces
"I'm just following you because you're both crazy," he added. "Someone has to make sure you don't fall into the creek and die. I'll probably get a medal for it. They'll make me an Eagle Scout." 114
Small Spaces
"I've been scaring you for days. I'm not tired of it yet." He sobered. "See, girl, you say you want to get home. I know you do. But it's not the thing you want most in all the world. I know it." 201
Small Spaces
"If anyone is going to save them, it has to be us." She raised her watch. MAZE, it said. "The answer has to be in there." 188
Small Spaces
"If you have a brother, we're going to name him Sebastian. Two beautiful names. Why make them shorter?" 18
Small Spaces
"If you want to throw things," her dad said gently, "why not rejoin the softball team? They'd take you back in a heartbeat, I know, slugger." 24
Small Spaces
"It doesn't matter if your hands have splinters when you have trowels for hands!" He giggled hysterically. 183
Small Spaces
"It won't help," breathed the creature. "Even if you all get to the center. What he had, he holds." 196
Small Spaces
"Legend says that now the woman haunts the farm too. Looking for her lost husband and her brother-in-law." 56
Small Spaces
"Let's head to the creek, then," she said. "It runs by the farm, it's a source of water, and it's downhill from here, so it means an easier day." 138
Small Spaces
"Let's look around. We just have to hurry." She went into the house with her two friends at her heels. 166
Small Spaces
"Like Narnia in winter—that got fixed. Or Sleeping Beauty, when the castle all woke up. That's what we have to do." 163
Small Spaces
"Listen. There's no time. Four graves, three stones, two sets of bones. But all four souls unquiet. The mist comes off the creek when the year's turning and—" 81
Small Spaces
"Mist for capturing. Water for freeing. Lethe Creek runs through my world and yours. Let the scarecrows touch the water and they'll be as they were." 203
Small Spaces
"Misty Valley Farm is the best example in the state of Vermont of the possibilities achievable in small-scale farming." 52
Small Spaces
"Mustn't be greedy. Leave the rest, and you drop the book in the river." 202
Small Spaces
"My hand slipped." The entire sixth grade was staring. The kids in front started backing away. A lot of them thought she had cracked sine last year. 8
Small Spaces
"My mother is already with me. Helping. Maybe she's a little easier to hear in this weird ghost world of yours. 204
Small Spaces
"My phone doesn't work," said the whole bus in complaining chorus. 97
Small Spaces
"My," said a gentle voice, "all this way. Right to the center. And before dark. I'm impressed." 198
Small Spaces
"Never mind, never mind," said the driver, his voice almost a whine. "Just telling this little inquisitive one some history. Nothing wrong with history. 82
Small Spaces
"No one made it out alive. I think there's a plaque somewhere on the farm with all the names of the kids that died." 57
Small Spaces
"No one notices them in the sunlit world. They have hands; they are useful." 199
Small Spaces
"One of the exits will take you back into your own world. But only I know which. Make a deal and I'll show you the way. 203
Small Spaces
"Persephone ate food in the underworld after being abducted by Hades," she explained. "As a consequence of eating there, she had to spend part of every year in the underworld forever." 154
Small Spaces
"Rustling in the corn. Voices. Footsteps without feet. They said the two brothers didn't lie quiet." 55
Small Spaces
"Second of all, find a seat! It's time to go. Mr.—Jones, was it?—works on the farm. He very kindly volunteered to take over for Ms. Hodges. 61
Small Spaces
"She married the older brother, in the end. If his younger brother was jealous, there's no record of it. They all lived on the farm." 54
Small Spaces
"She neglected to get rid of the book." 200
Small Spaces
"Shut up, both of you. Either I've lost it or something's wrong. Honestly, I hope I'm crazy. But if I'm not, could we not let the entire forest know that we're here?" 115
Small Spaces
"Someone will come tonight. But the woods will be cold—you could get lost, break an ankle, fall into the river. Don't be dumb." 112
Small Spaces
"The farm's revitalized the county. I'm a bit jealous you get to see it all firsthand. Think I could join the sixth grade and come along?" 38
Small Spaces
"The kids had stayed late to rehearse a play, I think. The ash bucket for the woodstove caught fire, the fire department decided later." 57
Small Spaces
"The other kids, you know, really appreciated that you took the time to work with them on their opening gambits last year, and there's the interscholastic tournament coming up soon so—" 4
Small Spaces
"The river!" she cried triumphantly. "Just there. I can see it shine. And something red. The farm! We're not lost!" 131
Small Spaces
"The schoolhouse was burned to rubble, of course, right down to the foundation stones. People came u from Rutland to pick through it. But nothing. No bones or teeth. Nothing to bury."58
Small Spaces
"The woman herself didn't live long after her husband vanished. Throughout her final illness, she swore that her husband wasn't dead, that he was still on the farm. Of course, they never found him." 55
Small Spaces
"They can be my eyes and my ears, and since they are neither flesh nor spirit, they can be my doorway." He grinned. "Also they are frightening, and I do love that." 199
Small Spaces
"Use your head. How would he know who's buried down there? It's not like we're running around digging up hundred-year-old graves. Just for the sake of ghost stories." 83
Small Spaces
"We should eat and then make a plan." That's what her mom had always said on hiking trips. If you're ever lost, think of your basic needs first. 136
Small Spaces
"We should have stayed on the bus. That's what they tell you to do when you're lost—stay in one place. Until they come help you." 119-120
Small Spaces
"You play chess?" she said, shrill with delight. 63
Small Spaces
"You run fast, run far, and maybe you'll get out in the end. A few do." He looked again at her classmates in the back. "They are lost already," he said, with a jerk of his chin." 102
Small Spaces
"You're kind of grumpy most of the time, but when things get bad, you're the bravest. People can surprise you, Ollie-pop." 186
Small Spaces
"You're not going to get in trouble. You're too crazy to get in trouble. Plead insanity at the hearing, that should clear things right up." 116
Small Spaces
A scream tore through the twilight. Then a whole chorus of screaming. 121
Small Spaces
A search party. Parents. All their parents. 211
Small Spaces
A slender woman, wearing jeans and flannel, stood at the edge of the water. 12
Small Spaces
A steady pressure grew on the other side of the door, as if many hands had seized hold of the outside handles and were beginning to push. 175-176
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A third of the class lived on dairy farms. 75
Small Spaces
A very serious crowd stood around the bus. A tow truck, three police cars. Regular cars were lined up on both sides of the road, with crowds of people dressed to tram through the woods. 211
Small Spaces
After mid-September, she was the only one who went there. People didn't go to swimming holes once the weather turned chilly. 11
Small Spaces
All the while she was making reasonable arguments, a thought was creeping in around the edges of her awareness. Was her mother's broken watch helping them? 139
Small Spaces
Alone in the woods, the bus driver's red lips, his mushroom-gray skin, and his sideways grin weren't just strange—they scared her. 80
Small Spaces
And then the smiling man smiled at her one more time. And bowed again, courtly. And disappeared. 206
Small Spaces
Anyone else would have crept into class, head down, hoping the notebook incident had been forgotten. 53
Small Spaces
As the sun hid behind clouds, the cheery expression seemed to leach out of her face, leaving it gray and old, exhausted. She looked just like she had crying by the creek, except this time her eyes were dry, her face hard. 92
Small Spaces
BEN WITHERS MIDDLE SCHOOL always looked shabby, its paint peeling around the windows, its roof drooping in. But today, under the gray sky, the school looked sad and lonely. 42
Small Spaces
Below, the creek paused in its trip down the mountain. It spread out, grew deep and quiet enough for swimming. There was a cliff for jumping and plenty of hiding places for one girl and her book. 12
Small Spaces
Both girls tried but neither could gain a decisive advantage. 214
Small Spaces
But inside the Egg, everything was bright and normal. 20
Small Spaces
But sharp in her memory was a woman, her pale face makeup-smeared, her eyes darting around the sunlit swimming hole, saying I have to. 56
Small Spaces
But she ignored them, straining to hear that other, beloved voice. "Sweetheart, please. It's so dark." Her mother. Her mother right there. 202
Small Spaces
But, to her surprise, someone was already there. 12
Small Spaces
Carrot sticks and peanut butter cookies—way too many of both—and a very large turkey sandwich, cut in quarters, on homemade bread. Maple granola, with sugared walnuts. A chocolate chip muffin. Dad really must have baked all night. 43-44
Small Spaces
Cautiously they crossed the cottage garden and stepped into the lady's neat white house. It was bright and tidy and cheerful and warm. A woodstove sat next to a wood rack in the corner. 145
Small Spaces
Cows were used to getting milked by machines and didn't like people. No one wanted to get kicked by an angry cow. 76
Small Spaces
Dad liked colors on clothes like he liked colors on houses—the brighter the better. Sometimes they didn't go together. Mom teased him for it. 21
Small Spaces
Dad liked colors. "Why have a gray kitchen if you can have a green one?" he would ask. 17
Small Spaces
Do not go back to Smoke Hollow. The twilights when the mist rises—the dangerous nights—get more frequent as the year draws to a close. 27
Small Spaces
Even if this story seems strange, I beg you will read it. For my sake. 28
Small Spaces
First he got her out of detention, and now he was...A thought struck her. "Did you save me a seat?" she asked. 64
Small Spaces
Flat morning light trickled into their little cave. They had slept in one tangled and uncomfortable pile. 129
Small Spaces
From the front of the bus came a series of loud bangs and some un-teacher-like swearing. 100
Small Spaces
Go out into the gray evening, into the misty forest? RUN still flickered beneath the cracked screen. Overhead the lights wavered. 105
Small Spaces
He couldn't maintain angry-dad voice even when he was trying; now he just sounded exasperated. "I got an earful, let me tell you. And then the school called. You have to go to the principal tomorrow. 22
Small Spaces
He definitely looked afraid now. "What will you do when they are all human? The door will close." 206
Small Spaces
He laughed, not kindly. "She was more afraid of the future. Her farm was about to go under. She was going to go to prison for fraud."199-200
Small Spaces
He was faster than either of them, what with the hockey and everything, but he waited for them, panting. "We have to go!" 150
Small Spaces
Her bike was a Schwinn, plum-colored. She had locked it neatly to the space nearest the gate. 5
Small Spaces
Her dad quit stirring the sauce and came and sat down beside her. Now he was going to be understanding. She hated understanding voice as much as she hated sympathy face. 22
Small Spaces
Her dad stood up. He didn't look mad or exasperated. He just looked hurt, which was worst of all. 24
Small Spaces
Her dad was in the kitchen. Simon and Garfunkel crooned on the speakers, accompanied by the clanking of pots. 20
Small Spaces
Her eyes were large, slanting, and ice-blue. Her strawberry-blond hair was so strawberry that in the sunshine it looked pink. 6
Small Spaces
Her face looked pleasant now, wholesomely weathered. Her eyes were calm, sane. The streaky black makeup, the tears, the skull smile were all gone. 69
Small Spaces
Her father had brought the cracked watch to her at school, holding it tight in his sweaty fist. He'd sat her down right there on the bench next to the hickory tree. 108
Small Spaces
Her father sent Officer Perkins sprawling when he sprinted toward her. Parents on all sides were running toward their kids, shouting questions, exclaiming, crying. 211
Small Spaces
Her heart was going rabbit fast now, with the iron fence of the graveyard behind her and the bus driver in front. 81
Small Spaces
Her mother's hand was warm and strong, callused from climbing and paddling. 18
Small Spaces
Her reaction was pure reflex. "You can't throw away a book!" 13
Small Spaces
His eyes had turned white, white as an egg, pupil-less. He might have been blind except he was definitely looking at her. His teeth were perfectly white to, sharp against red lips. 100
Small Spaces
His grin still took up half his face, but the eyes above were malevolent. "Little fool," he said. "I am older than you. I am stronger than you..." 205
Small Spaces
His pale hair caught the last of the light. His eyes were as deep and his smile was as lovely as they had been at Misty Valley Farm. 198
Small Spaces
Horrors for sure, though she was almost too exhausted to be frightened. It was going to be dark very soon. An ugly reddish light bathed the scene. 198
Small Spaces
Maybe, she kept thinking, when she came back from one of those other worlds, when she woke up from book dreaming, she would come back to a world where her mother wasn't dead. 109
Small Spaces
More rules in the sunshine world, after all." 103
Small Spaces
Mr. Bones had failed to appear. Lazy skeleton. He could have gotten them out of their math quiz. 3`
Small Spaces
Ms. Mouton was the librarian and she was not the best lawn monitor. 9
Small Spaces
Munching, she wandered toward the middle of the garden. Three scarecrows stood in the very center, holding hands. 78
Small Spaces
Now was the trickiest part, where she would have to let go of the post she'd climbed, reach out, and grab the lip of the hayloft. 177
Small Spaces
OCTOBER IN EAST EVANSBURG, and the last warm sun of the year slanted red through the sugar maples. 1
Small Spaces
Of all the things she was expecting in this creepy forest, a cozy cabin was not one of them. 142
Small Spaces
Of course, I had always known which brother I wanted to marry. I had known since Jonathan smiled at me, the day I met him. 32
Small Spaces
Once she finished, she would tell her dad about the farm mystery. He would be intrigued. They would pass theories back and forth. She would even laugh at his jokes. 92
Small Spaces
One of her dad's jokes went, "What's worse than finding a worm in an apple?...Finding half a worm in an apple." 45
Small Spaces
Part of her wanted her dad to follow her, tell her she was being silly. She wanted him to crack a dumb joke and coax her downstairs to dinner. But only silence chased her up the stairs to her room. 24-25
Small Spaces
Part of her wondered, Why would you come here to throw a book in the creek? You can donate a book. 13
Small Spaces
Past the green lockers, thirty-six on each side, down the hall that always smelled like bleach and old sandwiches. Out the double doors and onto the front lawn. 5
Small Spaces
People's parents did sometimes tell their kids to be nice to that girl because you know what happened to the poor thing. 65
Small Spaces
Perhaps she was imagining it, but there almost seemed to be a look of pleading on their faces. On all those blank, sewn-on faces. 197
Small Spaces
Sad episodes were more interesting than agriculture. 54
Small Spaces
Scarecrows everywhere. Someone had set up scarecrows between buildings, in the vegetable garden, on stakes in the cornfield. 70
Small Spaces
She aimed her bike to knock down a rotting gray rubber hand groping up out of the earth in the Steiners' yard, turned again at Johnson Hill, and climbed, panting, up the steep dirt road. 10
Small Spaces
She buried her face in his familiar flannel shoulder. But right before she did, her watch chimed softly. 212
Small Spaces
She came to the place where the path split. Left or right? Rustling in the corn...Was that something coming up behind her? 190
Small Spaces
She could taste the salt of her tears. She lay a moment in the icy mud, crying. She was lost in a monster's stupid corn maze and she was all alone. 190
Small Spaces
She didn't want to say anything about her dreams. She sat up—there was just headroom for it—and looked around her. 129
Small Spaces
She dreamed, as she nearly always did, of fire in a gray field. But this time, ranged around the edges of the field were scarecrows, watching the metal and plastic and grass burn. 128
Small Spaces
She found herself high above the world, looking out at the huge, rustling field of corn. There seemed to be a dark lump in the center of the field, but she couldn't tell what it was. 187
Small Spaces
She glanced at her watch with its flickering warning. 15:56. How did her watch know? 116
Small Spaces
She glanced down: 39:22, said the countdown now. RUN, said the compass display, flickering. 105
Small Spaces
She had both hands on her bike lock, tongue sticking out as she wrestled with the combination, when a shriek split the air. "It's mine!" a voice yelled. 6
Small Spaces
She had to text by scrolling through numeric options, and it took forever. But the phone had been her mother's. 96
Small Spaces
She hadn't always hated heights. Her mother used to take her flying on weekends. 159
Small Spaces
She hadn't cried. She couldn't bear to cry. Crying meant it was all real, and she didn't want it to be real. 109
Small Spaces
She hadn't seen the fire afterward, or the bits of broken plane stuck in a tree, the things that haunted her nightmares. She only overheard her relatives talking about it. 108
Small Spaces
She just knew that something was weird. She looked down at her watch: 03:10:49, said the countdown. And now there was a word, FOOD. FOOD but crossed out. 143
Small Spaces
She knelt on the stony path at the mouth of the covered bridge and she cried. She didn't even know, really, what she was crying for, whether it was from fear, tiredness, or for her mom at last. 161
Small Spaces
She scrabbled in her lunch box and on a burst of courage, thrust her way out of the corn, held out two of her dad's peanut butter cookies and said, "Don't you dare touch me. I gave you food once before. Do you want some more?" 195
Small Spaces
She turned the dark thing over in her hands. Then she said, in a rush, "I just have to get rid of this. Put it in the water. And then—" The woman broke off. 13
Small Spaces
She wanted to go outside, she wanted to ride her bike, and she didn't want to rejoin chess club. 4
Small Spaces
THEY DIDN'T SEE any other people at all, and they were thirsty by noon, but they had to make the water bottle last. All kinds of hazards lay under the leaves: mud and puddles and roots to trip you. 141
Small Spaces
That evening, her dad was baking. The whole house smelled like bread. 21
Small Spaces
That was probably what the smiling man wanted, for her to wear herself out running and being scared. 191
Small Spaces
The beast came closer, growling low in its chest. It paused. Sniffed they air. Sniffed again. 194
Small Spaces
The beast didn't move. But it growled again. "Come out, little girl. Come out." Talking. Like a person. The ege of a fang just showed beneath its lip. 194
Small Spaces
The bell rang and the sixth grade piled outside, pulling on caps and coats and backpacks. The bus squatted in the middle of the wet parking lot like a prehistoric swamp monster, the two golden eyes of its headlights gleaming out through the fog. 60
Small Spaces
The biggest scarecrow wore overalls. His smile was more like a snarl. A crow perched on his head. 78
Small Spaces
The book had a worn-out cloth cover with its title stamped in faded gold letters. It was very thin, less than a hundred pages. 26
Small Spaces
The broad, smooth country road had become an old, cracked ribbon, running away and vanishing into the trees, still lapped in mist. 95
Small Spaces
The bus driver's skin really was the gray-white of an old mushroom. 71
Small Spaces
The covered bridge, which had looked okay from far away, was actually pretty rotten, its planking splintering into the creek below. They could see the water through the holes. 158
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The creek rushed and rippled, but the harsh sounds of the woman's breathing were louder than the water. 15
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The display had changed. HIDE, it said. The display lit for an instant, with a flickering blue glow. 118
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The driver, unsmiling, pointed once to the forest at their backs. 113
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The fire-colored trees shook their leaves down around her. It wasn't hot, exactly-but warm for October. Just cool enough for jeans, but the sun was warm when you tilted your face to it. 10
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The ground by the road was carpeted with scarlet leaves; sugar maples start losing their leaves before other trees. 11
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The house was old-fashioned. A big old cuckoo clock ticked away to itself. The stove gave off a soft, golden firelight, and there was an oil lamp lit on the table, like the pewter one her dad had and lit for special occasions. 145
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The kids didn't talk much. They just walked, hanging on to each other, dull with shock. 209
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The last drops of water were sprinkled on the last people. 208
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The plastic witch sitting on the Brewsters' porch laughed like that. "Now give me that book!" Her laughter turned into a whistling sob. 16
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The readout showed a compass needle, but instead of the normal NSEW directions, there were only two: There was an I where north should be. There was an O where south should be. 191
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The three gravestones loomed in her imagination big as barns at her back. "I like poems," she said a little at random, talking to keep herself from being frightened. 81
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The three stepped into the corn. The path was narrow and they switched to single file. 188
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The trees ended; they found themselves on the edge of a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a tidy white house. 142
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Their big garden-tool hands seemed to reach for her. Many of them she recognized; her classmates, horribly changed. 196-197
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Their feet squelched in the mud. Such big stalks—the corn looked like it could swallow the gray sky, much less three wandering kids. 188
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Their garden-rake hands were raised to wave. The tips of the rakes gleamed in the sun. 70
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Their hands were trowels or garden rakes. Their smiles had been sewn or painted on. 70
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Then he smiled, tongue flicking red against his teeth. 96
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Then his grin stretched and stretched again, wide as the cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, so wide it literally stretched from ear to ear. Like dead Beth Webster. 200
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Then she and her mom would play chess while her dad flipped new pancakes and egged them both on. 137
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Then she called down, "I am going to go home, and I am going to save you all." 197
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Then she spotted three headstones a little apart from the others, right against the tumbledown fence at the back. These three were in a cluster, one big and two smaller. They lay at awkward angles, as though someone had not taken care where they put them. 79-80
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There was much less noise than that morning. Lunch and horses, milking cows and photos had worn them out. 91
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There was no proper sunset, just a slow, inevitable darkness. Eventually they had to pull out their phones to see. Their flashlight apps lit the woods in pieces and made everything seem sinister and unreal. 117
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There was paint on his coveralls; he was grinning ear to ear. He had no hands at all, just two flopping paintbrushes where hands should be. 119
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They all felt better after, not because they had such bad cuts or anything, but more because the last twenty-four hours had been so full of mysteries and impossible problems and being scared. It was a relief to deal with an ordinary problem, like a scraped knee. 153
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They could all escape together. She would come back from this nightmarish place holding her mother's hand. 203
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They had been playing for half an hour, the last match of chess club practice, but it had turned into a battle, with pieces racing up the board, daring raids, hard-fought exchanges, and clever pincer moves. 214
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They were even laughing; who cared if they were dirty? They were alive. The sky was a thin living blue. 210
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Two girls sat opposite each other, a chessboard between them, and a whole horde of their classmates stood around, laughing and egging them on. 214
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WE SEE YOU was written on a tree overhead in ragged, dripping white letters. 119
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What if she knocks on the door at midnight, with that same look in her eyes, wanting the book back? 19
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When her grandparents visited, they would always shake their heads and say how white walls really opened up a place. 17
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When the light was weird, like now, in the rain, they almost looked alive. Stupid scarecrows. 67
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When the mist rises, and the smiling man comes walking, you must avoid large places at night. 28
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Why are you crying? She wanted to ask. But it seemed impolite to ask that question of a grown-up, even if her face was streaked with the runoff from her tears. 12
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Written on a tree trunk, a few paces away, in sloppy white letters, were two words. STILL WATCHING. 151
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You don't waste October sunshine. Soon the old autumn sun would bed down in cloud blankets, and there would be weeks of gray rain before it finally decided to snow. 1
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You wouldn't know where he was from by talking to him, except that sometimes he said irie instead of good or used meters instead of feet. Also he as black, which was notable in small-town Vermont. 48
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"Eventually the sheriff decided that the younger brother had killed the elder and then been overcome with remorse and thrown himself into the creek. That was when the rumors of hauntings started." 55
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"Four graves, three stones," said a raspy voice. "But only two sets of bones." 80
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"Get into the forest. The farther you go, the longer you stay free. Maybe you even find a way out again. Maybe." 102
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"Give me food, little girl; I answered your questions." His thick fingers reached out, fluttering like spider legs. 102
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"Good food," he said. "Dead meat, cold, but good. I said too much already. Besides, nowhere's safe. Not here. Not on this side of the mist." 103
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"He has many names. As many names as people have words." 101
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"I was junior rock-climbing champion back home. I never climbed outside, just in the gym, but I liked it. I had friends and everything." 131
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"Nothing at all wrong with history. The bigger problem is cornering a kid in a graveyard." 82
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"Now we're going there today, not to dwell on the past, but to learn more about the future of farming in this state." 59
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"Of course you didn't see her!" said the principal. "She hit you on the back of the head, therefore she was standing behind you!" 46
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"Such beautiful misty weather! What an adventure we'll have today, hm?" 61
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"That's how Linda got the farm, you know; she's the great—however many times great-granddaughter of that poor young woman." 56
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"That's what the smiling man does. He makes scarecrows. He's going to make us all scarecrows!" 162
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"The water might have to last the day." She wasn't going to think about the night. Surely, they'd be home by then. 138
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"They are strong at night, remember? They have clever, grabbing hands, but stiff, and they can't grab you if they can't reach you. At night!" 108
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"They can move in the daytime," said the bus driver, almost too low for her to hear. "Just not while anyone's looking." 103
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"They come to the door, and I can hear them crying in the night. But they never come in. Tell them I've been waiting in this place—how long? I don't remember anymore." 148
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"They have to stand in the sunshine world too, see, to keep the door open, and that makes them weaker.
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"They're all in there saying you've lost it, but I don't believe it. Come back to the bus." 112
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"We have a lovely program for you—" Just then, the bus driver popped up beside her: pale, gray bearded, and red lipped. Where had he been? 71
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"What real house has no road and no electricity? Are we still in bad Narnia? How do we tell?" 144
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"Wherever you go in this big, gorgeous, hideous world, there is a ghost story waiting for you. Maybe made-up or maybe not, but that's no excuse for that guy to lurk around graveyards and scare kids." 83
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"Yeah, sometimes even hockey stars read books," she said. 186
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A black cat was watching the milking. He was big and sleek: the kind of cat that tortures mice and steals cream. 75
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A drowned man breathed back to life would look like him. 203
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A huge, straw-smelling arm thrust itself into the hole. 123
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A hulking thing had come up behind them, walking on limbs that were too long and jointed in weird places. A hand—a rake hand—gleamed in their shaking phone lights. 122
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A lady stood in the yard, hanging laundry. She wore a baggy old dress, her hair a friendly brown braid down her back. 143
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Behemoth the cat sat at his side, watching lamp-eyed in the almost dark. 198
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They were going to learn about milking cows and slaughtering hogs (cut the throat and then hang it up to drain!) and growing broccoli (the yummiest flower). It was supposed to make them appreciate Vermont's agricultural history. 31
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They were only a mass of straw dolls. 185
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This cow was tied in one of the milking stalls when the sixth grade clomped in. A man was sitting on a stool next to her, stroking her udder, humming under his breath. 74
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This was the last batch of syrup they had all made together: Mom and her tapping and her dad keeping the big pot boiling for days on end. 31
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Though she never saw their heads move, they always watched her come and they always watched her go. 193
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Dad was crafty; he painted and knitted hats and baked. 18
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Heads turned, as thirty kids broke at once from a gap in the corn. 211
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In the long summer afternoons, he built birdhouses or furniture; in the evenings he cooked or knitted or showed her how to make plates out of clay. 21
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It was almost dark when the corn finally ended. 196
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It was good to be alone in the warm sunshine. The river ran silver to her right, chattering over rocks. 10
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Knee up, knee down, like puppets, they marched. Wearing old secondhand clothes—plaid shirts, and funny hats, and long strings of beads—they clomped through the leaves. 126
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Let boys be a mystery for another day; there was the mystery of her book in front of her. 64
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Let them call her dad, let them shake their heads, let them give her detention tomorrow. At least tomorrow the weather would change and she would not be stuck in school on a nice day, answering questions. 9
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Mom had given the rooms names. 17
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Really nothing to be scared of. It was beautiful. Except...A group of three scarecrows stood on the edge of the parking lot, smiling stitched-on smiles. 70
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SHE PEDALED HARD past the hay bales in the roundabout on Main Street, turned onto Daisy Lane, and raced past the clapboard houses, where jack-o'-lanterns grinned on every front porch. 10
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She looked at her watch. The text readout was gone. In its place was a digital compass. 191
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She looked down at her watch, swung the compass around until the needle pointed to O. "Let's go home.," she said. No one gets lost, okay?" 209
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She looked out the window again. Straight ahead was the road. To the right was the forest. Out the left-hand window was a vast, whispering cornfield. 105
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She pointed her phone at the ladder. The shovel handle was already splintering. 178
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She reached for the book, then thought better of it. If she didn't show it to anyone, she could always deny taking it. 20
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She rode home as fast as she could, bent low over her handlebars, hair streaming in the wind, the book lying in her pocket like a secret. 16
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