The Book of Sight Read online

  Opening the front door at home that night, Adam felt like he was waking up from a dream. There was his dad, sitting on the couch reading the paper just like he did every night. The television was on in the family room where Adam’s older brother, Brian, was inevitably watching baseball. And if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a bit of smoke in the air. His mom must have burnt dinner even more than usual tonight.

  It was all so depressingly normal that Adam almost turned around and walked right back out the door. But he wasn’t quick enough.

  “Where have you been?” Sheila Cleary was high strung even on the best of days, and it was clear as she came charging out of the kitchen that this had not been the best of days. “You said you were going to friend’s house, but you didn’t say who, and that was six hours ago. I called your cell phone four times, and it sent me straight to voice mail. I expect better of you, Adam. I expect you to call if you are going to be gone longer than you thought. I don’t have time to run all over town looking for you. I have a meeting tonight and now the dinner is ruined and the last thing I need is to be worrying about where you’ve run off to.”

  “Sorry, Mom,” said Adam calmly. The only way to survive with her was to avoid giving her any fuel for the fire. It wouldn’t do at all, for example, to tell her that he intentionally left his cell phone at home so that she couldn’t call him. “Do you want me to call and order a pizza for dinner, so you can get ready for your meeting?”

  She ran a hand distractedly through her hair. “Yes, that would probably be good.”

  She disappeared into the kitchen again and came back rummaging through her purse. “Here’s thirty dollars. Don’t forget that your dad will want onions on his. You’d better get two pizzas. Brian won’t eat it with onions. And don’t get any of that cinnamon stuff. It’s pure fat.”

  “Okay, Mom.” He must have let too much of his irritation creep into his voice because she turned at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Don’t you use that tone with me, young man. I work hard to take care of every person in this house, and you’d just better appreciate that. And you still haven’t explained where you’ve been all afternoon. Oh, look at your shoes. Covered in dirt. Get those off and clean them up before you track it all over the house. Where have you been?”

  “I just went walking in the woods with one of my friends,” said Adam, silently cursing himself for drawing her attention.

  “In what woods? With what friend?” Sheila was eyeing him suspiciously. Then she looked down at her watch and gasped. “Is it 7:30 already? Oh, I’m so late.” She turned and sped up the stairs.

  Saved by the clock again, thought Adam as he dumped his dirty shoes by the door. Her constant rushing around was irritating, but it did come in handy sometimes. Not that he’d been doing anything wrong, but once she found out that the friend he was with was a girl, it would lead to more questions. Not to mention trying to explain what they were doing in the woods all afternoon.

  It never even occurred to Adam to tell anyone in his family about the book or the things he had seen since reading it. He couldn’t remember the last time he confided anything in his dad, who worked at a bank and was…practical. His mom was okay, but she was such a basket case half the time that he would never try to get into anything this weird with her. As for Brian, he would just use this as an excuse to make fun of Adam even more. Adam was pretty sure the members of his family were the most unimaginative people on the planet. Being home for five minutes was almost enough to make him doubt what he had seen the last couple of days.

  Two hours and five slices of pizza later, Adam threw himself into bed feeling thoroughly deflated. He couldn’t wait to meet up with Alex at the circle the next day. He remembered that glow on her face after she had seen the Changing Tree, and he knew that she had felt what he did. Considering that just one day earlier he had never even met her, he already felt like she knew him better than the people he’d lived with his whole life.

  • • • • •

  Alex was stretched out in the shade of the largest tree in the circle when Adam arrived the next day. He could see that she had her book out, and it looked like she’d been crying. When she noticed him, she sat up, dropping the book and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, wondering if someone had been giving her a hard time and suddenly realizing that he didn’t know anything about her family or friends or her life before last week.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, shaking her head to shake off the tears. “It’s just the story. Sometimes it’s just so perfect that it makes me cry, you know?”

  Adam didn’t know, but he didn’t want to say so. Instead he got his own book out of his backpack and sat down next to her.

  They spent a few minutes comparing the books. Except for some of the water stains, they seemed to be identical. That led to a discussion of the story they had each read and whether they had understood the same details. They had. Adam was just wondering aloud for the fifth time why they couldn’t understand any more of the book when they saw someone coming across the field.

  As the figure got closer, they saw that it was a skinny boy about their age, with straight dark hair that hung over his eyes slightly. He was dressed in old jeans and a t-shirt that looked a bit too big for him. So far, he hadn’t seemed to notice them, though he was looking at the trees with interest.

  Adam held his breath. Sure enough, as he approached the circle, the boy shrugged off an extremely shabby looking backpack and pulled out a familiar faded red book. It was all Adam could do to keep from shouting in excitement. He jumped up.

  Clearly the new kid had not seen them sitting there because he started so violently that he dropped his book.

  “Sorry,” said Adam quickly. “Didn’t mean to scare you. We were just sitting here waiting to see if anyone else would show up.”

  The boy looked confused.

  “The book,” explained Alex. “We read the same book you did. That’s how we found this place. I’m Alex, and this is Adam. I think I’ve seen you at school before. You’re Logan, right?”

  “Yeah, hi,” said the boy with embarrassment. “I’ve seen you around.” He bent down to retrieve his book and stood picking at its binding for a minute. “So, uh, you guys really both read this same book?”

  “Yep,” said Adam, grinning and holding out his own book. “It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Logan said almost reverently.

  Now Alex and Adam couldn’t wait to hear his whole story and they peppered him with questions. It turned out that he had received the book the same way they had and had no more idea who had sent it than they did. He had tried to read it unsuccessfully the first night and then put it aside for a couple of days. Then two nights ago, he couldn’t sleep and so picked it back up again. This time he could understand the first story. He wasn’t sure what had made the difference. He hadn’t been intentionally looking for the circle of trees. He was just wandering around town when he saw this place and it reminded him of the story. He, too, had been having headaches ever since reading the book. In fact, he had one right now, but it wasn’t as bad as the first day.

  Adam and Alex assured him that the headaches would go away. Then they asked if he’d seen any unusual things.

  Logan’s eyes widened. “Is that because of the book?” he asked.

  “We think so,” answered Alex. “At least, we’ve both seen some pretty crazy stuff.”

  “Like what?” asked Logan quietly, his eyes on the rock he was pushing with his toe.

  “Whispering trees,” said Adam. “Moving rocks, cloud pictures. Oh, and a whole race of tiny people living in the forest.”

  At this last one, Logan looked up. He didn’t look shocked at all, more like relieved.

  “Have you seen them, too?” Alex asked.

  “No,” said Logan, “but I’ve seen something…” He trailed off, nervously pushing his hair out of his eyes. “In the empty lot behind the…behind w
here I live, there’s a big old tree stump. Well, more than a stump. It’s like the whole trunk of a tree but with no branches or anything. It’s all burned looking. The kids always use it as a backstop when they’re playing baseball. But yesterday, I was out there and I noticed that on one side it has what looks like a face. I thought that was weird, but then the mouth part opened and it sighed really big. Then one of the eyes peeked open just a little bit. For a second I thought I was losing it. My head was hurting really bad that day. But when it saw that I was looking right at it, it talked.”

  He stopped, waiting for them to laugh.

  “What did it say?” asked Adam.

  Logan shrugged nervously. “Not much really. I think it was more surprised than I was. It just kept repeating that this shouldn’t be happening. I asked it what it was called, and it said, ‘Dund,’ but I don’t know if that’s its name or what. Then it went back to saying that this wasn’t right, and finally it told me it needed more time to think and to leave it alone. I left, and when I went back this morning, I could still see the face, but the eyes were shut and didn’t open even when I shouted at it. I was starting to think I imagined the whole thing.”

  “I doubt it,” Adam said and told him all about their visit with the Gylf the day before. When he finished, Logan looked awe-struck.

  “You mean, all these things have just been living here all along but we could never see them before?”

  “It looks that way,” answered Adam. “And somehow reading this book made us able to see them now.”

  He was about to tell Logan about the tree circle being a meeting place when Alex interrupted. “Um, guys. There’s someone else coming.”

  This time it was a girl, and Adam recognized her. Her name was Eve Sloane, and she was a grade ahead of him in school.

  Adam knew you should never judge people without giving them a chance. But, like everyone, he sometimes ignored the things he knew. He felt that in this instance he could be pretty safe saying that there was no way he was ever going to like Eve Sloane. She was on the volleyball team and was very popular. He had seen her at football games, so he knew she was a cheerleader at the high school now. He’d never talked to her before, but based on the people she hung out with, he was sure she’d be vapid and boring and more than a little snobby.

  Why would someone send her this book? And why would she read it? Maybe she didn’t. Maybe it was just a coincidence that she was coming by right now.

  He glanced over at Logan and saw that he was watching him with a strange look in his eyes.

  “She might not be that bad, you know,” Logan said softly.

  Adam felt a little ashamed. He didn’t know he was being so obvious. “Of course not,” he said quickly.

  Now Eve had seen them and came into the circle shaking her head. “This can’t be what I think it is,” she said without introduction. Then noticing at their books, she gasped, “It is! You all have this same crazy book. Is that why you’re here?”

  Adam felt his heart sink, but Alex stepped forward, holding her book up as an answer.

  Eve nodded. “Me, too. Mine’s at home. I found this place last night, and there was that carving on the tree, but no on was here. Still, I figured someone must have carved it, so I came back today.”

  “We didn’t do the carving,” Alex said. “We found it ourselves a couple of days ago. I’m Alex.”

  “Eve.”

  “And this is Adam and Logan,” Alex pointed in turn.

  “Nice to meet you,” said Eve. “You look familiar,” she gestured at Adam. “I must have seen you at school?”

  Irritated, Adam just nodded.

  The next few minutes were spent comparing stories, with Alex and Eve doing most of the talking. Eve’s story was much the same as everyone else’s.

  “I probably wouldn’t even have read the book,” she said. “I don’t read much that I don’t have to for school.” (Adam looked down so no one would see him rolling his eyes.) “But somehow the day after it was delivered, my mom got a hold of it and started freaking out asking me where I got it. I think she thought it was a book of magic spells or something, you know, because it’s so old looking and the words don’t make any sense. So she starts yelling about how she won’t have me messing around with this sort of thing and how I don’t know how dangerous it is. And then she threw it in the trash. But it made me mad because she got all upset without even bothering to find out what the book really was. And then I realized that I didn’t know what it was either, so I went and got it out of the trash. It was still right on top, so I didn’t have to do any digging or anything,” She laughed. “And then I started to read it, but it didn’t make any sense. I wondered if maybe my mom was right about it being some kind of spell or something, so I started to read it out loud in my room, and when I heard it out loud, I could understand it somehow. Then I knew it was a story and nothing like what my mom was saying. But it was so awesome I just kept reading and reading until the story ended and then I couldn’t understand any more of the book.”

  Eve had also experienced the same headaches as the others and had seen some things moving around that shouldn’t have been moving. But she had just passed that off as her imagination, and she hadn’t seen anything more unusual than that. It figures, thought Adam.

  “Now that you mention it, though,” she said thoughtfully, “things do seem brighter and more colorful lately. I keep stopping to look around me at stuff I’ve seen a hundred times before because it all of a sudden seems so beautiful. Is that the sort of stuff you guys have noticed, too?”

  Alex told her that they had felt that way, too, then went on to tell about the Gylf, and Logan explained about the Dund creature he had found. When they were finished, Eve was staring at them.

  Here it comes, thought Adam.

  “Wow,” said Eve, “That is crazy. I know I should be thinking you guys have lost it or something, but I actually believe you. You totally have to show me where these things are.”

  Logan and Alex agreed, but Adam felt it was time to bring a little reality back to the situation.

  “If we’re going to be going all over town to talk to strange creatures, we’re going to need a way to explain it to our families. And don’t you have friends who will be wondering what you’re doing with us?”

  Eve shrugged. “Yeah, they’ll wonder. But most of them are super busy anyway. And I don’t think I’ll be getting any phone calls for a few days. I kind of showed the book to a few of my friends right after I read it, and I’m pretty sure they thought I was crazy. They couldn’t understand it at all.”

  Adam snorted.

  “Maybe you can only understand the book if it was addressed to you,” suggested Alex.

  “That makes sense,” said Logan. Then he mumbled, “At least, as much sense as any of this makes.”

  Eve and Alex laughed.

  “Maybe,” said Adam doubtfully. He couldn’t help but think that Eve’s friends weren’t much of a test. He planned to show the book to his friend James when he came home from vacation in a couple of weeks. James and Adam almost always liked the same things, and Adam was pretty sure that James was going to flip over this book. But he didn’t bother saying any of that.

  “So what about our parents?” he asked.

  “My dad won’t even notice I’m gone,” said Alex.

  “And my mom won’t care as long as I’m home by five to watch the kids when she goes to work,” Logan added.

  “So it’s pretty much just our parents we have to worry about,” said Eve to Adam. “The easiest thing to do with my mom is probably just to go over, you guys look all angelic, I tell her you’re some new friends I’ve made and that we’ll be hanging out, and then she’ll be off my back.”

  “In other words, the truth,” said Alex, smiling.

  Eve looked like this hadn’t occurred to her. “Yeah, basically, I guess you’re right.”

  “Should we do the same thing with your parents, Adam?” asked Alex.

  Adam
was annoyed at the way Eve was taking charge, but since there was no good reason to feel that way, he just said, “Probably.”

  “Okay, then,” Eve smiled. “We’ll make a couple of stops at our houses and then head off to see these…what did you call them?”

  “Gylf,” responded Alex.

  “I think we should go see the Dund thing first,” said Adam.

  They all looked at him.

  “I mean, we don’t know anything about it, so it makes sense to investigate that first.”

  “Maybe,” began Alex slowly, “but we did promise the Gylf that we’d come back to see them.”

  “Yeah, but we didn’t say we’d come today. If we’re going to figure out what this is that’s happening to us, we need to check out all the new things we find.” Adam could hear how bossy he sounded and he hated it, but he couldn’t seem to stop either. “The Gylf were really cool, but they didn’t seem to know much about our situation. Maybe this Dund thing will know more.”

  “There’ll be plenty of time to check everything out,” said Eve. “I think if these Gylf are expecting you guys then we should go there. Anyway, didn’t Logan say that Dund didn’t want to talk to him?”

  “Yeah, he seemed really irritated by me,” confirmed Logan.

  “So we’ll go see the Gylf now and check out the Dund tomorrow,” decided Eve.

  Adam wanted to snap at her, but he could see that Alex and Logan agreed with Eve, so he swallowed it again.

  They all grabbed their backpacks and followed Eve toward her house, Adam seething inside. Why did this girl have to get the book, too? She was going to be a serious pain in the butt.

  Then he looked over and saw Logan smiling at him.

  “She is a little bossy,” Logan shrugged, “but seriously, did you ever think a week ago that you’d be here today arguing over which unheard of creature you wanted to visit?”

  In spite of himself, Adam smiled. He could feel his irritation fade as his sense of adventure crept in to take its place.

  Logan was right. With or without Eve Sloane, this was going to be the best summer of his life.