Chapter 4
Tori sat through dinner, thoughtful and quiet, muttering yes-moms and sure-dads between mouthfuls of food.
She looked up when she realized everyone had stopped talking. All eyes, including Kimmy’s baby blues, were on her. She blinked, trying to remember the last thing anyone had said. Most of the conversation up to that point had been something about basement renovations. Her mother and grandmother disagreed about whether exercise equipment would be safe given the drainage problems in the house. Her father hadn’t said much, so she assumed he’d kept his opinions on the subject to himself. Tori would have fallen asleep out of boredom if she hadn’t been preoccupied with the lantern and whether the light came from inside of it or from something else.
“Maybe we should have let her stay in school instead of joining us for vacation,” said her father with a tender smirk.
“Something on your mind, baby? How’d your visit to the lantern go?”
Tori shoveled a mound of rice from one side of her plate to the other. “Not as well as I’d hoped. I found the lantern, but I couldn’t see inside of it and I couldn’t open it. I need to go back—”
“You mean tonight? Hon, I think you should rest. Halloween’s four days away and you’ll get in plenty more walking between now and taking Kimmy trick-or-treating.”
“But, Mom, if I look at it again tonight I might be able to find out where the light’s coming from. Maybe it will be easier to see the inside of the lantern in the dark.” That sort of makes sense, she thought. Covering her tracks, she added, “I’ll bring a flashlight and my phone; and it will be better now that I’ve been there a couple of times. I won’t get lost.”
Her mother heaved a long, drawn-out sigh before glancing at her husband. “What do you think, Carl?”
“The girl makes a good case,” he said. “Sure, why not? I think it’s worth taking another look.”
Yes! “Thanks, Dad. I’ll be careful, I promise.”
“Don’t mention it, hon. When you become famous, just don’t forget to mention me in your acceptance speech.” He raised his voice in a faux female tone. “And more than anyone, I want to thank my father, Carl A. Hale—”
Tori groaned and covered her face with her hands.
“Never was there a man like him—thoughtful, supportive, and devoted to his wife and children. But most of all, I’ll never forget that night at my grandmother’s house when my mother highly disapproved of my curious endeavor—”
“Carl!” Tori’s mother’s eyes flashed something fierce.
“My father, on the other hand, had all the faith in me. He knew I would do great things, that I would someday—”
Giving up, Tori’s mother shook her head and laughed. “You know how ridiculous you sound, don’t you?”
He opened his mouth in mock surprise.
“Dad,” Tori groaned. “Fine, I’ll include you in my acceptance speech, but I better never ever sound like that voice you just used.”
Frowning, Tori’s mother bit the inside of her cheek. “Both of you are absolutely adorable when you want something, but I think we should give it another night. I’m sorry, Tori,” she added, noting the disappointment in her daughter’s face. “But if there was someone there yesterday night, that person may have noticed your curiosity. He or she might come back again tonight, expecting you to be there too. I’m not comfortable with it, Carl.”
Tori’s father lowered his head, looking foolish. “Your mother has a point, hon.”
“But—” Tori fumbled with her fork, feeling her chance slipping away. Her eyes darted to her grandmother, who sat with her lips pressed tightly together. One eyebrow arched above the old woman’s eyes, which, to Tori’s surprise, held a mischievous twinkle.
Tori closed the door to her grandmother’s house.
She grabbed the flashlight from her pocket and flipped the switch. Two minutes into her walk, music blasted from another pocket. Tori pulled out her phone. The screen lit with a picture of her best friend, Shawna. The photo made Tori laugh every time. Shawna gaped at her with a toothy grin, holding her hand up to her ear with her thumb and pinky finger spread out like a phone, as if she were saying call me.
Tori accepted the call and said, “Hey, what’s up?”
“You won’t believe what you missed today. Mr. Peterson called on you and everybody sat there waiting for you to answer. Well, you didn’t answer—of course you didn’t because you weren’t there, but that’s not the point.”
“Yeah?”
“Uh-huh, so, we all stared at him. ‘Would anyone like to tell me where Miss Hale is today?’ Total grumpster, I know, right? Anyway, you won’t believe what happened next!”
“Oh? What?”
“Adam happened, that’s what. He raised his hand and said, ‘Tori’s still visiting her grandma. She won’t be back until Halloween, after the weekend.’ Well, Mina gave him a look like she was ready to kill him for knowing about that—even though we all knew. Adam’s hers, you know.”
“Yeah, hers.”
“You okay? You sound, I don’t know, focused on something. You don’t wanna hear about your crush?”
“Yeah.”
“Tori!”
“Sorry, I’m outside my grandma’s place, looking for something. You wouldn’t believe what’s happened here either.”
Tori told Shawna everything she’d learned about the lantern—when she’d first found it, what it had looked like in the daylight, and how no one had seen it light up before she did. Shawna listened in stunned silence—at least that’s what Tori imagined, given that she hadn’t been interrupted at any time while telling her story. When she finished, all she heard from the other end of the line was a deep breath and “Whoa...”
If Shawna said more, Tori hadn’t noticed. The light that caught her eye the night before was there, along with its calming presence. “I’m almost there. I can see a glow,” she said, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice. “It must be lit.”
“So, so, so spooky. I’m getting chills just thinking about it. You want me to keep chatting with you so you’re not alone?”
“No, that’s all right. I’ll probably need both hands to get a good look at Lantern.”
“Okay, well, let me know how it goes. Tell, um, Lantern that I say hi. Wish I was out there with you for Halloween.”
“Me too. Talk to you later, okay?”
“Definitely. Night, Tor! Be safe.”