“I sent Bettina away because she can’t be trusted,” Clark told the three of us moments later. We were sitting in a circle on the black floor in the center of the empty stage. My vintage party dress surrounded me like a giant blue bubble. My bare feet were tucked beneath me. My white high heels—now scuffed beyond repair—were sitting in the audience in the wooden folding chair I’d occupied just seconds ago.
My friends look exhausted. Tasha sat like a wilted peach blossom in her wrinkled and torn chiffon dress. Topher’s blue gray eyes were sleepy and smudged with rings of smeared guyliner. Clark seemed nervous and anxious. I had no idea what time it was, but I was starving and overwhelmed by all I’d experienced since arriving only yesterday. I missed Chicago. I missed Samantha. I even missed my ridiculous little brother. I just wanted my life to feel normal again.
After Clark dropped the major bombshell on us, we stood like open-mouthed zombies just staring at him. We were dazed, not just by the words he’d said, but by all we’d encountered in the course of one night. I didn’t know how much more my friends and I could take. It felt like we were riding high on the crest of an emotional tidal wave.
With Clark’s arrival—and his crazy confession—I knew the night was far from being over. I wondered how much more bizarre my new world could become. How far would the limits of reality be stretched? Why was my belief in magic being constantly tested in this strange little seaside town?
I’d been in Avalon Cove for just a little over twenty-four hours. Already I’d met my great-aunt who had been dead for over a decade. And her sweet card-playing deceased husband, Alfred, and their smiling orange cat, Montgomery. I danced with a beautiful boy in a fairyland garden at a foodless dinner party where the ghosts of my grandparents were the entertainment. Now my uncle’s gay partner had just told me and my two new BFFs he died two months ago, but here he was alive and breathing and sitting with us on the dusty, glittery stage at the Magic Mansion.
And how could I even begin to explain Wonderland? The entire place had been transformed from one visit to the next. What was once a creepy, dilapidated haunted house had become a grand estate bursting with inviting lights. Inside, there was no sense of time or reality.
There was just my gorgeous, glamorous great-aunt and her wild tales of life after death.
Maybe Wonderland exists somewhere between the two. How else could my mother be there? We buried her two weeks ago. I saw her in the casket. I touched her face. I was at the funeral. There’s no way she could be alive. She’s a ghost. Or whatever it is she’s become.
“I have it on a good authority Bettina didn’t pass the challenge that was given to her,” Clark said. We looked like overgrown kids ready for a late-night version of Duck, Duck, Goose. To my left, I spied a half-eaten carrot lying just off stage. I wondered if Carrots might have gotten out of her cage and was roaming the place. Maybe she’d had enough of a life in show business and wanted to break free.
Tasha’s voice brought me back to the conversation happening around me. “Why not? What did Bettina do wrong?” she asked.
“She lied,” he explained.
Surprise, surprise. I knew Bettina the Big Liar wasn’t telling the truth.
“To us?” Topher said.
“Yes,” said Clark. “But more importantly, she lied to Adrianna.”
“Why would she do that?” Topher asked.
“Because she’s a big fake,” I said. “I told you guys we shouldn’t believe her.”
“She did it because she’s desperate,” Clark said. “She’s not interested in connecting with her dead grandmother. She’s trying to bring back an ex-boyfriend.”
“That figures,” I said, my anger with Bettina growing by the second.
“The only problem is…he’s not dead,” Clark explained. “I know it sounds crazy, but he allowed her to believe he was dead to avoid breaking things off with her. From what I hear, she was a bit…possessive…where he was concerned. Some even say she was obsessed. She has his name tattooed on the back of her neck.”
“He really did that?” Tasha asked. “But why? Just break up with her and move on.”
“Because Bettina isn’t a psychic,” I said. “She’s a psycho.”
“Let’s go easy on Bettina,” Clark said. “She’s had a tough time in this town.”
“All of us have,” Tasha reminded him. “We’re not exactly part of the popular crowd. Except for Destiny.”
“Me?” I said, flashing Tasha a look. “Yeah, right. No one here even knows me. Except for you guys.”
“Oh, please,” Tasha said. “By the first day of school, you won’t even know who we are. Everyone’s going to fall in love with you. Just like Dominic has. You’re blond and perfect.”
No, I’m not. I’m a complete dork.
“Hey, not all of us are lucky enough to look like Rihanna,” I said.
“I don’t look like her,” Tasha protested.
“Yes, you do,” Topher and I said at the same time.
“Whatever,” Tasha said with an annoyed shrug. “I’ve lived here all my life. So has Topher. We know how it is. No one likes us. Because we’re different.”
“It’s cool,” Topher said. “I’d rather be an outcast. I’d rather just be myself.”
“I’m not trying to sound judgmental,” I replied. “And you’re right, Clark. I don’t know Bettina well enough to understand why she’d lie. I just don’t trust her. When she showed up at the playground tonight, I knew something had to be in it for her.”
“Adrianna gave her an opportunity and she blew it,” Clark explained. “Big-time.”
“What about us?” I asked. “Are we being punished? Or are we in the clear?”
“No,” he said. “Not yet.”
“Did we do something wrong?” Topher asked.
Clark glanced at each of us with his deer brown eyes before answering. “The three of you…you can never talk about Wonderland. To no one. Not even to each other,” he informed us. “The only reason why I’m here with you right now and why I’m allowed to share with you what I went through is because Adrianna asked me to. She gave me permission to do so, because she cares about you very much.”
“And because Bettina almost ruined everything for us?” Tasha added. “She’s always been like that. It’s all about her.”
“Adrianna asked me to intervene on her behalf. By tomorrow morning, Bettina won’t remember a thing about tonight. She’ll wake up without a clue.”
“How’s that possible?” I asked. “You’re saying her memory will be erased?”
“After what I’ve witnessed at Wonderland, I can truly say anything is possible,” he said. “Especially in Adrianna’s hands. I’m living proof of that. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Where would you be?” Topher pressed.
“At the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean,” he said. “I was in a boating accident two months ago. It happened the first week of summer. I fell overboard. I’m not much of a swimmer. And even though Fred told me to put on a life vest before we left the harbor, I didn’t listen.”
“So, what happened?” Topher prompted.
Clark took a breath before he spoke. “I died,” he said. “I drowned.”
“You keep saying that, Clark.” Tasha said, as if she’d read my mind. “Um…explain.”
“I will,” he said. “I promise. But right now we don’t have much time.”
Clark was right. He’d sent Bettina out to buy us dinner. She’d be back any second with a couple of large pizzas. When Clark insisted she go and get our food, she threw a huge temper tantrum. She refused at first, but he eventually wore her down. He even threatened to tell Adrianna she was unwilling to cooperate. Finally, she relented.
“Normally, I would think you were insane because people just don’t come back from the grave after a boating accident,” Tasha said, “but I know better than to doubt it. Especially in Avalon Cove.”
“What does Adrianna have to do with this?” I asked.
“How else? She brought me to Wonderland,” he said. “I don’t remember being there, or even meeting her. But I went back to Wonderland to thank her. She said she chose me. She said your uncle showed up right after the accident. Adrianna gave him a choice.”
“And he chose you?” Topher asked, smiling again.
Clark’s eyes filled with tenderness. “Yes,” he said, with a small nod. “He chose me.”
“Wow,” I said, “I didn’t even know you guys owned a boat.”
You’re such an idiot, Destiny. Who says something so lame at a time like this? Clark’s looking at you like you’re totally insensitive.
In that moment, I remembered Clark standing beside me at the cemetery, reaching for my hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze as they lowered my mother’s casket into the ground. As if he were trying to let me know that everything was going to be okay.
“We don’t. Not anymore,” he said. “After I drowned, your uncle got rid of the thing. Sold it to a family from Hilton Head.”
“But we would’ve heard about the accident,” Tasha said. “This is a small island. When something like that happens, everybody knows about it.”
“That’s just it,” he said. “Because Fred chose me, the accident actually never happened.”
“Now you’re really confusing me,” Tasha said.
“He went back. Fred changed things.”
Tasha turned to me. “Is this making any sense to you?”
I shook my head. “No. I feel like I’m in The Twilight Zone. I have since I got here yesterday. This entire island is nuts, if you ask me.”
“I know it all sounds crazy,” Clark agreed, “but Bettina will be back soon, and I need to tell you things before she does.”
“We’re listening,” I said.
“In three days you’re each going back to Wonderland. When you get there, you’re going to be given a choice.”
“To bring someone back?” Topher asked. “Like Destiny’s mom?”
Clark looked at me. “It won’t be that simple,” he said. “It’s not what you think.”
“Then what is it?” I asked.
“It will be different for each of you,” he continued. “None of you will have the same journey. But the decision will be just as hard. Adrianna’s going to give you a chance…to make things right.”
“You mean to actually go back…in time…and save someone’s life?” I asked. “You’re talking about changing fate.”
Clark nodded. “That’s exactly what will happen.”
“What if we’re not supposed to? I mean, how do we know if we’re making the right choice?” I said.
“You don’t,” he answered. “There’s no guarantee. You have to go with your heart. Listen to what it tells you to do. That’s very important.”
“How long will we have to decide?” I asked.
“Not long. Maybe a matter of seconds. So be prepared.”
“How can we do that?” Tasha asked.
“Spend the next couple of days doing your research,” he told us.
“Research?” Topher repeated. “Is this like a homework assignment? Are we writing a term paper?”
“Don’t be dumb, Topher,” Tasha said.
“I suggest each of you find out everything you can about the three people you met tonight. Find out who they are, where they come from. This information might be crucial to you later.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” I said. “I only know his name.”
“We can help you, Destiny,” Topher offered. “Tasha and me can be very resourceful.”
“What Topher’s trying to say is we’ve have a little bit of experience in…stalking,” Tasha confessed.
“The three of us can work together,” I said. “We can help each other.”
“But no matter what, after tonight…you can’t breathe a word of this to anyone.” Clark’s eyes rested on me. “Not even Uncle Fred. There will be consequences if you tell someone about Wonderland.”
“What kind of consequences?” Topher asked. He looked scared.
“Tough ones,” Clark said. “Everything can be taken away in a second. The choice you make…if you tell anyone, it can be undone. Wonderland must appear to everyone else as you each saw it the first time you arrived. It’s nothing more than an abandoned old house that the entire island swears is haunted. It will never be sold or demolished or entered into by anyone except those who have been invited.”
“How is that even possible? I mean, a lot of people love old houses. And the architecture is amazing. Someone with a lot of money could come along and make an offer—”
“Wonderland will always be exactly what it is,” he said. “It can never change. It won’t. Because your uncle owns the property.”
“My grandfather…he left everything to Uncle Fred?” I asked.
“The Magic Mansion,” he said. “And Wonderland. Both places must always stay in your family.”
I realized why I was now living in Avalon Cove. Every-thing made perfect sense. I knew the answer to my question, but I had to ask anyway. I had to hear Clark say the words. “And once my uncle’s gone,” I said, “what happens then?”
Clark locked eyes with mine. “They become yours, Destiny.”