Jimmy Stone's Ghost Town (13 page)

"Unfortunately, Jimmy, it
doesn't work that way. You see, the Transport Tree can be sent into
your world by the Elders, in order to get you here to Ghost Town
(or any of the other realms), but it can't be used to get
back
to your world.
Getting home is a lot more complicated and something that not
even
I
know how
to do yet."

"You've got to be kidding me," I said. "You
mean, you have no idea how we're going to get home?"

"Not yet," Gasp said. "But I promise you
this, Jimmy Stone. If you help us, I will do everything in my power
to get you home."

"This is a bunch of bullshit."

I didn't want to curse. I mean, sure I'm in
fifth grade and I've heard the word plenty of times before, but I
don't like to use it. This, however, I think was one of those times
when it was necessary. Plus, it just kind of came out. I couldn't
really stop it.

"I know this isn't
something you asked for," Gasp said, "but it's clearly something
that you're meant to do. You're
supposed
to be here, Jimmy.
You're
supposed
to help us."

"Of course you're going to say that, Gasp.
You're the one who brought me here!"

"This is true, Jimmy, but I still believe in
my heart that you are meat to be here and help us."

"Sure you do," I said and shook my head.
"Sure you do."

I was still in shock from everything that
had just happened. The appearance of the Oracle Essex. The letter
she read us. Gasp's stories. Everything was spinning through my
head. I had so many questions.

"So, you can just move yourself between
Realms?" I asked.

"Well," Gasp said, "it's
complicated. Guides, like myself, can move between Realms in the
same way as you - by using the Transport Tree. But we need to fit
in. Our names change. Our identities change. The only way you'll
recognize us is if you really
know
us. Right now I'm in the form of a Ghost. My name
is Gasp. All this makes it very easy for me to fit in here in Ghost
Town, which I've made my home for many years. Should I have to
travel to one of the other Realms, I'll need to take on a new
persona."

"But you'll do that, right? I mean, you'll
be there to help us. To guide us through whatever we need to do to
find these seven things. We can't do this alone, Gasp. We don't
even know what we're looking for!"

"Neither do I, Jimmy, but
I promise to you that I will be there to help. I'll be there every
step of the way no matter what Realm you find yourself in, you'll
be able to find me as well. It may not be immediately apparent to
you, but I
will
be there."

"There are really
seven
other Realms
outside my world?" I asked, still surprised by how much existed
outside of my little
Bored
sylvania.

"Yes," Gasp answered.
"Seven
very
different Realms."

"But you're not going to explain what they
all are, are you?"

"I don't think it's
necessary for me to bore you with stories of each and every Realm
just yet, sir." Gasp looked not just at me now, but at all three of
us in the room. "What's most important is that we're here in Ghost
Town now and we've been given our mission. We'll talk about the
other Realms when the time comes, but right now I think it's best
if we figure out exactly what we need to do
here
in Ghost Town."

"Ok," I said. "I'm fine with that. We're
obviously not going to be able to get home anytime soon anyway, and
definitely not without figuring out the Oracle's little puzzle, so
we better get down to business."

"I am in complete agreement, sir. That is
the best thing we can do right now. Get this puzzle solved, find
your first object, and get out of Ghost Town."

And it was in that moment that we all agreed
- David, Trex, Gasp, and I - that we would heed the message that
the Oracle Essex had delivered. We would take it as gospel, decode
the cipher, and find that first object.

The question of how in
the
hell
we were
going to do that, however, was something that
none
of us was prepared to answer
just yet.

David pushed himself up off the floor and
grabbed Trex's leash to get him to follow toward the center of the
room. The four of us huddled up in a circle as Gasp framed his
hands and easily displayed the letter this time. I guess the Oracle
Essex had made her point by coming down to deliver the message last
time. Now we could read the letter again ourselves.

"What do you think?" I asked the group more
as a general question rather than anything specific about the
letter. They all looked up and we glanced at each other while
trying to figure out just how to answer that question. None of us
could. "What should we do?"

"What we should do,
Jimmy," Gasp said, "is get to work. Let's figure this thing out and
find your first object. And let's do it
fast
!"

Chapter Twenty Five

"For a long time," Gasp said as we remained
huddled in the middle of the room, Trex beneath all of us, right in
the middle of our little circle, "we here in the Seven Realms have
lived pretty comfortable lives. We didn't have many worries, and we
didn't have many troubles."

David and I looked around
the room and finally back at each other as we both thought of our
own lives, back home in
Bored
sylvania. We lived fairly
happy, comfortable lives too. We both had roofs over our heads and
food to eat. We both went to school and didn't have to worry about
war or anything serious like that. I mean, the occasional run from
the Coogan Boys was probably the biggest of our worries. And while
that was surely a concern, it was nothing compared to what
some
people were
facing.

"I know what you're thinking," said Gasp as
he prepared to continue his little speech. "You're thinking that
you've not seen many troubles in your own lives. This is true as
well. We've all been very lucky, indeed. Granted, we might all be
ghosts here in Ghost Town, but that's hardly troublesome."

"And now, for some reason, we've brought
this down upon you all?"

"Well, Jimmy, you didn't
necessarily
bring
this down upon us. If you recall, the letters were addressed
to you before we even knew who you were or where you were. You
certainly had no idea this was going to happen, and you certainly
had no idea that Ghost Town even existed before you landed in that
room."

"The fact of the matter,
however," Gasp continued, "is that you're here now. This
problem
is
upon
us, and we need to find the solution as soon as we possibly
can."

"What did she mean 'Or
else you
all
will
pay?'"

"I assume she means all
Seven Realms. Or she could mean everyone
in
the Seven Realms. Or, she could
even mean just the four of us. Either way," Gasp said, "do you
really want to find out what she means?"

I shook my head quickly before Gasp had even
finished the sentence. "No freakin' way!"

"Good, Jimmy. Neither do I." Gasp was dead
serious. It was clear to us that this was something he (nor anyone
in Ghost Town for that matter) had ever imagined would happen to
them. "And neither do any of the other Elders."

"We've spoken to the Elders of each realm,"
he said. "They all agree that the Oracle Essex's message is not to
be taken lightly. We are to find these seven items. You, David,
Trex, and I together must complete this mission, save our worlds,
and get you home."

Suddenly David's EARS
tactics flashed through my head and I almost
wished
I was home, in a bathroom
stall at lunch, hiding from the Coogan Boys. David had taught me so
much, and my confidence had grown immensely since I started
practicing EARS, but none of us were ready for
this
. None of us had prepared to
have the weight of the world (much less
seven
worlds) resting on our
shoulders.

That said, we had no other choice.

"Well," I said, almost joking for the first
time since we'd seen the Oracle Essex appear, "what else do we have
to do?"

David laughed. I mean, he
actually laughed. A genuine laugh that all of us could hear, and
the sound made Trex bark. Which, in turn, made Gasp laugh. And
now
I
was
laughing while David continued. Trex kept barking and we all just
kept going like that for what felt like minutes. Sure, it may have
been nervous laughter. It might have been the last chance we
thought we had for some fun before everything changed for us. Or it
could have just been genuinely funny, and we were four new friends
just having a laugh together.

Either way, it didn't matter. It was
something we needed desperately, and it was something that gave us
the strength to actually tackle what lay before us.

"That's the spirit, Jimmy," Gasp said as he
continued to laugh out loud. "That's the spirit!"

Chapter Twenty Six

"How the hell are we going to find this
first item?" I asked, already getting a bit nervous about the task
we've been handed by the Oracle Essex. "We have no idea where to
even start looking!"

"Don't get yourself
too
worked up, Jimmy,"
said Gasp, trying to keep a positive face on. He obviously wanted
to keep us as calm as possible.

David looked on without saying a word, but
just watching him you could tell that he was studying everything.
His mind was focused squarely on the message we'd been delivered,
and he was listening intently to every single word that came out of
Gasp's ghostly mouth.

"The Oracle Essex," continued Gasp, "would
not have delivered her message without a clue. The Oracles just
don't work that way. They want to at least give you a fighting
chance." He paused briefly to think. "Or at least that's what I've
heard in the stories."

"So where?" I asked.
"Where do
you
see
a clue in that letter, Gasp? Where's
our
fighting chance?"

Trex barked and David pulled tight on his
leash to keep him from barking again. The tension in the room was
getting thicker by the minute and it was beginning to feel a little
claustrophobic.

"It's obviously somewhere
in Ghost Town," David suddenly spoke up. "It says right there in
the letter, 'Ghost Town be the first, but not
nearly
the worst.'"

"Right!" I said and patted David on the back
quickly before turning my face down and pouting a bit. "Not the
worst? How much worse can it get?"

"A lot," said Gasp, almost
cutting me off before the end of my sentence. "It can get
a lot
worse. There are
places among the Seven Realms, Jimmy, that you don't want to go.
You don't even want to be
near
them. If the Oracles have something big in store
for us in those other realms, this is going to be a
very
long
adventure."

I sighed audibly, but I could see the rest
of our group sigh without even having to hear it. You could just
see it on their faces. Even Trex looked a bit dismayed.

"So we know it's somewhere
in Ghost Town," I said. That doesn't do a whole lot to help us.
Sure, it narrows down the search, but we still have
no
idea what we're
looking for or where in Ghost Town we're looking for
it!"

I was beginning to get
loud again as my anxiety worsened.
This
couldn't be all
, I thought.
This couldn't be the way it ends for me. Here, in
Ghost Town, trying to complete some crazy mission that I didn't
even ask to be a part of?! While Dad's home sipping out of his
green bottles and snoring in front of the TV?! This can't be
it.

"There's got to be
something else, Gasp. There
has
to be."

"There is, sir," he said. "Look!"

Gasp moved one of his arms, breaking the
frame they'd been creating in which the letter floated. When he
moved his arm, the letter stayed put and he was able to point out a
certain line.

"Look here," he said and pointed. "It says
'A nose leads the way.'"

"We all have them, Gasp. How does that even
help us?"

"Well, Jimmy. Think about
it. Let's not look at it on the surface. Let's think about it a
little bit. If they're mentioning it, there must be
something
special about
the nose. It can't just be one of ours."

"I know nothing about your Ghost Town," I
said. "What could the Oracles possibly mean by that?"

"Since the Oracle Essex said the line, I've
been thinking about it," Gasp said and moved his arms back to their
original position, creating the frame in which the letter floated.
"Take a look."

Gasp clapped his hands quickly, like he had
earlier just before the Oracle Essex appeared before us, and moved
them back into the frame shape.

The letter floated smoothly into the top
left corner of the frame and in the bottom right corner of the
frame appeared a crude map. It looked almost like a treasure map
with a big X-marks-the-spot mark on it, only without the actual X
mark.