Taken by the Cowboy (38 page)

“I’m asking, Callie,
that you begin putting your father first.”

Callie’s heart sank.
Was Sharon insinuating that Callie had been putting her dad
last?

She hadn’t been-had
she?

Sharon patted Callie’s
shoulder as if she was trying to tap down a nail. “I just want you
to think of him-of his feelings-during this time of transition.
Okay? Promise?”

Knowing it was futile
to argue with Sharon-The-Super-Lawyer, Callie nodded.

“For a verbal agreement
to be binding, both parties have to speak,” Sharon pointed out,
sweetly.

Callie stared up at the
woman who was going to be her stepmom. She wanted to laugh
bitterly, but she kept it inside. Thinking of her mother’s
beautiful face on the last day she’d seen her alive, Callie said,
“From now on, I promise to put Dad first.”

Unable to stand
Sharon’s presence for one more moment, Callie rushed to the door.
She ached to see a friendly face, to have her dad’s arms around
her, comforting her and telling her everything would be all right,
but tonight, everything had been irrevocably changed. If she kept
her promise to Sharon, she’d have to learn to start taking care of
herself, even if she was only twelve.

Callie stepped out onto
the veranda. Her dad immediately got up, his brow furrowed with
worry. Before she knew it, his big, lanky frame was beside her and
his strong arm was around her shoulder, pulling her close.
“Everything okay, Sport?” he whispered into her hair.

To her own surprise,
she pulled away. She didn’t want to be reminded of what she’d just
lost, and she knew without a doubt that after tonight, her
relationship with her father would never be the same again.

“I just need to be with
Lewis for a while, okay?” Callie managed to say in a somewhat
normal voice. Already she was breaking her promise to Sharon. She
wasn’t putting her dad first right now. But she was doing the best
she could without making another scene.

“Okay….” her dad said
tentatively.

To Callie’s deep
satisfaction, Lewis stepped up beside her. “I think Callie needs a
little space right now, Mr. Richards. She’ll be fine with me.”

At that moment Sharon
opened the screen door and poked her head out, saying, “Ben, why
don’t you come in and let Callie and her little friend have their
visit?”

Callie saw Lewis glance
at Sharon in annoyance.

Little friend?-she
could almost hear Lewis thinking-they both hated that term almost
as much as young people.

It made Callie’s heart
swell with pride. She may not have her dad anymore, but she had
Lewis. And he saw right through Sharon, just like Callie did. He
led her off the veranda and steered her onto the gravel path that
led to the backyard. “We’ll just be in the back garden, having a
heart-to-heart. Don’t worry, Callie, I have Kleenex,” he said
loudly.

They made their way
down the dark path to the backyard, and once they were safely away
from the house, Callie stopped trying to hold back her tears. By
this point in their friendship, Lewis was bomb-proof. Unlike a lot
of other boys, or men for that matter, Lewis wasn’t scared of a
crying girl. The fact that Lewis had two younger sisters probably
helped.

“It’s okay, Cal,” he
said, offering her a Kleenex. “You’re allowed to cry. I have to say
it-for a birthday, this takes the cake.”

Callie wiped her nose,
unable to laugh at Lewis’ joke. “What am I going to do? Sharon and
Dad are getting married! She’s going to live in our house and bring
her horrible cat, Wallingford, and make Dad forget that Mom ever
existed.” Callie stood up, pacing around like a tiger in a cage.
“This can’t be happening.”

Lewis shrugged. “I know
it’s unfair, but I think you’re just going to have to accept your
dad’s marriage to Sharon.”

Callie had an awful
feeling that her best friend was right, though she didn’t want him
to be.

“If only I could find
the Door in the Floor and go to Albion. Then I could forget about
Dad and Sharon.”

Lewis stood up.
“Callie, Albion isn’t real. It was just a dream and you know
it.”

But Callie didn’t know
it. She didn’t know anything right now. She just knew that she
wanted to escape. Going into a magical land where she might be a
princess sounded pretty good, considering what her future here
looked like.

She pulled the pink
sparkly necklace out from under her sweater. “I have to at least
look,” Callie said. “It’s my birthday. Indulge me.”

She walked over to the
garden shed and opened the creaky doors. Her mom had spent a lot of
time out here, potting plants, weeding, transplanting. Now the shed
seemed like a tomb.

“What are you doing?”
Lewis asked.

She rummaged through a
drawer. “Looking for…this!” She switched on the flashlight and
practically blinded her best friend. He howled in pain and
staggered backwards.

“Oops, sorry. Are you
okay?”

“Yeah. I have a spare
set of eyeballs back home,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “Wait here
while I go get them.”

Callie directed her
friend out of the shed. “Quit whining and help me look.” This was
great. Her mood was lifting already. She and Lewis were going to
have a grand adventure, just like in one of her library books.

“Okay, but only because
it’s your birthday and you just found out you’re getting an icky
step mother.”

Callie led the way,
going to a back corner of the garden which was overgrown with ivy
and weeds. She shone the flashlight around upon a sea of thick
green vegetation. “The unicorn statue is around here
somewhere….”

“All I see are plants,”
Lewis said helpfully.

“Thank you, Mr.
Farnsworth. Now get in there and look under the plants.”

Lewis obeyed dutifully.
Somewhere during his twelve short years he had learned that there
was absolutely no use arguing with a woman once she’d made up her
mind. “I think I found something.”

“What?” Callie felt her
heart begin to race as she shined the flashlight on Lewis’
hands.

He held out something
dark and leggy. “A bug.”

Callie squealed and
jumped backwards as Lewis chuckled to himself. “That’s not
funny!”

Lewis kept chuckling.
Even though he was the smartest, kindest, most sensitive boy Callie
had ever met, the fact remained that Lewis was still a boy, and he
still enjoyed scaring girls with bugs.

“You’re supposed to be
helping,” Callie reminded him.

“I am helping. I’m
clearing the bugs out of the way,” he said with a smile. He
wrestled with the greenery, his arm practically disappearing from
sight as he pulled apart the dense vines. “Shine the flashlight
over here, Cal. I think…I might…have found it!” He fell backwards
and landed in a sitting position on the ground.

Callie rushed to help
him, but Lewis quickly stood up. “Look, Callie. There it is!”

Callie turned her gaze
in the direction he was pointing. “The unicorn….” She shone the
flashlight on the face of the stone statue. It almost seemed to hum
with life, its smooth carved eyes staring eerily into the night,
its spiraled horn pointing up towards the starry night sky.

Suddenly unconcerned
with bugs, Callie waded into the greenery, pulling the vines away
herself to reveal more of the majestic statue. “This was one of
Mom’s favorite places in the garden. There’s a stone bench around
here too. She used to sit out here for hours and read.”

“Well, we found the
unicorn,” Lewis said. “What else does the poem say?”

Callie took the scroll
out of her pocket and shone the light on it, reading aloud:

“The key will open
the magic door

Found beneath the
forest floor

The unicorn will
lead the way

And protect you
both night and day.”

Lewis waded around the
back of the statue, looking down. Callie joined him, passing the
flashlight over thick twigs, weeds, and vines.

Lewis crouched down,
feeling around in the underbrush. “Do you remember there being a
door out here, Cal?”

“Well…no. But that
doesn’t mean it’s not here. Keep looking.”

They searched and
searched, but didn’t manage to find anything more than a bunch of
tangled vines.

“I hate to say it, Cal,
but I think that poem is a hoax,” Lewis said, standing.

Callie felt her heart
sink. She realized how badly she’d wanted there to be a door in the
floor, and a magical land called Albion that needed her.

“All right, Lew. Let’s
go in.” Callie took a few steps toward the house. “It’s just been a
crazy day. I don’t know what I was thinking. You’re right, there’s
no door in the fl—”

The next minute, the
ground flew up to meet her. She dropped with a hard thud, landing
on her stomach.

Lewis was beside her in
an instant. “Callie! Are you okay?” He tried to help her up, but
her foot was caught in something.

He crouched down to
where it was twisted in some vines. “Whoa, you’re really tangled up
here, Cal. Just a second…I’m getting it…wait, what’s this?” He
pulled away some of the thick vines that had ensnared her, and both
he and Callie found themselves staring at an old iron ring.

It was attached to
something-a wooden door that looked ancient, like it belonged on a
castle.

“It’s a door,” Lewis
said, dumbfounded. “It’s the Door in the Floor, Cal!”

Callie got her breath
back, and felt her heart swell with hope. “It is a door-just like
the poem said! Help me up, Lewis.”

Lewis quickly got
Callie’s foot free and helped her stand. Her ankle throbbed a bit,
and she’d hurt her knee, too, but her injuries weren’t foremost in
her mind at the moment. “Help me clear this away,” she said,
kneeling down to pull at the vines and debris.

Soon they had it
completely uncovered. It was made from rough-hewn wood and had
thick iron fastenings and bolts. It was only big enough for only
one person to fit through at a time.

“It might be the door
to an old cellar,” Lewis said.

“My parents never
mentioned a cellar. Mom used to come out here all the time to do
her gardening. You’d think she would have said something if she’d
found it.”

Lewis jiggled the
handle a few times, but the door wouldn’t open. “It’s locked.”

Callie shone the
flashlight on the door. Sure enough, under the ring, there was an
iron keyhole. “The key will open the magic door…” she said, quoting
the poem. Callie sat back on her heels and slipped the diamond
necklace over her head, hoping the jewel-encrusted key on the end
of it would fit the lock. She took a deep breath and slid it
in.

“Lewis-it fits,” she
whispered. Her heart began to race with excitement and wonder.

Her friend stepped
closer. “Wait a minute. We don’t know what might be down
there.”

“But don’t you want to
find out?”

Used to being the
responsible older brother at home, Lewis folded his arms and
frowned. “It might be dangerous, Cal.”

Callie smiled
mischievously. “Let’s just take a look.”

For a long moment he
stared at her, then he smiled, too. “Okay.” Though usually the
voice of reason, Lewis was still, after all, a kid.

A thrill coursed
through Callie’s veins. She turned the jeweled key in the lock, and
the mechanism clicked. She removed the key and put the necklace
back over her head. Then she and Lewis both pulled on the thick
iron ring. Callie gasped as the door lifted slightly. A whoosh of
stale air came out, smelling of old decaying leaves and other
scents of the forest.

Together they managed
to wrestle with the heavy door, and soon the hinges creaked. It
groaned as it fell open onto the ground with a thud.

Callie’s heart beat
wildly.

“It’s pitch black down
there,” Lewis said. “Where’s the flashlight?”

Hands trembling, Callie
fumbled for the light and held it up. What could be down there?
What if it was a pit of snakes, or rats, or spiders? Or worse? She
took a deep breath and shone the flashlight down.

An old wrought-iron
staircase spiraled into the dark depths of the unknown. Callie
crouched, trying to shine the light deeper into the chamber.

“Where does it go?”
Lewis asked, craning to get a look.

“I can’t tell. It’s too
deep. I can’t see much of anything.” Callie’s skin tingled as a
strange feeling echoed in her heart. It was the same feeling she’d
had after the dream.

Though she couldn’t see
anything, she knew this was the doorway to Albion. And she had to
go through it.

She stepped down onto
the wrought iron platform that led to the spiral staircase
below.

“Cal-what are you
doing? We don’t even know if these stairs are safe, let alone where
they go!” Lewis protested, following behind her. “There could be
something really, really horrible down here.”

“I know what’s down
here,” she said firmly, shining the flashlight on the filigreed
staircase as they made their way down, their feet tapping quickly.
“This is what my dream was about, Lewis. And the message in my
cereal, and the necklace, and everything! This is the way into
Albion, and it’s where I have to go.”

The air was thick with
the pungent smell of damp earth and wet rocks. Down, down, down
they went, until they finally reached a large circular chamber at
the bottom. An arched doorway was carved into the far wall.

“Look, there’s a
tunnel.” Callie shone her flashlight into a long, stone
passageway.

“Do you feel that?”
Lewis asked.

“Feel what?”

Lewis held his hand out
in front of him. “Air. There’s a breeze coming through here.”

Callie lifted her hand
and felt it brush over her skin. She didn’t need Lewis to explain
what it meant; she remembered it from science class. If there was
air coming through the tunnel, it meant there was something
generating it at the other end.