run up to the Nest to find Emma to tell her my news.
“Emma? Emma!” I take the stairs two at a time. “Where you at?”
“Up here,” she hollers back to me.
“Guess what I’ve got a job at White’s Drugstore and I can have penny candy anytime I want,” I say all at once since I’m out of breath from coming up the stairs so fast.
Emma’s on the bed with Mutsie, her favorite stuffed animal. “What?”
I straighten up after letting my breath catch up with my body. “Mr. White? He offered me a job after Richard up and left me behind at the drugstore to go I-don’t-know-where.”
I fill her in on everything and, just like I figured, she got to the number one obvious question: “Can I work there, too?”
I’d like to think it was ‘cause she wanted to be with me and not here alone in the Nest while I’m gone, but I betcha it’s the penny candy. I don’t mind. Me and Emma, we’re slaves to candy.
“I bet Mr. White’d let you come on and help,” I tell her. And I honestly believe it’s so. “He even said he needs all the help he can get. That back room’s messier than a flower bed in February.”
And that’s how we came to work at White’s Drugstore nearly every day of the week after school.
FOUR
“I don’t s’pose y’all ever seen the Box?” Miss Mary looks over at Emma and me from her spot behind the cash register. She’s folding her book back up and takes off her reading glasses. Miss Mary’s been real nice to us all week, but I guess that’s nothing new. She’s always patting our hair like we’re her pets or something. The other day she even put some of the bright pink barrettes from the dime basket next to the register in Emma’s hair, one on either side of her face so she could see without strings of hair blocking the way. Miss Mary doesn’t have kids herself so I guess we’ll do.
“What’s the Box?” Emma asks.
“Ooooeee, the Box is sumthin’ you got to see to believe,” Miss Mary says with a smile that spreads out across her wrinkled face. “It’s real scary. You have to be old enough even to ask about it.”
“Are we old enough?” I ask her, but Emma talks at the same time.
“Where is it?” she asks. Not one single breathing soul’s come into the store yet and it’s already four in the afternoon. I bet it’s on account of the heat that looks like it’s melting the tar right off the road.
“I thought ev’rybody knowed ‘bout the Box.” Miss Mary pats her lap and Emma crawls up in it like I’ve never seen her do with anyone else. “It’s over at Ike’s place and the kids go in one by one—if they brave enough to go into the room it’s in.”
“Yeah? Yeah?” We both want her to keep talking about it. I rub my arms so the gooseflesh will settle down.
“How big is it?” Emma.
“A little bigger than a shoe box,” she says.
“What’s inside it?” Me.
“No one knows for sure.”
“I bet it’s boogers,” Emma says from Miss Mary’s lap. She’s leaning her back into Miss Mary’s front and her legs are dangling on either side of Miss Mary’s, which are pressed together to make a nice spot for Em.
Miss Mary shakes her head. “Whatever’s in the Box has them kids runnin’ scared for years,” she says. “I ain’t never heard of no one who be able to stay in the room long ‘nough after the lid comes up to know for sure what all’s so creepy.”
“We’ve got to see the Box,” I say. Emma nods.
“I don’t know,” Miss Mary says, smiling her smile that makes her skin look even more crinkly. “I don’ know if y’all’re up to it.”
“Yes we are!” Emma pushes away from Miss Mary so she can swivel around to face her. “We most certainly are.”
“We?” Miss Mary says to her like she was only meaning me in the first place. She knows that just cements it in Emma’s mind that she’s going to be on board no matter what it is we’re doing.
“Miss Mary, if I go, my little sister is sure to follow.” Which is straight up true. “Everyone knows that.”
“I’m not scared of anything.” Emma’s nodding. Which, of course, is true. If only Miss Mary knew that I’m the scaredy-cat of the both of us. I mean, if I’m scared of spiders I can’t even think of what I’ll do when I’m in the room with the Box. But I’ve just got to see it. I’ve got to.
“Where’s Ike’s? Jinx!” We ask about Ike’s at the same exact time but I call jinx first so I’m the winner.
“Way over in Lowgap, by the Knob,” says Miss Mary. Lowgap is this little-bitty place on the edge of a forest near the Cumberland Knob, which is called that for a reason I don’t know. Momma says it’s on account of the shape of the mountain right above the town, but I just don’t see what she’s talking about—the mountain looks just like every other mountain in the world to me, not some ole knob. Lowgap’s a creepy place on account of all the trees shading it from the sun. When we were little and went there I thought the sun forgot to shine over the whole place, that’s how shady it is. On a day like today, though, it might kindly be the place to be. The sun in Toast is making up for no sun in Lowgap.
“Carrie, we got to get to Lowgap.” Emma’s jumped down from Miss Mary, who’s smoothing out the place on her lap where a little girl used to be. “How’re we gonna do it?”
“Let me think on it a minute,” I say, annoyed-like since that’s what I am. I know we got to get to Lowgap, I just cain’t imagine how we can pull it off.
“We-ell,” Miss Mary says all long and dragged out, “I got a friend outside Lowgap at a place so small it ain’t on the map. They been at me for a visit for’s long as I can remember … I s’pose I could—”
“Please take us with you, Miss Mary!” We both jump on her at the same time. “Please! We won’t be any bother.” Emma tugs on her skirt and I grab her arm and yank it up and down for a reason I don’t know. “Please. Pretty please with sugar on top and whipped cream and a cherry and nuts even!” I throw that last part in since I bet for a grown-up the nuts are the big draw, from the way Momma hoards her Mr. Peanuts.
Miss Mary’s laughing, and when she does her belly folds into and back out of itself like it’s a whole other set of lips. Then Emma seals the deal. She climbs up onto Miss Mary’s lap and gives her a big ole hug.
“Don’t you be gittin’ me all messed up now while I in my work clothes,” Miss Mary says into the side of Emma’s hair in the middle of the hug. “Go on and git an’ let me think on it awhile.”
But we know it’s settled. We’re going to see the Box tomorrow after school lets out and we show up for work. Tomorrow’s Miss Mary’s day off so she says she’ll pick us up in back of the store after we ask Mr. White for time off “on the HH.” That’s Miss Mary’s code for “hush-hush.”
“Look out, here comes Scary Carrie!” Tommy Bucksmith yells out across the map of the country that’s painted on the tar in the middle of the recess yard. “How’s your boyfriend, Charley?” I’m trying to pretend I don’t hear him.
Charley Narley is a guy in town who everyone makes fun of. His body grew up but his brain forgot to. Momma says he lost his marbles. She says every town’s got a Charley Narley but I can’t imagine that. He’s big like a bear and all anyone knows is his first name’s Charley. Someone somewhere long