Open.
“Oh, man,” Ruby breathed, moving closer to it. The room was hot and dim, but I fought the urge to chafe my hands up and down my arms.
There was no light in the little room, which wasn’t even big enough to be a real closet, but the bedroom got enough sun for me to make out stacks of boxes against the wall and, hanging up on a rod over the jumble of stuff, two white dresses.
They hung there, looking ghostly in the dim light, and when Ruby reached out to brush a finger over the yellowing fabric, I stopped her.
“Don’t,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure why. I was thinking of that picture downstairs, the one with the twins in their white dresses. Had these been those dresses? Was this their stuff in this little hidden room?
Crouching down, Ruby peered into the space, then tapped the top of my shoe. “Bingo,” she said, and sure enough, a music box sat against the back wall, almost hidden in the shadows.
There was no music now as Ruby gently pulled it out of the tiny storage space. It wasn’t all that fancy. I’d gotten one for my birthday a few years ago with a ballerina that twirled in front of a mirror, but this was just . . . a box. A pretty one, with designs carved on its dark wood and a yellow silk lining inside, but nothing else.
Except a key.
Ruby plucked the key up from the box. “What the what?” she muttered.
The key was big, a heavy piece of iron with rust around the teeth. The top of it was sculpted into a pretty, complicated shape, but it was only when Ruby turned the key right side up that I could see what it was.
A tree.
“It looks like the tree in the hall,” Ruby said, and I shook my head, even though, to be honest, it really did. But wouldn’t all big trees kind of look the same?
“What do you think—” I started.
But then, from the hall, I heard Lee call, “Ruby? Olivia?”
Ruby didn’t even hesitate as she shoved the key into the back pocket of her shorts and closed the music box.
“C’mon,” she whispered, then grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the room.
Lee hadn’t made it to our part of the hallway yet, so we were able to gently close the bedroom door behind us and make our way to the stairs like we’d totally been where we were supposed to be.
Lee was waiting in the middle of the staircase, one hand resting on the banister, and when he saw us, he grinned and waved. “There y’all are. Come on, lunch break!”
He turned and jogged back down the stairs, but Ruby and I stood there for a second.
“Okay, we have got to talk about this,” Ruby said, and I glanced over my shoulder at her, then back toward where Lee had disappeared.
Ruby waved one hand. “Not here, gotcha. Here.”
My notebook was still in one hand, and she took it from me, scrawling something on a page.
When I took it back, I saw RubyToozday written in big, bold script.
“We can chat online,” she told me, nodding at her handle. “Then no one will have to know you talk to me, it’s cool.”
With that, she passed me and headed downstairs.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Hi.
RubyToozday: Wow, I wonder who this could be?
OliviaAnneWillingham: Haha.
RubyToozday: Seriously, didn’t anyone have the Internet Stranger Danger conversation with you? You can’t put your REAL name out there.
OliviaAnneWillingham: You’re the only person I’m chatting to on this thing, and you already know who I am.
RubyToozday: Fair enough. We’ll find you something new eventually.
RubyToozday: Do you like OliviaGarden? Like Olive Garden?
OliviaAnneWillingham: No.
RubyToozday: How about OHHHHHHLivia3000?
OliviaAnneWillingham: No.
RubyToozday: LivWhileWereYoung.
OliviaAnneWillingham: That’s not grammatically correct, and NO.
OliviaAnneWillingham: And anyway, I don’t want to talk about my username, I want to talk about what happened today. At the house.
RubyToozday: How I called you a liar?
RubyToozday: I stand by that, Lying Liar Who Lies.
OliviaAnneWillingham: You know what, never mind. This was a dumb idea.
RubyToozday: WAIT. Okay, I’m sorry, you’re right. If you’ve gone to all this trouble to make a chat name, the least I can do is hear you out.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Thank you.
RubyToozday: No matter how dumb that chat name is.
RubyToozday: SORRY. DON’T GO, LET’S TALK ABOUT SPOOKY HOUSES.
OliviaAnneWillingham: I’ve been thinking about that key. The one we found with the music box.
RubyToozday: I knew which key you meant, COME ON. But yeah, it was weird, right? I still have it.
RubyToozday: I tried it in a few doors today, but nothing.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Yeah, but it didn’t look like a key that would fit one of the doors? It’s way too big.
RubyToozday: Excellent powers of observation!
RubyToozday: (I mean that, I’m not being mean.)
OliviaAnneWillingham: Thanks.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Also, it wasn’t that I didn’t want anyone knowing I talked to you. I just didn’t want to talk about all of that there in case someone overheard us.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Susanna already thinks we’re making it up.
RubyToozday: Or hallucinating from bad juice.
RubyToozday: Which, I mean, gross as the juice boxes are, I could believe it.
OliviaAnneWillingham: It’s only the kiwi-strawberry that are gross. And the lemonade. The fruit punch is okay.
RubyToozday: NOW you tell me.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Anyway, why would we hear stuff? Or find a key? What’s the key even for?
RubyToozday: There are stories about the place. Garrett told me something about a floating head?
RubyToozday: Floating heads seem like something worth looking into, I guess.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Maybe we should do some research.
RubyToozday: Into what? “Is this house haunted?” It CLEARLY IS. And it’s super old, all super old houses are haunted.
RubyToozday: That’s science.
RubyToozday: Check yo science, Liv.
OliviaAnneWillingham: I can’t argue with science I guess.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Or floating heads.
RubyToozday: If you’re going to make jokes, this is going to get very weird for me. I’m not prepared to deal with a Funny Olivia (Anne Willingham, Esquire).
OliviaAnneWillingham: ESQUIRE. I knew I left something off.
RubyToozday: Arrrrrgggghhhhhhh, noooooo, more funny, stop, the world is upside dooooowwwwwnnnn.
OliviaAnneWillingham: You are so weird.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Anyway, I was going to go to the bookstore on Saturday and see if there are any books about haunted houses, or even the history of Live Oak House.
OliviaAnneWillingham: Do you want to come with me?
RubyToozday: What, like together? You and me, going to the bookstore?
OliviaAnneWillingham: That’s what “with” means.
RubyToozday: Sure, I’ll come.
RubyToozday: But only because I think you might be a joke-making robot who replaced Olivia.
CHAPTER 14
OLIVIA
The little bookstore downtown was one of my favorite places in all of Chester’s Gap. It was wedged between a boutique that mostly sold candles and local art, and another, weird little shop I’d never been into called Cosmos. The lady who ran the place did palm readings and sold incense, books on yoga, stuff like that. I wasn’t sure how much business a shop like that got in our town (when it first opened, some people wanted it closed because they thought it might turn us all into witches or someth
ing), but I still liked the curtains in the window, all navy blue and printed with stars.
Mom dropped me off at Books on Main a little before eleven, reminding me to meet her by the fountain at twelve. It was only in the last year or so that me and Em had been allowed to be downtown by ourselves, but it was such a small area—just one two-lane road lined with shops, really—that there wasn’t much trouble we could get into, I guess.
Chester’s Gap was a small town anyway, the kind of place people moved to when they got tired of Nashville or Memphis. Mom always said it was kind of a fake small town. Thirty years ago, it had been a one-stoplight town with a gas station and a greasy-spoon diner, but then in the eighties, some famous country musician had dumped a bunch of money into Chester’s Gap, turning it into the idea of Small Town, USA. Now we sold stuff with “artisan” on the label, and we had a famous Christmas parade every year that filled up the town with tourists.
Still, I liked it. Maybe it wasn’t the most genuine town, but it was pretty and cozy. It was home.
I was still waiting outside Cosmos for Ruby when I felt the phone in my back pocket buzz.
Pulling it out, I saw that it was Em, trying to get me on Hangouts. My thumb hovered over the screen. I’d never not taken a call from her before, and it felt mean to ignore her, but at the same time, she’d ask where I was and what I was doing. She’d be able to see I was downtown, and what if Ruby came up while we were chatting? Was I ready to explain to Em that I was willingly spending a day with Ruby Kaye?
I didn’t think I was, so after a second I slid the phone back into my pocket, which turned out to be a good idea since only a few seconds later, I saw Ruby get out of a red car a little farther down the street. She was wearing all black, her T-shirt, her shorts, her shoes, everything except her socks, which were rainbow striped. She had one tugged up nearly to her knee, the other puddled around her ankle, but it didn’t seem to bug her as she jogged up.
“Oooh, are we going into the hippie store?” she asked, her eyes widening as she looked at Cosmos. “I’ve never been in there, and I bet they’d have stuff about hauntings.”
I shook my head. “No, I told my mom we were going to Books on Main.” I pointed at the store and waited for Ruby to give me a hard time about not wanting to go in Cosmos.
But she just shrugged. “Cool,” she said. “Mrs. Freely said they sold that book about Live Oak House there, so that can be a start.”
I had twenty dollars because Mom wanted me to pick up a book to mail to Em, too. I didn’t know how much Ruby had, or even what we should look for, and for a second, we stood awkwardly on the sidewalk. It was one thing hanging out with Ruby at Camp Chrysalis, but this was us choosing to hang out, and even though I liked Ruby a little more than I used to, I wasn’t sure this had been the best idea.
But then she turned and walked into the bookstore, and I followed.
The little bell over the door jingled as we walked in, and Ruby immediately took a deep breath. “Mmmm, Book Smell,” she said happily, and I looked over at her in surprise.
“That’s one of my favorite smells, too,” I told her, and she wiggled her eyebrows at me.
“Well, yeah, you’re a smart lady of taste and sophistication. Of course you can appreciate the greatness of Book Smell.”
The store was kind of crowded, what with it being Saturday, and there were plenty of people browsing. I saw Callie from my history class last year, and Brandon, who’d been in my class all through elementary school. I waved but didn’t go talk to either one of them, wanting to stay focused on today’s mission. Usually, when Emma and I came into Books on Main, we headed straight for the shelves at the edge of the children’s section, right under the big fake tree where they did story time for the littler kids. I wasn’t even sure where to look for books on hauntings or ghosts, but Ruby edged straight past Sci-fi/Fantasy, turned right at the Romance section, and led me to a single shelf with NEW AGE printed on top in block letters.
“Here we go,” she said, crouching down.
I did the same, my eyes flying over the various spines and titles. “Tarot for Beginners,” I read. “The New Witch . . . Abductions: Real or Not?”
“Real, totes,” Ruby said, distracted as she scanned the shelves. “Ah!” she finally said, the bracelets on her wrist jangling as her hand shot out to pull a book from the shelf.
“Hauntings,” I read, then glanced over at her. “That’s pretty direct.”
“And totally what we’re looking for,” she reminded me. “Getting right to the heart of the matter.”
She started flipping through the book, and I leaned closer to read along with her. The chapter titles were all things like “Poltergeists” and “Possessions,” and while those things sounded kind of interesting—okay, and also really, really terrifying and nothing I wanted to read about—I got the sense that we weren’t seeing what we needed.
Ruby must’ve felt the same, because she shoved the book back onto the shelf and shook her head. “I don’t think this one will help. Maybe we should try Cosmos.”
Chewing my lower lip, I drummed my fingers on one of the shelves. “No, because then we’d have to talk to the lady that runs the place and actually ask for help. Here, we can just, you know. Browse. They might not even have books at Cosmos.”
Ruby was looking at me, her head tilted a little to the side. “You don’t like talking to people, do you?” she asked at last, and my face went hot.
“It’s not that,” I said, even though it was totally that. I snatched Hauntings back off the shelf, holding it against my chest. “We can start with this one, anyway.”
Ruby kept looking at me, her eyes a little narrowed, but I turned away before she could say anything else, heading for the familiar shelves and looking for something Em might like.
After a second, Ruby appeared at my side, running her fingers along the spines. “It’s okay if you don’t like talking to people,” she said. “I probably talk too much.”
“You do,” I told her, but she only smiled at that.
“And honestly,” Ruby went on, pulling a book from the shelf, “it’s nice to know you’re just shy. I always thought you didn’t like me and that’s why you never talked to me.”
I was looking at a book about a girl who falls in love with a rock star, since that seemed like Em’s kind of thing, but now I looked up at Ruby, unsure of what to say exactly.
The truth was, I hadn’t really liked Ruby, but was that because of Ruby, or because I always felt weird about how close she and Emma had gotten? “You’re okay,” I said to Ruby now, and she laughed, tucking her own book under her arm.
“Oh, man, Liv, don’t get all gushy on me now,” she said, but she bumped me a little as she walked past. It was the nice kind of bump, though, and she was still smiling.
As we made our way over to the counter, books in hand, I realized I was smiling, too.
Ruby paused in front of a little display labeled LOCAL AUTHORS. “I bet . . . ,” she said, then, with an “aha,” she picked up another book.
Live Oak House was on the cover, and Live Oak: A History was written in fancy script. The sepia-tinted picture made the house look nicer than it really was, and I wondered what it might tell us, but then Ruby turned it over, her eyebrows shooting up.
“Twenty-five dollars?” she read. “This is robbery.”
Shaking her head, she put it back, then hefted the Hauntings book she’d found again. “We’ll start here,” she told me, “and only shell out for the fancy book if things get bad.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what “bad” at Live Oak House looked like for Ruby.
CHAPTER 15
RUBY
We stood outside the bookstore, and I shaded my eyes with one hand, looking around the square. “We’ve still got like half an hour before we have to meet our moms,” I said to Liv as she shifted her bag from one side to the ot
her. “So we could go get yogurt? I have money left over.”
“So do I,” Olivia replied, looking over at Yo Yo Yo, the frozen yogurt place across the way. There were like a million frozen yogurt places in Chester’s Gap now, but this one was my favorite because it was so close to the bookstore. Grammy used to take me over there after we’d do our shopping, and once again, thinking of her made something in my throat feel tight. I wondered if you ever stopped missing people, if stupid little things like frozen yogurt places ever stopped stinging.
Before I could do something dumb like tear up, I waved at Olivia with one arm. “C’mon,” I said, and made a dash for it even though there were no cars coming and the crosswalk was only a few feet away.
Liv, of course, walked down there, pressed the button, and waited for the light, so I stood on the other side, waiting on her with my arms crossed and an exaggerated expression of impatience on my face.
“There’s no one coming!” I hollered.
But she held her bag and called back, “Waiting a minute or two could be the difference between life and death, Ruby!”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking—that did kind of sound like something Olivia would say in total seriousness—but then she grinned at me, and a few seconds before the light changed, she darted across the street.
There were still no cars coming, but I widened my eyes at her. “Living dangerously, girl!”
She laughed again, shaking her head, and then walked past me toward Yo Yo Yo.
A blast of air-conditioning hit us as we walked into the yogurt shop, the smell of chocolate and waffle cones and all other things that are good and amazing in this world wafting toward me.
There was a bored teenager behind the register who barely looked up at us as Liv put her bag of books on the table and we went to go grab our cups. I got the medium-sized one since I had a ten left over from the bookstore, and when you have a chance to get as much frozen yogurt as you want, you should really go big or go home. I noticed that Olivia got one of the smaller ones, but that wasn’t exactly a surprise.