not die like they all think I’m going to, even though they don’t say it out loud.”
He drew a breath, heard the wheezy sound it made as it whistled into his weakened lungs. His head hurt. He ached most everywhere, and he was dog-tired. His eyes tried to close, but he forced them open. This was important, and he still had two wishes to go.
“I wish for a mother. A real mother, who will love me and read to me… And who isn’t afraid of bullfrogs, like Mrs. Haversham is.” He smiled after he made the wish, because he was sure he’d worded it just right.
Licking his lips, Benjamin squeezed his eyes tight, and made the third wish, the one he’d been wishing for all his life. “And I wish for a big brother. I promise I won’t ever fight with him or tease. I would like for him to be smart, and brave, and strong, just like my father. I’ll even share my pony with him.”
Ben opened his eyes, gazing out the window. No trace of the stars remained. But they’d been there. He’d seen them. And now an odd, warm feeling settled over him, just like a big woolly blanket. Somehow, he just knew everything was going to be all right.
August 4, 1997
Cody Fortune glanced up from the laptop computer his mom had given him for his tenth birthday, turning his head just in time to see the three shooting stars arching over their car as it rolled over the narrow, deserted roads of Maine, heading for the coast and their new home.
“Wow,” he whispered, craning his neck for a better look. Of all the things he’d seen on this trip from Minnesota, this was the most incredible. Three at once. It had to be an anomaly.
“Did you see that, Mom?”
“What?”
“Three shooting stars, right in a row!”
She smiled at him, only taking her eyes from the road for a second. “So, why don’t you make a wish? Or are you too skeptical for that?”
Cody Fortune was far too intelligent to believe in any such thing as wishing on stars. But he knew his mom didn’t like him taking life too seriously, and some touch of whimsy moved him to close his eyes and whisper the things that had been on his mind the most lately. “I wish I had a dad,” he said softly. “And a little brother, because it gets so darn boring being an only child. We’d have great times together. And I wish…” He licked his lips, opened his eyes and stared up at the sky. His eyes watered just a little bit, but he blinked them dry again. “I wish for my mom to be happy. Really happy. ’Cause I know she isn’t. I can’t remember when she was.”
He lowered his head, and his mother’s soft hand stroked his hair. “Of course I’m happy, Cody. I have you, and a new house in a small town, just like I’ve always wanted. What more could I need?”
Cody smirked. He knew better, of course, but he’d never get her to admit her life was less than perfect. “You realize I’ve just wished on three hunks of burned-out rock, don’t you?”
“It was still generous of you to use up a whole wish on me.”
He shrugged and turned to the laptop again. It wasn’t so bad that he’d lapsed into childish fantasies for a second there. It was like his mom was always saying, he was still a kid, even if he did have the brain of a full-grown nuclear physicist.
“So, have you thought about what I told you?” he asked, and saw her brows rise.
“About what, Cody?”
Cody sighed. When he spent the weekend with his grandparents, he’d stumbled on something he knew must be important, but his mother, as usual, couldn’t care less about the family business. “What I overheard when Grandpa took me to work with him last week. Don’t you remember? That witch Monica was there, and—”
“Cody, that isn’t very nice.”
“So? Neither is Monica. Anyway, she was being really nasty to Aunt Tracey. Said she knew some secret, and she’d tell if Tracey and her boyfriend, what’s his name—? Wayne. Yeah, that’s it. Monica said she wanted them to go away, or she’d tell some secret.”
Jane shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry about it, Cody. We all know Monica’s been wanting to get her hands on the business. She probably sees Aunt Tracey as one more competitor for it.”
“Yeah, but Aunt Tracey only just found out she was a Fortune.”
“If she’s a Fortune, Cody, she can handle empty threats from Monica Malone.” She sent him a sideways glance. “This is just one more example of why I want no part of the family business, pal. All the scratching and clawing and fighting to hold on to it.” She gazed out the window at the rugged coastline as they passed it. “It’s going to be so much better here.”
Cody sighed. It was no use talking to his mother about business. She just didn’t care. He stared at the dark ocean, and the whitecapped waves crashing to the shore, and then he thought maybe she was right. It was kind of pretty here. “So how much longer till we get there?”
“I think… I think this is— Oh, my, Cody, this is the place. Look at it!”
Cody looked up at the house their headlights illuminated as the car turned into the gravel drive. “Looks like something out of a Stephen King novel.”
“Isn’t it great?”
He grimaced at his mother’s enthusiasm as she brought the car to a halt and killed the engine.
“I thought you liked Stephen King novels,” she said.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to live in one.”
She smiled at him. Then he turned his gaze to the house once again, and froze. From the corner of his eye, he’d seen some kind of flash in an upstairs window. Like…lightning or something. His mom was already opening her door, but he put a hand on her arm, stopping her. “I think…somebody’s in there.”
“What?” She frowned and looked where he pointed. “I don’t see anything.”
“Maybe it was just a reflection.” But he didn’t think so. He folded up the laptop and pulled his penlight from his pocket. He never went far without it—not that it would make a very good weapon, but at least he’d be able to see whatever horrible creature sneaked up on him. “Better let me go in first, Mom, just in case.”
She ruffled his hair, which he hated. “My hero,” she said, but he could tell she wasn’t one bit nervous about going into that big, empty, dark house. She must be nuts.
Headlights spilled through the rear windshield, and Cody turned to see a second vehicle bounding over the gravel drive. A police car. He bit his lip before he could say, “Thank God!” Though he was still a bit nervous. In Stephen King novels, the small-town sheriffs of Maine never failed to be good guys, but they usually got killed off pretty early on, leaving the innocent mother—and her son, who knew all along something wasn’t quite right, but who couldn’t get anyone to listen—to fend for themselves.
Sure enough, a reed-thin man in a gray uniform with a shiny badge, stepped out of the car, and came over just as Mom stepped out of theirs.
“Quigly O’Donnell, ma’am. You must be Ms. Fortune. You’re right on time.” He had
