Jan 29, 2019 6 min read

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¦ CHAPTER TEN

A friend

The story so far: All Sally wants to do is go back up into the attic. But Aunt Sarah has instructed her to get some fresh air in the garden.

Was this ever a real garden? Sally wondered as she and Shadow began to walk through the tall weeds and grass. Sally remembered how it had looked to her from her window. Like a green sea. She closed her eyes and imagined that she was standing knee-deep in water. When she opened her eyes, she saw a glitter of white showing through the thrashing grass at her feet. She bent to pick it up, then looked at the bit of seashell curling up from the palm of her hand. She put it in her pocket, wondering how it had come to be there.

Sally walked on and began to notice through the reaching branches, the fallen underbrush and overgrown weeds, faint ghosts of paths that once must have led about the garden. “The other Sally must have walked here just like this, Shadow,” she said. “Shadow, where are you?” For the cat had entirely disappeared from view. “Here, kitty,” she called. But there was no sign of Shadow anywhere.

The branches of the apple trees stirred, spilling sun bangles through their leaves. For a moment, the entire garden shimmered. The sun felt pleasantly warm on Sally’s head. No one at all seemed to be moving in the apartment houses on either side of the garden. Nor was there any movement or sound from Aunt Sarah’s house. Sally might have been the only person awake in the whole world. How nice it would be to have someone to play with! She missed her friends at home.

Snap! The sudden noise made Sally jump. She looked at the high wall of the apartment building facing the garden. Just above her head, the cord of a window shade swayed back and forth. Beneath the shade, just over the edge of the windowsill, appeared the top of a bright yellow head, followed by a pair of round blue eyes, a turned-up nose, and a curly mouth rather like Elizabeth’s.

It was a girl. She leaned out of the window, looked down at Sally, took a bite out of a cookie, and continued to stare solemnly down.

Sally stared back, too surprised to say anything.

“Do you want a cookie?” whispered the girl.

“Yes,” said Sally, who realized that she was whispering, too.

The girl vanished, and shortly reappeared with another cookie. Leaning farther out the window, she stretched an arm down to Sally.

Sally stood on her toes, reached up, and took the cookie from the girl.

“Thank you,” she said. She took a bite. “It’s good.”

They stared at each other as they ate. Then a silence fell between them.

“What’s your name?” Sally asked at last.

“Emily.”

“Mine’s Sally. I’m eight years old,” said Sally. “How old are you?”

“Seven,” said Emily, not looking at Sally. “Seven and a half.” Sally followed the direction of her gaze, which went straight up to the yellow curtains billowing at Sally’s windows.

“That’s my room up there,” said Sally. “I have a little green fireplace. It’s very old.”

Emily drew back from the window, her braids slipping back inside over the sill. “Good-bye,” she whispered.

Why, she’s afraid, Sally thought. Just like I was. Maybe the empty house looks haunted to her. Maybe she’s afraid of Aunt Sarah!

“Guess what?” said Sally, looking up and finding Emily still there. “I came here last night, and I was so afraid! I never saw this house before, or my Aunt Sarah, either, and the house looked so spooky that I wanted to run away.”

“You did?” Emily said. “Aren’t you afraid anymore?”

“No,” said Sally. “Did you ever think it looked scary?”

Emily nodded her head vigorously up and down.

“Why, I was afraid of my own aunt. I even thought she might be a witch!”

Emily took a deep breath. “That old lady, I saw her when she moved in with a black cat. She was all bent over!”

“But she isn’t a witch at all. She’s just very old,” Sally said. “And the house isn’t scary once you get used to it. It’s just old, too. But-there’s a mystery, a very old doll lost somewhere in the house. There’s a picture of her on the wall of my room. She belonged to a girl who lived here long ago.”

Emily’s eyes seemed to grow larger and become an even deeper blue.

“I’m trying to find her,” said Sally.

Emily grinned. “I’ll ask my mother if I can come out and play,” she said.

“Okay.”

Then Emily was gone. The window was empty except for the half-drawn shade and its dangling cord, moving back and forth like a pendulum, ticking away the minutes while Sally waited.

Soon Emily reappeared. “It’s okay. I’ll come around through the alley.”

As Sally made her way through the tangle of bushes at the side of the house, Emily burst through from the other side. “Hi!” she said.

“Hi!” said Sally. “Want to go into the barn?”

Emily looked at the rather ramshackle building. “Sure,” she said uncertainly.

Sally pushed at the old doors, which squeaked and groaned until the space widened enough to allow the two girls to slip through. At the first squeak, Emily’s hand slipped into Sally’s.

Sally blinked at the darkness inside, feeling a little frightened herself. The barn smelled of dampness and long-ago hay, and the dirt floor was spongy beneath their feet.

Suddenly Emily gave a little shuddering gasp.

“What’s that?” she cried. “Something moved!”

“It’s just Shadow,” said Sally. For there he was, sitting placidly on the high driver’s seat of an enormous shiny red sleigh. The sleigh in the diary! thought Sally.

The sleigh was delicately frosted over with dust and cobwebs and illuminated from above by wavering ribbons of light that descended from holes in the old roof. It looked enchanted to Sally, for it seemed to shine with a light of its own.

“Let’s get up into it,” said Sally. “I’ll go first.”

NEXT WEEK: A decision