The Phamtomime

Chapter 2

The thing about dares is,smart people avoid them.

The thing about me is,I guess,im not thatkind of smart.

Case in point:when i arrived at the theater the next after noon, i couldn't see what all the fuss was about. The majestic looked great compeared to all the other abandoned buildings in Riverton. There were plenty of those,since-let's face it-the town's best days were long gone.

The theater's wall were tag-free and its windows in one piece. Everyone steered clear of Maple Lane. Even the other buildings had their backs to the street like they were giving the Majestic the cold shoulder.

To most people that would have been a clue.

Even my usual posse of enthusiastic bustanders refused to come along,but i didn't mind. No-one would know if i succeeded,but they wouldn't know if i failed in an epic call the fire department kind of way,either.

The box office windowa were all boared up.The glass doors behind it had yellowed newspapers taped to the inside with no gaps big enough to see through.I gave one of the doors an experimental shove,but it was locked.

"You gonna stand there all day?"

I would have screamed expect expect i'd inhaled my gum and was choking to death.

Andy thumped me hard between the shoulder blades until the gum flew out of my mouth and disappeared among the piles of leaves and trash that had collected around the doors.

"That's twice in two days I've saved your life,"he said."you owe me big time."

Between gasps,I managed to call him some colorful names.

"How'd you get that open?"Andy nodded over at the glass door I'd just tired.It sat open about six inches ,looking like it had been that way all along.

"But. . . I didn't." I poked the door with a wary finger,looking for some sort of hidden opening device that a sister-smothering brother might have installed. "Did you do that?"

"Uh, I just arrived in time to save your skinny butt, remember?"He tapped his watch. "Three-forty-five.Your half-hour starts now."

Before Andy could call it a forfeit, I ducked through the door and inside.Little clouds of dust billowed around my feet as I ran up the stairs.At the top, I stopped to catch my breath.

"You have to go into the theater itself,not just the lobby,"Andy called from outisde.

Ignoring him, I had a quick look around. Faded daces on old posters grinned out at me from inside their glss display boxes.Some had slipped off their pins and crumpled to the bottom of their box.A domed iron and glass skylight in the ceiling let in a bit of light,but not much,thanks to the crows that pooped all over it and covered the egdes with their sprawling nests.