Page 10 (1/2)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

On the way into town, on a street near the school stood the nickel emporium where all the sweet poisons hid in luscious traps

Doug stopped, stared, and waited for To, this way In!’

Around him all the boys came to a halt because he said the naic

Doug beckoned and they all gathered and followed, orderly, like a good army, into the shop

To that nobody else knew

Inside, honey lay sheathed in wared and captured in the alazed clusters of snowy coconut June butter and August wheat were clothed in dark sugars All were crinkled in folded tin foil, then wrapped in red and blue papers that told the weight, ingredients, and ht bouquets the candies lay, caralue the teeth, licorice to blacken the heart, cheax bottles filled with sickening ars, red–tipped chalk–s when your breath smoked on the air

The boys, in the middle of the shop, saw dia Persi softly, in the Nile waters of the refrigerated box, its water cold enough to cut your skin Above, on glass shelves, lay cordwood piles of gingersnaps, macaroons, chocolate bits, vanilla wafers shaped like moons, and marshmallow dips, white surprises under black ue, plaster the palate

Doug pulled some nickels from his pocket and nodded at the boys

One by one they chose frolass, breaththe crystal vault

Moments later, down the e of the ravine with the pop and candy

Once they were all asseain and they started the trek down into the ravine Above the hoht day And above those, Doug saw, as he shielded his eyes, was the hulking carapace of the haunted house

‘I brought you here on purpose,’ said Doug

Tom winked at him as he flipped the lid off his pop

‘You ht Now,’ he cried, holding his bottle out ‘Don’t look so surprised Pour!’