Town Secrets (The Book of Adam 1) Read online

  Contents

  COPYRIGHT

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  DEDICATION

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Look for “Aeturnum” - Book 2 in The Book of Adam series available now.

  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0166CNUJ8

  Copyright © 2014 Scott Gelowitz

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Adam McTaggart sat in front of the grocery store wondering when his friends would arrive. As he waited, he heard the conversation of two familiar old ladies as they approached.

  “Did you hear? Something destroyed that town! There isn’t a soul left anywhere,” exclaimed Aggie.

  “I heard that some of the buildings are still standing, but not many,” replied Martha, looking down at her short friend.

  “Gives me the shivers. I’ve met people from there before. Seemed like normal folks to me,” said Aggie.

  Martha agreed. “I sure hope they find out what happened. I feel like going on a long holiday ‘til they figure it out. They’re not that far away from here.”

  Aggie nodded with a shudder.

  The elderly ladies walked and talked as they passed the grocery store, ignoring Adam completely.

  What did they say? A town was destroyed and the people are missing? Weird, he thought as he watched them turn onto Main Street and disappear out of sight.

  Although the sun was shining, it felt cool outside, especially for a summer day. The birds that usually filled the air with happy song seemed to sing sadly that morning.

  James Jones the Third, (he preferred Jimmy), and Kevin Baranov rode up on their bikes a short time later. Jimmy had a puzzled look on his face.

  “Hey,” said Adam

  “Hey,” replied both Jimmy and Kevin.

  “Did you hear about Langenburg?” asked Jimmy. “My parents couldn’t stop talking about it this morning.”

  “I didn’t know it was Langenburg. I overheard Aggie and Martha talking about it when they walked by a few minutes ago,” Adam replied, “I wasn’t sure how much to believe. You know how those two can tell a story.”

  “Yeah, no kidding,” chuckled Kevin. “They give small towns a bad name.”

  Adam grinned and Jimmy nodded.

  “My parents were acting pretty weird this morning too,” Kevin continued. “I overheard the news on Dad’s radio at breakfast, but they must have known about it earlier. They were talking about Langenburg instead of listening to the news, and they never miss the news at our house.”

  The conversation stopped as a customer stepped out of the store carrying bags of groceries. The three boys waited in silence, and soon they were alone again.

  “So, what do you guys want to do today?” asked Adam.

  Jimmy and Kevin looked at each other and shrugged.

  “Let’s see if Mark has any ideas,” said Adam.

  “As long as we don’t get seen by old George,” said Kevin.

  Jimmy laughed. “How come a big guy like you is scared of a little old man like George? He couldn’t hurt you.”

  “I’m not scared of him! He just freaks me out,” replied Kevin.

  The others chuckled. They knew George was a little strange, but he wasn’t dangerous.

  “We’ll ride around the block and coast into Mark’s driveway from the other side,” said Adam. “That way, we don’t go past George’s house so there’s less chance he’ll see us.”

  “We can try, but I think he can sense me coming,” said Kevin.

  Adam and Jimmy laughed.

  The three thirteen-year-old boys set off. It was a short ride to their friend Mark’s house, made slightly longer by the detour. As they approached, they could see the front of George’s mobile home on the other side. Even though not much of it was visible, they saw things piled high in the front window. Adam couldn’t imagine what the inside would be like, and he didn’t really want to find out.

  As they pulled into Mark’s driveway, George was nowhere to be seen. Even though he didn’t admit it, Adam was relieved he didn’t have to listen to George.

  Jimmy hopped off his bike and rang the doorbell while the other two waited a few steps behind.

  Mark’s dad answered the door and looked at the group. “Hello boys, what are you up to today?” asked Gurpreet Gupta in his naturally low voice and rich East-Indian accent.

  “Not too much, just hanging out,” replied Jimmy. “We came to see if Mark wanted to do anything with us.”

  The door pulled out of Gurpreet’s hand, opening wide.

  “See you later Dad,” said Mark as he squeezed his round belly between his father and the door frame.

  “Just make sure you are home in time to eat, or your mother will be very very angry.”

  “Sure thing,” Mark replied as he closed the door, forcing his dad back inside. “Let’s go guys.”

  Mark picked up his bike from beside the house as the others returned to theirs.

  "HEY...YOU...KIDS...,” came a yell from nearby. George jogged around the corner, in a hurry to catch them.

  Oh no, thought the group.

  “Did you hear the news? The end of this town’s coming! We’re next! They’re after the secret!”

  “Hi Mr. Fritz,” said Mark, seeming to have heard the warnings many times before.

  “Mark, you and your friends need to get out of town! It’s not safe here anymore. Just like I told you! They’re coming for the secret,” said George, pointing at each of the boys.

  “Who’s coming?” asked Adam.

  “…I don’t know…but I know they’re coming. Just listen to the news,” said George

  “Sure thing,” replied Mark, trying to end the conversation and leave.

  “Langenburg isn’t the first place this happened to, you know. It’s happened before…down east, on the coast… something’s coming…,” he repeated.

  George stopped talking, having noticed Gurpreet appear in the window.

  “You come over soon and I’ll show you what I’ve found,” George whispered, “You won’t think I’m crazy then.”

  After a quick and almost frightened wave to Gurpreet, he turned and walked straight into his mobile home, locking the door behind him.

  The boys looked at each other.

  “I don’t know about you guys, but this Langenburg thing has my parents pretty uptight,” said Mark in a low voice, seeing his dad still in the window. He walked his bike toward the gas station and the others followed.

  “Yeah, all of our parents are acting pretty strange,” replied Kevin, with the other two boys n
odding in agreement.

  “Do you think George is onto something? I know I’ve always heard rumors about Grayson being different, but I never thought about it much,” said Adam.

  “I’ve heard a lot of his stories before, and they can be pretty convincing,” said Mark. “When Dad makes me do odd jobs for George, I usually get stuck listening to his stories, like ‘why no one from Grayson had to serve in either World War’. He has tons of stories about the founding families, hidden treasure, great evil destroying us all - the usual crazy old guy stuff. If it wasn’t for his endless supply of chocolate bars and Root Beer, I wouldn’t listen at all.”

  Kevin laughed. “You’d do anything for a free Root Beer, except work,” he teased.

  “You go listen to him for an hour and tell me it isn’t work,” Mark shot back.

  “Anyway,” Jimmy interrupted as they walked, “what should we do today? It’s the start of summer holidays and I’m already bored.”

  A car raced around the corner by the hotel, startling the boys and ending their conversation. It nearly slid into the pumps at the gas station before it recovered and sped past, pulling into the Gupta’s driveway.

  They watched as a man stepped out of the car and jogged up to the house.

  “Isn’t that Mr. Chen?” asked Kevin. “What’s the big panic?”

  The boys could hear a stressed conversation going on at the Gupta’s house.

  “I should check it out,” said Mark with a worried look on his face.

  The group was walking toward the Gupta’s house when they saw Gurpreet and Don Chen heading for the car.

  “We have an issue at work. I’ll be back later,” Gurpreet called to Mark before jumping in the passenger seat. Don backed out of the driveway and sped past again, the engine roaring.

  “What on earth could be such an emergency today?” asked Jimmy. “They work at the weather monitoring station. It’s not like we get earthquakes here.”

  “I wonder if it has something to do with Langenburg,” thought Adam aloud.

  Had he known what was coming, Adam wouldn’t have wasted the following days in search of excitement with his friends. There would be plenty of excitement soon enough.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Adam woke up. Well, not exactly. He opened his eyes while lying in bed and looked at the clock. 6:34 am. Way too early to get up on a day he didn’t have school. There was no going back to sleep, though. His brain had started working and refused to return him to his dreams.

  It had been a week since the news about Langenburg, and he hadn’t thought about it until he woke that morning. It came to his mind in a vivid memory. Why would someone destroy an entire town, and just what happened to all of the people? What if George was right and something was coming to Grayson? Too early to think about that now, he decided.

  The sun shone through his bedroom window making it warm, even though it was early. It was a small room with few decorations, only things Adam had found or had built himself.

  He sat up and looked around, then rolled out of bed to find clothes for the day. It was easy to choose a shirt as there were only two clean out of the five he owned. The jeans he had worn the day before weren’t dirty, so he put them on over clean underwear. The rest of the previous day’s clothes sat in a pile at the foot of his bed so he dropped them in the clothes hamper. That little bit of work would save him from hearing his mother complain later.

  With careful steps he climbed down the narrow stairs. Having avoided all of the creaks, he turned into the cramped kitchen hoping to find something to satisfy his grumbling stomach. After searching through the cupboards for things he knew wouldn’t be there, he settled for his usual piece of toast with a small bit of butter. At least today I can have some milk, he thought as he poured himself a glass.

  Instead of sitting at the small kitchen table, Adam sat in one of the two living room chairs. They were the only furniture in the room except for the old television. The chair he chose was the older and uglier one, but it was the more comfortable of the two. His mother usually sat there, but she was still asleep so Adam could enjoy it for the moment.

  He finished eating, put his plate and glass in the sink and sat back down in the same chair, thinking about the day ahead. Kevin would meet him later and they would decide what to do at that time.

  Adam stared at the few pictures of his father on the mantle without really seeing them, mainly because there wasn’t anything else to look at. If he turned on the TV and woke his mom, she would be furious.

  He browsed each of the pictures, trying to remember his father, but the memories were weak. Edward had died when Adam was just two. Mary McTaggart was devastated, even though she said she had seen it coming. Years of drinking and smoking were bound to catch up with him, but a heart attack wasn’t something anyone expected, especially since he was young and in good physical condition.

  Something caught Adam's eye in a picture of Edward on the lowest shelf of the mantle. Has that always been there? thought Adam.

  He moved and picked up the picture. It was a small portrait of Edward. The picture had been in the same place for as long as Adam could remember, but it seemed different somehow. On Edward’s suit jacket was a lapel pin Adam hadn’t noticed before. The pin was shaped like a bowtie and was easy to overlook. Deep in his mind Adam was sure he’d seen that shape around town before.

  I wonder where that pin is? he thought. In days of boredom, he had gone through almost every drawer in the house, except for a few in Mary’s bedroom, but had never seen it.

  Adam heard movement upstairs, so he placed the picture back on the shelf and sat down in the other chair.

  Mary made her way down the stairs and into the kitchen, triggering every creak along the way. She brewed herself a cup of coffee and sat in her living room chair.

  “Good morning, Mom,” said Adam.

  Mary just looked at him and nodded slightly. Adam knew not to say much more until she had finished her first cup of coffee.

  They sat in silence as Mary slowly sipped her black beverage. When Adam looked at the clock it was 8:35 am. He must have stared at the picture for a lot longer than it seemed. Right then felt like a good time to be somewhere else.

  He walked to the door, slipped on his runners and stepped outside. The morning air smelled of dew and grass clippings from their neighbour’s lawn. The bright sun made him squint as he walked to the garage, but the warmth felt great.

  Adam stepped through the side door of the small garage sitting near the back of the yard. It was nearly empty except for Adam’s homemade bike, some old furniture, and a few tools he had either found or had been left there by the previous owner. His dad had left some tools behind, but Mary had sold anything of value long ago.

  The garage was his refuge. Mary seldom bothered him when he was in it unless she had chores for him, which seemed often. Most of the time it was his own private space where he could do whatever he wanted.

  The garage was where he discovered he had a talent for fixing mechanical things. He wasted hours pulling apart anything he could find and built other things from the parts, sometimes successfully. It was also where he built his bike from parts he collected at the dump, garage sales and donations from his friends.

  As he walked to the back of the garage, something in the corner caught his eye. A long time ago, that corner had held a stove for winter heat. There had never been a stove there as long as Adam had been using the garage, and the only things left as evidence were the plugged chimney hole in the roof and the tin heat shield on the wall.

  It was the heat shield that caught his eye. It covered a two square foot section on each side of the corner, and the top edge of the left shield was hanging away from the wall a little. Being old and rusty it wasn’t surprising, but Adam was concerned because his best hiding spot was behind the right heat shield. Years ago, the right side had come away from the wall, and he found that he could make it look like it was still secure with one well-placed nail. Most of the time, he had
only few dollars in change hidden behind and nothing else.

  He checked his hiding spot first, and after finding the money untouched he inspected the left side. It looked like the nail head rusted just enough for the tin to pop off, but he decided to check behind anyway.

  He pulled the tin away from the wall and looked into the dimly lit space. To his surprise, something was there. He reached in and pulled out a large cardboard envelope. The envelope was a heavy one used to mail important documents and looked like it had been there for a while. It was addressed to Edward, but there was no return address.

  The top was open, so Adam reached inside. He pulled out a small stack of papers and pictures. The picture on top was of a group of people standing in front of Town Hall. It must have been the Grand Opening, because they were all dressed in formal clothes and there were decorations hanging in the background. If it was the Grand Opening, the picture was from 1910. He had learned the year it was built while on a class trip a few years before. The date was carved into a brick near the main entrance.

  Adam looked at the picture a little closer. Each of the people wore the same lapel pin as the one Edward wore in his portrait. Since he had just noticed the lapel pin earlier that morning, the ones in the Town Hall picture stood out. He would have overlooked them at any other time.

  He set the pack of paper and pictures on the workbench nearby and looked back in the envelope, checking for anything he might have missed. As he angled the envelope toward the light of the lone window, something shiny flashed at the bottom. He reached in and pulled out a lapel pin, exactly the same as the ones they wore in the Town Hall picture.

  The lapel pin was bowtie shaped, over an inch long and half an inch wide. A needle that was used to attach the pin to clothing ran the length of the back. The sharp end was held in place under a small metal latch, keeping it from poking whoever was handling it.

  He felt a connection with it right away, sure that it had to have been his father’s. Why else would it be hidden in their garage?

  The crunch of gravel under bike tires snapped Adam back to reality. Someone was coming. Without thinking, he shoved everything back in the envelope and slipped it back where he found it.