The Road to Nevermore (3 page)

“Noooooooo … ,” he moaned. “Don’t let him do that to you … Mom, Dad!” For the briefest moment, his eyes glowed blue and his
bones lit up under his skin.

Billy sat upright.

A flutter of candlelight swung into his room. He scrambled out of his trunk, heart pounding like a shipwright’s mallet.

“Shhhhhh, it’s only me,” Millicent hissed as she tiptoed toward the bed. “Quiet down, or Martha will hear.”

Billy’s hands shook. His wild hair pointed in every direction. “Sorry, Mill. It was another dream.”

“You sure look a fright.” Millicent swung the candle up to his face.

Billy winced. The light stung his eyes. “These dreams, they’re more awful than you can imagine. Someone keeps taking Mom and
Dad Bones away again … and hurting them.”

“Billy, we’ve already seen the worst of the Afterlife. He’s down in the sea trunk below.” Millicent brushed her fingers through
Billy’s tangled hair.

Billy and Millicent had trapped Commissioner Pickerel, a particularly threatening Afterlife official, in the bowels of the
manor. This was the biggest secret Billy had ever managed to keep. Only the children and Billy’s ghostly gramps knew about
it.

Billy rubbed his stomach. Since these dreams had started, it felt as if his insides were being cinched tight as a hangman’s
belt.

Millicent grabbed his hand. “Let’s get down to the closet. You’ll feel better once you see your parents.” Millicent spun around.
“I’ll show you.”

The floor creaked under their bare feet as Billy and Millicent passed through one of the many secret passageways riddling
their ancient home.

Billy held tight to his note. He walked briskly to keep up and was nearly puffed out by the time they stood outside of the
secrets-closet’s sturdy door.

“Ready for family inspection?” Millicent grinned after fussing with the sash of her bathrobe.

“Very.” Billy nodded and then told a truth, as was required to open the locked closet door. “I don’t want to lose my parents
again.”

The key swung off its hook next to the door and twisted in the lock. The door groaned open. The closet was silent as a forgotten
graveyard. For a panicked moment, Billy thought Mr. and Mrs. Bones
were
gone. “Mom? Dad?”

Mr. Bones’s warm voice answered, “Look what a kind wind has blown our way, Decette. Visitors!”

Mrs. Bones clattered from the back of the closet. “Billy! Millicent! Do come in.”

“Yes, straightaway,” Mr. Bones abandoned his ever-present copy of the
Eternal Bugle
, his dependable source for Afterlife news, and held open his arms.

He wore a new silk vest, just the thing to carry the medal for distinguished service that he and Mrs. Bones had been awarded.
Mrs. Bones was more modest about her medal. Hers was framed on top of her walnut filing cabinet.

Billy wrapped his skeleton father in a hug.

“Ooooofff … careful, my boy, you’ll have me scattered in bits and pieces,” Mr. Bones gasped. “Whatever is the matter?”

Millicent told him how she’d found Billy staggered by a nightmare.

Mr. Bones caressed Billy’s cheek. “As you can see for yourself, here we stand. We won’t be going anywhere soon.”

Mrs. Bones descended on him with more hugs. “Oh, Pumpkin, don’t worry.”

Millicent mouthed “pumpkin” and giggled. Billy blushed.

“They won’t even let us out for a long-promised vacation. The Department of Fibs and Fabrications has other concerns at the
moment.” Mr. Bones gave his wife a worried glance, then retrieved his pipe and turned toward the children.

“No more of this talk, eh? Seeing you two is our greatest pleasure. And hearing about all that’s going on, well, it’s like
we’ve taken a stroll out of the closet ourselves.” Mr. Bones rested a hand on Mrs. Bones’s shawl. “Decette, why don’t we have
some cocoa and then the children can catch us up on everything.”

The thought of cocoa brightened Billy’s mood. He loved the stuff. Bittersweet chocolate brewed with angel tears was one of
his favorite treats, from back when he was a skeleton boy.

That was before Mum Biglum had become a world-renowned chocolatier, and when Billy’s evil brother ruled High Manners Manor—the
same brother who had locked Billy in the secrets-closet, starting a long otherworldly chain of events.

First, Billy’s skeleton uncle, Grim, broke a good many Afterlife rules, when he changed Billy into a skeleton for the childless
Mr. and Mrs. Bones. Then, years later, he broke a good many more by trying to dispatch Billy to the Afterlife. Uncle Grim
had been attempting to cover his tracks because rumors of his first indiscretion had leaked out. But his plan backfired when
Billy was transformed back into a living boy. A living boy, steeped in oddness, who was now in definite need of a good cuppa
cocoa.

As Mrs. Bones clattered the cocoa service together, Billy looked around the closet. He was happy to see not much had changed,
though there were fewer secrets trunks now.

As Mrs. Bones filled the pot with angel tears, Billy noticed a stack of secrets documents on the floor.
Strange,
he thought. Normally his parents had every document stamped, sorted, and tucked away in a secrets trunk moments after arriving
in the closet.

Billy shuffled curiously through the pile as Millicent chatted with Mr. Bones.

Billy was about to place the documents back when one caught his eye. He slapped a hand to his mouth.

“What’s that?” Millicent whispered.

“It’s a secret,” Billy said. He held up the document, dangling it like bait.

“And whose secret might it be?” Millicent asked.

“A very naughty girl’s.”

“Really.”

“Oh yes. This naughty girl sneaks out at night to go swimming in the Codswattle. Oooooh, I don’t think Mum Biglum would approve
at all,” Billy teased.

“Billy … don’t you dare —,” Millicent said. By now the conversation had moved well past whispers, capturing Mr. Bones’s attention.

“Billy Bones Biglum! Put that down!” Mr. Bones commanded.

“And her name is Millicent Hues.” Billy laughed.

“Billy!” Millicent and Mr. Bones shouted together.

The document leaped out of Billy’s hand and blew apart—
BANG
—as secrets always do in the light of truth.

“That s-stings!” Millicent stammered.

“Errr. Sorry …”

“When are you going to learn how to keep a secret?” Millicent swatted away the ashes on her robe and gave him a sour look.
Her expression softened a bit when she saw his embarrassment.

But Mr. Bones’s face was hard as flint and sparks as he grabbed the stack of secrets out of Billy’s hands. Before he could
say anything, Mrs. Bones spoke up. “Lars Bones! Don’t you go laying into him. You left those out, so this is no one’s fault
but your own!”

Billy hoped his skeleton parents weren’t going to argue. Each time they did, he wanted to shrink through the cracks in the
floorboards.

Mr. Bones walked stiffly to a trunk at the back of the closet. He flung it open, then sorted the secrets with his usual dispatch.
He was muttering under his breath. It sounded something like, “Fiddlesticks flotsam bother and bats!” But Billy really wasn’t
sure. The comments might have been much ruder.

Mr. Bones was calm by the time he returned. Then he did what any husband who’s been successfully married to the same wife
for over two hundred years would do. He sighed, “You’re right, my dear.”

Mrs. Bones went back to her cocoa and Mr. Bones continued, “However, that’s not everything to be said about the incident.
Is it, Billy?”

“No, sir,” Billy admitted, shoulders sagging. “I shouldn’t have poked around in your private stuff.”

“Well, no real harm done. You’ve already apologized to Millicent, so we’ll consider the case closed.” Eyes dimming, Mr. Bones
tilted his head. “I do wish I could have taught you how to hold a secret.”

Mrs. Bones poured the cocoa. The children accepted their cups gladly, and after they all clinked cups in a toast, Billy excitedly
caught them up on the visit to the ship.

“Of course the
Spurious II
won’t be worth her salt unless she has the proper captain.” Billy fidgeted with his teacup handle, then asked, “Can you help
us get this message to Gramps Pete? We want him to come with us.”

Mrs. Bones stirred her cocoa nervously and looked at her husband. Frowning, Mr. Bones took the note, turning it over in his
hands a few times. “I’m sure Pete would make the grandest captain on the seven seas, six times over. But there are things
going on in the Afterlife that will make it difficult to contact him.” He lowered his voice. “Unfortunately, the Investigative
Branch has been monitoring the mail—they have eyeballs everywhere—so it wouldn’t do to pop off a note to their most wanted
ghost.” He dropped it onto a small pile of unsorted documents. “Best we keep it here. For some reason, they’ve linked Pete
to Commissioner Pickerel’s disappearance!”

Billy’s heart skipped a beat. He glanced at Millicent. She shook her head in a warning.

Mr. Bones thumbed through the
Eternal Bugle
and then poked it with a bony finger. “Here’s an article from earlier this week:”

New Afterlife Restrictions
by Headley B. Moan

Bugle readers may remember how Commissioner Pickerel nearly cornered the market on Afterlife power last year. But his sudden
disappearance left his assistant, Miss Cornelia Chippendale, in charge.

Many souls are worried about new Afterlife government restrictions. Bartemis Brittleback, chief spokesman for the Skeleton
Guild, said, “You so much as jiggle your jawbone and you’re shipped off to Nevermore.”

Bugle reporters tried to reach Mr. Brittleback for additional comments, but he was unavailable. When asked, Temporary Commissioner
Cornelia Chippendale said, “We don’t know where he is, and we will continue to not know where he is for a very long time.”

Emergency spying has been deemed necessary to aid in the search for Glass-Eyed Pete. The Investigative Branch has reason to
believe he was responsible for Commissioner Pickerel’s mysterious disappearance. “We strongly recommend that he get in touch,
or else!” said Temporary Commissioner Chippendale.

Millicent’s cup rattled on its saucer. “Are my parents all right?” she asked after Mr. Bones stopped reading.

“They were when Mr. Benders ran a letter for them two weeks ago.” Mr. Bones answered, trying to look hopeful. “Unfortunately,
he lost track of them last week.”

Millicent sagged like a lost sock. Billy wasn’t feeling much better. Trapping Pickerel obviously had unloosened a wobbly cart
of events that was careening down a dangerous road.

“And what about both of you?” Billy asked his parents. “Will the Investigative Branch come after you again?”

“I think they’ve learned their lesson there.” Mrs. Bones leaned over and patted Billy’s hand, then retrieved his cup.

But Billy wasn’t convinced. His skeleton parents had once been prisoners of Nevermore. They’d still be there too if he, Millicent,
and Gramps Pete hadn’t proved that the couple had been arrested illegally and then captured Pickerel for added insurance.
It was nearly unheard of for anyone to be released from the dreadful place, and exceedingly unlikely anyone would be again.

Mr. Bones consulted his pocket watch and then his wife. “These two heroes really should get back to bed, my dear!” He slipped
his watch into his vest then followed Mrs. Bones and the children to the door.

“Hopefully, children,” Mrs. Bones said, “next time, we’ll have much better news.”

There was nothing Billy wanted more. He wished his parents’ bony embraces could squeeze away all of his concerns.