Page 148 of Whistle
Annie whirled around. Standing by the door that led into the shop stood Charlie, therealCharlie, full size and rubbing his eyes as though waking up from a nap. His clothes were dirty, his hair amatted mess. Annie maneuvered her way through the various ribbons of track in her path, ran to him, dropped to her knees, and threw her arms around him.
“Oh, Charlie, Charlie,” she said, burying her face in his neck and squeezing him to her. “I was so scared for you.”
When she pulled back to look him in the eye, she saw that as many tears were running down his face as there were running down hers.
“I’m sorry I ran away,” he whimpered. “I thought I had to. The man tricked me.” He was looking at Nabler over his mother’s shoulder.
“He made me think he was Dad. He was in my dream one night and showed me where the key was to open the shed, so I could get out the trains. He made me think Daddy was here.” His chin crumpled. “But when we got here, Daddy wasn’t here.”
“I know, sweetheart, I know.”
She recalled that night John spoke to her, warning her not to leave the city. That was the real deal, she thought. Not Nabler working his black magic.
Charlie said, “I kept thinking, if there was a chance, if maybe Daddy was really alive, I had to come here and get him. And when I found him I’d bring him back and you’d be so happy.”
He tightened his arms around his mother’s neck, and she could feel the tears running down into her collar.
Charlie put his lips to his mother’s ear and whispered, “He killed Daddy.”
“I know.”
“And he wants you. Everything was a trick to get you here.”
“I know that, too, Charlie.”
“One time when I looked at him, he was different. Just for a second. Like the thing you were making.”
“I saw that, too. We’re in a tough spot here, but I want you to know I love you more than anything in the whole world.”
“I love you, too, Mommy.”
Nabler tapped his wrist. “Tick-tock,” he said.
Annie turned and looked at him. “You said he could get some fresh clothes?”
“Yes, but you should say your goodbyes now.”
Annie said to Charlie, “The car’s just down the street, past the tree that fell down. It’s unlocked. All our stuff’s packed in the back. You’ll find some of your clothes there. I packed real fast, so I might have missed some things. And I brought back my stuff, even some of the things I’d been working on.”
“Okay.”
She put hand on each shoulder and looked at him very directly. “Mr. Nabler here wants me to help him with what he does. I don’t want to do it, but we’ve kind of made a deal. I help him, and you’ll be okay.”
“We get to go home?”
“Youget to go home. It looks like I’ll be staying here.”
He started to tear up again. “I don’t want to go home without you.”
“Mr. Nabler’s giving me a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’ll be able to use my talents to do some amazing things. He’s been explaining it all to me. When you were in the train, circling around us, did you hear him talking about it?”
“A little, yeah,” he said, and sniffed.
She spoke slowly and deliberately. “About how when something happens with the trains, it makes something like that happen in the real world? Did you hear him talking about that?”
Charlie nodded.
“Don’t you think that’s interesting? And the way I understand it,it doesn’t always have to be with trains. Like, you know that saying when you’re walking on the sidewalk, step on a crack, break your mother’s back?”
