“The McGill!” shouted one of the other boys, “the McGill!”
Again that squealing war cry, and then Allie heard no more of it, for her ears and her eyes and the top of her head had sunk into the asphalt. Johnnie-O had stopped pushing, but gravity was doing the rest. The Earth had her like quicksand and she was going down. She tried to scream, but no sound came out, it was completely muffled by the earth filling it. The Earth had swallowed her, and the feeling of it in her chest—in that place where her lungs should have been —was more awful than anything she could remember, and it dawned on her that this could very well be her eternity. She was on her way to the center of the Earth.
How deep was she beneath the surface of the road now? Six inches? Six feet? She forced her arms to move, using every ounce of strength she had. It was like swimming in molasses. She forced one hand up high, and tried to haul herself upward, but it did no good. Then, just before all hope left her, someone reached down out of nowhere, grabbed her hand, and pulled. She felt herself sliding upward inch by inch. She forced her other hand up through the asphalt until her fingertips brushed the cool air, and someone grasped on to that hand as well.
She moved up, and could feel the top of her head and her eyes and ears clearing, and finally her mouth, and she released the scream that had been held back by the dirt and the rocks, like a gag in her mouth.
Had Johnnie-O and his gang changed their minds? Or was this the monster that she had summoned out of the woods, pulling her out of the Earth, only to devour her?
But with her eyes clear, she could now see into the face of her savior.
“Lief?”
“Are you okay?” Lief said. “I thought you were lost for sure.”
Nick was there too, and together the both of them pulled until Allie came out and landed on the solid ground of the dead-spot. She collapsed in a heap, breathing heavily, and Lief looked at her strangely.
“I know, I know,” said Allie. “I don’t have to be out of breath, but I want to be. It feels right to be.”
“It’s okay,” said Lief. “Maybe someday you can teach me to feel that way again.”
“Where’s Johnnie-O and his cast of morons?” Allie asked.
“Gone,” Nick told her. “They were so freaked when Lief came charging out at them, they took off.”
Lief laughed. “They really thought I was the McGill. Ain’t that a hoot and a half?”
Lief began to pull ghost weeds from beneath the WELCOME TO ROCKLAND COUNTY!
sign, and used their stalks to repair his road-shoes, which must have broken when he charged Johnnie-O. “Have you been following us all this time?” Allie asked.
Lief shrugged. “Well, yeah. I had to make sure you didn’t get eaten by no monsters, didn’t I?”
“Great,” said Nick. “We’ve got our own guardian angel.”
“If I were an angel, I wouldn’t be here, would I?”
Allie smiled. After all these years Lief had left his forest for them. It could not have been a choice he made lightly, and so she vowed to herself that from this moment on, she would look out for him in any way she could.
They didn’t wait until dawn, figuring Johnnie-O and his gang might come back.
Rather than being troubled by the encounter, Allie found herself heartened by it. Nick was his usual gloom and doom, talking about Lord of the Flies and the dangers of rogue bands of parentless kids—but even in his worry, there was a new energy—because running into Johnnie-O proved that there were lots of Afterlights around. Not all of them would be as unpleasant as Johnnie-O’s gang.
They came to the Hudson River, and stayed on the highway that ran along the Palisades: sheer cliffs, carved by the relentless glaciers of the last Ice Age, which lined the western shore of the river. Traffic became denser, but they bore it no mind, not caring if the occasional car passed through them. In fact, for a while they tried to make a game of it, trying to figure out what song was playing on the radio during the brief instant each car sped through.
“The things we dead folk do to amuse ourselves,” Allie said, heaving a heavy sigh. The game didn’t last long, mainly because Lief, who had never heard a car radio, much less rock ‘n’ roll, felt increasingly left out.
By sunset of the next day, the cheese-grater grid-work of the George Washington Bridge appeared downriver, heralding their arrival in New York City.
Lief was overwhelmed by the sight of the great city looming before him. It was a clear day, and the whole skyline could be seen from across the river. Lief had been to New York before. Twice. Once for the Fourth of July, and once for Mr. P.
T. Barnum s circus. There were tall buildings to be sure, but none like these.
Nick and Allie stared as well. Lief assumed they were also in awe of the spectacular view. In truth, they were awed, but for an entirely different reason.
“I think I know where we should go,” Nick said, a strange hollowness to his voice. Allie didn’t answer him for a while.
“Manhattan is out of our way,” Allie finally said. “We should stay on this side of the river, and keep heading south.”