Chapter Thirty-Three Mini #2
Ashley smiled. “Actually, I met her yesterday. She showed us her dolls.”
“It’s like a museum in there. My dad’s family are on the third shelf by the window.
And my mom’s are right across from it.” It always made Mini feel a little strange—going into Miss Josephine’s and looking at those rows of dolls, her ancestors.
The way Miss Josephine would say, “This is where you come from, Mini. You would not be here, none of us would, if it weren’t for these people who came before us. The past shapes the future.”
“The dolls are pretty amazing,” Ashley said now. “One of them was a little freaky, though. The knackerman.”
Mini gasped. “She showed you that?”
She couldn’t believe it. Josephine had broken the rules! Mini’s heart thumped in her chest. Miss Josephine, of all people! She was the biggest rule follower in the whole town.
Miss Josephine scared Mini a little. Sometimes, when she was in Miss Josephine’s house looking at those dolls, the old lady felt almost as scary as the knackerman himself.
She’d said that to her mama once, and Mama had given her a light whack on the head and told her she mustn’t say such things and that Miss Josephine was pretty much the most important person in the whole town and she deserved respect.
But the way Mama said it made Mini think Mama was a little afraid of Miss Josephine too.
“What did she say about the knackerman?” Mini asked, unable to help herself.
“That he’s just a story people tell.” Ashley bit her lip, looked down at the grave, at the offerings laid out there. “But he’s more than that, isn’t he, Mini?”
She waited, watching Mini. Mini held perfectly still, like she was playing hide-and-seek. Only this was a new kind of hide-and-seek. She was hiding her feelings, hiding the truth. She kept her body still, her face expressionless as an old china doll’s.
“A story doesn’t have a grave of his own,” Ashley went on. “People don’t leave gifts for a story.” She reached down, touched a bottle of rum and a dried-up bouquet of daisies. “They don’t leave notes.” She looked Mini right in the eye.
Mini took in a squeaky-sounding breath, her throat tightening.
“And no story I know has the power to come and paint a red mark on your door in the night.”
Mini took a step back. “I have to go,” she said.
“What does the mark mean, Mini?” Ashley asked.
“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry! It’s got nothing to do with you. You should go. You and your brother, just get in your car and drive away from here.”
Ashley shook her head. “You’re wrong,” she said. “It’s very much got something to do with me. See, you’re not the only one with the mark on your door. Last night, someone—something—came to visit me and painted the same thing on the door of my motel room.”
“No,” Mini said, her head spinning. It wasn’t possible.
“Please, Mini. What does it mean?”
“It means…” Mini thought; she considered lying, saying it meant nothing, that it was just some kids messing around. But if it was true that Ashley had gotten the mark, she deserved to know the truth.
“It means you’ve been marked. He’s coming for you.”
“Coming for me?”
“You’ve broken the rules. You’ve… displeased him in some way.”
“Him?”
“The knackerman.”
Ashley was quiet a second, staring down at the blank grave of the knackerman. Then she looked right at Mini. “Why is the mark on your door?”
Mini sighed. “I broke the most important rule of all—I saw him. You’re never supposed to lay eyes on him. You’re supposed to put out the gifts and lock your door, draw your shades, get into bed.”
“You actually saw him?”
Mini nodded. “I hid in the bushes and spied. I… needed to know. I wasn’t sure he was even real. I thought maybe he was just a story, like the tooth fairy? But he’s real all right.”
“What did he look like?”
Mini didn’t answer, just stared down at the toy horse in her hands, squeezing it hard.
“Mini, if what you’re saying is true, if he’s really coming for you, and for me, then we’ve got to help each other.”
Mini thought for a minute. Her whole family was doomed because of her one stupid act.
“I saw the knackerman too,” Ashley said.
“You did?”
“Last night. I opened the door when I heard him there, and saw him right in front of me. He had a white horse skull where his head should be. A long patchwork leather coat with a hood.”
Mini’s whole body went cold and she shivered. “Was he on a white horse?”
“No, just standing there. God, I slammed that door so quick,” Ashley said, laughing even though it wasn’t funny. “Was he on a horse when you saw him?”
Mini nodded.
“You said in your note that you knew a secret about him. And that you had something of his. Can you tell me?”
Mini frowned. Felt the watch in her pocket. “The horse he rode when he came to my house, it was a horse I know. Her name is Stella, and she belongs to Mr. Holland. I know it’s her, not some other white horse, because I saw the red paint on her yesterday.”
Ashley nodded. “Do you think Mr. Holland is the knackerman?”
Mini giggled. “No way! He uses a cane and is all bent over. People have to help him with everything.”
Ashley nodded again. Mini reached into her pocket, pulled out the watch, and showed it to Ashley. “He dropped this. The night I saw him.”
Ashley took the watch from her, studied it. “I know who this belonged to,” she said.
“Who?”
“Frankie O’Massey.”
There was that name again. The name Mini didn’t know. “But the initials are all wrong.”
“It was Dr. Endicott’s. See, T for Thomas, C for Christopher, and the big fancy E in the middle is for Endicott. He gave it to her. She treasured it, carried it everywhere she went.”
Mini bit her lip. Why did the knackerman have this lady Frankie’s watch?
Ashley handed the watch back. “You know what, Mini? I know a secret about the knackerman too.”
Mini’s eyes widened. “You do?”
“The knackerman was real once. He was a real man who lived up on Saw Meadow Hill. And he was the first person who got sick the spring of 1919. I think—I think maybe people in town did something bad to him.”
Mini said nothing. Her head was spinning again.
She reached inside her shirt, pulled out the little charm she kept on a string. It was supposed to protect her, to keep her safe. But it hadn’t done Mini a whole lot of good, had it?
She rubbed the cloth bag between her fingers.
“What’s that?” Ashley asked, leaning toward it.
“It’s supposed to protect me. Miss Josephine makes them. She gives them to everyone in town.”
“I know that smell,” Ashley said.