A Kiss in Time (4 page)

Okay, buddy. Only you go in front.

So I go up front, taking the full scratchy brunt of the brambles for another twenty
minutestwenty minutes during which I dont think about my parents or Amber but only about the fact that if I lose too much blood, therell be no one here to help. When we
finally reach the other side, I stop.

Wow, I say. What is it? Travis is still behind me. Definitely not the beach.

W
hen I was a kid, back when my family was still pre- tending to like one another, we took a
trip to Colonial Williamsburg. Its this place where everythings like Colo- nial
timeshorses and buggies on unpaved streets. Theres stuff like blacksmith shops, too. My
sister, Meryl, and I had fun with the employees because if you ask them stuff like which
way to Starbucks, they act like they dont know what youre talking about. But it got weird
after a while. You wondered if they seriously didnt know it was the twenty- first century.
I was ready to go home at the end of the day.

The place on the other side of the hedge is sort of like that. I mean, not just old.
Pretty much everything in Europe is old and falling apart and important, but this place
takes historic preservation to a whole new level.

Do you think its, like, a theme park? I say to Travis. No one here.

Maybe its just not open yet. Or closed. Is today Sunday?

The streets are unpaved, and even if they were, theyre barely wide enough to get one of
those little European cars down. But the transportation here is horses, judg- ing from how
many are tied to hitching posts, sleeping. Theres not a McDonalds or a Gap anywhere, only
one building with
ALEHOUSE
painted on it in peeling, old- fashioned lettering. And the plants look bad. Some are
overgrown, but a lot of stuff is bare, like the grass died years ago.

Definitely not the beach. Travis starts pushing through the brambles.

The brambles have settled into the same shape they were before we went through them. I do
not want to go through those bushes again.

Travis must think the same thing because he steps back. Maybe we should eat lunch first.

Something about this place is really weirding me out. Lets wait for a while. Who knows how
long it will take to get back to civilization . . . and sandwiches.

Travis thinks about it and gets this worried look on his face. Okay. Then we should get
out of here. He starts pushing through the brambles again.

Wait! Maybe we should start looking for a different way out or at least see if anyone
around here has a chain saw. You see any people here?

Theres horses. And theyre tied up. That means there are people somewhere. The weird thing
is, I sort of want to look around a little bit. This place is cooler than any- thing else
weve seen on this trip. At least its outside, and Mindys not here telling us what to
think. We should look for them.

Travis glances around. If theres people here, theyre really not into mowing and weeding.
But if you say so. . . .

I do.

He shrugs but follows me. We walk down the street, which is really more of a pathway with
weeds and stuff growing on both sides. I point to the alehouse. Lets try in there.

He nods. It doesnt look like the type of place where theyd card.

The alehouse has steps in front of it. When I put my foot on one, it squeaks and moves
under me. I step on a better, less rotted part, but even so, it quivers and shakes.

This is really weird, Jack. You think maybe the whole town died or something, and theres
nothing but a bunch of dead bodies?

I remember when we went to Colonial Williamsburg, they told us about all the diseases
people got in those days, like yellow fever, black plague, and scarlet fever. Meryl and I
joked that all the diseases back then sounded really colorful. But now its kind of freaky
thinking about some sickness taking out the whole town. Maybe Travis is right, not necessarily that everyone died, but maybe a lot did and the rest decided to get out of
Dodge.

But I say, Thats stupid. Theres no abandoned town in Europe. If there were, someone would
turn it into a museum. Theyd widen the streets and bring people here by the busload and
torture kids on tours.

I guess youre right. Of course I am. And to prove how right I am, I walk to the door. But
I still cant bring myself to go in, so I look through the window. Its easy because theres no glass in it, and I remember that a lot of places
didnt have glass windows in the old days, only shutters to pull down at night or if it got
cold. I cant see much. Theres no light inside and nothing moving. We stand there so long
that Im almost expecting someonepossibly a ghostto come up behind us and ask what were
doing here. So when Travis says, Come on! I jump about three feet.

He laughs. Not afraid of dead bodies, huh? Nope. I push open the door. The room is dark.
There are lanterns, but none are lit. It takes my eyes a minute to get used to it. Even so, I see there are people there,
sitting on barstools, but theyre really quiet. No music, no laughter, no talking, and when
my pupils finally dilate, I realize the people arent moving at all, like theyre dead.

But they cant be dead. If they died long ago in some plague or massacre, their horses
wouldnt still be tied outside, and theyd be reduced to skeletons. Unless they got mummified. I saw this movie
once where this guy killed someone. He mummified her body and sat her in an upstairs
window. You couldnt tell the dif-

ference unless you saw her face. I take a deep breath and let it out real slow, prepping myself to walk around and look at their faces. Thats when it happens.

One of them snores. What was that? Travis says. Hes hugging the door. It sounded like a
snore. A snore? Like theyre sleeping? All of them? I think so. I walk over to the side of
one guy. He snores, and I see his stomach moving in and out. Hes alive. Hes definitely alive. Im
saved! I dont have to touch a mummified corpse!

I tap his shoulder. Hey, bud.

He doesnt answer. I shake him harder and yell louder. Hey! Dude! Hey, you!

Now that its that obvious theyre not zombies or any- thing, Travis steps forward and
starts shaking a different guy. Were sorry to bother you, but were looking for directions.

Nothing.

There are five guys on stools and the bartender asleep on the floor. Trav and I spend five
minutes shaking, yell- ing, pulling, and practically dancing with them. Theyre definitely
alive, but theyre totally asleep. I think we need to try another place, I tell Trav.

Theres only one person at the next shop, an old lady asleep with a bunch of falling-apart
hats on stands. We shake her, but she doesnt wake.

We try three more places, and theyre all the same.

Freaky, Travis says when we step out of the greengro- cers. There was nothing in the bins,
not a single grape or carrot. The grocer was napping on the floor. Can we leave now? A
grocer without groceries is just . . . wrong.

I sigh. I guess so. But when I turn the corner, I stop. Whoa!

I
ts a castle. Not a modern-looking one like Buckingham Palace, with electricity and toilets
(when we visited it, the plumber was therehis truck said
THE DIPLOMAT OF DRAIN AND SEWER CLEANING
and Trav and I had fun joking about what the queen had done to stop up the drains), but a
real castle, the kind that comes in a set with a bunch of plastic knights and horses. It
could even have a dungeon.

Check it out. I start toward it. Hey, wrong way. I want to go back. Suit yourself. I walk
faster. But I have the sandwiches. Hey! Travis starts running after me, but hes got on flip-flops. I have sneakers, and I was on the track team at school, so I can outrun him.

The castle is farther than I thought because its bigger than I thought. Its big enough to put a whole city in. I finally reach it about ten
minutes later. Theres a moat around it full of brown, sludgy water.

Oops. Cant go in, Trav yells from way back.

I walk around the perimeter until I see where the draw- bridge is. Its open, and theres a
castle door at the end of it. I start across.

Are you sure you should do that? Someone might behead you.

Come on, Travis. What are we going to do, go crawl- ing back to Mindy? This is the first
interesting thing weve seen in the past three weeks. I just want to look around.

At the door, I see two guards. Surprisetheyre sleep- ing. I grasp the handle and pull on
it. It opens with a loud squeal. I step inside.

Were in this huge room with three-story ceilings. Wow, its like the ballroom in Shrek 2,
Travis says. I nod and hand him a sandwich. It lightens the load,

and weve still got six or seven more. To be safe, I hold on to the beer.

Hey, look. I point at a suit of armor standing in a corner. Lets try it on.

There could be someone in it.

I jump back. I hadnt thought about that. I dont think the sleeping people around here look
like they date back to medieval times, but better safe than sorry. I slowly, gingerly lift
the bill of the knights face mask.

Its empty. I breathe out. Maybe this place wont be as freaky as the rest.

This is so cool. All the castles and towers weve been to, youre either not allowed to look
around inside at all, or if you are, you just get to stand behind velvet ropes and see
stuff in climate-controlled boxes. This place is real, even if it is a little dusty. I
start down a hallway that goes out to the side. I look in the first room. Hey.

What is it? The kitchen? Better. Its an actual throne room like in the movies, and there are people in it, peasants maybe, waiting to see the king or something. The king isnt
there, though.

Theyre asleep like everyone else in this town, Travis says.

But look.

Two guards sleep off to one side. Each has a pillow in his lap. On each pillow is a crown
encrusted with diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. Its just like the stuff we saw in the Tower
of London, only its out where we can touch it.

Im trying one on, I say. Are you sure you should? What if they wake up? Weve practically
stomped on these people, and they havent woken up. Still, when I take the crown off its velvet pillow, I almost expect an alarm to go off or something. None does, and I place the crown on my head. How
do I look?

Travis laughs. Kind of stupid. Youre just jealous. Try the other.

Its a girls crown. Still, he puts it on. We fool around, sitting on the thrones and
patting the peasants on the heads. After a while, Travis says, We should take them.

I shake my head. I dont like the idea of stealing any- thing. Lets look around first and
see what else there is.

We put the crowns back and go into more rooms. On the third floor, theres a bunch of rooms
with nothing in them but dresses.

Wouldnt you think this stuff would get eaten by rats and bugs? Travis says.

You see any rats and bugs? Maybe theyre sleeping, too.

When we reach maybe the tenth room of dresses, Travis says, This is boring. Lets try on
the armor.

Im about to say okay when I notice this weird little staircase going off to the side. I
saw a turret when we were outside. I wonder if this goes up to it.

Lets go there first, I say.

Before Travis can protest, I start upstairs. I didnt think the staircase was very tall,
but it curves around and goes higher. Then it curves again and again.

When we finally reach the top, the door is closed. I open it and find a room with nothing
but a girl, sleeping on the floor.

Shes the most beautiful girl Ive ever seen.

I
stare at her. Ive never seen a human being who looks like her, and Im from Miami, where
good-looking people go to spawn. But this girl isnt just beautiful. Shes perfect in a way
thats unreal, like one of Meryls Barbie dolls.

What Im saying is, this girl is . . .

Wow, shes hot, Travis says when he finally reaches the door.

Yeah. That. Shes lying on the floor with these golden curls all around her, like someone
arranged them that way. Her body, I can tell even in her long dress, is totally perfect.
Shes taller than almost everyone else here, and thin in all the right places with these
great . . .

Would you look at her? Travis interrupts my thoughts again. I am. I stare at the top of her dress, which shes really filling out, let me tell you. I
feel this incredible urge to touch her, but I know its wrong because shes asleep.

But the weird thing is, its not her body I notice the most. Its her face.

Her skin is the color of milk with just the tiniest bit of strawberry Nesquik mixed in.
Her eyes are closed, but I can tell theyre huge, with long eyelashes that curve upward.

And her mouth. Its full and red, and her lips definitely dont look like lips that havent
been moistened in hun- dreds of years.

For some reason, looking at her makes me think of Amber. Not that she looks like Amber,
because she doesnt. Ambers beautiful in a normal, human way. But, compared to this girl,
Ambers total chopped liver.

And somehow, just looking at her, I know she isnt like Amber. She wouldnt dump someone for
a guy with a cooler car.

What are you, in love with her? Travis says. Youre staring like an idiot.

The weird thing is, I think I am. Stupid. Shes asleep. You could . . . Travis looks at the
door.

. . . do anything. Thats sick.

You know you were thinking about it. No, I wasnt. That would be wrong. Right and wrongs
getting kind of fuzzy for me. Was it wrong to ditch the tour? Was it wrong to lie to Mindy? Was it wrong to sneak in here?

I guess. I keep looking at the girl. I cant stop looking at her.

Come on. I dare you to touch her.

Okay. I want to anyway. I lean toward her, wishing shed wake up.

I reach down and touch one of her curls.

Soft. So soft. I comb my fingers through it to make it last. She stirs in her sleep, and I
imagine shes enjoying my touch, but of course, thats impossible.