Carter and the Curious Maze (4 page)

Arthur and the Freak Show

“S
YDNEY
! SYDNEY, WAIT!”

Carter tore through the crowd. When he got to the spot where he'd seen Sydney's hat, she was gone.

“SYDNEY! SYDNEY!” He whipped around in circles. He ran from spot to spot. But there was no sign of her.

Sydney had vanished.

With a groan, Carter slid to the soft ground under a huge old tree. People and horses passed by him. Mothers, fathers, children, walked past in their best clothes, just another normal day for them, and all so terribly, terribly wrong for Carter.

No doubt about it now. This was real. No one could see him except maybe horses; he knew that now, too. He was invisible. The man with the megaphone, the Coney Island sausage man, the people all around him, none of them could see him. It was just as though he wasn't there.

Maybe no one would ever find him, either. But his sister was out there too, somewhere. That thought calmed Carter just a little. If he'd been just a little younger, he might have started crying. But instead he swallowed hard and tried to be calm.

Think, Carter, think!

He had to find his way home somehow. But how?

Where was Mr. Green?

Carter pulled his knees up to his chest. He read a sign across the grass: “FREAK SHOW.” At that moment a man in a top hat came out of a big tent and yelled into a megaphone: “Step right up, ladies and gentlemen! For just ten cents, yes that's one slim dime, you can see the amazing sideshow freaks! Meet Thumbelina, the world's smallest mother! She plays guitar! See the one and only Wild Man of Borneo! He eats raw meat! And barks! And you wouldn't want to miss the bearded lady, would you? We call her Harriet, or Hairy for short!”

The crowd laughed, and then to Carter's amazement people rushed to get inside the tent. He could hear the
clink clink
as men, women, and children eagerly dropped their money into a jar at the man's feet.

A girl and her brother, two children about the same age as Carter and Sydney, pushed passed him. The girl said, “Hurry, Henry! The sideshow freaks are performing!”

Sideshow freaks? Hey, look over here! Freak boy from the future lost in time, ten cents a peek!

No one knew that a boy in strange rubber-soled shoes and oddly zippered clothes was sitting under a tree.

Was he scared? If he had to admit it … yes. If he wasn't scared before in the maze, now he was.

He
was
scared.

How was he going to get home now? Where was Mr. Green?

And where was Sydney?

He was about to get up to retrace his steps back to the carousel. He was trying very, very hard not to panic.

Then …

… “Mummy?”

A little boy stood in front of him. Could it be the boy from the maze? It was hard to tell, since all the children were dressed the same way, but he looked like the same boy.

“Hey, kid! Hey, can you see me?” Carter asked, a little frantically.

The little boy stared at him. “Mummy?” he asked again, doubtful. But he was definitely looking at Carter. The little boy could see him, he was sure of it.

“Kid … listen carefully. Where's the maze?” The little boy stuck his finger in his nose and frowned.

“Lost my mummy,” he said again, a little fearful. Carter grabbed the boy's shoulder. He was real enough.

“Where's your mom? Back in the maze? Where is it? Where's the maze, kid?” Carter wanted to shake him, so he forced himself to calm down. But the little boy just stared. His big eyes filled with tears. Carter sighed and took the boy's hand (the one that
hadn't
just been in his nose).

“What's your name?”

“Arthur.”

“Okay, Arthur. Come on, let's go and find your mom,” he said. If he couldn't find the maze, and he couldn't help himself, at least he could help this little lost boy find his mother.

It felt better, much, much better, having someone see him and speak to him, even if it was just a lost five-year-old.

“Mummy?”

“No, Arthur, I'm not your mom, sorry. We're both lost,” Carter said.

“No! Look!” the little boy said, more urgently this time. He was pointing at something.

SNIP!

SNIP!

Mr. Green!

 

The Wild Man of Borneo

“H
EY!
MR. GREEN! STOP!” Carter yelled. Mr. Green vanished into a building with the word “Horses” carved into the marble arch over the door.

Carter tore through the crowd but screeched to a halt. A little voice wailed behind him, “Mummy!” When Carter looked back, Arthur was running after him, crying.

“Come on, Arthur!” Carter grabbed the boy's pudgy fist. “Mr. Green is in here!”

The boys ran into the enormous building filled with weird displays and packed with people. Carter stopped, frantically looking for Mr. Green. Straw littered the floor, and stable boys with wooden boxes and shovels ran around cleaning up after horses tied to posts. There were steaming piles of manure everywhere. Giant flies were abundant.

How does anyone keep clean in 1903?
Carter wondered, sidestepping a large pile of horse poo. The place smelled of leather, straw, and animals. And manure. Definitely manure.

A big crowd of men stood around an old-fashioned tractor with big metal wheels. It had a sign on it: “See the amazing Avery Traction Truck! Does the work of fifty horses!”

Carter pushed through the huge crowd and stood on his tiptoes, straining to see over the hats on many, many heads. There were so many people, so many hats, that he couldn't see very far. He pushed and pushed, dragging the little boy with him.

First they struggled past an enormous beer bottle that went from the floor to the ceiling.

That's a LOT of beer!

Then they pushed past a huge tub of something called “MacLaren's Imperial Cheese.” Women in long dresses and feathered hats stood tasting the cheese in tiny spoonfuls.

That's a LOT of cheese, too! It'll take them forever to eat it all!

They carried on, running past a life-sized statue of a lion carved out of soap. The place was just getting weirder and weirder. Carter felt like he'd gotten stuck in some land designed for giants.

SNIP.

SNIP.

Carter spun around. He craned his neck around the ladies' hats and the towers of cheese and soap …

… and there! Mr. Green!

“STOP! MR. GREEN!” The old man was fast!

Carter pushed people aside, skidding to a halt out the back door. He looked around, frantic.

Where was he? Where was Mr. Green?

There!

A green smock swirled through a nearby tent flap. Carter and Arthur followed fast, and ran into the tent past a man wearing a top hat. The man tried to grab Arthur but the little boy dodged just in time.

“Stop! You there, boy! You owe me ten cents! Stop, thief!”

But the boys kept running and melted into the huge crowd inside the dark, stuffy tent. They skidded to a halt in a crowd of people staring at a man in a cage.

He wore a leopard-skin robe.

And he was barking.

Carter did a double take. Other than the barking and the leopard skin robe, the man looked totally normal and possibly a little bored. The sign attached to his cage said, “The Wild Man of Borneo.”

He looks like he's in a zoo!

No time to stare. He grabbed Arthur, and they elbowed past more people.

“Do you see Mr. Green?” Carter whispered.

A shout made Carter jump. The man in the top hat scanned the dark tent for Arthur. The crowd was big, but not big enough to hide them for long.

“This way!” Carter whispered. The boys hurried past a tiny lady sitting on a stool, holding a small guitar. The woman smiled. The sign beside her chair said, “Meet Thumbelina, the world's smallest mother.”

“Are you lost, little boy?” she asked. Carter tried to pull him away, but Arthur wouldn't budge.

“Have you seen my mummy?” the little boy asked. The crowd was parting, and the top hat got closer and closer in the darkness. They had to go!

“No, I'm afraid not. But if you're looking for that man with the green smock and the garden shears, he went that way, dear,” Thumbelina whispered, pointing.

“Thank you!”

“You're welcome,” she said pleasantly.

The man in the top hat searched through the crowd, getting closer and closer. Another lady across the tent smiled and jerked her head, making her long beard wobble. Carter tried not to shout in surprise. “Over there …” the bearded lady whispered.

“HEY! YOU THERE! STOP THIEF!” The man in the top hat was upon them! But Carter and Arthur had already seen a green smock swirl through a spear of sunshine at the back of the tent.

SNIP!

SNIP!

The man in the top hat took an enormous swipe at Arthur, but the boys dodged him and burst out of the tent into the sunshine after Mr. Green …

… and skidded to a halt.

“Where's Mummy?” the little boy asked, puzzled.

They stood in tall grass, facing the lake. Beside them was the big grey rock. But the sideshow tent, the bearded lady, Thumbelina, the man in the top hat, the crowd gawking at the Wild Man of Borneo, the horses, the midway, Mr. Green … were gone.

Everything
was gone.

The Grand Fair 1903 had vanished.

Battlefield

C
arter
stared in disbelief. For a second, he thought he heard a very faint sound of people on a midway. Then silence. He ran back to where the sideshow tent should have been and waved his arms around, but it was no use.

Everything that had been there a moment before had vanished.

Instead, there was grass, lake, and the big grey rock. Carter was glad the rock was still there, the one that he and Sydney had eaten ice cream beside before this weird afternoon began. At least something was still the same.

But there was no sign of Mr. Green. Or Sydney. Or the sideshow tent.

Carter took a huge breath of fresh air. No smell of garbage, no fried food — not even any horse manure.

Okay, so the fair in 1903 has disappeared, just like the maze. What now?

And
when
?

Carter sat in the deep grass and tried to clear his swirling head. What was going on here? He felt slightly sick. Arthur stood in front of him and rubbed his eyes, a chubby little reminder of 1903. Carter didn't feel so well. Time travel, hallucinations, a weirdly real dream? Whatever this was, it was making him feel very, very strange.

He tried to focus. Whatever was happening, they had no choice but to go forward.

“Where are we now, do you think, Arthur?” Carter dug his heels into the long grass.

“I don't know.” The little boy dropped into the grass beside Carter. “There are lots of trees cut down, though,” he added.

Carter looked around and realized Arthur was right. Tree stumps dotted the field all around.

“There's a big forest, too,” Arthur added. He was right again, since nearby a huge, towering forest stood where the stumps stopped. The forest looked like it had stood there forever, and no one had chopped it down or paved it over. It was quiet, very, very quiet. Carter could hear his own heartbeat and Arthur's breathing.

It was creepy quiet.

Carter bit his lip. “Okay, Arthur, get up on my shoulders and see if you can see anything.” The little boy climbed up, and Carter turned slowly in a circle.

“People!” Arthur called out.

“Hey! You're right! There's a town!” Small wooden buildings dotted the shore in the distance, and smoke rose from far-off chimneys. A sailing ship that looked like a toy sat offshore in the bay.

Could that be … the city? It's so tiny! It's just a little town now.

Still, it was a relief. There were people around. There was a town nearby!

Then Carter noticed more signs of life.

“Look, Arthur, there's a flag on that hill over there, and I smell smoke,” Carter said. He tried to keep his voice even; he didn't want to scare the little boy too much. He didn't need a crying child on his hands on top of everything else.

He very badly wanted to shout for Mr. Green, but there was a silence to the place that made him wary. Something told him he should be careful and stay hidden. The little boy looked up at Carter, and for a moment Carter felt sorry for him. Here was a five-year-old who was lost and somehow stuck in this strange place with him.

“Alright. So, here's what I think. Somehow, we must still be on the fairgrounds … the lake is the same. The big grey rock is still here. There's a small town way down the shoreline, where the city should be. So I think we're in the same place. I'm not sure
when
we are, though. Before skyscrapers. Before tall buildings, before even small stone buildings, I guess.”

The little boy stared at Carter and blinked. Then he shivered in his coat, and Carter noticed for the first time that the afternoon had grown cold. In fact, it no longer felt like summer but more like a cool spring day. Somehow the season had changed too.

“Okay. So where there's a flag and smoke, there are people. Come on, let's go see if we can find Mr. Green. But be quiet.”

He took Arthur by the hand, and they crept slowly across the field toward the smell of smoke and the fluttering flag. They kept low and hidden behind fallen trees and stumps. Which wasn't hard. Someone had cut down a LOT of trees. Some of the stumps were so huge that Carter couldn't imagine how big the tree must have been, or how old, before it got chopped down. And beyond that stood the enormous green forest. You couldn't see past the trunks, they were so thick and solidly grown together. And tall.

They crept along, down a small hill, over a shallow creek, then to the bottom of the hill below the flag. It fluttered above them on a stone wall. Small, sharpened tree trunks stuck out of the hill, right at eye level. You'd never be able to climb over them; they were good defence against anyone trying to climb the hill.

Jutting out of the wall above his head, Carter saw the round, metal nose of a huge gun.

A … cannon?

No doubt about it. A cannon stuck out of the brick wall above his head, pointing back the way they had just come.

“Carter!” Arthur pointed above them.

Carter looked up, and the little boy was right. A man stood on the wall above their heads. He wore grey pants, a red jacket, and he carried a long gun with a pointed end. A bayonet! Carter pulled the little boy down into the grass beside him.

“A soldier!” Carter whispered. As he watched, more men in grey pants and red coats stood on the wall above them. They carried bayonets that glinted in the sunlight.

Then a loud voice shouted: “Rally, men! The enemy is near! Ready the twenty-four-pounder! Prepare to fire!”

Carter gasped.
The enemy is near?
Wasn't there a battle around here a long time ago, during a war?

He and Arthur were sitting right below a cannon….

“COME ON, ARTHUR!” Carter dragged the little boy away from the bottom of the hill, away from the dark snout of the gigantic gun.

KA-BOOOOOM
!
KA-BOOOOOOOM
!

Both boys fell into the grass. Rocks and stones rained down while Arthur wailed and covered his ears. Carter gasped and grabbed the little boy, wrapping his arms around him.

JEEEEZZ!
I'll never be able to hear properly again!
Carter peeked up at the cannon. Smoke furled out of the gun like a dragon's snout. He could see the soldiers in red coats pouring more black powder into the back end of the enormous gun.

“Come on!” Carter clutched the little boy's hand and dragged him to a nearby hill.

Arthur bravely bit his lip, but his eyes shone with tears. The soldiers on the wall shouted. The stinging smoke from the cannon hurt Carter's eyes. He did NOT want to be so close to it when it fired a second time.

Now that they were farther up the hill, Carter could see more clearly. They were hiding near a handful of wooden buildings, and soldiers in red coats ran from building to building with guns and long swords.

More shrieks and shouts.

KA-BOOOOOM
!
KA-BOOOOOOOM
!

The earth shook again, the trees wobbled, the windows in the wooden building in front of them rattled.

Now I know what
cannon-fire
sounds like, I hope I never hear it again!

Inside the fort,
frantic
soldiers ran through doorways and down steep stone steps, carrying guns, swords, hatchets, and barrels of gunpowder. More soldiers whizzed by in a blur of red jackets.

Carter watched the soldiers closely, then Arthur grabbed him and pointed at the forest.

“Look, Carter,” he whimpered.

Soldiers in blue coats crept through the woods. The enemy! What should he do? No one could see him, so he couldn't warn the soldiers. He'd never felt so helpless!

But whatever Carter did wouldn't have mattered because then …

… it was
war
.

With a shout, the soldiers on the wall saw the enemy creeping through the woods. Guns fired. Musket balls whined overhead. Men shrieked. Thick white smoke filled the air. Native warriors with guns and knives ran from the woods, and soldiers in red coats tore down the hill to join them in the fight against the enemy.

Then the madness really started.

Soldiers in blue coats and soldiers in red coats ran at each other across the field of stumps. Swords flashed, then clashed. Gunshots fired. Men screamed and yelled. Within a few seconds, the air was thick with white smoke that choked Carter's throat and burned his eyes. The shiny tips of bayonets sliced the air, and it was impossible to see anything in the mayhem.

But worse than that was the noise.

Screams, shouts, gunshots, running feet, more shouts, more gunshots. Groans of injured men. Carter realized he had forgotten to breathe for a few moments, he'd been holding his breath so hard.

Arthur whimpered and hid his face in Carter's shoulder. Carter put his arm around the little boy. The two boys huddled behind the wooden building, as far from the bullets and screams as they could get, but they were far from safe.

What should we do? How are we going to get out of this? I'm too scared to get up!

BANNNNGGG! A gunshot went off right beside Carter's ear. He'd never be able to hear again! Thick white smoke filled his face, and the singe of gunpowder filled his nostrils.

A second later a wounded soldier in a red coat ran past, gripping his arm. A drop of blood splashed over his feet. He ran by their hiding spot, looked right at Carter and cried out, “Bloody blighters!” The soldier dashed away, chased by ten blue-coated soldiers who loomed out of the smoke. Their bayonets bristled like tree trunks, sharp and deadly.

“I saw them in the maze!” Carter whispered. First Arthur in 1903, and now the wounded soldier … what could it mean?

Then …

SNIP!

SNIP!

Carter jumped up from his hiding spot.

There! Mr. Green! A green smock swirled around the side of a wooden building across the grassy fort. Carter was about to call out, to run and follow Mr. Green.

But then suddenly another sound caught his ear very, very faintly, so faintly that he almost missed the familiar voice:
Carter! Carter!

It was SYDNEY!

No mistaking it this time: past the smoke and madness on the battlefield below, a tiny red hat bobbed along.

Sydney was calling him from the edge of the forest.