May Bird Among the Stars (26 page)

Next to it a tiny wheel caught her eye. It had a small arrow mounted on a spinner in the middle, and the arrow could point to one of four different-colored sections of a map of Earth. Tiny stars marked the four portals in the four corners of the globe. May drew a finger to her lips and then very gently, very carefully, took the arrow and pointed it to the star that marked Briery Swamp.

Now all that was left, she guessed, was to leap.

May hesitated. She looked back at the door to the Bogey's bedroom. Beyond it lay her worst fears: the goblins, ghouls, Bo Cleevil. But also beyond it were her friends—and a place in the universe that claimed to need her.

Need her.

May looked at the pool on the floor of the closet again.
Underneath it was her mom and everything that was warm and as comfy as a fuzzy mitten. Underneath it was home.

May peered into the watery blackness.

“I can't, Kitty. I can't leave them.”

Turning, she rushed back to the bedroom door and quickly turned the corner—into a hallway packed with ghouls coming toward her.

Clutching Somber Kitty tightly, May backed into the bedroom again, looking around for a place to hide, a different way to escape.

She looked to the closet again, knowing there was no other way.

She crept to the edge of the puddle. She closed her eyes and counted to three. And then she turned to look over her shoulder. The first of the ghouls had gained on the doorway and were lunging toward her.

May hoped for luck … and leaped.

T
he sky was dark above but for the occasional flash of lightning flickering on raindrops as they plummeted toward the tiny lake far below.

The moon, hidden by the storm clouds, had no view. And so she missed it when a little girl burst out from the surface of the lake and scrambled up on shore, pulling herself across the dirt and finally resting a few feet from the water's edge, as soppy and bedraggled as a wet mouse.

May pulled Kitty out of her shroud. She filled her lungs deeply with air and continued lying on her back, looking up in space.

Had she made it? Had she really made it?

May sat up, then stood on shaky legs and turned to take in the trees, the briars, the sky. There were no zipping stars in it, no gray dusk hanging.

It was
night.

May took another deep breath. And then she laughed. She held out her arms and flung her head back and howled. She hopped from foot to foot, Somber Kitty watching from a safe distance, slightly embarrassed for her.

Exhausted, her legs giving way beneath her, May sank back down to the ground, running her fingers happily into the soft mud, eyeing her bathing suit, which no longer glowed or sparkled. Her heart gave a hard ache, and she ran her hands over the fabric, then looked back up in the sky.

She ran through the briars like the prickers didn't matter. She needed to know that she was really here, and she wouldn't believe it for real until she she saw it: White Moss Manor.

Home.

Bursting onto the front lawn, she took in the sight. Every light in the house was on, as they had been—though May didn't know it—ever since she'd disappeared. She took a step toward the house, began to run, and then she stopped right there in the middle of the grass and looked into the sky one more time.

Somewhere, someone needed her. Somewhere, they thought she was a hero.

She leveled her eyesight back on the house and spied a face in the window. A worried face under brown curls. It hadn't seen her yet.

May ran for the porch, Somber Kitty tucked in her arms, taking the steps two at a time. She stopped short of the door and her stomach did a flop. A tiny white envelope was waiting for her there on the brushy welcome mat. Seeing the familiar stamp, she picked it up and slit it open, pulling out the letter in a flash.

Dearest May,

Congratulations. I knew you could do it You see, I am not all that bad.

She kept reading.

Don't forget about the Stardust. Don't forget about the q'artz rocks in the woods. You are small. But you are also so much more.

May smiled, her lips bunching up as she tried not to cry.

And don't forget, we still need you.

Don't forget us.

Sincerely,

The Lady of North Farm

The letter began to shrivel, then turned to dust in May's fingers. It fell through the cracks between them and then through the cracks in the porch beneath her feet.

May looked at her front door, taking one final deep breath. She turned the knob.

“Mom!” she called as she gave a big push and burst inside. She left the door open behind her.

Out on the lawn, only a spider and a ladybug heard the muffled sound of pounding feet running down the stairs and the happy cries of two people who loved each other very much saying hello after a long good-bye.

The trees missed it completely. Right then their attention was turned in another direction, upward, toward a star that was growing dim.