Free The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford

like that for a very long time, swaying slightly, until night came, and every now and then my mother would lightly pat her back.
    Since it involved going out before sunrise each morning, Jim had to quit his paper route, and certain precautions were taken, even including locking the front and back doors at night. We weren’t allowed to go anywhere off the block without another kid with us, and if I went to the woods, I’d have to get Jim to go with me. Still, I continued to walk George by myself at night and now felt another specter lurking behind the bushes with Teddy Dunden.
    On the first really cold night, near the end of September, the wind blowing dead leaves down the block, I went out with George and started around the bend toward the school. As we passed Mrs. Grimm’s darkened house, I heard a whisper: “Is that you?” The sudden sound of a voice made me jump, and George gave a low growl. I looked over at the yard, and there, standing amid the barren rosebushes, was Mrs. Edison.
    â€œCharlie, is that you?” she said, and put her hand out toward me.
    The sudden sight of her scared the hell out of me. I turned, unable to answer, and ran as fast as I could back to my house. When I got home, my mother was asleep on the couch, so just to be near someone else I went down to the cellar to find Jim. He was there, sitting beneath the sun of Botch Town, fixing the roof on Mrs. Restuccio’s house. On the other side of the stairs, Mickey and Sandy Graham and Sally O’Malley were working hard in Mrs. Harkmar’s class.
    â€œWhat do you want?” asked Jim.
    My heart was still beating fast, and I realized it wasn’t so much the sight of Mrs. Edison that had scared me, since we were by now used to her popping up anywhere at just about any time, but it was the fact that she thought I was Charlie. I didn’t want to tell Jim what was wrong, as if to give voice to it would make the connection between me and the missing boy a real one.
    â€œI guess the prowler is gone now,” I said to him. There had been no reported sightings of him since Charlie’s disappearance. I scanned the board to find the shadow man’s figure, those painted eyes and straight-pin hands, and found him standing behind the Hortons’ place up near Hammond Lane.
    â€œHe’s still around, I bet,” said Jim. “He’s lying low because of all the police on the block in the last couple of weeks.”
    My eyes kept moving over the board as he spoke. Botch Town always drew me in. There was no glancing quickly at it. I followed Willow Avenue down from Hammond and around the corner. When I got to Mrs. Grimm’s house on the right side of the street, I was brought up short. Standing in her front yard was the clay figure of Mrs. Edison.
    â€œHey,” I said, and leaned out over the board to point. “Did you put her there?”
    â€œWhy don’t you go do something?” he said.
    â€œJust tell me, did you put her there ?”
    I knew he could tell from the tone of my voice that I wasn’t kidding.
    â€œNo,” he said, “Why?”
    â€œâ€™Cause I was just out with George, and that’s exactly where I saw her a few minutes ago.”
    â€œMaybe she walked over there after I turned the lights out last night,” said Jim.
    â€œCome on,” I said. “Did you move her?”
    â€œI swear I didn’t touch her,” he said. “I haven’t moved any of them in a week.”
    We looked at each other, and out of the silence that followed, we heard, from the other side of the cellar, the voice of Mrs. Harkmar say, “Mickey, you have scored one hundred on your English test.”
    A few seconds passed, and then I called out, “Hey, Mary, come here.”
    The voice of Sally O’Malley said, “I’ll have to do better next time.”
    Jim got up and took a step toward the stairs. “Mickey, we need you over here,” he