Free The Figure In the Shadows by John Bellairs, Mercer Mayer Page A

had Indian-wrestled with him once, and she had won easily. But now it was different. They staggered back and forth across the floor of the library. Rose Rita’s face got red; so did Lewis’s. Neither of them said a word.
    Finally Rose Rita gave one sharp yank and tore the chain through Lewis’s sore fingers. And at that Lewis gave a wild yell and leaped at her. His hand raked down the side of her face. Blood flowed.
    Rose Rita stood in the middle of the room, panting. In one hand she held the chain with the coin on it. With the other she gently touched the wetness on her cheek. Now that the coin was gone, Lewis felt as if he had just been shaken rudely out of a dream. He blinked and stared at Rose Rita and he felt ashamed. Tears came to his eyes.
    “Gee, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to,” was all he could say.
    The study doors rolled back, and there was Jonathan. “Good lord, what’s going on here? I heard this scream, and I thought someone was being killed!”
    Rose Rita hastily stuffed the coin and chain into the pocket of her jeans. “Oh, it wasn’t anything, Mr. Barnavelt.Lewis borrowed my Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Ring, and I said that he had kept it long enough, and we had a fight about it.”
    When she turned to face him, Jonathan saw Rose Rita’s bloody cheek. “Wasn’t anything? Wasn’t anything? Did Lewis do that to you?” Jonathan turned to Lewis, and was on the point of giving him an angry lecture, when Rose Rita interrupted.
    “It wasn’t what you think, Mr. Barnavelt. I . . . I was scratching my face with the hook end of my glasses. You know, the part that fits down over your ear? Well, it must’ve gotten sharp somehow because it really gave me a scratch!” Rose Rita was very good at explanations on short notice. Lewis was grateful.
    Jonathan looked from Lewis to Rose Rita. There was something fishy about all this, but he couldn’t quite tell what. He thought about all the fights he had had with his best friend in grade school, and he smiled. “Oh well. As long as everything’s all right.”
    Late that night, after everyone else was asleep, Rose Rita tiptoed downstairs and opened the front door. She was wearing only her slippers, pajamas, and bathrobe, but she went out anyway, down the shoveled walk and out the front gate. She walked to the corner and stopped by the iron grate of the storm sewer. Water from the melting snow was running down into it with a hollow chuckling sound. Rose Rita took the amulet out of her bathrobe pocket. She dangled it over the grate, swinging it on its chain. All she had to do was let go, and it would be good-bye amulet.

    But she didn’t let go. A suggestion that seemed to come from outside told her that she shouldn’t throw the thing away. Rose Rita stood there a minute, staring at the strange little object that had given Lewis so much trouble. She scooped the coin back into her hand and put it into her bathrobe pocket. As she turned back toward the house, she thought, “Maybe Lewis is right after all. We’ll put it away for a while and see what happens. I’ll tell him that I’ve thrown it away, so he won’t be pestering me all the time about it. Maybe he can use it when he’s older. He might be a great magician or something then. I’ll guard it for him.” She reached into her pocket to see if the coin was still there. Yes, it was still there. Halfway back to the house she stopped to check again. Then she laughed at herself for being such a fussbudget. She tromped up the creaky steps and went in to bed.

CHAPTER NINE
    It was December now, and everyone in New Zebedee was getting ready for Christmas. Big tinsel-covered bells were strung across Main Street in several places, and the fountain at the traffic circle was turned into a Nativity scene. Jonathan lugged the Seagram’s and Oxydol boxes down from the attic and began unsnarling the Christmas tree lights. They had been put away in neat little bundles, but they had