Free The Road to Amazing by Brent Hartinger Page A

other cars). The church itself was modern-ish, made
of dark wood — a big rectangle of a building with a grill-like
front over stained-glass windows. A narrow steeple, another
rectangle, rose up on one side.
    Nate and Ruby immediately
made a beeline for the labyrinth, which was located in the grass in
front of the building. Naturally, I'd been expecting some sort of
massive hedge maze, like in Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire . Instead, it was
just a circular pathway made of gravel cut into the patchy lawn. It
started at the edge of the circle, and you could follow the pathway
around and around until you reached a flower-like thingy in the
very middle. The whole labyrinth wasn't more than twenty-five feet
across.
    "I confess to feeling more than a
little disappointed," I said.
    "It's supposed to be contemplative,"
Min said. "You walk the labyrinth and ponder the nature of
existence."
    "And, see, I was expecting more in the
way of minotaurs and burning goblets."
    "Race you?" Nate said to
Ruby.
    "Oh, you're on , Kangaroo Jack," Ruby
said, and they both sprinted for the start of this little gravel
pathway that was only about eight inches wide. Which meant, of
course, that they immediately ran into each other, and the whole
"race" was the two of them trying to drag each other off the
path.
    "What the hell?" Nate said, laughing.
"Have you gone troppo?"
    I knew he and Ruby were completely
missing the point of the labyrinth, and Min and I even sort of
shook our heads at each other, but the truth is, I was jealous that
the two of them were so easily able to cut loose and have
fun.
    "Help you folks?" came a voice behind
us.
    Kevin, Min, Otto, and I all
turned.
    It was a middle-aged woman with a
weathered but friendly face. Everything about her was sensible —
her short hair, the shoes, the no-nonsense jersey.
    "Oh!" I said. "You're with the church?
You're just who we wanted to see."
    "You dog !" shrieked Ruby, mid-labyrinth.
"You cheating dog!"
    "Bloody hell!" Nate said.
    The woman eyed Nate and Ruby, who were
basically destroying the church's contemplative labyrinth with
their frenzied battle royale to the end. I could only hope the
woman wouldn't hold it against us.
    She looked at us very
drolly.
    Come on! I wanted to say. It's a dumb
gravel pathway in some dead grass.
    "We're getting married," I said, "but
there was a problem with the location. We need a new venue, but we
don't have much money." I stepped closer to Kevin and took his
hand, to make sure there wasn't any confusion about the fact that
we were a gay couple. I didn't want her to be shocked and appalled
— at her own discretion, of course! — when she realized I wasn't
actually marrying Min.
    Seeing us together, her face
brightened like a Christmas tree. She'd completely forgotten about
Nate and Ruby.
    "Oh, that's terrible !" she said. "Of
course! We'd love to help you. Anything at all, we'll make it
work."
    I looked at Min and
grinned. I'd been right about the Vashon Episcopalians being
crazy-eyed liberals. And I could actually see Kevin relaxing, the tension
leaving his body like he was unwinding a scarf. I kind of wanted to
kiss him right there, but I didn't want to push the woman past her
point of tolerance.
    "The wedding is tomorrow at three," I
said. "We don't have that many guests, only sixty..."
    I stopped in mid-word. Something
flickered on the woman's face. Had I said something wrong? Had Nate
and Ruby moved on from the labyrinth to somehow destroying the
church itself? I glanced behind me, but they didn't seem to be
doing any more damage than before.
    I turned back to her. "What's wrong?"
I said. I didn't dare look at Kevin.
    " This weekend?" she said. "I'm so
sorry, I didn't know it was this weekend."
    "What's wrong with this weekend?" I
said.
    She hemmed and hawed. "It's nothing,
really. I mean, so what if there are bats in the bell tower?
They've been there for months. They're an important part of the
island ecosystem! I don't understand what the big