Free Carter and the Curious Maze by Philippa Dowding Page B

wrong with you? You don’t look too well.” She looked at him, a little concerned. Carter shook his head. He couldn’t quite grasp what was happening.
    â€œUm, did you go into the maze, too?” he asked, a little breathless.
    Sydney looked at him very closely. “I went in, walked to the exit, then came out. You took a little longer but came out a few minutes later. Are you okay, little brother? Do you have sunstroke or something?”
    Carter felt faint. What was going on?
    â€œDid you see Mr. Green, too?”
    â€œMr. Green? Who’s that? I don’t know what you’re talking about, Carter.” She spoke very slowly and clearly like she would to a small child who didn’t quite understand what was being said. “You and I went for a walk over to the maze for a few minutes, and then I got through the maze first, and you followed a few minutes later. I called you a few times, then there you were. Why would I worry about you in a maze for ten minutes?”
    â€œYou … you’ve been standing here the whole time? You didn’t miss me?” he asked.
    â€œYes, Carter, I’ve been standing here the whole time. And no I didn’t miss you. There was no time to miss you. Geesh, now I know you have sunstroke.” Sydney had clearly had enough of the conversation and took one last look at the curious maze sign. “Hardly the most interesting ride ever,” she muttered. “It’s almost four o’clock. Let’s go find Mom. Maybe take you to the hospital and get your brain checked,” she teased. Then she walked away.
    Carter gulped. Okay. So it was all a hallucination? A bizarre, terrifying dream? A trick of the light?
    No! Arthur, Clarissa, the freak show, the grand magazine explosion, the bear, the old French fort. Mr. Green. It was REAL. He was THERE. Time passed differently in the maze. Maybe what took an afternoon for him just took a few minutes for Sydney, but it still happened.
    Carter’s head was spinning. He was glad to be back … but nothing made sense.
    He ran to catch up with his sister, and they headed toward the parking lot to find their mother.
    The late afternoon sun shone on the midway, lighting up the huge roller coasters and Ferris wheels in the distance. People sat on picnic benches eating an early dinner, or ice cream. In cones.
    Maybe it was all a dream?
    Carter took a deep breath and tried to calm down. It was okay. Whatever had happened to him that afternoon, he was back, he was safe. It had been a strange adventure, but he found his way out of the maze. It was over.
    He didn’t look back. Then he did, just once … and did a double-take.
    Carter gasped. Then he tried not to scream.
    A tiny figure in a green smock stood beside a tree and waved at him.
    The figure clutched a pair of red-handled garden shears!
    Carter didn’t want to see, didn’t want to hear, didn’t want to know. But he knew all the same. There was no denying what he just saw. Or what he knew was coming next.
    Just below the screams of the midway, there it was, the sound he’d never forget for as long as he lived …
    SNIP!
    SNIP!
    Then, as Carter watched in horror, Mr. Green and the curious maze disappeared in a whirlwind of dust, off to startle and astound children in another fairground, in some other far-away place and long-ago time.
    Â 

This Part Is (Also) Mostly True
    W elcome to the end of the story, and if you’ve made it this far, congratulations. I told you at the beginning that it was scary and more than a little strange, yet here you are. I’m sure you’ll never look at a leafy garden maze the same way ever again.
    You’ve no doubt got many questions at this point. You’re probably wondering what happened next, and you might also be thinking … is this story true?
    Well, some parts of it are absolutely true. Still, if you remember on the very first pages of this book, you read these words: