The Smoky Corridor

71

At 9:01 on Saturday morning, Zack heard a car tooting its horn in the driveway.

“There’s Ms. DuBois,” said Judy, waving out the window. “You all set, Zack?”

“Yeah.”

“She seems like a terrific teacher,” said his dad.

Yeah, she sure seems that way, Zack wanted to say just like Davy had said it. But for reasons still not clear, he was supposed to keep his mom, his dad, and all other adults out of this.

“Have fun,” said his dad.

“Come on,” said Judy. “I’ll walk you to the car.”

They went out the front door. Zipper followed.

“Well, hello again, Mrs. Jennings!” Ms. DuBois called out the driver’s-side window. Zack could see Azalea in the backseat. She looked kind of sleepy.

“This is such a neat idea,” Judy said. “Are you going to do headstone rubbings?”

“We surely are,” gushed Ms. DuBois. “I packed butcher paper and a box of black crayons.”

“Do one for me, okay, Zack?”

“Sure, Mom.”

“Good morning, Azalea,” Judy called into the backseat.

Azalea opened an eye. “Good morning to you, too, ma’am.”

“Well, we best be going,” Ms. DuBois said very quickly. “Malik is meeting us at the school.”

“Okay,” said Zack.

Zipper grumbled.

Zack got a screwy idea. Zipper had been pretty helpful in the past when Zack had had to deal with demons. And since Zack had no idea what he was getting into …

“Can I bring my dog?”

Now Ms. DuBois blinked like a broken stoplight. “Pardon?”

“Saturday’s usually the day I spend a ton of time with Zipper.…”

“Fine,” said Ms. DuBois, obviously in a rush. “Bring your dog. It’ll be fun.”

“Cool. See ya, Mom.”

Judy looked a little puzzled.

“Um, okay …”

Zack wished he could tell her what was going on.

Then again, he didn’t really know.

Just that Ms. DuBois was a book with a phony cover and there were two zombies moving around underneath the school, but you could kill them with fire or if you opened up their soul jars, something Zack had researched on the Internet after playing backyard guessing games with Davy the night before, and Azalea was in some sort of grave danger and Zack was going to spend the day rubbing tombstones. Other than that, it was just your typical, normal Saturday.

The car pulled into the street.

“Finally!” said Azalea. “Who was that woman anyway?”

Okay. Azalea wasn’t very normal, either.