Instantly, I sat up, straining to see in the dark.
Now, if I were back in Chicago, I’d just stuff a pillow over my head to block out the noise, figuring it was a neighbor. Our walls were so thin in that apartment, you could sneeze and people two floors down would say Bless you!
But this definitely wasn’t Chicago. So, when something went bump, I paid attention. Especially because I was already on edge. Double especially because the sound was followed by sticky, mucky, stepped-on-a-piece-of-tape footsteps.
I stared around the room. There wasn’t much furniture—a dresser with my backpack (Eddie’s journal still zipped up tight inside), a coatrack, and a chair with my clothes from the day on it. Still, nighttime eeriness turned the shadows of ordinary objects into something twice as creepy. Fingers stretched out of empty space. Shapes combined into creatures that crept toward the bed.
“Who’s there?” I whispered.
Nobody answered. The crickets yelled their chorus outside and the wind cackled in the dry cornstalks. But those were normal farm sounds, right?
I don’t know what I expected. I took a deep breath and rubbed my eyes. This was silly.
“Stop being a baby, Tristan,” I said, embarrassed. “There’s nothing here.”
Something scraped along the floor, and I swear I heard a voice whisper, “Where is it, where is it, where is it?”
My heart skipped a beat, and I scrambled to the foot of the bed with the flashlight clutched in both of my shaking hands. I clicked it on, but nothing happened.
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” I muttered, slapping it against the palm of my hand. The switch was stuck. “Why doesn’t anything work around here?”
Click
The beam flickered on after the fifth or sixth try. “Finally!”
I swept the cone of light around, looking for anything remotely creepy, relaxing a bit each time something strange became familiar. The fingers turned back into a coatrack. The creeping monsters turned back into the chair covered in clothes. The doll baby in the middle of the floor—
—rotated its head when the flashlight beam hit it.
I froze.
The doll looked homemade, like someone had carved it out of wood, painted it a dark molasses brown that hadn’t quite dried yet, drawn two black dots for eyes, and glued curly black wool on its head in two afro-puffs. It stood still in the light, almost a foot high, and the two of us stared at each other.
“Okay,” I said, then licked my lips. The flashlight turned off again. “Okay. This…is not weird. Right? There’s nothing weird about—”
“Who you calling weird?”
I looked around, confused, as I tried to locate the owner of that voice. It sounded strange and high-pitched, like when you breathe in helium from a balloon and your voice gets squeaky.
“Oh, so you don’t see Gum Baby now? She invisible now?”
It came from down low. The flashlight came on just in time to catch the doll starting to walk across the floor toward me. Each of her footsteps made a sound like Velcro strips separating.
It—she?—stomped closer, glaring and pointing. “Where is it? You’d better tell Gum Baby, and fast.”
Gum Baby? No way.
I’d heard that name before. Not the little doll from the stories…? It couldn’t be!
In the Anansi tales, Gum Baby was a doll Anansi used to trap an African fairy while he was on a quest. But in the story, the doll remained silent and wore leaves for clothes. This one, on the other hand, had on a black turtleneck and black pants, but her tiny feet were bare. And what were those stains she was tracking across the floor?
“Hey, Gum Baby’s talking to you, big boy.” The doll marched across the floor, the serious expression on her face ruined by the plopping sound each of her footsteps made.
“Don’t make Gum Baby climb up there.”
Plop plop plop
“Is Gum Baby talking to a brick wall?”
Plop plop plop
“Oh, you’re asking for it now.”
Plop plop plop
She was up the side of the bed and leaving dark stains on the blankets by the time I finally shook myself out of the daze and extended the flashlight like a weapon. “Who—who are you?” I whispered.
The ten-inch-tall doll glared at me, climbed atop my foot, and struck a pose. Both chubby arms spread wide, one foot planted on my big toe, she laughed in her tiny voice.
“Ha-ha-haaaa! You want to know who Gum Baby is? Gum Baby is the reason you sleep with the door locked. Gum Baby is the reason the sun runs away across the sky. Gum Baby is your nightmare, and people whisper her name and tremble around the world. Aha-ha-ha-haaaa!”
“Shh!” I said, waving both arms in warning. “You’re gonna wake up my grandparents.”
Gum Baby cocked her head and looked at me like I’d just slapped her.
“Did you…” she began. “Did you just shush Gum Baby? Didn’t you hear the introduction? Being a nightmare and all that, and you locking your door? Did…did that not make sense?”
“No, it made sense, it’s just—”
“Should Gum Baby clarify?”
“No, it’s fine, I just don’t want—”
“Oh good. In that case, GUM BABY WILL GO UPSIDE YOUR HEAD IF YOU EVER THINK ABOUT SHUSHING HER AGAIN!”
Gum Baby scrambled across my lap and flailed at my chest with both sticky hands.
“Let another shush come out of that mouth. Let it! It’ll be the last shush your shush-maker will shushify!”
“Okay, okay!” I batted away the irritating blows, ducking and dodging more of that sticky stuff. “Stop it, that tickles, and you’re getting…stuff all over the bed.”
Gum Baby wrestled with my shirt one more time, then stood on my lap, both hands on her hips. I wiped a glob of goop off my cheek and made a face. What were Granddad and Nana gonna say about the mess in the morning?
“That’s better. Now, where is it?” Gum Baby folded her tiny arms across her chest.
“Where’s what?”
“Don’t play dumber. You know what.”
“No, I—Look, I don’t know who you are…. Well, I think you’re…but that wouldn’t make sense, those were just stories, and…Can you just tell me why you’re here?”
I meant why was she alive and not just a fable, but Gum Baby misunderstood. She glared at me for a second. “Gum Baby’s on a mission, Bumbletongue. Where is the sign? Gum Baby knows it’s glowing around here somewhere.”
I tried to form words, to come up with some sort of answer to her questions, but the whole situation was too unreal. It was like I was being interrogated by a twelve-dollar toy from the bargain bin. Eddie would never have believed this. In fact, this was just the sort of story Eddie would—
Wait a minute.
Glowing around here…
Could it be?
My eyes flicked to the backpack on the dresser—only for a second, but Gum Baby saw, and an evil smirk crossed her face. Quick as a flash, she flung more goop in my face.
“Think fast!”
“Gah!” I yelped.
While I pawed the stuff out of my eyes, the blankets shifted and I felt her run to the end of the bed and leap off. By the time I could pry my eyes open, the stupid little thing was nowhere to be seen. A line of dark globs led to the dresser. I kicked off the blankets and ran over, looking around wildly.