When Frances wandered away to look for mums for the front porch, Eddie, Harris, and Maggie huddled together and sipped on cider.

“Do you think the Woman in Black will go away now that we finished reading The Enigmatic Manuscript?” said Maggie.

“Maybe,” said Harris. “Unless we figure out what she didn’t want us to know.”

Before they could continue, Frances waved to them from the counter near the cash register. She needed help carrying the flowers back to her car. Eddie lifted two small plastic buckets filled with burgundy blossoms off the ground and hugged them to his chest. As he carried them to Frances ’s car, their pungent scent tickled his nose. Harris and Maggie helped him place them into the trunk of the car, unable now to discuss what they were all secretly thinking about.

Back in Gatesweed, they spent the afternoon helping Frances organize the store for the reading. Eddie set up several rows of folding chairs. Upstairs in the kitchen, Maggie helped Frances put together a couple plates filled with cheese and crackers. Harris went through the store with a feather duster, cleaning places that hadn’t been touched in weeks.

As they worked into dusk, Eddie half expected the Woman in Black to appear again. Something told him she wasn’t through with them yet.

Eventually, a few people showed up for the reading. Eddie thought it was nice that Frances had some town support. It was not a large audience, but there were enough people to create a small din. When Eddie saw his own mother and father, he gave them both a big hug. His father wore a tweed jacket and a navy blue tie. His mother wore a simple charcoal-colored dress with a fuzzy red shawl draped across her shoulders.

“Mom, you look pretty,” Eddie said as he took a seat next to her. He saved two chairs on the other side for Maggie and Harris.

“Thanks, honey,” she said. She tapped her foot on the chair in front of her.

“Are you nervous?”

“A little bit. It’s silly, I know-this is a small bookstore in the middle of nowhere,” said Mom.

“It’s not silly,” said Eddie. “I can’t wait to hear your story.”

“Well, the story isn’t quite finished.”

“But you’re not reading the whole thing, right?” said Eddie.

“No, only the very first part. I’ll feel better once I finish. I think I only have a couple pages left. I’d like to be done by tomorrow.”

“Wow,” said Eddie. “It only took you a month to write a whole book?”

Mom smiled. “What can I say? Since we moved here, I’ve been feeling inspired!”

A couple minutes later, Frances stood before the audience and thanked everyone for coming. Harris and Maggie sat down next to Eddie. Frances introduced the first reader, who happened to be a substitute teacher at Eddie’s school. She read a short poem about her cat. Next came one of the high school students, who read an essay he’d written for his English class. That was followed by an elderly woman who read a picture book about tadpoles that her daughter had written. Eddie didn’t listen to a single word. In his head, Nathaniel Olmstead’s story churned around and around, like storm clouds gathering and growing.

Finally, Frances stood up and introduced Eddie’s mom. She clenched her husband’s hand, then leaned toward Eddie and whispered in his ear, “Wish me luck!” She squeezed past him and made her way up the aisle to the front of the audience.

“Good luck,” he whispered back.

She stood beside the table Frances had set up as a podium. In her hands, she held a small notebook. Eddie closed his eyes and leaned forward to pay close attention to his mother’s story. Eddie’s mother lifted the cover of her notebook and took a deep breath. “The piece I’ll be reading is an excerpt from a larger work called The Dark Mistress’s Desire.” Then she began to read. “‘In the town of Coxglenn, children feared the fall of night. It wasn’t the darkness that frightened them-it was sleep. For when they lay in bed and closed their eyes, she watched them.’”

Eddie felt his stomach turn to ice. What was going on here?

His mother was reading the story Harris had pulled from the hole in Nathaniel Olmstead’s basement earlier that week! She couldn’t have written these words, could she? The Dark Mistress’s Desire. The Wish of the Woman in Black. The titles were eerily similar, but the stories were exactly the same-the descriptions of the town, the main characters, the plot.

Harris reached out and grabbed Eddie’s arm. He mouthed the words, What is she doing?

Eddie shook his head and tried to ignore him. His heart pounded silently as his mother read the first chapter of her first book to her first audience. He wanted to stand up, to shout for her to stop, to explain herself, but he couldn’t do that, of course. Not only would he embarrass himself and his family, but it would bring attention to the fear he felt inside, and it was the fear that frightened him most. He was certain this was the work of the Woman in Black, that she was watching him even now. Was this merely one of the Woman’s illusions? Was it possible that Mom was currently reading a different story, but the Woman in Black was making him hear this one?

Eddie almost couldn’t stand to listen to the rest, but finally his mother finished. The audience slowly began to applaud. Eddie turned around. Though most of the crowd appeared to be enthusiastic, several people looked upset. He heard someone behind him say, “I think we’ve got another Nathaniel Olmstead in our midst…” Eddie couldn’t tell if it was meant to be a compliment.

The words echoed in his head.

Another Nathaniel Olmstead… Another Nathaniel Olmstead…

Slowly, the puzzle pieces started to fit together.

He leapt to his feet, stepping past Maggie and Harris into the aisle. Turning around, he waved to them and quietly said, “Follow me.” Without waiting for the audience to stop clapping, he made his way through the store, out the door, and onto the front porch. Harris and Maggie were close behind.

Harris shut the door and said, “What the heck is going on? Did you tell your mother about the book we found in Nathaniel’s basement? Is that why she wrote all that?”

“No,” said Eddie. “I didn’t tell her a thing.”

“Did she find the book? The Wish of the Woman in Black? Did she copy it?” said Harris.

Eddie shook his head.

“So how did she-” Maggie began, but then she interrupted herself, her realization dawning. “Oh my gosh…”

“Is someone going to tell me what’s happening here?” said Harris.

Eddie cleared his throat. “I think I know the real reason my family moved to Gatesweed.”

The door opened and Dad’s face appeared. He looked annoyed. “Edgar, come back inside and tell your mother what you thought of her story. She’s waiting for you.”

Eddie opened his mouth to speak, but words wouldn’t come out. He glanced at his friends. Harris nodded toward the door, and Eddie reluctantly followed his father back inside. Harris and Maggie trailed behind him. Mom and Frances stood chatting near the food table. As Eddie approached, Mom turned and smiled at him.

“So what did you think?” she said.

“I’ll let you two talk,” said Frances, ruffling his hair and wandering off to greet her other customers.

Eddie felt dizzy, but he managed to say, “It was really… creepy.”

“Thanks,” she said. She was hugging her notebook against her chest. “Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Eddie reached out and touched the cover. “Can I see it?”

“Sure,” she said, “but don’t read ahead.”

Eddie took the notebook from her. He felt Maggie and Harris come up on either side of him. They looked over his shoulder as he opened the cover. What he saw there nearly caused him to drop the book on the floor. He looked again, this time more closely, to make sure he hadn’t imagined it.

He hadn’t. His mother had drawn the symbol in the middle of the front page, over the title, like Nathaniel Olmstead’s handwritten books in his basement.