The Town by Bentley Little Page B

malls or something. But you can’t, you know, just wander around like this.” He grinned. “This is bitchin’.”
    Scott nodded, smiled. “Yeah, it kinda is.”
    They reached the shopping district and walked down the intermittent sidewalk through the center of town. There were lights on in a few of the stores, but French’s was the only business actually open, and even it was devoid of customers. They stopped by the restaurant, bought two Cokes and split an order of fries to go, then continued on, eating out of the greasy bag they passed back and forth.
    At the park, Scott sat down on top of one of the picnic tables. Adam tossed the empty bag into an adjacent trash barrel and leaned against a chain-link backstop. The park seemed different at night, its contours changed, its boundaries expanded by the darkness. They were the only ones here, but while that would have been a plus back in California, where any gathering of two or more people at night signaled possible gang activity, in this place it only served to heighten the disquiet that Adam felt. Leaning against the backstop, he was facing Scott, facing the street, but the bulk of the park was behind him, and he didn’t like having all that empty darkness at his back. Casually, he moved over to the picnic table, sitting next to his friend.
    He hadn’t planned on bringing it up, but Scott said, “This place is creepy at night.”
    Adam played it cool. “Yeah,” he agreed.
    “It’s supposed to be haunted, you know.”
    Goose bumps popped up on Adam’s arms.
    “A long time ago, two miners were supposed to’ve gotten into a fight. One killed the other one, and before the sheriff could get out here, a lynch mob hung the killer from a tree.” He gestured around. “Supposed to be one of these trees here in the park. Ever since then, people’ve said this place is haunted.”
    “You ever seen anything?”
    “No. But I’ve never been here at night before, either.”
    There was a sighing in the leaves at the top of the closest cottonwood.
    Scott leaped off the picnic table. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
    Adam quickly followed suit. “Wise decision.”
    They ran back out to the sidewalk and hung a left, slowing down only when they were safely in front of buildings again, past the periphery of the park.
    Scott bent down, breathing heavily. He grinned. “I didn’t want to say anything,” he said. “But you felt it, didn’t you? There was something there.”
    Adam nodded.
    “I just wanted to test it. I was too chickenshit to go there myself at night, but I figured with two of us . . . well, I didn’t think I’d get that scared. And I knew I’d get an honest reaction from you, especially if I didn’t say anything about it.” He looked over at Adam. “You were freaked, weren’t you?”
    “Yeah,” Adam admitted.
    “Cool.”
    They remained in place for a few moments, catching their breath. From somewhere far off came the sound of a car engine, followed by the sequential barking of dogs up the canyon. Adam felt good. This was more fun than hanging out at the mall or going to a movie any day. This was exciting. He thought that maybe he’d ask his parents if Roberto could come and visit during Christmas or Easter or next summer. He knew Scott and Roberto would get along, and he knew that Roberto would think this place was totally kickass.
    He glanced over at Scott. “So what now? What’s the plan?”
    “I don’t know. We could—”
    Scott broke off in midsentence, his head jerking to the right, and Adam quickly followed the direction of his gaze.
    There was movement in front of the mining museum across the street.
    His heart jumped almost all the way up into his throat, and his first thought was that it was a ghost, a vampire, a monster, but he saw almost immediately that it was only a group of high school students, hanging out.
    There were no lights here, no streetlamps, merely light from the moon and dim illumination from inside the closed