The Thief of Always

XV

New Nightmares

It was a more difficult tale to tell than he expected it to be. Though some of the details were clear in his head-Rictus's first appearance; the sinking of the ark; his and Wendell's escape-there was much else he could not properly remember. It was as though the mist he'd strode through had seeped into his head, and had there drawn a veil over the House and much of what it contained.

"I remember speaking to you on the phone two or three times," he said.

"You didn't speak to us, honey," his mom replied.

"Then that was just another trick," Harvey said. "I should have known."

"But who was playing all those tricks?" his father demanded. "If this House exists-I say if-then whoever owns it kidnapped you and somehow kept you from growing up. Maybe he froze you-"

"No," said Harvey. "It was warm there, except when the snow came down, of course."

"There has to be some sane explanation."

"There is," said Harvey. "It was magic."

His father shook his head. "That's a child's answer," he said. "And I'm not a child anymore."

"And I know what I know," said Harvey firmly.

"It isn't very much, honey," his mom said.

"I wish I could remember more."

She put a comforting arm around his shoulder. "Never mind," she said, "we'll talk about it when you've had a rest."

"Could you find this House again?" his father asked him.

"Yes," Harvey replied, though his skin ran with chills at the thought of going back. "I think so"

"Then that's what we'll do."

"I don't want him going back to that place," his mother said.

"We have to know it exists before we report it to the police. You understand that, don't you, son?"

Harvey nodded. "It sounds like something I made up, I know. But it's not. I swear it's not."

"Come on, sweetie," his mother said. "I'm afraid your room's changed a bit, but it's still comfortable. I kept it just as you'd left it for years and years, hoping you'd find your way home. Then I realized if you ever did come back you'd be a grown man, and you wouldn't want it decorated with rocket ships and parrots. So we had the decorators in. It's completely different now."

"I don't mind," Harvey said. "It's home, and that's all I care about."

In the early afternoon, as he slept in his old room, it rained: a hard March rain that beat against the window and slapped on the sill. The sound woke him. He sat up in bed with the hairs at his nape pricking and knew that he'd been dreaming of Lulu. Poor, lost Lulu, dragging her misshapen body through the bushes, her flipper hand clutching the ark animals she'd dredged up from the mud.

The thought of her unhappiness was unbearable. How could he ever hope to live in the world to which he'd returned, knowing that she remained Hood's prisoner?

"I'll find you," he murmured to himself. "I will, I swear..."

Then he lay back on the cold pillow, and listened to the sound of rain until sleep crept over him.

Exhausted by his travels and traumas, he didn't wake again until the following morning. The rain had cleared. It was time to lay plans.

"I bought a map of the whole of Millsap," his father said, unfolding his purchase and spreading it over the kitchen table. "There's our house." He had already marked the place with a cross. "Now, do you remember any of the street names around Hood's place?"

Harvey shook his head. "I was too busy escaping," he said.

"Were there any particular buildings you saw?"

"It was dark, and rainy."

"So we just have to trust to luck."

"We'll find it," Harvey said. "Even if it takes all week."

It was easier said than done. More than three decades had passed since he'd first made his way through the town with Rictus, and countless things had changed. There were new plazas and new slums; new cars on the streets and new aircraft overhead. So many distractions, all keeping Harvey from the trail.

"I don't know which way is which," he admitted, after they'd been searching for half a day. "Nothing's the way I remember it."

"We'll keep going," his father said. "It'll all come clear."

It didn't. They spent the rest of the day wandering around, hoping that some Night would trigger a memory, but it was frustrating business. Every now and then, in some square or street, Harvey would say: "Maybe this is it," and they'd head off in one direction or another, only to find that the trail grew cold a few blocks on.

That evening, his father quizzed him again.

"If you could only remember what the House looked like," he said, "I could describe it to people."

"It was big, I remember that. And old. I'm sure it was very old."

"Could you draw it?"

"I could try."

He did just that, and though he wasn't much of an artist his hand seemed to remember more than his brain had, because after a half hour he had drawn the House in considerable detail. His father was pleased.

"We'll take this with us tomorrow," he said. "Maybe somebody will recognize it."

But the second day was just as frustrating as the first. Nobody knew the House that Harvey had drawn, nor anything remotely, like it. By the end of the afternoon, Harvey's father was getting short-tempered.

"It's useless!" he said. "I must have asked five hundred people and not one of them-not one-even vaguely recognized the place."

"It's not surprising," said Harvey. "I don't think anyone who saw the House-besides me and Wendell-ever escaped before."

"We should just repeat all this to the police," his mother said, "and let them deal with it."

"And what do we tell them?" his father said, raising his voice. "That we think there's a House out there that hides in a mist, and steals children with magic? It's ridiculous!"

"Calm down, calm down," Harvey's mother said. "We'll talk about this after we've eaten."

They trudged home, ate and discussed the whole problem again, but without finding any solutions. Mr. Hood had laid his traps carefully over the years, protecting himself from the laws of the real world. Safe behind the mists of his illusion, he'd most likely already found two new and unwitting prisoners to replace Harvey and Wendell. It seemed his evil would go on, undiscovered and unpunished.

The following day Harvey's father made an announcement.

"This search is getting us nowhere," he said. "We're going to give it up!"

"Are you going to the police?" his wife asked him.

"Yes. And they'll want Harvey to tell them everything he knows. It's going to be difficult."

"They won't believe me," Harvey said.

"That's why I'm going to talk to them first," his father said. "I'll, find somebody who'll listen."

He left soon after breakfast, with a worried expression on his face.

"This is all my fault," Harvey said to his mom. "We lost all that time together, just because I was bored."

"Don't blame yourself," she said. "We're all tempted to do things we regret once in a while. Sometimes we choose badly and make mistake

"I just wish I knew how to unmake it," Harvey replied.

His mother went out shopping in the middle of the morning, and left Harvey haunted by that thought. Was there some way to undo the damage that had been done? To take back the stolen years, and live them here, with the people who loved him, and whom he loved dearly in return?

He was sitting at his bedroom window, trying to puzzle the problem out, when he saw a forlorn figure at the street corner. He threw open the window and yelled down to him:

"Wendell! Wendell! Over here!"

Then he raced downstairs. By the time he opened the door his friend was on the step, his face red and wet with tears and sweat.

"What happened?" he said. "Everything's changed." His words were punctuated by hiccups. "My dad divorced my mom and my mom's so old, Harvey, and fat as a house." He wiped his running nose with the back of his hand, and sniffed hard. "It wasn't supposed to be this way!" he said. "Well, was it?"

Harvey did his best to explain how the House had deceived them, but Wendell was in no mood for theory. He just wanted the nightmare to be over.

"I want things the way they were," he wailed.

"My dad's gone to the police," Harvey said. "He's going to tell them everything."

"That won't do any good," Wendell said despairingly. "They'll never find the House."

"You're right," Harvey said. "I went to look for it with my mom and dad, but it was no use. It's hiding."

"Well it's bound to hide from them, stupid, " Wendell said. "It doesn't want grown-ups."

"You're right," said Harvey. "It wants children. And I bet it wants you and me more than ever."

"How'd you reckon that?"

"It almost had us. It almost ate us alive."

"So you think it's got a taste for us?"

"I'm sure of it"

Wendell stared at his feet for a moment. "You think we should go back, don't you?"

"I don't think any of those grown-ups-my dad, your mom, the police-are ever going to find the House. If we want all those years back, we have to get them for ourselves."

"I don't much like the idea," Wendell confessed.

"Neither do I," he said, thinking as he spoke that he'd have to leave a note for his mom and dad, so that they wouldn't think his return had been a dream. "We have to go," he said. "We don't have any choice."

"So when do we start?"

"Now!" said Harvey grimly. "We've lost, too much time already."