The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki

his skin. “What the heck is going on here?” he said.
    Harris didn’t say anything for a moment. He stood next to Eddie and stared at him. Finally, he said, “Creepy, huh? I know the feeling.”
    Eddie reached out and ran his finger along the cold stone spine of the book. “How did you hear about this place?”
    “After Nathaniel Olmstead disappeared,” said Harris, “the town sent out a search party. They came across this clearing. It’s sort of become a local legend in Gatesweed. Nobody knows for sure who this statue is supposed to be, who carved it, or why it’s here.”
    “Really?” said Eddie. “Hasn’t anyone even tried to guess?”
    “I’ve heard some of the high school students say it’s a gravestone,” Harris said, shoving his hands into his pants pockets.
    “A gravestone out here in the middle of the woods?” The thought gave Eddie goose bumps again. “Who does it belong to?”
    Harris shook his head. “No one knows. There’s no name on the stone,” he whispered. “But they also say … its ghost haunts these woods.”
    “A ghost?” said Eddie, glancing over his shoulder. “What kind of ghost?”
    “Some people say they’ve seen the ghost of an old woman wandering around Nathaniel Olmstead’s estate.”
    “Really?” said Eddie. He looked up at the statue. She stared at him blankly.
    “That’s not the only thing people have seen up here,” said Harris. “People tell stories of strange animals. Weird noises. Stuff like that.”
    Strange animals? Eddie’s stomach squelched. “The thing that totaled my dad’s car on Black Ribbon Road was pretty weird looking,” he said. He still didn’t mention that he’d thought it was a monster. The accident had happened so fast, he wasn’t sure what he’d seen anymore. “Did you see anything strange the last time you came up here?”
    Harris laughed. “If I had, do you think I’d be wandering around in these woods with you?”
    Eddie chuckled too. “I guess not.”
    “I mean, yeah, I heard some noises I couldn’t explain,” said Harris. “And once or twice I thought I saw a shadow move, but when I turned to look, nothing was there. Then again, I’m pretty skeptical when it comes to stuff like this. Sure, I like Olmstead’s books, but I know the differencebetween what’s real and what’s made up.” Eddie didn’t quite believe him. Harris continued, “People in town are pretty serious about the legend of the statue, though. They talk. Some people think that if you stay up here too long, the ghost of the woman will follow you home. She’ll haunt you until you go crazy. That’s probably why the librarian freaked out when you showed her your book. Mrs. Singh’s definitely heard about the statue’s symbol. When she saw it on the first page of your book, she must have thought you’d already been up here. She didn’t want the ghost to follow her too.”
    “That’s dumb,” said Eddie, forcing a laugh. “People in Gatesweed really believe that?”
    Harris scoffed. “Yeah, actually. Some of them really do. But then again, a few of them
are
crazy, if you ask me.”
    “Seems like
someone’s
crazy enough to graffiti that statue in town.” When Harris gave him a knowing look, Eddie continued, “So weird. Someone had painted this awful face onto the pedestal, with swirling black squiggles for eyes.”
    Harris smiled reluctantly and crossed his arms. “Once, someone spray-painted it on the side of my mother’s store,” he said. “The
Woman Is Watching
. In big black letters. It took forever to clean it off.”
    “Someone graffitied your store because of the Olmstead Curse?” Eddie asked. “They don’t want her selling his books?”
    “Exactly.” Harris nodded. “They think the less people who come through town, the less … trouble there will behere. To them, Gatesweed is filled with dirty little secrets, Nathaniel Olmstead’s disappearance being number one. But my mother was friends with him. And she’ll never