Christmas at Glosser's Read online

  “Of course we know your grandfather,” said one of the twins.

  “Rocky Road in a waffle cone is his favorite,” said the other twin. “He’s always in here.”

  “But not today,” said the first twin. “Sorry.”

  Jack slumped. “Thanks anyway.”

  “So sorry.” The second twin patted the side of the freezer beside her. “Would you like a sample on the house?”

  Jack glanced over his shoulder, feeling jumpy. His only goal was finding Bub and solving the mystery.

  But when one of the twins handed him a flat wooden spoon topped with a clump of chocolate hard-packed ice cream, he didn’t turn it away.

  He licked the spoon clean in a heartbeat, then dropped it in the little trash can beside the counter. “Thanks!”

  “And what else?” Both twins asked the question at the same time.

  Jack couldn’t help grinning. “Nothing, thanks.” Turning, he hurried back toward the elevators. “Merry Christmas!” He shouted it to them as an afterthought.

  In reply, the twins started singing Christmas songs--one, “White Christmas,” the other, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” Their high, piping voices sounded strange singing different things at the same time instead of speaking in unison.

  *****

  Jack sprinted back down the hallway into the main building, running a serpentine course through overloaded shoppers. Charging straight for the elevators, he punched the button with the arrow pointing up. Since the escalator only reached the second floor, this was the quickest way to the upper levels.

  The bell dinged, and the door closest to Jack slid open on a full car. Jack squeezed in anyway, hearing shopping bags crumple as people shifted to make room. At least he didn’t have to reach across for the buttons; the one labeled with the number 3 was already lit.

  When the door opened again, Jack popped out of the crowded car onto the third floor. Just as he started searching the housewares department, a woman’s voice spoke over the storewide intercom system, interrupting the holiday music.

  “Glosser’s will close in fifteen minutes,” she said. “Thank you for shopping at Glosser’s, and have a very Merry Christmas.”

  So now the clock was ticking. If Jack didn’t find Bub soon, he would have to end the search and get out of the building.

  Adrenaline sizzling in his bloodstream, Jack hurtled among the blankets and pillows, the curtains and cookware and blenders and sweepers. Moving on, he barreled through the furniture department, hoping for a glimpse of Bub on a sofa or rocker/recliner.

  But he came up short again. That left the fourth floor, Jack’s next favorite place after the candy and comics lobby.

  When an elevator didn’t come right away, he went for the stairs. He took them two at a time, climbing fast to the store’s top floor, where they kept the good stuff.

  The toys. Bursting through the door, Jack found himself facing a mother lode of them...a Fort Knox of playthings, a Scrooge McDuck vault overflowing with every cool toy his heart desired. Right there on an endcap display--right there--was the fabled Colonel Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man doll, twelve inches tall, complete with a plastic silver engine block for Steve to toss around like a feather and a rocket capsule to reenact the accident that led to him becoming bionic. Jack wanted that doll so bad he could taste it, wanted it more than anything for Christmas ‘75.

  Except for the answer to the mystery of where Bub went on Christmas Eve, that is.

  Snapping back to the mission at hand, Jack dashed through the toy department, looking right and left...seeing nothing but toys and late shoppers.

  Skidding to a halt by the elevators, Jack punched the only button there, a down button. There was only one more place where he might find Bub, assuming Bub hadn’t left the store or backtracked to one of the floors Jack had already searched.

  This time, when the elevator door opened, the car was empty. Jack leaped inside and hammered the bottom button on the control panel, the one with a big letter “B” printed on it.

  He was going all the way down now, all the way to the bargain basement.

  *****

  As soon as the elevator door opened at the last stop, the woman’s voice came over the intercom again.

  “Glosser’s will close in five minutes,” she said. “Thank you for shopping at Glosser’s, and have a very Merry Christmas.”

  Jack’s heart pounded faster than ever now, as time kept running out. Frantically, he scanned the basement...though he wasn’t feeling hopeful. It was starting to look like Bub would get to keep his secret another year after all.

  Though, truthfully, Jack couldn’t say that for sure at first. The basement was a madhouse as always; the crowd down there was thicker than anywhere else in the store.

  Men, women, and children--mostly women--swarmed the rows of tables lining the space under bright fluorescent lights. The mob of shoppers tussled over heaps of merchandise, everything from purses to underwear to razors, all of it deeply discounted.

  The bargain hunters didn’t seem to be slowing down, either. If anything, the five-minute warning seemed to have ratcheted up their frenzy. People bumped and elbowed each other to grab the best junk from the piles. The hubbub they made was loud enough to drown out the piped-in Christmas music.

  Careful not to get hit by a deal-crazed grandma, Jack worked his way across the room, checking one face after another. Some were familiar, but none belonged to Bub.

  By the time Jack crossed back to where he’d started, he felt the crush of impending defeat. He started thinking of other places he could look, places other than Glosser’s; Bub must have given him the slip and gone elsewhere.

  Maybe he was at a bar with his old buddies from Bethlehem Steel, where he’d worked for 40 years. He’d retired from Bethlehem five years ago, but he still liked drinking with the guys whenever he got the chance.

  Or maybe he was playing cards at the retired men’s club, where he also liked to hang out. Or maybe he’d gone to a movie at the Embassy or State theaters on Main Street. Anything was possible.

  Then, suddenly, it wasn’t.

  Jack made one last trip across the basement and turned to work his way to the exit. At that instant, his eyes grazed past the crowd to the far wall...just in time to catch sight of an open elevator there.

  Jack’s eyes widened. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Bub was right there in the elevator, calmly staring into space.

  Heart racing, Jack started forward. He’d only taken three steps when the elevator door slid shut, and Bub disappeared from view.

  But at least he wasn’t far. At least Jack finally knew where he was and had a chance to catch up.

  Breathless, he ran the rest of the way across the basement to the elevator. He glanced up at the arrow light beside the closed door. The arrow pointed upward, as always; it should have been lit to indicate the car was heading to an upper floor.

  Except it wasn’t.

  Jack frowned. There was only one direction to go from the basement, and that was up. Bub had to be heading for an upper level. Therefore, the light must be broken.

  Jack flicked his eyes to the indicator bar above the elevator door, the one that showed what floor the car was on according to what number was illuminated. He expected to see the number 1, 2, 3, or 4 lit up, indicating that Bub had stopped on one of those upper floors. Instead, he saw something he’d never seen before, something he couldn’t explain.

  For a split-second, Jack saw the letter “X” appear and light up to the left of the numbers. He blinked hard, then looked again, and it was still there.

  X.

  Then it was gone, and all the numbers on the indicator bar were dark.

  *****

  “Glosser’s is now closing,” said the woman’s voice over the intercom. “Thank you for shopping at Glosser’s, and have a very Merry Christmas.”

  As shoppers hurried out of the bargain basement with their merchandise, Jack slumped in the corner, moping. His secre
t mission was over; the store was closing, and he had to leave.

  The chase across town had been for nothing. Jack would have to go another Christmas without solving the mystery.

  He hated the thought of giving up and going home. He knew his failure would hang over him all through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Even a 12-inch Colonel Steve Austin the Six Million Dollar Man doll under the tree wouldn’t make him feel better...not all the way better.

  Because Jack would still have to wonder, as he did every year, if Bub was sneaking off to see someone important. Someone who might want to keep tabs on the family once a year at least...especially on Jack.

  After all, Bub and Jack’s dad had always gotten along really well, hadn’t they? Even though Mom was Bub’s own daughter, and Dad had skipped out on her, Bub had never seemed to hate him, had he?

  Jack knew it was probably a childish pipe dream--he’d always known it in his heart--but still, he’d held on to his hope. He’d imagined, if he followed Bub on Christmas Eve, that Bub might lead him to Dad in the flesh. And maybe, in the spirit of the season, they might settle some things between them.

  But now, that childish dream was melting away like ice between his fingers. He had to let go of it, at least for another year.

  Pushing away from the corner, Jack stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket and started for the steps leading out of the basement. The rest of the crowd and employees had already climbed up out of there, leaving Jack as the last straggler.

  Or was he?

  Just as he was about to put his foot on the bottom step, he heard two familiar, high-pitched voices chirping in unison behind him. “We can send you to him, if you like.”

  Whirling, Jack saw the twins from the ice cream counter standing five feet away, smiling at him. Each of them held a waffle cone of double-scooped Rocky Road hard-packed ice cream.

  Jack looked around and frowned. “Where did you come from? I didn’t see...”

  “The Annex, silly.” The twin on the right laughed. “Here.” She pushed her cone of Rocky Road in his direction.

  Jack took it, feeling creeped out. He hadn’t seen or heard a trace of the twins until they got his attention. “No, I meant...”

  “Right this way, please.” Both twins said it at once as they turned and started walking. “We will send you to him.”

  Jack followed...though deep inside, a warning bell was going off like crazy. He’d known the twins forever--known them to buy ice cream from them, anyway--but something didn’t seem right about what was happening. “What do you mean, ‘send?’”

  The twins led him across the room to a silver aluminum Christmas tree in the far corner. A device on the floor cast light on the tree from a bulb behind a slowly turning color wheel. The tree turned red, then yellow, then blue, then green...then red again.

  “The ice cream will help you pass the time,” said one of the twins.

  Jack’s frown deepened. “What do you mean, ‘pass the time?’ How much time am I going to have to pass?”

  Without answering, the twin who’d given Jack ice cream bent down and picked up the color wheel device. Walking away from the tree, she aimed the device under one of the bargain tables, casting colored light into the shadows.

  As the wheel kept turning, the cement floor under the table changed from yellow to blue to green. When it turned red, a rectangular outline appeared, five feet long by three feet wide...only to disappear when the color returned to yellow.

  “What the heck?” Jack bent down for a closer look, but the rectangle was gone. He couldn’t see the faintest trace of it, at least when the light was yellow, blue, or green.

  But when the red beam shone again, it came back. And this time, Jack saw more detail than before. In the middle of the edge closest to him, there was an indentation--four inches long, cut into the substance of the rectangle.

  Jack’s ice cream was dripping, but he didn’t notice. “What is this?”

  “Something you must swear never to breathe a word of to anyone,” said the twin with the color wheel.

  “If you make it back,” said the other twin.

  “If? What do you mean, if?” asked Jack.

  “Do you swear it?” asked both twins at once.

  Jack knew he was in over his head. This craziness was like something out of a movie or TV show...like something Colonel Steve Austin might face. It was exciting, but a whole lot scarier than he’d ever imagined an adventure could be.

  “Do you swear it?” repeated the twins.

  “Will I find my grandfather if I don’t?” asked Jack.

  The twins smiled and shook their heads.

  “Then fine,” said Jack. “I swear it.”

  “Hold this, please.” The twin who still had an ice cream cone handed it over.

  Jack took it, leaving him holding two cones...one of which was dripping. Raising the dripping cone, he took a half-hearted lick around the rim, stopping the worst of the leak...then suddenly couldn’t care less if every bit of both cones melted at once.

  Because one twin was opening a door that shouldn’t have existed. Crouching alongside the table, she reached down, touching her fingertips to the floor. When the color wheel turned red again, the indentation reappeared, less than an inch from her hand. She pushed her fingers into it and pulled up with a loud grunt.

  And the rectangle of floor lifted up, revealing a hole. A doorway.

  “There you go.” The twin stopped pulling when the slab of floor was canted at a 45-degree angle. It couldn’t go any higher unless someone moved the table out of the way.

  “Now hurry,” said the other twin, taking one of the ice cream cones back from Jack. “Move it or lose it.” She looked over her shoulder as if expecting trouble.

  “I don’t know.” Jack swallowed hard. “You’re sure he’s down there?”

  Both twins raised their eyebrows. “Have we ever served you bad ice cream?” they asked.

  “Well, no.” Jack shook his head.

  “And we’re not serving it to you now,” said the twins. “Everything you want to know is through there.” They pointed at the doorway in the floor.

  Suddenly, the woman’s voice spoke over the intercom again. “Glosser’s is now closed. All associates, please escort any remaining guests out of the store.”

  “Time’s up,” said the twin with the ice cream. “Close it.”

  As the other twin took hold of the door, Jack’s heart pounded. What if this was his last chance to find out where Bub had gone? “Wait!”

  “No time,” said the twin at the door.

  Footsteps clacked in the distance; someone was coming down the stairs...an associate, maybe, looking for stray shoppers.

  “Here!” Jack gave his cone to the twin who didn’t have one. Dropping to his knees, he scooted under the table to the edge of the hole. Looking down, he saw dimly lit spiral stairs winding around a shaft walled with gray stone blocks. “Where do I go?”

  “All the way down,” said the twins. “To the bottom.”

  Jack had a split second of indecision...then slid his feet over the edge. He dangled them into the shaft, stretching to reach the first step with his toes, and lowered himself down.

  Ducking, he eased down a second step, then a third and a fourth. By the time he got to the sixth, the top of his head was just above floor level in the bargain basement.

  “Don’t forget your ice cream.” The twin Jack had given his cone to handed it down to him. “Use it to pass the time.”

  Jack didn’t really want it, but he took it anyway. “Thanks. Thanks for everything.”

  “Good luck!” said the twins.

  Then, as Jack continued downward, they shut the door after him. When he looked up, he couldn’t see a trace of it.

  *****

  Jack shivered as he descended the spiral stairs...as much because of the cold as because he was scared of what he might find at the bottom. A chilly draft swirled up from below, moaning in the passageway and cutting right through h
is clothes. He wished he’d put on a heavier coat when he’d left the house on Bub’s trail.

  Needless to say, he wasn’t really in the mood for ice cream anymore. He still held on to the cone, though, because there wasn’t a good place to leave it. He thought better of putting it down behind him, just in case he had to get back up those narrow stairs in a hurry.

  Not that he was in a hurry going down. The stone steps were worn smooth, as if lots of people had walked them in the past. It wouldn’t take much to slip and fall, especially in the dim, flickering light.

  Jack thought it looked like torchlight on TV or in the movies, dancing up through the stairwell from below. It didn’t amount to much near the top but got a little brighter as he descended. Even so, it left deep shadows along the inner wall and played tricks with his eyes. Several times, he thought he saw something moving in the gloom, slithering beyond the next bend...only to realize it was just the flickering glow.

  Or was it?

  The whole time Jack walked deeper underground, every hair on the back of his neck stayed standing at attention. Ever since the twins had revealed the door in the basement floor, he’d had the feeling he was moving into uncharted territory, a twilight zone in which anything might be possible. He half-expected to see Rod Serling himself appear around the next turn.

  Jack had always loved shows like Twilight Zone, had watched them religiously. It had been so much better to dive into fantasy and science fiction than deal with the problems of his own broken family and crappy life. But being in the middle of a creepy scenario himself didn’t seem like quite as much fun as watching one on TV. In spite of the twins’ assurances about what awaited him downstairs, he couldn’t help dreading the outcome.

  But he had to keep moving anyway. He couldn’t turn back, the door was gone...and he needed to see for himself if Bub was at the bottom.