A Flicker of Courage Read online

  G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York

  Copyright © 2020 by Deb Caletti

  Map illustration copyright © 2020 by Adam Nickel.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Caletti, Deb, author.

  Title: A flicker of courage / Deb Caletti.

  Description: New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [2020] | Series: Tales of triumph

  and disaster! ; [1] | Summary: “Four ordinary kids must find the courage to face their town’s evil leader when he turns their friend into a naked lizard, prompting an extraordinary adventure”—Provided by publisher.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019034034 (print) | LCCN 2019034035 (ebook) |

  ISBN 9781984813053 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781984813060 (ebook)

  Subjects: CYAC: Courage—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. |

  Magic—Fiction. | Good and evil—Fiction. | Kings, queens, rulers, etc.—Fiction. | Adventure and adventurers—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.C127437 Fl 2020 (print) |

  LCC PZ7.C127437 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019034034

  LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019034035

  Ebook ISBN 9781984813060

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  COVER ART © 2019 BY PATRICK FARICY

  COVER DESIGN BY THERESA EVANGELISTA

  Version_1

  For John, Sam, and Nick, and for Erin, and Pat, and Myla—timeless love to you, family.

  And for Jen Klonsky and Michael Bourret—with forever thanks and infinite exclamation points.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Map

  Chapter 1: The Backward Clock

  Chapter 2: A Terrible Spell

  Chapter 3: Rocco Disappears

  Chapter 4: A Devouring Beast

  Chapter 5: Vlad Luxor Sends a Message

  Chapter 6: Pirate Girl and Jo Join In

  Chapter 7: An Entirely Different Tower

  Chapter 8: The Awful Scene in the Always Open

  Chapter 9: A Most Magical Place

  Chapter 10: The Impossible Solution

  Chapter 11: The News That Comes with the Pink Mebiolo

  Chapter 12: Mr. Thackaray and the Trip to Borneo

  Chapter 13: Henry Returns to His Hideous Home

  Chapter 14: A New Disaster

  Chapter 15: A Lizard’s Plea

  Chapter 16: An Astonishing Escape

  Chapter 17: The Surprise in the Backpack

  Chapter 18: An Encounter with Needleman and the Squirrel

  Chapter 19: A Shocking New Message

  Chapter 20: An Invitation to the Tower

  Chapter 21: The Frightening Trip Up the Mountain

  Chapter 22: Rocco’s Moment Arrives

  Chapter 23: A Most Awful Parade

  Chapter 24: Things Get Worse

  Chapter 25: A Large Vlad Head and Other Catastrophes

  Chapter 26: The Cage Lurch

  Chapter 27: Danger at Great Heights

  Chapter 28: Scary Men Give Chase

  Chapter 29: Henry Uses His Skills

  Chapter 30: A Long, Dark Night

  Chapter 31: The Worst Morning Ever

  Chapter 32: The Untrustworthy Mr. Reese

  Chapter 33: The Nasty Surprise in the Center of the Road

  Chapter 34: Two Most Unfortunate Misunderstandings

  Chapter 35: What Happens Next

  Chapter 36: The Broken Bed

  Chapter 37: A Delicious Feast

  Chapter 38: The Children Turn the Page

  Chapter 39: The Forward Clock

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  CHAPTER 1

  The Backward Clock

  On this Saturday morning, the Saturday morning that changes everything, Henry Every opens his bedroom window. Still wearing his striped pajamas, he leans far out. Even Henry knows you shouldn’t do this, of course, but never mind that now. He sticks one ear toward the wind and listens as hard as he can.

  There are a few things you need to know about Henry. He’s a kind boy. He shudders when people are mean, and feels sorry for the losing team. He always says hello to dogs when he sees them sitting alone in cars, and when a cow is standing by herself in a field, he’ll give a friendly wave. But he’s also lonely. So lonely that he feels it like an actual ache in his heart. So lonely that he lifts his window like this every Saturday at sunrise, and every afternoon, and every evening, too. He lifts it even if the wind whips in or the rain drips down or the snow splats. In winter, when he sticks his head out, the end of his nose freezes, and on mornings like this, he breathes in the delicious smells of summer.

  He doesn’t lean out his window to take in the glories of nature, though. He leans out for a more important reason, a critical reason: to listen to the Dante family next door. And the best day to do this is Saturday, at a very early hour. If he sticks his head far out then, he can hear the Dante children watching an episode of their favorite show, Rocket Galaxy. If he sits just so and barely makes a move, he can hear laser swords clashing with laser swords and the clink-zip sound of shots fired from spaceships. He can hear Rex Xavier capturing the Rebels of Venus as a meteor smashes into a magnificent planet.

  A Magnificent Planet

  Henry loves getting to listen to his favorite television show. But what he loves even more are the other sounds coming from the Dante house. The family sounds. The giggles and teasing of the Dante children, and even the shouts of GET AWAY FROM ME! and LEAVE ME ALONE! and YOUR LEG IS TOUCHING MY LEG! In the evenings, he can hear the low murmurs of Mr. and Mrs. Dante discussing important but mysterious things like mortgages and carburetors and gallbladders. He can hear the rattle and clank of pans at dinnertime as the fabulous smell of a Meat Mayhem Loaf drifts over to his window.

  A Meat Mayhem Loaf

  And he can hear his classmate Apollo Dante just being Apollo Dante—practicing his spelling words with a confident voice, patiently explaining to his sister, Coco, how a radio works. He can hear the thump, thump of a baseball hitting the very center of Apollo Dante’s mitt as he tosses it into the air again and again. Henry has lived next door to Apollo his whole life, and he and Apollo have been at the same school forever, but Henry can’t even
speak to him. Henry can barely speak to anyone at school, but with Apollo it’s worse. Apollo is so smart and so astonishing that every, every time he asks Henry to play, Henry’s voice glugs and splutters like a clogged-up toilet. All he can manage to do is shake his head to say no as his insides scream yes.

  Honestly, every time any of the various members of the Dante family say, Good morning, Henry! or, How are you, Henry? or, Would you like to come over for dinner, Henry? his cheeks flame hot and his chin tilts down and he feels an upsetting clash of joy and sadness in his stomach. This is hard to understand, let alone explain, but a very deep piece of Henry is sure that he should never have any of that lovely goodness that belongs to the Dantes, and that Apollo should never, ever even see the terrible horribleness that belongs to him.

  So instead, he leans out his window and listens to them. And, wow, it’s all wonderful. It’s all reassuring and calm and happy. Since Henry’s house feels empty, these smells and sounds fill him up same as Yummers With Cheese. Well, he’s never actually eaten Yummers With Cheese. His parents would never let him have something that marvelous, not in a million years. But the point is, he loves what goes on at the Dante house. It makes him feel such longing that his chest hurts.

  This morning, though, when he pops his head out, something is strange. Something is very, very strange. Eerie strange. It’s quiet over there. Dead silent. There’s not a tickle or a shriek or someone getting mad because they’ve just been pinched. No one is tattling or screeching from fun. No one is crying because their glitter ball just rolled into the garbage disposal. Rex Xavier’s laser sword is not slashing and jabbing and ridding the earth of evil.

  It’s strange, and also worrisome. A bad feeling inches in. He stares hard at the Dante house. Henry needs glasses, but no one has noticed. So if you looked up at his window right then, you’d see a boy with thin shoulders and rumpled black hair, his eyes squinched in order to see better. From what he can tell, the Dante windows are shut tight on this warm summer morning. The cars sit still in the drive. Even the bright green blades of grass of the Dante lawn stand straight and unmoving.

  It’s weird, all right. It’s making Henry quite nervous. Well, he has lots of reasons to be nervous anyway, but now he gets the shivery creeps, the kind where it seems like a mouse has just scampered up your spine.

  And then he hears it. A horrible wail. It’s the sound of a wounded animal or a heart breaking. A bunch of awful and shocking images flash across Henry’s mind. His gut gives a wing-flap of panic.

  He cranes his neck farther. This is extraordinarily inad-visable. Also terribly foolish. The whole top half of his body sticks out. One more inch, and he’ll tumble forward like a rolled-up sleeping bag. His heart pounds. His striped pajamas get somewhat sweaty in the armpits. But this is when he finally sees Apollo Dante, standing right there on the sidewalk in front of Henry’s house. That noise, that wailing—it’s coming from Apollo.

  Suddenly, Henry’s doing stuff without even thinking about it. He backs up fast. Slams the window shut. He throws on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. His knees look like a pair of tennis balls. The shirt is an old holey hand-me-down from his father. Henry’s skin is so pale, you can practically see the highway of veins underneath. Still, you see something else, too. The tiny, flickery flame of a person who badly wants to have a friend. To be a friend. The golden hue of someone who might one day be a hero.

  Here is another thing you need to know about Henry Every: Way down deep, in that quietest place where you keep secrets even from yourself, Henry holds a tiny hope. Maybe, just maybe, there’s something else out there for him, something other than loneliness and hunger and hiding. He has felt this inside, a waiting, like a caterpillar wrapped up in its cocoon. He didn’t know what to do with a feeling like that. So he tucked it far, far back in his mind, as if it were a present he might someday open.

  And now, seeing Apollo in despair, the butterfly knocks at the cocoon, and the ribbon is flung off the gift. Apollo’s tears send Henry down the stairs so fast, he’s practically flying. He races past his parents and hurls open his front door. A different Henry steps outside, only he doesn’t know it yet.

  A story old and new begins.

  But be warned, because in this story, there are slippery creatures, dark forests, and dazzling displays of courage. There is also evil, lots of evil, and a few near misses, and several daring escapes. It is a terrifying and nail-biting and nerve-racking tale.

  One that unwinds, like a timeless, backward clock.

  CHAPTER 2

  A Terrible Spell

  Henry has never seen Apollo like this. As you can imagine, he’s seen Apollo in lots of situations—the day he crashed his skateboard and broke his wrist, the time he lost his Super Scuba diving watch, the sad occasion of the death of the classroom hamster, Polly.

  Polly

  Throughout those awful events, Apollo barely shed a tear. Now, though, his bike is sideways on the grass and he’s sobbing his eyes out. This, plus the shut-tight Dante house—it’s all very alarming. Henry’s stomach knots up. He’s seriously scared. Something truly horrible must have happened, because, in addition to not being the crying type, Apollo does not have much to cry about. Not only is he smart, but he’s handsome, too, and his new school clothes never seem to run out. If there’s a coin toss, he wins it, and if teams are chosen, he’s the captain. Now that it’s summer, every boy and girl in the neighborhood has been at Apollo’s big house, running through the sprinkler or squirting each other with the garden hose, screaming and laughing.

  At Apollo’s house, at least in the backyard and through the windows that Henry can peek into, there’s every kind of large toy to jump on or ride in. There’s every sort of ball to go into, over, under, or across every hoop, hole, or racket. At school, Apollo has snacks of every kind— crackers in the shape of animals, milk in rainbow colors. His face is quite frequently sticky with Jam Nougats and Cherry Freezees. In the winter, he wears a puffy jacket with five zippers and a secret inner pocket, which Henry saw when the coat was hanging on a hook at school. It was hard not to stare.

  Even more astonishing than all of that—Apollo’s parents kiss and hug him. They tousle his hair with pride. They wipe the splotch of Cherry Freezee off his face with a gentle thumb. Henry can barely believe that Apollo gets to live like this every single day. How incredible! At Henry’s tiny falling-apart house next door, there’s not even a basketball that goes splat when you try to bounce it, and he is never allowed to have snacks at all, even when his tummy is rolling with hunger. While Apollo gets sandwiches without crusts for lunch, Henry gets crusts without sandwiches. On the nights he gets to have a meal, it’s the sad frozen dinner with the peas.

  The Sad Frozen Dinner with the Peas

  Sometimes, Henry envies Apollo, if he’s being honest. And Henry always tries to be honest, as well as kind. These are the things that are his. He doesn’t have jumpy castles and trampolines and Double Rocket Pops and parents who hug and kiss him, but he has kindness and honesty and a good heart. This doesn’t seem like much quite a lot of the time. But Henry doesn’t yet know that a good heart is the one thing every hero has.

  Oh dear—the details are terrible, but facts are facts: Apollo’s shirt is soaked with tears, and a river of snot flows from one nose hole. When someone who has everything in the world is bawling their eyes out, you know that things are bad.

  “Rocco!” Apollo cries. “My Rocco! What am I going to do?”

  Rocco? Henry’s heart sinks. Rocco is Apollo’s little brother. Well, his medium-little brother. His little-little brother is their new baby, Otto, and there’s also Apollo’s sister, Coco. Otto is bald and wiggly, and his arms are as plump as sausages, and he sometimes squalls like a fire alarm. But Rocco—he’s one of those cute little kids with round cheeks, and he waits and waits at the window until Apollo gets home from school. Henry would be crushed if anything had happened to h
im.

  And something else: As Apollo speaks to Henry on that sidewalk, Apollo is looking straight into Henry’s eyes, straight at him, like you do with someone you know. Like you do with someone you trust.

  The heat rises in Henry’s face. His armpits begin to dampen. But now a small miracle occurs. Instead of his thoughts sticking in his windpipe like a hunk of bread, his voice rises up. It’s a tiny bit quiet at first, but nonetheless there it is, speaking to Apollo in the bright shine of daylight.

  “What happened? Is Rocco okay?”

  Apollo holds out his arms. The morning sun wrongly beams down. Apollo’s hands are cupped, and inside of the cup sits a lizard, an entirely unclothed lizard, no lizard trousers or lizard pajamas, or lizard anything else. A naked lizard.

  Apollo—well, he seems to be indicating that Rocco is that reptile. But that’s ridiculous. It’s hilarious. It’s complete and utter nonsense. Rocco’s a small boy with big curls and tennis shoes that light up and a backpack with a dinosaur on it. This is a naked lizard. Henry wants to laugh. In fact, he has to swallow down the burble of a chuckle rising up. He would never laugh, though. It would be cruel, because, well, look at Apollo. With all that crying, his eyes are like raisins in a muffin, soggy and shriveled.

  Henry tries again. “Okay. You found a naked lizard. But what happened to Rocco?”

  Apollo stares hard at Henry. And when he does, Henry’s heart freezes and his breath stops in his lungs. Apollo’s terror-filled look explains everything. This is Rocco, all right. Henry knows exactly who caused this torment.

  Someone bad.

  Someone so vile that he might cast a spell on you and turn you into your worst ugly nightmare forevermore.

  Apollo can barely say the words. “Vlad,” he chokes. “Luxor.”

  When Apollo says the name, Henry swears that the leaves stop shimmering in the trees, and the birds stop singing, and everything becomes so still that every slurp inside of every straw is silenced, and every wrapper has stopped crinkling mid-crinkle.