He just wished one of the night fliers would drop by during the day and give him a solid hint about what it was he was actually supposed to do.
“This is so exciting!” said Judy, looking around the room. “Our first real rehearsal!”
“Yeah. Maybe I will grab a doughnut.”
“Okay. Then come sit next to me at my table, okay?”
“Okay.”
Judy went to greet her composer, who was spreading out sheet music on the piano.
“Five hundred people auditioned for my part,” Zack heard one of the actors say. “I was honored to be chosen.”
“Especially by Reginald Grimes!” gushed an actress. “I heard he saw a thousand women for my role.”
Zack wondered if anybody else had “auditioned” for his role as demon slayer. If so, maybe his understudy could go on, because Zack wasn’t sure he wanted to do whatever it was Justus Willowmeier III and the other dearly departed show people wanted him to do.
He didn’t want to keep dealing with the demands of the dead. In fact, he wanted dead people to leave him alone. He wanted to be an ordinary kid!
Of course, Zack still wasn’t 100-percent convinced that he had seen what he thought he had seen last night. It might’ve been an incredibly bad dream.
Maybe he and Zipper had never even left his bed or seen Princess Nepauduckett dangling in the elevator or met all those other ghosts outside.
But what if it was true?
What if Meghan, Derek, and Judy needed him to be a demon slayer—just like Mr. Willowmeier had said they did?
Zack grabbed two doughnuts.
61
Reginald Grimes swept into the rehearsal room, followed by his assistant, Hakeem.
“People?” said Hakeem, clapping his hands. “We have much work to do today. Where’s Miss McKenna?”
On cue, Meghan bolted through the door, followed by her mom.
“Sorry. I have a slight problem with the snooze function on alarm clocks.”
“Deal with it!” snapped Grimes as he glowered at Mrs. McKenna. “Who, pray tell, are you?”
“I’m Meghan’s mom.”
“Why are you here?”
“Uh,” said Meghan, “she’s my mom?”
The door flew open again and Mrs. Stone stumbled into the room, teetering on six-inch high heels.
“Good morning!” When she flashed her glossy smile, Zack saw lipstick on her beaver-sized teeth.
“And who are you?” demanded Grimes.
“That’s my mom, sir!” said Derek.
Mrs. Stone toddled forward. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Grimes!”
He ignored her and slumped down into his metal folding chair.
“Announcement!” said Grimes. “Tonight, I’m hosting a small private party to honor our two youngest stars—Meghan McKenna and Derek Stone!”
“Sounds like fun!” said Derek.
“Oh, it will be,” said Grimes. “I promise. Only the children are invited. Let’s meet at seven p.m. out in the lower lobby.”
“Where’s the party?” asked Mrs. Stone.
“Downstairs. We’ve set up a room.”
“In the basement?” Mrs. Stone sounded skeptical.
“It’s cool down there!” said Derek.
Grimes smiled. “This party is really for the children, Mrs. Stone. Ice cream and cake. Pizza. That sort of thing.”
“But we can come, too?”
Grimes hesitated, then smiled. “Of course. We look forward to the pleasure of your company. And now, will all those not directly involved with Curiosity Cat please leave the room?”
“Excuse me?” said Mrs. Stone.
“This is a closed rehearsal!” announced Hakeem. “Anyone not in the cast or in the crew must vacate this room. Immediately!”
Judy turned to Zack. “I could skip this first rehearsal.”
“No way,” said Zack. “This is the whole reason we’re here. Zipper and I will be fine. We’ll probably just hang out upstairs.”
“You sure, Zack?”
“I’m heading over to the library,” said Mrs. McKenna. “You’re welcome to join me there, Zack.”
“Thanks.”
“Mrs. Jennings?” Grimes said crossly. “Are we ready to proceed?”
“I guess.”
“See ya later, Mom.”
Then Zack, Mrs. McKenna, and Mrs. Stone hurried out the door.
62
“I have never been thrown out of a rehearsal in my life!” fumed Mrs. Stone.
“My first time, too,” said Zack. They were standing in the lower lobby outside the closed doors to rehearsal room A.
“Would you like to join me at the library?” Mrs. McKenna asked Mrs. Stone.
“Why?”
“You might find a book.”
“And?”
“Right. Okay. See you back here at seven.”
That got Mrs. Stone’s motor running. “I don’t have a thing to wear!” She clicked away on her high heels.
“How about you, Zack? Want to hit the library?”
“Maybe later. I need to take Zipper out for a walk.”
“Okay. Do you know where the library is?”
Zack nodded even though he had no idea where it was located.
He nodded because the ghost of Bartholomew Buckingham had just materialized over Mrs. McKenna’s left shoulder.
“What ho, Demon Slayer!”
Apparently, it hadn’t been a nightmare.
63
Zack waited for Mrs. McKenna to head up the curving stairway to the main lobby.
She, being an adult who wasn’t Judy, hadn’t seen or heard the swaggering ghost, his lantern jaw set on “heroic,” his hands firmly planted at his hips.
“Uh, I gotta go.” Zack bolted for the door they had used yesterday to head down the spiral staircase and explore the basement.
He slammed it behind him.
“What ho, Zachary!”
Buckingham was waiting for him on the other side.
“My, but thou art a nimble-footed knave!” He dipped into a bow that involved a lot of hand flourishes in front of his face. “I am your hoped-for guide spirit, here to assist you.”
“What?”
“Did you not recently wish that one of the night fliers would drop by during the day to give you a solid hint about what it is you are actually supposed to do?”
Busted.
“Yeah. So, what am I supposed to do?”
Buckingham struck his hands-on-hips pose again. “Why, slay the demons.”
“Right. But how?”
“That I cannot say.”
“Why not?”
“Rules. Regulations. Those of us who tarry amidst the earthly ether are prohibited from directly interfering with mortal life.”
“Listen, Mr. Buckingham, you’ve got the wrong guy.”
That puzzled him. “You are Zachary Jennings, are you not?”
“Yeah, but…”
“You are the hero of the crossroads, is this not also true?”
“Kind of …”
“You, bonny lad, are special.”
“Hey, I never asked to be special, okay?”
Buckingham nodded knowingly. “And I never asked to be ruggedly handsome, but, alas, as you can plainly see, I am.”
“Look, I’m just a kid.”
“Tut-tut. We have no time for modesty. In fact we have very little time for anything! You have less than nine hours.”
“What? There’s a time limit?”
“Indeed. Now then, I am not allowed to tell you all that I know.” Buckingham leaned in to whisper. “How ever, my spies report seeing two burly ruffians secreting a theatrical trunk deep within the bowels of this basement.”
“The what?”
“Sorry. The innermost recesses of the theater’s subterranean maze of storage rooms and hidden tunnels.”
“I really think you people should find someone else.”
“Fie upon it! Screw your courage to the sticking place, Zachary! We need you. Meghan needs you. Derek and Judy, too.”
“Are they in trouble?”