Page 36 of The Whispering Night
I miss you more now
Now that it’s been so long
WINNIE’S SCHEDULE FOR THE NIGHTMARE MASQUERADE
SUNDAY
10:30A.M.: Floating Swan Parade
• Winnie is expected at the dam, where she will ride in the lead boat for the Sunday parade
11A.M.: Floating Carnival
• Opening of Floating Carnival—Dress is casual, but Darian recommends jewel tones.
• Winnie will open the gates to the Carnival along with the Luminaries.
• Expect photographs.
12P.M.–5P.M.: Sunday estate training
5P.M.–7P.M.: Sunday Dinner
• Enjoy dinner at the estate with the Sunday clan and visiting dignitaries—Dress is still casual, but Darian recommends polishing up
• Be prepared for interviews and photo requests at any moment!
9P.M.: Floating Carnival
• Sunday firework display on the Little Lake
• Winnie expected for photograph with Gina Sunday and visiting Sundays beside the Ferris wheel
CHAPTER
17
They say the best party in the world is the Nightmare Masquerade in Hemlock Falls. Perhaps it’s because spring has finally sprung, elbowing in with green that’s lain dormant too long. Or perhaps it’s because here, April showers don’t bring May flowers so much as a softening inside the forest.
Oh, the monsters will still kill you, but they’ll do so with a gentler touch.
Of course this particular spring is already proving more deadly than any spring before, going all the way back to Hemlock Falls’ first founding a century ago. Funny how everyone seems to be sweeping that under the rug in favor of their beloved Masquerade…
It won’t stay funny for long—at least not for anyone but a certaincornix.
The sun is halfway up the eastern horizon, just lifting over the enormous carnival that throbs and glitters along the Little Lake’s pier. The Ferris wheel—crown jewel of the Carnival—shines brightest of all, spinning on its floating platform. From where Winnie is, folded into the shadow of an oak tree on the edge of the Sunday estate, she canjustsee the wheel if she squints hard enough. It’s meant to look like a full moon; they even pump out dry ice to add to the grandeur.
Crowds seethe even though the Sunday Parade won’t start for another hour. The best places to watch—and catch tossed candy—are on the dam, where the boat parade begins, or along the western shoreline of the Little Lake, because all the boats and floats will loop there before ending their journey at the Floating Carnival.
When Winnie was ten, she created a petition to stop the littering thatensued from all the poorly flung candy. Either by bad aim or bad catching on the shoreline, it was certainlythousandsof little sugary tidbits and their wrappers that sank underwater never to be seen again.
SAVE THE FISHES,her petition read, and the logo she drew looked a lot like the “Save the Whales” one on her hoodie—which yes, she already owned when she was ten. (It fit very differently back then.)
No one signed Winnie’s petition except Jay and Dad. Erica thought it was “embarrassing.” Darian said her fish looked like a whale (fair). And Mom… well, she simply said, “Later, hon,” and never got around to it.
Right now, as Winnie eyes the dam—where she must be in forty-five minutes so she can clamber onboard a swan-shaped pontoon boat next to Headmaster-and-Councilor Gina Sunday—she wonders if maybe she should start a second petition. After all, now that she’s “famous,” people would probably want to sign it just so they can breathe the same oxygen as Wolf Girl for fourteen seconds.
Hello, Signora Martedì. How do you feel about carp and sunfish? Would you be willing to sign this? And maybe remove this spell on me, while you’re at it?
