Page 36 of Tackle

Here lies Mozart decomposing

“This one’s better,” Oz said, moving them to a stone.

Claire Voyance – she should’ve seen it coming

“Follow me, please,” the ghostly presence said by the exit.

“Come on, I think we’re holding up the show.”

They entered another room. This one also dark except for a spotlight illuminating a trap door on the floor.

“If they expect us to climb down into that thing, we’re turning around and leaving.”

Emerson smiled, knowing what was coming. They’d done the same gag the year before.

The hatch slowly opened. Eerie music started to play. But instead of something popping out of the trapdoor where their eyes were trained, someone jumped out from behind them, shouting and blowing them with a strong gust of air.

It was hard to be certain over all the noise, but she thought she heard Oz shriek. She knew for a fact, he jumped. Even surrounded by darkness, she’d seen that. His arms came around her and her feet left the floor as Oz carried more than walked her through to the exit.

Emerson was still laughing as they cleared the haunted house.

“What’s so funny?” He looked confused.

Trying to compose herself, she enlightened him. “You screamed like a little girl.”

“No, I didn’t.”

That made her laugh even harder. “Yousodid.”

“I’ll admit I was startled, but I draw the line at screaming.”

“Like a little girl,” she amended with a raised finger.

He cracked a smile. “Fine. I might have made some kind of sound, but it was a yell. A manly roar.” He pounded his chest.

She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing but felt her eyes start to water and knew she wasn’t fooling him.

He grabbed her hand. “Come on, chuckles, where to next?”

“We’re lost.”

“We aren’t lost,” Oz assured.

“I’ve seen this same scarecrow five times.”

They were in the corn maze.

Lost in the corn maze.

“I’m telling you, we should have followed that couple we ran into a while back.” The couple with a map! The same map they’d been offered but Oz rejected, claiming they didn’t need one.

Oz looked right and then left when they came to another T in the road. “I know exactly where I’m going.”

Emerson rolled her eyes. “Really? Is that why we’ve been stuck in here for over an hour?” Why was it men could never admit when they were lost? It was a mystery women would never know the answer to.

“We’re not stuck in here. We’re just,” he led her to the right, “taking the scenic route.”

Oz made another right turn and they hit, yet another, dead end. He turned her back in the direction they’d just come, his strides eating the distance so she had to hasten her pace to keep up.

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