The Road to Amazing Read Free

here, and the next day when the steamboat arrived, they were
all gone."
    "That's crazy. Someone must know where
they went."
    Assuming it's even true
that the people vanished in the first place, I thought.
    "No," she said. "People
have studied it. Every few years, a reporter writes an article
about it for the Seattle Times , or does a piece
for one of the local TV stations. A team of historians came out
here once — stayed at the inn almost two weeks. Everyone thinks
they can solve the mystery of Amazing, Washington, but no one ever
does." Christie fumbled for her keys.
    I looked back over toward the road to
Amazing. It still wasn't completely dark outside, but it was funny
how quickly the road disappeared into the trees. I swear I couldn't
see more than five feet down it.
    I'd been bored with her story at
first, but I wasn't anymore. I mean, come on, who doesn't love a
mystery?
    "What do you think happened?" I
asked.
    She found the keys in her purse and
looked up at me. "What?"
    "To the people of Amazing."
    She looked over at the road, even as
she seemed to draw in on herself, like a vole ducking out of sight
from a raptor.
    "What?" I said.
    "Nothing."
    "No, seriously. I want to
know."
    Clutching her keys, she stared at
me.
    "Aliens," she said at last.
    I laughed before I realized that she
hadn't been kidding.
    "Really?" I said.
    She nodded at me with wide
eyes. Then she lowered her voice, as if someone was going to hear
us way out in the woods of Vashon Island, or cared about alien
conspiracies anyway. "This guy came and stayed here once, and he
told me all about it. They look for places like Amazing — remote,
isolated towns. And they observe , sometimes for years. Then
one day it happens: the people disappear! Aliens did the same thing
to that colony on Roanoke Island in Virginia back in the sixteenth
century."
    At this point, I was
thinking: Have Kevin and I really rented a
house for the weekend from a crazy person? What if this wasn't even her house? Maybe her angel-guide had
told her she had permission to start renting out the neighbor's
house as her own.
    "Some people think the aliens build
re-creations of these remote little towns on their spaceships," she
went on, "so when they're finally abducted, the people don't even
know it! The people of Amazing might still exist, their descendants
anyway, living on some alien spacecraft!"
    I was back to being bored with
Christie, and also a little nervous that she might suddenly pull a
knife on me, so I said, "That's really interesting. Anyway, well,
thanks for everything! We'll leave the key where you told
us."
    I think she heard the dismissive,
freaked-out tone in my voice, and I felt guilty again. I mean, I'd
been the one to drag it out of her. Who was I to make fun of her
beliefs?
    But she got my message. She
exaggerated a nod and starting climbing into her car.
    Now I felt like I sort of
owed her an
apology.
    "I mean, maybe
there are aliens," I said. "Who knows?"
    She slammed the door in my face,
intentionally or not, and I watched her pull out and drive away.
Her headlights swept across sword ferns coated with dust from the
gravel road.
    Oh,
well , I thought.
    I didn't go back to the
Amazing Inn right away. Instead, I drifted over to the start of the
dirt road to Amazing. But night was falling fast, and I still
couldn't see any farther into the shadows. I wanted to walk down it
a bit, to see if there was anything to see, but I hadn't brought a
flashlight. Besides, I didn't want to leave Kevin to do the
unpacking alone.
     
    * * *
     
    I carried another load of supplies
into the house, and found Kevin in the hallway peering into one of
the bedrooms.
    "What are you doing?" I
asked.
    "Trying to decide who should get which
room," he said. "I don't want anyone upset with us. I mean, come
on, we have some pretty quirky friends."
    I nodded toward the kitchen. "Come on,
help me unpack."
    "But—"
    "It'll be fine."
    He hesitated for a second, then he
laughed. "Yeah, I'm being