The Woods Behind the House

“Come on,” Eddie said to him.  “It’s just a little bit further to the end of the path.  Besides, don’t you have your good luck charm with you?”  “Hey, that’s right!”  Billy thought to himself, completely forgetting about the mysterious archway and magical worlds and he reached up and touched the arrowhead that hung around his neck.  He had found the arrowhead one day while helping his dad dig a drainage ditch along the path to the pond in the middle of the woods.  In fact, they were standing only a few yards from where he had found it.  He and Eddie had found arrowheads before, Eddie had four shoeboxes of them under his bed, but this one was different from all the others; it was made from a large oyster shell. 

Dad had told him that it was special because oyster shells were very brittle and broke easily, and that the Indian wereowances from that area only used them for magic.  Billy wasn’t too sure if dad was pulling his leg about that or not, (Dad liked to tell stories sometimes too), but he agreed that the arrowhead was different from any he had ever seen and he was lucky to find it, so just maybe it might bring him good luck if he held on to it.  He had taken a leather shoelace from one of his old shoes, tied the arrowhead to it with some wire, and then tied it around his neck.  There it had stayed ever since.  Good luck or not, he felt much better now that he remembered he had it on, so at last he said, “OK, let’s go!”  Billy patted his arrowhead and he and Eddie started back down the path, passing through the archway as they went.

All at once the world around them seemed to be swirling faster and faster, like a whirlpool had opened up in the air in front of them.  “Eddie!” Billy screamed, and he could hear Eddie yelling his name too.  It was as if they had been sucked into a sideways tornado, with bright flashes of lightning all around them and a roaring wind like a lion.  Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it was over.