Toby’s Secret – Part 1

Marie-Christine Castelazo Hidalgo

by Marie-Christine Castelazo Hidalgo

Story

Long ago, there was a little boy named Toby. Toby was a quirky 6-year-old with a lovely family and the best friend in the whole world, Eleanor. He loved going to school and he even had his own hamster which he named Mr. Chubbs. We can see that Toby was a lucky kid who lived a great life. He would agree, but now, Toby was thirteen, he had learned long ago that Eleanor wasn’t real and life wasn’t as easy as it once seemed.

To get to school, and to go back home, Toby had to take the bus. He had always loved taking that bus, hanging out with his friends, reading a new fascinating book – he loved reading – but ever since the first day of the new school year he did not enjoy taking that bus anymore.

Why? Because of three other teenage boys, specifically Marc, Jason, and Miguel. They were 15 years old, and their favorite hobby was making life miserable for everyone around them, especially for Toby. They would tease him, for being a bit smaller than the average 13-year-old, for reading books instead of playing video games, and for anything else that made him different from them.

But today was the day Toby decided he had had enough.

In Willowcreek, there was an old house, down in the Valley of the Lost Flowers and, according to the town’s legends, that house was haunted.

Just like every day, after getting off the school bus, Toby was walking home and, just like every day, his three bullies were following him. Unfortunately, they lived in the same neighborhood as Toby. They were talking about the same senseless things as always; video games, the newest horror movie, or the cute and popular but mean and conceited girls from school, and every so often they would call out to him yelling something mean.

Willowcreek was not a big town, so the fastest way to get anywhere would usually lead past the “Haunted House of the Valley” and that was exactly where Toby was headed as well. He did not believe in any of the legends, nor did he think that ghosts were real, but he was sure that Marc and his entourage did.

They had almost reached the infamous building and just as expected Marc spoke up, uttering the same exact words as every day, “Hey wimp!” he called out to Toby. “I bet you 5 dollars you cannot go to the front door of the haunted house, knock and get back without peeing your pants. If you are even brave enough to step onto the property, that is.”

Usually, Toby would have just ignored them and kept walking because, as he well knew, dogs that bark don’t bite and that’s all they ever did. Bark. Today, however, he had not planned for things to go as usual.

© Marie-Christine Castelazo Hidalgo 2022-08-31