“That’s not true,” Sally said quickly.

“Ha,” Cindy said. “Prove it. Let us read it.”

“You can read it,” Sally said. “In exchange for a million bucks.”

As usual, Sally had the last word. They continued up the path without further conversation. The path narrowed as the trees grew thicker and pushed in from the sides. The way the heavy branches hung over them, it could have been close to dark—the shade was that deep. Yet Adam could still make out his breath as he exhaled. Once again he wondered about the strange weather, and what could be causing it. He knew there must be a reason.

They were finished exploring and about to turn back when they spotted the Cold People. Adam saw them first, but thought he was just seeing huge blocks of ice jammed between trees. That in itself would have been strange. Even though there was frost, there was no actual snow or ice.

“Hey,” Adam said, pointing to a spot fifty feet off the path. “What’s that?”

They all peered in the shadows.

“Looks like a glacier,” Sally said.

“The ice age would have to arrive for us to have a glacier here,” Cindy said.

“This town is not known for standard weather patterns,” Sally said. “Two winters ago we had an iceberg float into our harbor. It hung offshore for a couple of months. We had incredible snowball fights, until a polar bear came out of a hidden ice cave and ate Buddy Silverstone.”

Cindy snorted. “I don’t believe it.”

“There actually was an iceberg,” Watch said. “But it was an Eskimo who came out of the cave. And he just invited Buddy to dinner.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t tell Buddy that he was the main course,” Sally lied.

“Would you guys stop arguing and tell me what we’re looking at,” Adam said.

Cindy squinted. “Looks like big blocks of ice.”

“We know that,” Sally said impatiently. “But what is the nature of these blocks of ice? Are they composed of frozen water? Are they from this planet? You have to ask yourself these questions.”

“Why don’t we walk over and have a closer look,” Watch suggested.

It was a reasonable idea, although it was harder to get to the ice blocks than Adam would have imagined. The trees were so dense that he felt as if they were threatening to squeeze him to a pulp. No pun intended, he thought. But he realized he must be flashing back on his first day in Spooksville, when a tree had, in fact, tried to eat him alive. He had thought at the time that that was a strange day. Looking back, it had been pretty normal for Spooksville.