Jimmy Stone's Ghost Town by Scott Neumyer Page A

into this mailbox so we can all see it. If one Elder gets
the mail first, we all agree to put it back until all the other
Elders have had a chance to read it. In certain situations, we even
have to call Meetings of Central Importance to discuss things of,
well, great importance. Like, things we really need to
address now ."
    Sheesh .
    "Gasp," I said before he could continue with
his lengthy tale, "I hate to break it to you, but this is starting
to become the longest story in the history of stories. You're
starting to put me to sleep, buddy."
    "Yeah," said David, who'd been quiet and
just petting Trex the entire time Gasp had been talking. "Get on
with it!"
    To be honest, I was pretty
shocked to hear David say anything that might require an exclamation point at the
end of his sentence.
    "Oh," said Gasp, "I'm so
very sorry, Gentlemen. I didn't mean to bore you two. I mean, with so many
things you guys need to get done here in Ghost Town. Right? Oh, no.
That's right. You have no idea what you're supposed to be doing here in Ghost
Town yet. That's completely right. I totally forgot. I'm
your guide ."
    David and I look at each other, nod, and
decide that Gasp is right. We know we should probably keep our
mouths shut and let him tell us his story, long and boring or
not.
    "Go ahead, Gasp."
    "Well, thank you so much, Jimmy!"
    I know he's being sarcastic, but I shake my
head anyway to let him know that I understand I was being an
idiot.
    "Let me try to get to make this story a
little shorter by getting straight to the point." Gasp hunched down
a little and stared straight into my eyes. David peered on and Trex
even perked up his ears a bit, almost as if he understood what Gasp
was saying.
    "Over the past seven
weeks, Jimmy, we've had seven Meetings of Central Importance."
    "Wow," I say. "Really? Is that not
normal?"
    "Let's put it this way,"
Gasp says. "In the previous two years before the past seven weeks,
we had a total of one Meeting of Central Importance."
    David and I look at each other and Gasp
takes a deep breath before reiterating his point.
    "One."
    "I can see how crazy that
must be for you guys here in Ghost Town. That's a lot of meetings
and whatever has been happening must be really important, but I have to
wonder just what this all has to do with me?"
    "I'm getting there, Jimmy. I promise you.
You're here to help us, and you will soon understand just how it is
that we need your assistance."
    I can only imagine what
Gasp might be talking about. It's pretty obvious to me, David, and
probably even Trex at this point, that something funky is going on in Ghost
Town, but none of us have any clue what this has to do with
us.
    Does Gasp want us to attend one of their
Meetings of Central Importance? Are they making us Town Elders? Are
we going to have to preside over one of their votes? Fight a war?
Fly a plane? Bust some ghosts? Who knows.
    "For the past seven weeks, Jimmy, we've
received one letter per week - the exact same letter each time, in
fact - and every single time we've gotten this letter, we've had to
gather all the Town Elders for a Meeting of Central
Importance."
    Gasp shook his head and crossed his arms
across his chest. He was clearly anxious about the entire
situation, and this was the first time it's shown since we've been
in Ghost Town.
    "This is very serious business," Gasp said.
"We've lived a very happy life here in Ghost Town and we don't
intend for that to change. But these letters hold within them a
threat like we've never had here before. I mean, we've had very few
threats as it is, but it took us seven weeks to even understand how
we could combat the threats in these letters."
    "Why did it take you so long if you've had
meetings after each and every one?" I asked.
    "It took us so long,
Jimmy, because we didn't understand the letters. We didn't have any
idea what to do when the first one arrived and, when they started
to arrive every single week, we really had no idea what to
do."
    "But I still