Steamspell opened the front door and beckoned with exaggerated grace.

"You'll see how it is. Your mommy and daddy may have protected you from the world, but in real life, people are afraid of monsters. They hate them. When people see you, first they'll shriek, then they'll shove a shotgun in your face, and then they'll pull the trigger, and that's a promise!"

"I don't believe you."

Steamspell grinned. "Well, Fangboy, then you won't live much longer. You can live like an animal or die like one, but either way, you're going to be an animal. Get out."

Nathan ran out the door, and then he kept on running. He was scared of traps and goblins, but he was more scared of Steamspell changing his mind. He ran and ran and ran, fleeing deep into the forest.

SIX.

After ten or fifteen minutes of running, Nathan took a moment to reflect upon his good fortune. He'd somehow avoided every landmine, every bear trap, every ravenous wolf, every quicksand pit, and every other trap that Steamspell had set up to keep little boys from escaping the orphanage. He was blessed!

Now he just had to keep running until he found a road. Somebody would eventually stop and help him. If he told them how bad things were, they wouldn't make him go back to that horrible place, would they?

No, they'd just press a shotgun to his chest.

Laugh at him, or scream in horror.

Then shoot him.

"Die, Fangboy!"

But what else could he do? He had to trust somebody. He couldn't live out in the woods on his own.

Could he?

One of the most heavily debated elements of the tale of Fangboy is his year spent living alone in the forest. "Impossible!" some scholars have said. "He was only six years old! He would barely have lasted the night, much less twelve full months!"

An oft-proposed theory is that Nathan discovered a small and rickety cabin in the woods, where a mildly deranged old man lived. Though not an entirely discredited scenario, no evidence of a cabin was ever found, and there seems to be no reason Nathan Pepper would have lied about this part of his experience.

Most people, upon hearing about his forest adventure for the first time, immediately a.s.sume that Nathan succ.u.mbed to the natural advantages given to him by his dental abnormality, biting into the necks of deer and small game for food. This is incorrect. During his year in the forest, Nathan did not kill a single living creature, with the obvious exception of ants, mosquitoes, and other bugs, which were slain accidentally and without malice.

This is not to say that he sustained himself entirely on the two types of berries that were available within the woods. Though he rarely strayed more than fifty feet from the protection of the thick forest, he did venture into backyards, stealing apples from trees, garbage from cans, and sometimes-lured by the delicious scent-meat from unsupervised charcoal grills. When the weather was at its coldest, he slept in barns and doghouses.

He kept moving north, though he couldn't say for sure why he was drawn in this direction. It is also worth noting that his sense of direction was generally poor, and he spent as much time backtracking as he did moving forward, which is why even at his slow pace he never reached the end of the forest.

The forest was far from a comfortable place for a young boy to live, but Nathan seemed to have quite the knack for making it on his own out in the wilderness. Climbing trees was no problem. He bathed regularly in lakes and rivers, just as his parents would have forced him to do against his will. No wild animals tried to kill him (though, much to his disappointment, nor did any try to befriend him).

Each morning, he woke up thinking that perhaps he should show himself, that maybe Steamspell was wrong, that maybe he'd been taken in and cared for. Each night, he went to bed knowing that Steamspell was absolutely right, that he'd be executed as a freak if he was discovered.

When his clothes fell apart in tatters, he fashioned his own clothing out of leaves. When that was a rather humiliating failure, he walked around naked, natural, and free for a couple of days until he stole some ill-fitting clothes from a laundry line.

Occasionally he had fantasies about burning down the orphanage, but mostly he didn't think about it. He thought about his mother and father all the time, despite his best efforts to put them out of his mind because it made him feel sad and lonely.

One day as he walked through the forest, eating some berries he'd gathered earlier that morning, he thought that it might be his seventh birthday.

He wanted to celebrate. Have a great big party with cake (chocolate), balloons (red and green), presents (plentiful), and candles (seven). Perhaps a clown who would juggle. A magician who'd make the clown disappear. Pony rides. Fireworks.

"It's going to be the best birthday of all time," he said out loud. Nathan spoke out loud at least once a day, despite there being n.o.body else around, to be sure that he wouldn't forget how to talk.

The forest did not contain much in the way of cake mix. If he wanted to celebrate his birthday properly, he'd have to venture out and steal some supplies.

He walked until evening, but didn't walk far enough to emerge from the woods. Disappointed, he curled up next to a tree and went to sleep.

The next day he woke up with a strange feeling that this was his seventh birthday, and that yesterday he'd simply been overly excited. Yes, today he would celebrate. All of the forest creatures would be jealous of his grand birthday party.

As he resumed walking toward what he hoped was the edge of the forest, Nathan decided that if he hadn't found any theft-worthy birthday supplies by the time it started to get dark, he'd improvise. Tiny branches would serve as candles. A pile of mud would be his cake, though he would not consume it. He would wrap a rock in leaves and pretend to be delighted when he opened his gift.

But improvisation turned out to be unnecessary, and his heart leapt with joy as he emerged from the forest into somebody's backyard. There were no fruit-bearing trees or food on a grill or spare clothes hanging from a line, but Nathan was certain that if he did a bit of exploration, he'd find something to make his birthday a happy one.

It was a nice little one-story house. White and freshly painted, with a colorful flower garden, bright green gra.s.s, and a welcoming environment, despite the lack of any visible signs welcoming him.

There were no toys. Sometimes these homes had toys, and Nathan would occasionally jump on a trampoline, or dig in a sandbox, or wobble back and forth on a giant plastic b.u.mblebee. This was always fun, although less fun than it would have been if he weren't so scared of being caught.

But he'd never been caught. Yes, he'd been chased away three or four times, but n.o.body ever knew that he was a fanged monster living in their woods. They couldn't have suspected that, or they would have sent people into the forest to hunt him. No, they just thought he was a mischievous little boy from another village, trying to steal playtime with another child's toys.

He walked through the yard toward the house, moving on his tiptoes even though such a thing was really not necessary on the soft gra.s.s. He hoped that if they had a dog that it was a small friendly one that would lick his hand and nip at his feet, and not a large one that would try to bite his thighs off.

Nathan walked right up next to the house. The window, decorated with a plotted plant on each side of the sill, was very inviting. He never, ever, ever looked into windows-that was a good way to get caught-but it was his birthday, so why shouldn't he peek into a window if he wanted?

He raised himself on his tiptoes and looked inside.

The house was very tidy. There was a long couch and an oval-shaped rug, and a bookcase that seemed like it had thousands of books. There was a painting of a vast mountain range on the wall. The whole place had a warm, happy feel. He was sure that n.o.body was ever beaten in there.

Nathan thought that he could quite happily live in this house.

He continued to stare inside, transfixed.

Was that food? Yes, right there on a plate on a table next to the couch: a great big sandwich. He didn't know what kind of sandwich it was (all he could see for certain was the lettuce) but his mouth began to water.

Why was the sandwich just sitting there? Who would abandon such a glorious thing?

Would they hear him if he broke the window?

He was pretty sure they would.

What if he broke it quickly, and climbed inside and stole the amazing sandwich before they had a chance to react? Maybe the people who lived in this house kept their shotgun in an inconvenient location.

It might be worth getting shot to have a bite of the sandwich.

He gazed at the food, not realizing that his fingernails were sc.r.a.ping against the gla.s.s, until- "What do you think you're doing?"

Nathan yelped. A woman, quite a bit older than his mother had been when she died, stood right next to him. He hadn't even noticed her sneaking up on him. He turned back toward the safety of the forest, but she grabbed his arm and wouldn't let go as he tugged and tugged.

"Stop it!" she demanded.

Nathan pulled so hard he thought that his arm might pop right off, which would make it more difficult to climb trees, but he couldn't get away. "Let me go!" he shouted.

Another woman came around the house into the backyard. She looked a lot like the first woman, though the first woman had black hair and this woman's hair was brown. She looked very surprised by what was happening as she ran over to them. "Hey!"

"Let me go! Let me go! I didn't do anything!"

"Just calm down," said the first woman, not letting go of his arm. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Please let me go!"

"Settle down and I'll let you go!"

Nathan gave one last unsuccessful tug, and then decided to stop struggling. Neither woman was holding a shotgun. Maybe they weren't going to kill him. Or maybe they were going to kill him in a much slower manner. He wished he had more information.

They all stood in silence for a long moment. Nathan was breathing heavy and tried to force himself to relax.

"Who are you?" the black-haired woman asked.

Nathan didn't respond.

The second woman looked at the first. "Is he feral?"

"I don't know if he's feral, but he's filthy!" She inhaled and scowled. "Goodness, you really stink. I've never smelled such a thing. Where did you come from?"

"Please let me go." They didn't seem to have noticed his teeth while he was screaming, but now that things had calmed a bit he spoke with his head down, keeping his mouth mostly closed, just the way he'd been taught.

"We can't do that until we understand what's going on. Where are your parents?"

"They're dead."

"Who takes care of you?"

"n.o.body."

"n.o.body? A boy of your age? Why, that's not...actually, from the looks of you, it is possible! Oh, you poor little darling!" The woman threw her arms around him, holding him tight. She was much taller than Nathan and he thought she might be suffocating him, but it was still the best feeling he'd had in an entire year.

"Where have you been staying?" asked the other woman.

"The forest."

"Goodness gracious! a.s.suming that your story isn't a shameful lie, what a remarkable young boy you must be! Would you like something to eat? We've made sandwiches."

"Oh, yes!"

Nathan didn't let his guard down, but he allowed the women to lead him inside the house. He'd known that he was hungry before, but now, with a fine meal so close, he was so ravenous that he thought he might follow these women even if they said "Surprise! There's your meal on the nose of a great white shark!"

"What's your name?" asked the woman with black hair, as they stepped into the kitchen.

"Nathan."

"Pleased to meet you, Nathan. My name is Penny. This is my sister Mary."

"h.e.l.lo," said Mary. "I'll go get my sandwich from the living room and give it to you, since Penny has already taken a bite out of hers. Not that it matters. Right now you don't look like a boy who is overly worried about germs."

At this point, Penny could have spat out half of her guts between two slices of bread and Nathan would have eaten it, though he did not share this information.

Mary left the kitchen. Penny ran her index finger across Nathan's forehead and clucked her tongue. "I never knew so much dirt could cling to a single person. You're worthy of scientific exploration. And I don't believe I've ever seen hair so desperately in need of cutting. I count three, four, five, six...at least seven twigs twisted into your hair. How long have you been on your own?"

"A year."

"A year? That absolutely boggles my mind, though I guess the evidence stands before me."

Nathan was mildly offended by this, since he thought he'd done an excellent job with the bathing process, but he didn't protest. He couldn't say for certain how he smelled, as he'd grown accustomed to his own aroma.

Mary returned with the plate, which she set on the counter next to where Nathan stood. She gave him an encouraging nod, and Nathan picked up the sandwich and took an enormous bite.

Delicious!

Heavenly!

Beyond bliss!

Nathan was so focused on this masterpiece of a sandwich that it wasn't until he had but one bite left that he realized that he'd forgotten about hiding his teeth.

Had they noticed?

He looked at Penny, then at Mary. Neither of them were recoiling.

He swallowed.

"What would you like to drink?" Penny asked.

"I have a choice?"

Penny opened the refrigerator and peered inside. "We have milk and apple juice, or you can have water."

"Apple juice, please."

Penny took the jar out of the refrigerator. Nathan ate the last bite of his sandwich as she set it on the counter and took down a gla.s.s.

"You were certainly hungry," said Mary.