Karsten Knight - A Shiver Down Lantern Lane

Lantern Lane was on fire.

Okay, so I dont mean that the street was actually burning.

Im talking about the rows of lanterns lining both sides of the snowy road, which stretched endlessly up the mountainside, all the way to the old ski lodge at the top. There must have been more than a thousand of them. As I stared out the taxi window, they cast an amber glow so fierce that the quiet street looked like a hotbed of simmering coals.

I wonder why they call it Lantern Lane, I joked to the taxi driver.

He didnt even crack a smile. When he had picked me up at the airport and I told him I was visiting my grandfathers ski lodge in the town of Everblanc, he had gone strangely silent. He didnt say another word for the rest of our journey.

Now, he had stopped at the bottom of Lantern Lane. This is as far as Ill take you, he said, peering through the window up at the lodge and the craggy summit behind it.

What? I asked, surprised. Im going to the lodgeits just at the top of the street. Surely you can drive me another few minutes.

The drivers fingers drummed nervously on the steering wheel. Sorry, kid. His voice trembled. The road is, uh, too steep and icy. This taxi would end up sliding into a snowbank and wed never make it to the top.

I opened my mouth to argue, but the driver had already popped the trunk and stepped out of the car to retrieve my suitcase.

The next thing I knew, I was standing on the side of the road while the taxi sped off until its brake lights disappeared around a bend in the pine trees.

I sighed. Good thing my suitcase had wheels.

I know what youre wondering: Why was a fifth grader like me traveling alone, without any parents, to a cold, snowy town in the middle of nowhere?

The short answer: this trip was a gift. For my birthday, my parents had finally promised to send me someplace where I could learn to ski. We dont exactly have an abundance of opportunities for winter sports back home in South Florida, which Im pretty sure hasnt seen snow since the last Ice Age.

The catch: to get the ski lessons, Id have to spend a week at the run-down lodge my zany grandfather had just purchased in the mountains. I overheard my parents talking about how it would be a great bonding experience for the two of us.

Barf.

Id only met Grandpa Dave a handful of times in my eleven years, because he was always off working on some questionable real estate deal. An alligator zoo in Georgia. A museum of wax alien figures out in the New Mexico desert. When one of his get-rich-quick schemes failed, he had ten new ones waiting to take their place.

And now hed moved on to this ski lodge, which hed apparently purchased at a bargain price, because it was falling apart. Im not a businessman, but if you ask me, there was a reason the previous owners were selling it for cheap.

Im pretty sure my parents wouldnt have let me fly alone if they knew that at the last minute, my grandfather would message me saying that he was too busy to pick me up from the airport and that hed pay for me to take a taxi instead.

Classic Grandpa Dave.

I tightened my scarf around my neck as I started up Lantern Lane. The snow crunched under my boots with each step, and the cold wind threatened to freeze my face.

Smoke rose from the chimneys of the cottages along the road. I paused in front of one of them to look at the lanterns that lined the edge of the street. Each lantern consisted of a paper bag filled with sand and a single candle lit inside. The residents had placed them every few feet along the edge of the road, as if they were making a barrier around their properties with them.

The sun slowly set as I made my way up the hill. The windows to the cottages glowed with light, so people must have been home, but I didnt see another soul outside.

Near the top of the road, I encountered a strange monument. It looked like a giant, illuminated candy cane. I saw temperature markings on the sideit must have been a giant thermometer. The color gradually cooled from red to purple and eventually to blue where the temperature dipped below freezing.

Finally, I approached the ski lodge at the top of Lantern Lane. It had been constructed entirely out of massive logs cut from the local forest. A rusted metal sign reading Everblanc Lodge swung back and forth over the entrance, creaking in the wind.

As I got closer, I saw a shadowy figure standing at the edge of the property. At first, I thought it must be Grandpa Dave.

But then I saw that the person was wearing a dark, hooded cloak.

An object in the strangers hand flickered and caught fire

And he stepped toward the lodge, preparing to burn it down.

Hey! I shouted. What are you doing?

Either the stranger couldnt hear me over the wind, or he chose to ignore me.

I dont know what I was thinking in that moment. The instinct to protect my grandfathers home overcame me and I rushed forward.

The stranger finally heard my footsteps crunching across the snow and started to turn.

I launched myself through the air and tackled him into a snowbank. The burning object flew from his hand and extinguished in the snow with a soft hiss.

Get off me! a voice cried from within the strangers hood.

A girls voice.

The stranger gave me a hard shove and I toppled off her. When she pulled back her hood, it was clear from her face she was about my age, though a few inches taller than me.

What I had thought was a sinister cloak, like the Grim Reapers, was really just a black snowsuit.

She crossed her arms and glared down at me. What is your problem? she asked.

I rose to my feet and brushed the snow off my jeans. I ... I saw the torch in your hand, I stammered. I thought you were going to set fire to my grandfathers lodge.

Torch? The girl burst out laughing. She picked up the object that had been burning off the ground.

To my embarrassment, it was just one of those plastic candle lighters.

Have I mentioned that I have an overactive imagination?

The girl finally stopped giggling. I wasnt trying to burn down the lodge, she explained. I was just lighting the luminarias.

Luminarias? I repeated.

She pointed to the row of lanterns along the edge of the street. A few of them hadnt been lit yet. Its the town rule that everyone has to light their lanterns before dark, she explained. Your grandfather refuses to participate, so Ive been lighting them for him. I was almost done when you decided to tackle me.

My cheeks burned red, and it wasnt because of the cold. Im really sorry, I said, then added, Im Mitch, by the way.

Lexi, she introduced herself, shaking my hand.

I followed her as she lit the final few lanternsor luminarias, as shed called them. Whats the big deal if my grandfather doesnt want to light some candles? I asked. Its a little late to be putting up holiday decorations.