35 - A Shocker on Shock Street (2 page)

Then I saw the grin slowly spread across his face. I knew I’d been tricked
again.

“Gotcha!” he declared. His brown eyes flashed gleefully. His cheeks were
bright pink. “Gotcha again. You fall for that gag every time.”

“Dad—!” I let out an angry cry. Then I rushed up to the desk, wrapped my
hands around his neck, and pretended to strangle him.

We both collapsed against each other, laughing. Marty still stood in the
doorway, shaking his head. “Mr. Wright, that is so lame,” he muttered.

Dad struggled to slip his glasses back on. “I’m sorry. You kids are just too
easy to fool. I couldn’t resist.” He smiled at me. “Actually, I’ve got
good
news.”

“Good news? Is this another joke?” I demanded suspiciously.

He shook his head. He picked up something from his desk. “Check this out, guys. Do you know what this is?” He held it
in his palm.

Marty and I came closer to examine it. It was a little, white plastic vehicle
with four wheels. “Some kind of train car?” I guessed.

“It’s a tramcar,” Dad explained. “See? People sit on long benches inside it.
Here. It’s motor-driven.” He pointed to the front of the model to show where the
engine went. “But do you know
where
this tramcar will be used?”

“Dad, we give up. Just
tell
us,” I insisted impatiently. “Stop keeping
us in suspense.”

“Okay, okay.” His cheeks reddened. His smile grew wider. “This is a model of
the tram that will be used at the Shocker Studio Tour.”

My mouth dropped open. “Do you mean the tour is finally going to open?” I
knew that Dad had been working on it for years.

Dad nodded. “Yes. We’re finally about to open it to the public. But before we
do, I want you two to test it out.”

“Huh? You
mean
it?” I shrieked. I was so excited, I felt as if I’d
burst out of my skin!

I turned to Marty. He was leaping up and down, shooting both fists into the
air. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

“I built this whole tour,” Dad said, “and I want you two to be the first kids
in the world to go on it. I want to know your opinion. What you like and what
you don’t like.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Marty kept leaping into the air. I thought I might have to
tie a rope around his waist and hold onto it to keep him from floating away!

“Dad—the
Shock Street
movies are the
best
!” I cried. “This is
awesome!” And then I added, “Is the tour very scary?”

Dad rested a hand on my shoulder. “I hope so,” he replied. “I tried to make
it as scary and real as I could. You get on the tram and you ride through the
whole movie studio. You get to meet all of the characters from the horror
movies. And then the tram takes you on a slow ride down Shock Street.”

“The
real
Shock Street?” Marty cried. “Do you mean it? You get to ride
down the real street where they make the movies?”

Dad nodded. “Yes. The real Shock Street.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Marty started pumping his fists in the air again, shouting
like a maniac.

“Awesome!” I cried. “Totally awesome!” I was as excited as Marty.

Suddenly Marty stopped leaping. His expression turned serious. “Maybe Erin
shouldn’t go,” he told my dad. “She gets too scared.”

“Huh?” I cried.

“She was so scared during the movie sneak preview, I had to hold her hand,”
Marty told Dad.

What a liar!

“Give me a break!” I cried angrily. “If anyone was a scaredy-cat wimp, it was
you, Marty!”

Dad raised both hands to signal
halt.
“Calm down, guys,” he said
softly. “No arguing. You have to keep together. You know, you two will be the
only
ones on the tour tomorrow. The only ones.”

“Yes!” Marty cheered happily. “Yes! Yes!”

“Wow! That’s great!” I cried. “It’s totally great. It’s going to be the
best
!” Then I had an idea. “Can Mom come too? I bet she would really enjoy
it.”

“Excuse me?” Dad squinted at me through his glasses. His whole face turned
bright red. “What did you say?”

“I asked if Mom could come too,” I repeated.

Dad kept staring at me for a long time, studying me. “Are you feeling okay,
Erin?” he asked finally.

“Yes. Fine,” I replied meekly.

I suddenly felt very confused and upset. What had I done wrong?

Was something wrong with Mom?

Why was Dad staring at me like that?

Dad came around the desk and put an arm around my shoulder. “I think you and
Marty will have a better time if you go by yourselves,” he said softly. “Don’t
you agree?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I guess.”

I still wondered why he was staring at me so suspiciously. But I decided not
to ask him. I didn’t want him to get angry or something and change his mind
about us going on the tour.

“Do you mean you’re not coming with us?” Marty asked Dad. “We’re really going
by ourselves?”

“I want you to go by yourselves,” Dad replied. “I think that will make it
more exciting for you.”

Marty grinned at me. “I hope it’s really scary!” he declared.

“Don’t worry,” Dad replied. A strange smile spread over his face. “You won’t
be disappointed.”

The next afternoon, a gray haze hung in the air as Dad drove Marty and me to
Shocker Studios.

I sat up front with Dad, peering out the car window at the smog. “It’s so
gloomy out,” I murmured.

“Perfect for a horror movie tour,” Marty chimed in from the backseat. He was
so excited, he could barely sit still. He kept bouncing his legs up and down and
tapping his hands on the leather seat.

I had never seen Marty so crazed. If he didn’t have his seat belt to hold him
down, he’d probably bounce right out of the car!

The car climbed up the Hollywood hills. The narrow road curved past redwood
houses and tree-filled yards cut into the sides of the hills.

As we climbed, the sky turned even darker. We’re driving up into a cloud of
fog, I thought. Far in the distance, I could see the HOLLYWOOD sign, stretching
in the haze across a dark peak.

“Hope it doesn’t rain,” I muttered, watching the fog roll over the sign.

Dad chuckled. “You know it
never
rains in Los Angeles!”

“Which monsters are we going to see?” Marty asked, bouncing in the backseat.
“Is Shockro on the tour? Do we really get to walk on Shock Street?”

Dad squinted hard through his glasses, turning the wheel as the road curved
and twisted. “I’m not telling,” he replied. “I don’t want to spoil it for you. I
want it all to be a surprise.”

“I just wanted to know so I could warn Erin,” Marty said. “I don’t want her
to get too scared. She might faint or something.” He laughed.

I let out an angry growl. Then I turned around and tried to punch him. But I
couldn’t reach.

Marty leaned forward and messed up my hair with both hands. “Get off me!” I
screamed. “I’m warning you—!”

“Take it easy, guys,” Dad said softly. “We’re here.”

I turned and stared out the windshield. The road had flattened out. Up ahead,
an enormous sign proclaimed SHOCKER STUDIOS in scary, blood-red letters.

We drove slowly up to the huge iron gates in the front. The gates were
closed. A guard in a small black booth sat reading a newspaper. I glimpsed gold
script letters above the gate. They spelled out one word: BEWARE.

Dad pulled right up to the gate, and the guard peered up. He gave Dad a big
smile. Then he pressed a button, and the gates slowly swung open. Dad drove the
car into the tall white parking garage beside the studio. He parked in the first
space next to the entrance. The garage seemed to stretch on forever. But I could
see only three or four other cars inside.

“When we open next week, this garage will be jammed!” Dad said. “There will
be thousands of people here. I hope.”

“And today, we’re the only ones!” Marty cried excitedly, jumping out of the
car.

“We’re so lucky!” I agreed.

A few minutes later, we were standing on the platform outside the main
building, facing a wide street, waiting for the tram to take us on the tour. The
street led to dozens of white studio buildings, spread out all the way down the
hill.

Dad pointed to two enormous buildings as big as airplane hangars. “Those are
the soundstages,” he explained. “They film a lot of movie scenes inside those
buildings.”

“Does the tour go inside them?” Marty demanded. “Where is Shock Street? Where
are the monsters? Are they making a movie now? Can we watch them making it?”

“Whoa!” Dad cried. He placed his hands on Marty’s shoulders as if to keep him
from flying off the ground. I had never seen Marty so totally wired! “Take it
easy, fella,” Dad warned. “You’ll blow a fuse! You won’t survive the tour!”

I shook my head. “Maybe we should put him on a leash,” I told Dad.

“Arf, arf!” Marty barked. Then he snapped his teeth at me, trying to bite me.

I shivered. The fog rolled in from the hills. The air felt damp and cold. The
sky darkened.

Two men in business suits came zooming along the street in a golf cart. They
were both talking at once. One of them waved to Dad.

“Can we ride in one of those carts?” Marty asked. “Can Erin and I each have
our own cart?”

“No way,” Dad told him. “You have to take the automated tram. And remember—stay in the tramcar. No matter what.”

“You mean we can’t walk on Shock Street?” Marty whined.

Dad shook his head. “Not allowed. You have to stay on the tram.”

He turned to me. “I’ll be waiting for you here on the platform when you get
back. I want a full report. I want to know what you like and what you don’t
like. And don’t worry if things don’t work exactly right. There are still a few
bugs to work out.”

“Hey—here comes the tram!” Marty cried, hopping up and down and pointing.

The tram came rolling silently around the corner. I counted six tramcars in
all. They were shaped like roller-coaster cars, open on top—only much longer
and wider. The cars were black. A grinning white skull was painted on the front
of the first car.

A young, red-haired woman wearing a black uniform was seated on the first
bench in the front car. She waved to us as the tram rolled up to the platform.
She was the only passenger.

She hopped out as the tram stopped. “Hi, I’m Linda. I’m your tour guide.” She
smiled at my dad. Her red hair fluttered in the wind.

“Hello, Linda,” Dad said, smiling back at her. He gently shoved Marty and me
forward. “Here are your first two victims.”

Linda laughed and asked us our names. We told her.

“Can we ride in front?” Marty asked eagerly.

“Yes, of course,” Linda replied. “You can sit anywhere you want. This whole
ride is just for you.”

“All right!” Marty cried. He slapped me a high five.

Dad laughed. “I think Marty is ready to begin,” he told Linda.

Linda pushed her red hair out of her face. “You can start right away, guys.
But first, there’s something I have to do.”

She leaned over the tramcar and tugged out a black canvas bag. “This will
only take a second, guys.” She pulled a red plastic gun from the bag. “This is a
Shocker Stun Ray Blaster.”

She gripped the plastic pistol tightly. It looked like something in a
Star
Trek
movie. Her smile faded. Her green eyes narrowed. “Be careful with these
blasters, guys. They can freeze a monster in its tracks from twenty feet.”

She handed the blaster to me. Then she reached into her bag to get one for
Marty. “Don’t fire them unless you have to.” She swallowed hard and bit her
lower lip. “I sure hope you don’t have to.”

I laughed. “You’re kidding—right? These are just toys—right?”

She didn’t answer. She pulled another blaster from her bag and started to
bring it to Marty.

But she stumbled over a cord on the platform. “Ohh!” She let out a startled
cry as the blaster went off in her hand.

A loud buzz. A bright ray of yellow light.

And Linda stood frozen on the platform.

“Linda! Linda!” I screamed.

Marty’s mouth dropped open. He let out a choked gurgle.

I turned to Dad. To my surprise, he was laughing.

“Dad—she’s—she’s frozen!” I cried. But when I turned back to Linda, she
had a big smile on her face, too.

It took us both a while, but we soon realized the whole thing was a joke.

“That’s the first shock on the
Shocker
tour,” Linda announced,
lowering the red blaster. She put a hand on Marty’s shoulder. “I think I really
shocked
you,
Marty!”

“No way!” Marty insisted. “I knew it was a joke. I just played along.”

“Come on, Marty!” I cried, rolling my eyes. “You nearly dropped your teeth!”

“Erin, I
wasn’t
scared,” Marty insisted sharply. “Really. I just went
along with the joke. Do you really think I’d fall for a dumb plastic blaster gun?”

Marty is such a jerk. Why can’t he ever admit it when he’s scared?

“Climb in, you two,” Dad urged. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Marty and I climbed into the front seat of the tram. I looked for a seat belt
or a safety bar, but there wasn’t one. “Are you coming with us?” I asked Linda.

She shook her head. “No. You’re on your own. The tram moves automatically.”
She handed Marty his Stun Blaster. “Hope you don’t need it.”

“Yeah. Sure,” Marty muttered, rolling his eyes. “This gun is so babyish.”

“Remember—I’ll meet you back here at the end of the ride,” Dad said. He
waved. “Enjoy it. I want a full report.”

“Don’t get out of the tram,” Linda reminded us. “Keep your head and arms
inside. And don’t stand up while the tram is moving.”

She stepped on a blue button on the platform. The tram started up with a
jolt. Marty and I were thrown back against the seat. Then the tram rolled
smoothly forward.