The Strange and Unusual Case of Lake Barton

5: Charlotte

"Waaaaah!" Benji whined from the blanket on the living room floor.

Benji was Charlotte's little brother. He was a whiny baby. Charlotte's mother, Cho Mayumi, was reading an ABCs book to him. He hated storytime. Mayumi insisted on reading to him every day, despite the deafening whining that took place as a result. Charlotte's father, Yang Seong-Hyeon, kept telling his wife to give it up. She kept doing it, though. She said she wanted Benji to "build an imagination and intelligence".

"Get him to quiet down!" Seong-Hyeon (or Sy, as he was called), would complain every day as he cooked lunch. "He can read on his own when he's older. It won't do anything now if he hates it."

Secretly, Charlotte and her older sister Claire agreed with their appa. But Charlotte and Claire were good daughters, and good daughters shouldn't get in the way of a determined eomma.

Sitting at the kitchen table, which was pushed up against the counter, Charlotte did her best to ignore the noise as she gobbled up a dish of Sy's silken mapo tofu with rice. As she finished, she stood up and looked over the counter and into the kitchen. The pot was still half full with delicious, spicy bean curd. Charlotte wanted more, but she thought it wouldn't be polite if she asked for a sixth serving.

The five Yangs lived in a two-bedroom apartment above Mayumi's hardware store, Cho's Tools and Stationery, in Nestletown, right next door to Nestletown Middle School, where Charlotte was a student (Claire attended Burrows High School, by the university). This proximity allowed Charlotte to go home for lunch every day and enjoy her father's delicious Korean and Chinese cooking, which he also sold at a little counter in the back of the shop.

Both of Charlotte's parents were from Korea, but her father's father was Chinese and her mother's mother was Japanese. They had been high school sweethearts, and then became US citizens to avoid mandatory conscription at age 18. They attended Binghamton University and finished graduate school together. Five years later they were married, running a four-aisle store in an out-of-the-way rural town, with their first child on the way. Four years later, the second, Charlotte, was born, and eleven years later, she got a little brother. Charlotte had often asked how they ended up running a hardware store in a tiny town after going through graduate school at New York's best public college, but really, does anyone know how they ended up in Lake Barton?

Charlotte decided she was finished. She picked up her blue briefcase, which was sitting on the ground next to the table, and slung it over her shoulder. She stood up and headed toward the door.

"Uh-uh!" Mayumi said, catching Charlotte's attention. She gestured at the dirty dishes still laid out on the table.

Charlotte sighed and gathered the dishes up. She plopped them in the sink, then ran the water over them, watching her saucy bowl get diluted with cloudy water. Then, she trotted quickly out the door and down one flight of stairs, not wanting to be late for chemistry.

The staircase came out behind the counter where her appa served people food. Sitting on a stool, Sy looked up for a moment from an episode of CSI: Miami, that he was watching from a tiny small-screen TV placed on the shelf across from the counter, to acknowledge his daughter. There were no customers.

Charlotte walked through the store and out of the door. Across the road from the row of small brick buildings was a row of three houses nestled into the wooded hillside. Plainchance Hill was the name of the hill: it stood between Louistown-Nestletown and upper Lake Barton, blocking Nestletown's view of the lake but prominent in the view from the opposite shore.

Charlotte turned left and began walking the 150 feet or so to the schoolyard. As she rounded a corner, the schoolyard opened up before her: students wandering around a sunny, tree-dotted area of asphalt surrounded by the two stories of Nestletown Middle School.

Charlotte walked up on a small crowd of kids gathered around the bench near the door. Uh-oh. It looked like Reggie and Alex were at it again. One of Charlotte's classmates turned and gestured for her to leave.

Charlotte was a bit insulted, but grateful that the general student body all knew and loved her. They saw her as the child of the grade—she was small in stature and was always very quiet. Her appearance seemed younger than the average middle schooler, and she always wore cute, modest dresses with matching headbands. She was very studious and obedient, and was considered by everyone a role model, yet also somebody to protect. Charlotte had gathered from older students that Claire has also filled that role during her middle school tenure. Charlotte has a feeling, though, that Benji would become a bit more of a rebel.

Suddenly, Reggie pushed through the crowd, looking quite upset, and rushed into the school. A paper fell out of his briefcase.

People began to disperse. When nobody was looking, Charlotte bent down, picked up the paper, and headed inside to the chemistry room, where she was sure to find Reggie.

She pushed open one of the double doors on the right-hand side of the locker-lined hallway and peeked in. The room was empty, except for Reggie, who was sitting at one of the tables facing the SMART Board. His head was in his hands, and he seemed to be crying his eyes out.

Charlotte carefully walked over to the table and sat down in the chair next to Reggie. She slid the paper across the table.

"You dropped this," she said quietly.

Reggie looked up at her, then at the paper. "Thanks," he said, mid-sob.

Charlotte put her arm around his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Everyone thinks I'm a murderer."

"What?"

"Alex keeps telling people," explained Reggie, sniffling, "that I'm the Night Snatcher."

Charlotte scoffed quietly. "That's ridiculous! The Night Snatcher has existed longer than us."

"I know, but people seem to be buying it," Reggie said. "You know Iris?"

"The new girl, the blonde one?"

"Yeah," Reggie said. "I was supposed to be her guide. And she could've been my friend. But now she's friends with Alex and he told her that I'm the Night Snatcher and now she'll hate me!"

Charlotte gave Reggie a hug. He continued to sob over her shoulder. "Don't worry. I don't believe any of that garbage."

Reggie looked up and stopped crying, perhaps both surprised and honored that Charlotte has referred to something as garbage for his sake. "Thanks."

At that moment, the bell rang. Students began to stream into the room... including Iris. Iris looked at Charlotte and Reggie sitting together and sat down at the table across from them, giving wary glances toward Reggie.

The class began. Charlotte began taking organized notes in tiny, neat handwriting. Chemistry was her favorite class, and not many seventh grades got to take it.

She put her pencil down to erase something. Then she put the eraser down and picked her pencil up again.

Except... it wasn't her pencil. An iridescent blue pencil had appeared out of nowhere, in contrast to her plain, yellow ones. Charlotte tapped Reggie's shoulder with the pencil. "Is this yours?" He shook his head.

Charlotte put the pencil back down, sort of afraid of what it was. But the moment it touched the table, it was gone. Into nowhere.

Charlotte felt around in the spot where she had put down the blue pencil. She felt it beneath her fingers, and picked it up again.

Out of nowhere.

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Hello everyone! This is a bit of a shorter addition to the story but it was harder to write. Anyhow, updates are Mondays and/or Fridays, enjoy!

The photo of the mapo tofu (or mapa dubu in Korean) is a thumbnail of one of Maangchi's videos. Maangchi is a YouTuber who makes videos of recipes of Korean foods. I swear I'm not sponsored but if you miss your mom she will remind you of your mom. So check her out on YouTube.