The Day My Best Friend Disappeared in the Cornfield

"Oh, this is going to be the coolest Halloween ever," she exclaimed . We were riding in the back seat of Shelley's mom's hatchback, the one with room enough to stash our backpacks AND our French horns in the hatch end so we could sit in comfort in the back seats.

Shelley, my best friend ever, was the one who declared this would be her coolest Halloween EVER, with the emphasis on EVER. We had cleverly planned our school schedules so we were in every hour together. She had given up taking Spanish, and I had given up taking speech (an easy three credits), just so we would have the perfect string of best-friend togetherness all semester. Sacrifices like that always help prove that best friends really are best friends, and not just phonies like some people.

Anyway, so Saturday morning FINALLY gets here and I get dressed, scarf down some toast and Chinese tea and walk over to Shell's house, past all the big piles of leaves that grownups had raked into long banks next to the curb. It didn't do any good really because the wind came along and blew half of them back into the yards.

Shell and her mom were still in the kitchen with food on the breakfast table. Shell's mom asked if I wanted anything but I replied no thanks. Shelley was in jeans, sweater and Nikes. Her mom was already dressed so after some polite conversation about how wonderfully well school was going and all, we hit the road.

We piled into the back seat, Shell and me, and we put Shell's dog Pinky in the rear jumpseat but he hopped over in the back with us which we did not mind anyway. Pinky had a pinkish spot on his nose which is how he got his name.

Before we knew it we were pulling into the farm driveway. This corn maze was not the biggest but it had a great location. And the farmer sold a ton of produce in a converted shed and we could see his white turkeys getting fattened up for Thanksgiving.

Shell's mom held onto Pinky's leash and wanted to shop for vegetables of all things, while we could go into the maze. She would wait for us near the food stand and then we'd eat. Shell pulled out her camera and we snapped each other in front of the Corn City Limits entrance. It was a big green witch face with her mouth wide open for a doorway. We should have taken the hint and turned back right there.

We walked the path thru the corn field, with bundles of corn shocks on either side as far as we could see. Every ten yards or so, we found some scarecrows in various death poses, getting tortured on the rack or kneeling at a guillotine, stuff like that. Or bunches of carved pumpkins in family groupings.

It seemed like this maze was going on forever. Like ten, fifteen minutes. Well, I guess they gotta give people their money's worth, we decided. Then we came to a really old decrepit barn in the middle of everything. Most of the red paint had peeled off. The hinges were OK but there was no latch, so the door swung back and forth.

Must be part of the maze, I thought. Probably some guy making the door move. Shelley looked at me. We both slipped in. It was dark in the corners and looked empty. There was a haze all over. We figured they forgot to decorate it. I had been glad I wore my blue jacket but suddenly it was too warm. Everything felt clammy like when you wished it would rain. I heard Shell say what a rip. But I did not see where she was.

Suddenly someone came up to me from the rear. "You should not be here," he said. He was dressed in old beatup overalls and had a poor excuse for a beard. "OK, but let me find my friend," I said. "Your friend has been invited, not you."

Shelley is my best friend and no one is separating us ever! I shouted. But the old farmer was gone. And no one answered when I yelled Shell's name.

I dashed out the barn. On impulse I stopped to take a picture of it which did not help at all later on to solve the mystery but anyway I had some photographic proof. I dashed as fast as I could back out the mouth of the green witch. I saw Shell's mom. " Are you back out already? Where is Shelley?"

I gasped out my story. My hair was sticking to my head and face. What old barn, she wanted to know. There's no barn there anymore. Of course there's a barn, I told her. I even have a picture.

Anyway, Shell's mom looked plenty concerned by then but at least she didn't make a scene. That came later. She went over to the maze ticket seller and explained that her daughter got separated from her friend and could she go in and look for her? The lady looked at the expression on Shell's mom's face and asked where did they get separated. Shell's mom said something about an old barn. The lady said that can't be. It burned down to the ground one night years ago.

That's what I thought, said Shelley's mom. The lady waved her in saying, you go on in.

Years later I looked up this farm on old newspapers at the library. I had chanced on some reference to another fire 25 years earlier so thought I'd try to find out what I could. Yep, 25 years earlier almost to the day. The barn had burned to the ground due to unknown causes. A girl had been pulled from the smoke and been treated for smoke inhalation. OMG. That was Shell's mom.