The Magic Necklace

Preview:
Sweat and sawdust covered every inch of my body. I itched like crazy. My t-shirt stuck to my back and my chest, and even my shorts were damp with sweat. I took my big heavy gloves off and sighed as I looked at the huge pile of branches at the corner of my parents' yard. Finally. I was done.
Last night, a late summer thunderstorm had rolled through the suburb of Hartville and a big limb had fallen in our backyard. There was no damage of any kind, but Mom and Dad certainly were not gonna let that limb sit there in the yard and be an eyesore, so guess who got recruited to chop up the limb and carry it to the curb. That's right. Me. Frederick Haynes Scofield. But like all my friends, you can call me Freddie.
"Good work, son," Dad said walking up and slapping a hand on my shoulder.
"Thanks, Dad," I said.
"Here," Dad said, slipping a fifty-dollar bill into my hand very discreetly. "Don't tell you-know-who."
I grinned, shoving the money into the sweaty pocket of my gym shorts. "I know," I said.
You-know-who was my Mom, and I don't know why, but she hated it when Dad gave me cash, even for doing a big chore like this. I asked Dad about it once and he said it went back to when she was a girl and her father gave her sister a gift but left her out. Dad said it was best to leave that stone unturned, so I took that advice and never asked Mom about it. Everybody has their quirks.
I leaned down to pick up the saw but Dad stopped me. "You've done enough today, sport. I'll gather up the tools."
"Thanks, Dad," I said.
"No," he groaned and bent over to pick up the saw. "Thank you. I wouldn't be halfway done with this if it was me, and my back would be on fire."
"It's no problem," I said. "I didn't have anything better to do."
"Well," Dad said, shaking the sawdust off the saw. "With that cash you can take out one of those nice young girls from your class, I'm sure there's a few."
I felt my shoulders slump. There were a few nice young girls in my class, more than a few, but it seemed like every single one of them had something already planned whenever I asked them out. I had kinda given up on girls.
"Sure," I said.
"Go inside and relax," Dad said. "You deserve it."
I crashed on my bed with an ice-cold can of lemon-lime soda in one hand, and a bag of nacho-flavored chips in the other. I propped my phone up on a pillow and started watching videos while I popped open the soda and drank, finishing nearly half the can in one big gulp. That cold soda was just what I needed, so crisp and refreshing. I popped open the bag of chips and looked inside, disappointed at the air-to-chip ratio. I grabbed the biggest triangular orange chip. I chomped it, enjoying the crispness and the cheesy flavor.
Ads were blaring on my phone as I waited to watch a funny video of a bear falling out of a tree onto a trampoline. I ignored the first ad, it was about some new high-tech, super-expensive sneakers, but the second ad caught my ear.
"Come on down to Wilbur's Deal Emporium, we got a little bit of everything for a little bit of nothin'. You never know what you'll find at Wilbur's. So come on down."
The ad was just that voice and the screen flashing black, then white with Wilbur's in big bold letters. Certainly attention getting. I stopped the video and typed in a quick search for Wilbur's. It had three two-star reviews and no pictures, but I ignored that. It said Wilbur's was located in the old Hartville Mall.
I grabbed my phone and called my buddy, Brad Braden.
"Hey," he answered on the second ring.
"Hey, Dude," I said. "You wanna check out a new place in the mall tonight?"
"The mall? Hasn't that place been shut down for like five years?"
"Yeah, but I just saw an ad about a new store, it sounds kinda cool."
"Sure," Brad said. "I'm game. And hey, can I sleep over tonight, my brother's having one of his basement n

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