Secrets in the Dark (14 page)

“
Rusty’s going to need a
bath,” Olivia said, and laughed when the dog made a mock growl in
response to her words.

“
Don’t worry,” Doug
assured him. “I won’t make you take a bath.”

He got up, giving Rusty a
pat on the head. Before we could continue, Faith said,
“Wait.”

She went to the side of the
road and sat in the dirt with her hand extended toward the fox
hiding in the meadow. It approached her slowly, sniffed her
fingers, then let her gently scratch the top of its
head.

It followed along on the
edge of the road as we started forward again. At the sound of
wings, Olivia patted her shoulder with a grin. The little pygmy owl
soared down to land on it with a quiet hoot. It clicked its beak
and settled down, its eyes half closed in contentment.

“
How can you let it sit
there like that Olivia?” Faith asked. “I’d be afraid it would poop
all over me.”

“
It’s magic.” Olivia
answered calmly. “It’s not going to poop on me
or
my friends!” Then she got a
malicious grin on her face. “But I wish Pyg could poop on the
Rejects someday. I’d really like to see that.” We all laughed at
the thought of Ray and Andrew covered in owl poop.

I pulled out the map and
traced my finger along the marked path. “We need to walk past the
cabin on this road until we get to the hills.”

“
Let’s move,” Doug said
cheerfully. “I feel like a million bucks today.” He glanced slyly
at Olivia. “Maybe ‘cause I’m thirteen now.”

“
Do we
really
have to hear about that
again?” Faith asked, rolling her eyes.

“
March is almost over, so
enjoy it while you can.” Olivia sounded jealous. She hated that
Doug was already thirteen — she couldn’t wait for her birthday. It
was no surprise when she said grumpily, “Don’t forget, the rest of
us will be thirteen this year too!”

“
Birthday, smurfday,” I
said. I knew I sounded grouchy but I didn’t care. Why did everyone
want to be a teenager? I remembered my parents talking about Chris
like he had a disease any time he did something stupid during his
teens. Mom said, “Well, he
is
a teenager,” on a regular basis! The thought made
my stomach roll.

Why would I want people
talking about me like that?

I stuffed the map in my
pocket. “Come on, let’s hurry.”

It didn’t take long before
I felt too hot. “Wait, it‘s really hot in here. Some of this has to
come off.” I stopped, removed my backpack, and stripped off my
jacket. I stuffed it in my pack and shrugged the straps onto my
shoulders. The others took the opportunity to do the
same.

Fortunately, we’d stopped
after the curve in the road near the cabin. We heard a shriek of
wind and excited voices behind us, but couldn’t see them. I felt my
heart sink down to my toes as I realized who else was in Chimera.
At least they wouldn’t be able to see us, either.

“
Oh no,” Faith breathed.
“That’s Andrew!”

“
Carly and Ray, too,”
Olivia whispered.

The apple trees gave
barely enough cover to block us from view. I followed Doug
as
he snuck back down the road and ducked
behind the low wall. He motioned for Faith and Olivia to come too.
I carefully peeked over the wall. Ray, Carly, Andrew and Polly were
milling about, looking around in amazement.

Olivia snorted. “Polly’s
got her mouth open like a fish.”

“
Tell me we didn’t look
like that!” I whispered back.

“
There’s no way
I
looked like that!”
Olivia insisted.

“
They
were
following us.” Smugness
radiated through Faith’s voice. “I knew it!” She didn’t actually
say ‘I told you so’, but her voice pretty much said it for
her.

“
We’ll listen next time,”
Doug said, glaring at the newcomers.

“
What’s that?” Olivia
gasped, pointing at an animal that trotted up to Carly.

“
It’s a baby cow,” I said.
“Darn! One of them must have wished for help in here.”

Faith frowned, “So, Carly
likes farm animals?”

“
That’s not it!” Doug
said. Even through his whisper, I could hear excitement. “What’s
her name?”

Why would Doug care about
Carly’s name?

“
Carly Whitney,” Olivia
answered, her voice uncertain.

Doug scowled. “No, her full
name.”

“
I don’t know.” I told him
quickly when no one else answered him. “What about you,
Faith?”

Faith’s face was red and
she looked like she was going to burst into laughter. That or she
was choking on something. “Yeah, I do. Her middle name was her
mom’s name before she got married. It’s Osmond. She’s Carly Osmond
Whitney

“
Yeah, right.” Doug rolled
his eyes. “At least her animal fits — her initials are
COW.”

“
Ray’s full name is
Raymond Alexander Tate,” Olivia snickered, “do you think that
means…”

“
Oh. My. Gosh.” I was
stifling nearly hysterical giggles, trying so hard to keep quiet
that I could barely catch my breath. “That’s an
R.O.U.S.”

“
What?” Doug
asked.

“
Rodents Of Unusual Size,”
Olivia, Faith and I whispered together, and cracked up at the look
on Doug’s face. Remembering the need to remain hidden, we gave each
other a low hand slaps.

“
Watch
Princess Bride
,” I told him and
laughed again.

Then Ray bellowed, “Get
away from me,” and aimed a kick at the huge black rat, nearly the
same size as Shadow, trying to climb up his leg.

“
They don’t know anything
about the animals,” Olivia breathed, grinning.

“
And we’re not going to
tell them," I said, a wave of satisfaction warming me from the
inside out.

“
What’s Polly’s name?”
Doug asked slowly, watching the cute pink pig that had started
wandering up and down the side of the road, looking at
Polly.

“
I know that one, too,”
Faith said. “Polly Isabelle Grant. She’s not nice at all. She
belongs with Ray and Andrew.”

We were too far away to
hear what was being said when they weren’t yelling. When Polly saw
the pig, she reached out toward it. Before she could touch it, Ray
grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

Just when I thought it
couldn’t get any stranger, I noticed the last animal. All of us
watched, transfixed, as the small donkey headed straight for
Andrew.

“
Oh man, he’s
not
gonna like that,”
Doug said.

That was an understatement.
He’d taken a lot of teasing about his name before he buddied up
with Ray.

“
What were his parents
thinking?” Olivia asked. “I mean, Andrew Steven Sawyer!”

“
I
think a rat and a donkey are just perfect,” Faith said,
grinning. I had to use both hands over my mouth to stifle my
laughter.

“
Oh no!” Olivia bit her
lip and held out her hand toward Pyg as, with a soft hoot, the
small owl took off from her shoulder and flew off toward Ray and
the others.

“
Come back,” she called in
a small voice.

The same trees that
provided us cover from the Rejects meant we couldn’t see exactly
what happened. But the sudden exclamations of anger from both Ray
and Andrew were loud enough we could hear every word.

“
Where did that stupid
bird come from,” Andrew yelled. “I got bird poop on my
head.”

“
So what! It’s on my
face,” Ray screamed back, frantically wiping at his mouth. “If I
ever see that stupid bird again, it’s dead!”

A faint flutter of wings
was all that announced the return of the owl. It landed on Olivia’s
shoulder, then hooted happily.

Faith said admiringly,
“You’re a smart bird! You remembered.”

“
Remembered what?” I
asked.

Olivia answered, “I said
it wouldn’t poop on my friends, but I wished it would poop on the
Rejects. And I was right. I’m
totally
glad I got to see
that.”

We watched as
Ray and the others walked away from their animals
— straight toward us.

“
We need to get out of
here,” Faith said. “And we can’t lead them to the cave!”

“
You’re right! Let’s go,”
Olivia said, grabbing Faith’s hand.

We moved quickly, looking
for a place to hide. If necessary, I knew we could leave the road
and hide in the woods, but there was a wide field we’d need to
cross, and the woods looked too dark and cold and overgrown with
thick brush. Like a real live Fangorn forest. I was beginning to
worry when I heard Ray give a shout.

“
They found the cabin,”
Doug said, sounding relieved. “Maybe that’ll keep them
busy.”

“
How’re we gonna keep away
from them? They know where this place is now." Faith sounded
scared. “I don’t want to play hide and seek with them in a
cave!”

I swallowed. “We can’t risk
leading them to Ghalynn. I don’t think he’ll help us if the Rejects
do something nasty.”

“
Don’t worry Faith, next
time we’ll make a plan to keep away from them before we even come
in.” Doug’s jaw was set with determination.

“
So, how much
farther
is
the
cave?” Faith asked.

“
I don’t know,” I told
her, peering at the map. “An hour, maybe?”

Faith said hesitantly, “We
could get closer — so we know where it is. For next
time.”

“
Might as
well. We can’t go back while they’re behind
us.”

We followed the path drawn
on the map, frequently checking behind us. When we didn’t see the
others, we began to relax. Finally, we came to a bend in the road
and saw the beginnings of the mountains in the distance.

“
Oh look,” Olivia said,
pointing into the field to the left. The entire field looked like
it was moving in gentle mystifying undulations.

How could everything be
moving so different?

The grass was moving in odd
swirls and ripples, sometimes in many different ways at the same
time. The rocks were moving too. They swayed side to side, but in
different rhythms and directions. A few large plants, the size of
small trees, with huge heart-shaped red leaves appeared to be
moving up and down, like they were on opposite ends of a
teeter-totter.

It was like something out
of Alice in Wonderland. Everything in the field appeared to be
dancing to a strange and haunting tune. But with all that movement,
there was not a single sound.

I kept forgetting how
freaky things could be in here. The sight
was…mesmerizing.

“
Let’s stop and watch,”
Faith said in a dreamy voice.

Doug agreed, sounding
almost stupefied by the sight. All of us settled down to watch the
strange field. Rusty barked at Doug a couple times, then began to
chase a stick.

I smiled lazily when Shadow
got tired of trying to get me to pet her. She started batting her
paws at a leaf at the end of a thin branch.

The fox finally allowed
Faith to pet it, absently, while she stared at the moving
field.

The tiny owl nestled
contentedly on Olivia’s shoulder, occasionally hooting with
pleasure as she carelessly stroked the feathers on its
chest.

I thought idly how
different the field looked than anything at home. And that thought
made me uncomfortable. Home. How long had we been here? I said, “I
think we need to go if we plan to be home by dinner.” I suddenly
couldn’t understand why we’d been sitting there so long. And it had
been a
long
time.
I felt stiff and sore as I climbed to my feet.

Doug whipped his head
around to look at me, eyes wide. “Sorry, boy,” he said as
he stood up, moving slow. “We’ve got to go.” The
dog’s ears and tail came up and it quickly turned to face the way
we’d come.

The others looked like they
were waking from a long sleep as they climbed to their feet. No one
said anything as we turned to leave. Apparently, no one else felt
like talking about what had kept us there so long
either.

It felt way too
freaky.

Note to self — Don’t stare
at moving rocks!



I guessed we’d been gone at
least three hours, Santa Ramona time, and would need at least two
more to get back. I could only hope we wouldn’t run into the
Rejects.

We made good time on the
way back. When we got near the cabin, I began to breathe easier. It
was silent. Too silent for Ray and the others to still be
there.

“
I want to check it out,”
I said, and took the short path to the cabin. I peered inside and
gasped. Anger swelled inside me like a huge balloon. I had a
momentary picture in my head of something actually bursting, like
when a balloon gets too full of air.