Haunted Waters (16 page)

Chapter 59

I kept dreaming about Boo
and what he was going to do when he caught me at school. I was purple all over and had blood on every shirt I owned. Then I dreamed of going underwater in Sam’s Land Cruiser. I had a feeling I was going to relive that for a long time.

When I woke up and looked at the clock, I bolted from my bed and went downstairs for breakfast. Ashley had already finished and was in the shower. Mom had a bowl set out for my cereal. I’m a cereal mixer—I won’t eat any cereal that’s not mixed with at least two others. This morning I chose Honey Nut Cheerios, Corn Flakes, and Frosted Mini-Wheats.

Mom put the Denver paper in front of me and pointed to a picture. It was the guy in the Cincinnati Reds hat being put in a police cruiser. Gavin Winkler. On the other side of the page was a picture of our SUV being hauled out of the reservoir. The back end was smashed, and you could see mud on the license plate.

The story said Winkler had forced a Land Cruiser off the road as he fled and that a man and his three children had survived the crash. I skipped to the end where it said the gold hadn’t been recovered.

I kept looking for our names, but they weren’t there. I wanted the story to say that Winkler was trying to hurt us and broke into our cabin and was afraid of the picture we had taken of him. But now I couldn’t even tell my friends what had happened. It wasn’t fair.

After a quick shower, I grabbed my backpack and hoped I looked okay. When my hair gets a little longer it doesn’t cooperate. Duncan Swift says when it sticks up in the back I look like a chicken.

Sam had gassed up our ATVs, and they were sitting outside the barn. He waved as Ashley and I rode through the field by our house toward the school. It feels good to ride when you have a lot on your mind. The hum of the engine and concentrating on not hitting ruts and rocks can soothe you.

We followed the road to our left all the way to a golf course entrance, where we crossed a small bridge and went through another field. When we approached Mrs. Watson’s farm, someone was standing on the hill where I’d last seen Boo.

Chapter 60

Bryce and I waved at Mrs. Watson
and headed for school the long way, skirting the hill and going through the gymnasium entrance. Bryce kept looking back as we walked inside and found our lockers. Over the weekend the administration had installed a new litter of cardboard cats in the hallways. These all had smiles like the Cheshire cat in
Alice in Wonderland.

Down the hall a custodian had a ladder against the wall and was taking down a stuffed cat that had been strung by a coat hanger from one of the ceiling tiles. The cat had the face of our football coach pasted on it, and a bunch of kids stood around snickering.

Instead of going to our regular first period, they were giving the test in our homeroom. Bryce went on to class, and I put some things in my locker. When I closed the door, I saw Hayley standing there.

“Hey,” I said, “I was going to invite you to my house tonight.”

She frowned. “Can’t. My mom found out about us watching that movie. My sister ratted us out.”

“You’re in trouble?”

She nodded. “If you could tell my mom it was your idea, that would really help. She doesn’t want me having you over anymore because you came when they weren’t there—”

“She didn’t know I was coming?” I said. “But you said she would be there.”

“I kind of forgot. So can you tell her it was your idea?”

“Let’s talk about it at lunch,” I said.

Chapter 61

I said hi to Duncan and Skeeter
before I got ready for the first CAT. It killed me not to tell them what had happened. It was like winning a million dollars on a TV show and not being able to tell anyone.

Ashley came in looking like someone had punched her in the stomach. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but the teacher came in and turned on the television. The test was coordinated with every other class in the state.

A picture of a big white cat came on the screen, and somebody groaned. We were sick of cats. Even people who liked cats were sick of cats. I thought I was getting a hair ball. We just wanted the tests over.

I found only one short pencil with the lead worn to a nub. I glanced at Ashley, pointed to my pencil, and she went through her backpack and pulled out a new one for me. The teacher glared at us like we had defiled the sacred CAT process. Every teacher made a big deal about us having two sharpened pencils, and I felt like a CAT traitor.

At exactly one minute after the hour, the color bars on the screen went black and a nicely dressed woman appeared, sitting on the front of her desk, a real cat on her lap.

“Welcome to this year’s most exciting educational event in the state of Colorado,” she purred, flashing pearly white teeth. Did she have cat whiskers painted on her face? “Over the next five days we are going to probe your minds and find out if we’re doing our jobs as educators. So in a sense, this test is not about you—it’s about your teachers. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy these next five days.”

In the middle of her talk about the test (which included a long section about not cheating), the cat walked behind her and started pawing at an apple. It knocked the apple to the floor, then jumped down after it.

The whole class roared. Our teacher touched a finger to his lips, but I imagined every seventh grade class in the state laughing.

The first part of the test was reading comprehension. We had to pick out the main point of the story, retell the story, and write an essay about the main character to show we could actually read and understand the words, I guess. I understood most of it, but some I had to read over two or three times. I looked forward to the math section. I felt more comfortable with numbers than stories.

Once I looked out the window at a pond in a pasture and thought of being underwater. I couldn’t believe I was sitting at my desk taking a test when they could have been planning my funeral.

And I couldn’t tell anybody!

Chapter 62

Twice a week Mom lets us buy our lunch,
and that day I grabbed some pizza and found a seat in the back. I asked God to help me say the right things to Hayley. When I looked up, she was coming toward me.

After we talked about the tests, I pushed my plate away and leaned toward her. “Listen, I need to talk to you about the other night.”

“I shouldn’t have asked you to tell my mom it was your idea,” she said.

“The thing is, I’m a Christian, and I should have said something about the movie and not watched it.”

Hayley took her sandwich apart, then put it back together. “I know you’re a Christian. What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I should have said something, but I was scared you’d think I was a goody-goody. I’ve felt bad about the whole thing for days. The truth is, if I’d have said something, you might not be in trouble.”

She looked at me with a glint in her eyes. “Yeah, it was your fault.” She smiled. “You know, I’m a Christian too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, we go to church and stuff. Not very often, but I believe in Jesus and all that.”

I’d heard this kind of thing before, and every time it reminds me of myself. I once thought I was a Christian because I went to church at Christmas and Easter and believed Jesus was a real person. But it didn’t actually change anything until I understood what the Bible really taught and I saw how much God loved me.

“Maybe we should get together and do a Bible study or something,” I said. “Would your mom allow that?”

“I don’t know. . . .”

“It’s worth a try, don’t you think?”

I was dying to tell Hayley what had happened to us over the weekend. The way Mom and Sam were treating this seemed strange, but then nobody had ever tried to kill us before either.