Sara, Book 3 (2 page)

C
HAPTER
1

A
pleasant smile washed over Sara’s face as she thought about getting together with Seth, her best friend in the whole world,
to catch up on what had been happening over the last few weeks of summer. She gazed up at the clear blue sky and breathed
in the fresh mountain air—and felt glad for her life.

“I’m so happy school is starting,” Sara said out loud. But it wasn’t school starting that Sara was glad for; it was having
more time to be with her friend Seth.

Seth lived over on Thacker’s Trail, not far from where Sara lived with her mother, father, and little brother, Jason. Sara
and Seth had discovered so many things in common, like their love for the outdoors, their love for animals, and their mutual
appreciation for learning new things. But at home their lives were very different. Not so much in outward appearances, for,
after all, they did live in the same neighborhood. It was just that Sara seemed to have the freedom to do pretty much as she
pleased, but Seth’s parents seemed to allow him far less freedom; his list of chores and family responsibilities was a very
long one, and Sara found it difficult to believe that there was really that much that needed to be tended to at his house.
She had decided, very soon after coming to know him, that the majority of Seth’s chores were more about keeping him busy than
about doing things that really needed to be done. But Seth never complained. He always treated his parents with respect and
always did as he was told. And there was something about that, that Sara liked very much.

But once school started, Seth’s parents seemed to loosen their tight rein on him, and he was able to find some time, nearly
every day after school, to play with Sara. And so, she oozed happy anticipation as she half ran, half walked down the country
road toward the school grounds.

Sara stepped off to the side of the road as she heard the engine of a truck coming from behind, and once it passed, she reclaimed
her place walking right down the middle of the country road. She came to the corner where Seth’s street intersected with hers,
and she looked down the road toward Thacker’s Trail and toward Seth’s house. “Come on, Seth, where are you?” Sara said anxiously.
She could barely wait to see him and talk to him.

She stopped for a while, dropping her new, and for today only, empty book bag to her feet and waited. “Seth, where are you?”

Sara saw a big dump truck coming from the direction of Seth’s house, and a big cloud of dust engulfed her as it passed. She
squinted her eyes and waved her hand in front of her face to try to clear the air. Still, there was no sign of Seth.

“Oh well, I’ll catch up with him at school,” she consoled herself, picking up her bag and walking backward, hoping that one
last look would find him running down the road toward her, but no Seth.

Sara’s walk to school wasn’t terribly long, and the time usually passed quickly as she pondered her own happy thoughts while
she walked. Anyone observing Sara these days would tell you that it was obvious that she was a truly happy girl. And those
same people would also tell you that it hadn’t always been that way, and that an amazing transformation had taken place. But,
of all of the people in Sara’s life, only one of them knew the secrets behind her amazing transformation—and that person was
Seth.

“Good morning, Sara!” she heard Mr. Matson call to her as she passed the service station that he had owned and operated even
before she was born.

“Hi, Mr. Matson,” Sara called back, smiling, as she watched him carefully wiping every single bug from Mrs. Pittsfield’s windshield.
Sara liked Mr. Matson. They nearly always exchanged brief and happy words whenever she walked past his service station. Mr.
Matson had seen Sara’s amazing transformation, too, but had no idea what was behind it.

Sara stopped on the Main Street bridge and peered at the rapidly moving water below. She took a deep breath and looked up
into the trees and smiled. How she did love this place! She had always loved this old bridge, the wonderful river that flowed
beneath it, and the lovely old trees that towered above it. In fact, it was on this very spot that she had first seen Seth.
It seemed fitting that she would first lay eyes on her best friend in the whole world while being in her favorite
spot
in the whole world.

Sara could not understand why more people hadn’t taken a liking to her favorite spot, but at the same time, it pleased her
that she always had it to herself. Sara walked along, thinking about this wonderful place, and smiled.
So many things are like that,
she thought.
You can’t really tell what they’re like from the outside. You have to get inside of them to know what they’re really about.

Many years earlier, a large truck had lost control while trying to avoid running over a wandering dog, and had slammed into
the metal railing that lined the Main Street bridge. Once the truck was pulled to safety, the old railing was never the same
again. No repair was ever attempted, but instead, it was left, as the truck had left it, bent way out over the river. Most
people complained that it was an eyesore, while others didn’t think that the railing had ever been particularly attractive,
and apparently no one thought it was worth spending the money to repair it, so nothing was ever done to straighten the railing
back up again.

One day while walking home from school, Sara noticed that the poles were still securely fastened to the bridge and that the
mesh wire, stretched between the poles, hung like a cradle right out over the water. At first, it was a little scary to see
and hear the fast-moving river surging down below, but soon Sara felt certain that the railing would hold her, and very quickly
it had become her favorite place to be. She would lay right out over the river—like being cradled in a giant spider web—looking
down, watching things floating by. Sara didn’t know why, but she felt better here, dangling out over the river, than anyplace
she’d ever been.

So, there she had been, happily dangling there one warm afternoon, when Seth’s family drove into Sara’s town. Sara had hardly
noticed the sputtering old truck, overloaded with everything that Seth’s family owned. Her only clear recollection of that
moment in time was locking eyes with Seth, a new, intense boy, who appeared to be about her same age, riding in the back of
the truck.

Today, as Sara walked along, enjoying the crunching leaves beneath her feet and remembering the momentous meeting with her
best friend ever, a shiver of pleasure rippled up her spine. So much had happened in the short time Sara had known Seth that
their first meeting seemed like lifetimes ago. She smiled as she walked, feeling glad for their friendship.

Although Sara had felt an instant attraction to this new boy, she had been determined that she wasn’t going to let him get
into the middle of her life and mess things up. So, when Sara discovered that Seth’s family was moving into the old Thacker
house, she had felt enormous distress. She didn’t want anyone living there so close to her beloved Thacker’s Trail.

No one in Sara’s little mountain town was particularly interested in Thacker’s Trail—no one except Sara. But that’s because
no one in Sara’s town knew what Sara knew about Thacker’s Trail. Sara thought it was strange that people could live all around
there, so close to something so wonderful and amazing, and not even know about it. But that was just fine by Sara. She liked
it that no one else knew what she did about Thacker’s Trail. And she had intended to keep it just that way.

“Hmm,” Sara said softly, under her breath. Those thoughts and feelings about Seth now felt so distant. They came from a place
very far in the past. Because, now, Seth was as much a part of her life and the incredible meaning of Thacker’s Trail as was
Sara, and she liked it that only he shared her secrets.

For many years, before Seth had moved into her town, Sara had spent her summer months, and countless hours after school, exploring
the paths and climbing the trees in the wooded area that surrounded Thacker’s Trail. There was nothing that Sara loved more
than to duck off the road and sneak down the trail into the woods to spend a happy hour or so in the seclusion of one of her
temporary huts or forts that she had made from whatever she could gather from the woods. They were never very substantial;
the next rain or windstorm usually caused them to fall apart, but they were fun while they lasted.

Sara hadn’t known that Seth had felt the same way that she did about having a secret place to spend time, and she hadn’t been
aware that he’d been sneaking into the woods for many weeks, constructing an amazing tree house high up in the cottonwood
trees overlooking the creek. Sara had never before felt as excited as she had on the day Seth unveiled his incredible tree
house to her and announced that it would be their “secret place.” It was almost too good to stand.

Sara remembered the day that Seth had taken her to the tree house for the first time. He’d said he had something amazing that
she just had to see over on Thacker’s Trail, and it had made her heart jump right into her mouth because she was afraid that
Seth had discovered her precious secret. She remembered how eagerly he had guided her through the woods, turning down one
trail and then another, leading her deep into the woods and right to the edge of the river. And she remembered her great relief
in realizing that Seth hadn’t uncovered her secret at all, but instead, had spent many hours constructing an incredible tree
house high up in the old cottonwood trees overlooking the river.

Sara’s first impression of Seth’s tree house was still vivid in her mind: She could barely believe her eyes. There were perfectly
placed boards nailed on the backside of the trunk, forming a ladder leading up, up, up into this giant of a tree. And extending
out from the tree house was a platform, “a launching pad,” Seth had called it, for swinging out over the river.

And now all this time later Sara still vividly remembered the wild excitement she had felt when she first saw Seth’s launching
pad: a big rope that was tied way up on a high branch, which allowed them to jump from the tree house and swing way out over
the river, which they did almost every day after school, weather permitting, and sometimes even
not
permitting.

Sara and Seth had spent many blissful hours swinging on this great rope from this amazing place high in the trees. And it
was there, in their secret hideaway, that Sara had finally entrusted the precious secrets of Thacker’s Trail to Seth.

C
HAPTER
2

“S
ara, do you want to come on in?” Sara was startled to see Mr. Marchant, the school principal, holding the front door open
for her. She’d been so deep in her own thoughts that she hadn’t even realized that she was on the school grounds.

“Oh, yes,” Sara mumbled, trying to focus back into the moment. “Thanks.”

The corridors were full of students greeting each other and busily moving about. Sara stood back against the wall and searched
through the crowd, looking for Seth. “Hey, Sara,” she heard again and again, as other students she hadn’t seen throughout
the summer greeted her.

All day long, as she moved from class to class, Sara watched for Seth. She wanted so much to see him. It seemed like forever
since they’d talked.

And then, Sara saw Seth making his way through the crowd in the hallway. She walked faster, trying to catch up with him, but
as she got closer, she could see that he was with someone Sara didn’t know. She watched the two of them walking and talking,
and laughing.
Who is that?
Sara wondered.

It was very unusual for Sara not to recognize someone. For the most part, the same group of students had been with her from
the day she entered the school system in this small mountain town, and when someone new did move in, everyone learned who
they were right away. Everyone knew everyone.

Sara walked slowly, not wanting to catch up with them. She saw them stop in the hallway, seeming to be having a very interesting
conversation about something. Then the girl laughed again and walked away from Seth.

Sara felt a knot in her stomach and quickly ducked into the girls’ bathroom. She gazed blankly into the mirror while cool
water ran through her fingers. She patted her face with her cool hands and wiped her face on a paper towel. “What is wrong
with me?” she chastised herself. The bell rang, letting Sara know that she was almost late for her class, so she grabbed her
book bag and hurried to her classroom.

After a long afternoon of struggling to focus on what was happening in class, Sara dragged herself down the path toward the
tree house. She felt terrible. In fact, she felt so bad that she considered not going there at all. The tree house was such
a happy, good-feeling place; it didn’t seem like a match to the way Sara was feeling right now, but the idea of staying away
felt even worse. “What is wrong with me?”

Sara rounded the last bend in the trail and came into view of the tree house.
I hope he’s already here,
Sara thought. But all was quiet. Seth wasn’t there. So she dropped her book bag at the base of the tree, climbed the ladder,
and sat on the platform and waited.

Seth came blasting through the bushes. “Sara, are you up there?” he called as he climbed the ladder.

“Yes, hi,” Sara called back, trying to cover up the way she was feeling with a cheerful sound.

Seth climbed up and sat awkwardly on the bench beside Sara.

“So, what’s up?” Sara began.

“Not much. How about with you?” Seth answered.

“So, did you have a good day?” Sara didn’t know what she wanted to hear from Seth. All she knew was that she wanted to feel
better, and she hoped that he might say something to her that would help her to feel better.

“Yeah, I had a good day. Did you?”

“Yeah, okay, I guess.”

It didn’t look like Seth was going to volunteer anything, so Sara decided that she would have to be more direct.

“So, anything new happen since the last time we talked?”

“No, not really.” Seth nervously untied his shoelace and tightened it and tied it again. “Well, wanna swing on the rope?”
Seth asked, standing up and looking out across the river. He didn’t look at Sara.

“No, I don’t really feel like it. You go ahead.” Sara said limply.

“Nah, I guess I better get goin’. I’ll see ya tomorrow.”

Seth climbed down the ladder.

Sara sat, dumbfounded. This was not the way this day was supposed to happen. This was supposed to be a happy day of catching
up with each other and getting back in the swing of swinging from the rope. Sara had been so looking forward to this day.
What in the world was going on?

Sara watched Seth disappear into the trees. She could barely remember ever feeling so bad.