The Nexus Ring (3 page)

“In just a few minutes,” Dad said. “We’re almost at Bridal Veil Falls, right on our revised schedule. We’ll be home by dinnertime tomorrow, barring any construction delays, and we should have time for a swim before dinner tonight.”

I checked my watch and sighed – ­twenty-­nine hours to ­home.

Mom couldn’t find the sign for Bridal Veil Falls, but Dad knew how to get there. It’s a park with huge trees and picnic tables along both sides of a little ­stream.

We hauled a cooler to a picnic table by the water, where we ate sandwiches and Grandma’s gingersnap cookies. The air was foggy and cool, and by the time we finished eating, our hair was covered with tiny drops of ­water.

After we ate, Dad made us walk up to the falls to stretch our legs. Mom started in on her game again. “There’s another veil where we turn onto the Coquihalla Highway. You’ll need something special from the falls. They’re full of magic.”

“The cokeawhata?” asked Maddy. “I can never pronounce that.”

“The Coke ah hall ah,” I said, making a face at ­her.

We followed the creek past huge mossy trees, drippy in the fog. Maddy picked up a pop can ring and offered it to me as my bit of ­magic.

“I don’t want a useless piece of junk,” I ­said.

Maddy stuck out her tongue, then shoved the metal ring into her pocket. Then she picked up a winged seed pod she pretended was a butterfly. She flew it over a wooden bridge and Mom roared, “Who’s that walking on my bridge?”

Maddy shrieked, then giggled and took off after Mom. Mom raced up the path, but Maddy suddenly skidded to a halt. When I caught up with her, she was staring at the man from the gift shop, sitting perched in a ­rotted-­out stump. I grabbed her hand and pulled her up the ­trail.

“Is he following us?” Maddy sounded ­scared.

He must be
, I thought, trying not to look frightened. “Of course not,” I said. “C’mon, let’s catch up with Mom and Dad.”

Maddy dashed off and I followed close behind. We raced through the forest, while I watched over my ­shoulder.

But I forgot about the man when we reached the falls. White threads of water poured out of the mist high above me. The forest smelled delicious, green and mossy.
Sap green
, I thought.
That’s the paint colour I’d use
. I walked closer to the base of the falls, then looked at the pebbles below my feet. One, wet and grey, glistened at me. I dropped it into my pocket, then remembered that ­man.

I couldn’t see Maddy anywhere. “Maddy? Maddy?” I tried to shout over the roar of the falls. I spotted a shadow hurrying down the path. That man? I raced after him, scared he’d got Maddy. “Maddy!” I ­screamed.

“booo!” Maddy yelled, jumping out from behind a ­tree.

“Aaah!” I screamed again. Then I bellowed, ­“Madd-­dy!”

She left me alone after that, but I kept watch. As we headed down the trail I tried to tell Mom about the man, but she just laughed and said, “We’d better hurry, then. There’s no way he’ll be able to follow us through the next veil of mist.”

I looked around as we drove away. In the shadow beside the bathrooms, the scowling man was watching us. Beyond the bathrooms, quiet in the trees, the woman from the gift shop stood watching ­him.

I sketched shadows
to Mom’s next magic veil
, where Maddy
made me hold out the rock I picked up at the falls. She flew her butterfly seedpod as the van curved north onto the Coquihalla, then waved her arms to mime bursting through a veil of ­mist.

“Yes!” Dad grinned and slapped his hand against
the steering wheel. “Right on schedule. How many more to go?”

“The next veil is at the toll booth halfway up the Coquihalla,” Mom ­said.

“The troll booth,” said Maddy. “It should be a troll booth!”

Mom laughed. “We’ll need gold to get past a troll.” She started to hunt for coins. “How much is it?”

“Ten dollars,” Dad said. “Are you going to pay in change?”

“Sure. Trolls love gold, don’t they, Maddy?”

Maddy wriggled in her seat. “Oh, yeah. And if we don’t pay in gold, we can’t get past him.”

I interrupted. “Dad, I don’t think this troll thing is very funny. There’s this man we keep seeing; he looks like a troll. We saw him twice on the ferry and again at Bridal Veil Falls, and I think something’s wrong.”

Mom stopped me. “What did you say? He looks like a troll?”

“Yeah, that’s how ugly he is.”

“Josh, that’s mean. I’m glad you’re playing along with the game, but you can’t make fun of people because you don’t like how they look.”

“But we keep seeing him. It’s weird.”

“Daddy, is he following us?” Maddy ­asked.

“No, of course not,” Dad said. “Josh is just trying to make the game scarier.”

Trust your feelings, Mom says, but everything’s just a game to her. And Dad! He always knows where he is, but he hasn’t noticed someone is following his kids. How could they not ­see?

I drew while I thought about it. We first saw that man in the gift shop, when Maddy was buying her ring. “Maddy, can I see your ring?”

Reluctantly, she passed it to me. The smooth, ­jade-­green stone was still warm from her hand. I held it up to the light. There were no special markings; it was just a girl’s ring. I sighed and handed it ­back.

We’d left the fog of the coastal mountains and were driving high up the Coquihalla. The mountains were small compared to the Rockies, but we were still high enough to be driving through clouds. Partway up the Coquihalla highway, we stopped behind a semi at one of the toll ­booths.

“Okay, guys,” Dad said. “Will the troll like our gold?”

Maddy laughed. “He’ll love it, and he’ll have to let us through the veil of mist.”

Mom poured loonies and toonies into Dad’s hand. He pulled up to the booth and held out his handful of ­coins.

I gasped, then shrank back in my seat. The toll collector was that man from the gift shop! That’s when I knew for sure that something was wrong. Slowly he reached out his hand; Dad poured the coins into his palm. He rubbed them while he gave Dad a ­receipt.

Maddy cheered. “Yes! It worked!”

The man twitched, leaned down and peered into the van. I looked back as we drove off. He was staring at us, his ears curled forward, his face twisted in a horrible scowl. I felt sick to my stomach. Why was he following us? And how did he get to the toll booth ­first?

I sketched the troll
using one of my softest
, darkest pencils. Then I
drew the woman in the black cloak with a finer pencil, but I couldn’t get it right until I deepened some of the shadows. Then I slept, and dreamed of a troll reaching for ­me.

Maddy woke me, cheering as we burst through Mom’s veil of mist in Kamloops. Even with the air conditioner on, I was soaked in sweat. Maddy had curled my fingers around a water bottle for my part of the magic. I guzzled the warm water, then splashed some on my forehead. I checked my watch and groaned – still twenty-five hours to ­home.

The sun was blazing in a ­bleached-­out sky. I pulled on my sunglasses. How could the sun be brighter ­here?

“Where’s the next veil?” Maddy ­asked.

Mom thought about it for a minute. “I think it must be at the bridge crossing Shuswap Lake. Bridges and water are pretty powerful.”

“What magic will we need?”

“Shuswap Lake? How about fruit? We’ll stop at a fruit stand, and you and Josh can choose something to get us through the veil and feed us for supper.”

I shook my head. Fruit is not magic. Water and rocks and even stone rings might be magical. But not ­apricots.

By late afternoon we had reached the Shuswap. We found a fruit stand and stocked up. For magic, Maddy scooped up a handful of blueberries and handed me an apricot. Just before we reached the bridge over Shuswap Lake, I took a huge bite out of ­it.

“Josh!” Maddy complained. “We’ll be stuck if you don’t do it right!”

I just ignored her. Soon we turned off the highway onto the winding road to the campground. Dad had been right; there was time for a swim before dinner. Maddy and I raced each other to the lake and splashed in. It was heavenly, cooling off after a long hot day. I lay on my back and floated, then jumped up with a start. What if that man followed us here? I kept watch after that, staying close to Maddy while she played, her red swimsuit gleaming in the ­sun.

After a dinner of hot dogs, mosquitoes, fresh peas and apricots, we roasted marshmallows. When we were full and sticky, Maddy got ready for bed while Mom and I cleaned up. Then Mom sat reading by the fire while Dad read to Maddy in the tent, and I paced, tossing my rock from hand to ­hand.

What if that man was still following us? He could sneak into the tent while we slept and – what would he do? I took a heavy flashlight to bed with ­me.

I woke in the middle of the night to total blackness, my heart pounding. What had woken me? Then I heard it. Rustling. A stick snapping. I touched the wall of the tent. I could feel it vibrating. Someone was out ­there.

I wiped the sweat off my hands, then grabbed the flashlight and held it tight. If it was that man, I’d smack him on the head. I lay staring at the door of the tent. I couldn’t see a thing. I jumped at a slow “zzzup,” the sound of the tent door zipper. I reached across Maddy to poke Dad with my left hand, and raised the flashlight in my right hand like a club. And then a train whistle rang out, startling me so badly I dropped the flashlight onto ­Maddy.

I heard scrambling and a twig crack, then silence around the tent as the train roared past the campground. I grinned. I hated being woken by trains in the night, but not this night. None of us would sleep deeply enough for that man to sneak up on ­us.

Maddy stirred. I whispered, “It’s just a train, Maddy. Everything’s all right.”

Dad woke us at seven.
Sunlight streamed through the tent
door as he shook us. I yawned and stretched and checked my ­watch – ­only nine hours to home. I leapt out of bed and tugged on a blue striped ­t-­shirt, yesterday’s jeans, and my hoodie. It was warm enough for shorts, but I knew it would be cold later, in the mountains. Mom tidied Maddy’s pigtails and hurried her into jeans and a pink ­t-­shirt. I started stuffing sleeping bags with Dad, while Mom and Maddy cooked pancakes on the camp ­stove.

There was no sign of the man as we worked, and once we were in the van, I relaxed a little. Soon we’d left the lakes and heat of the Shuswap and moved into mountains lined with dark ­forests.