Girl Across the Water
Page 7
The fire gave a loud pop, and we all jumped again.
Jasper sat back, not bothering to say ‘the end’. I
shivered. Even though I knew the story was fake, the night
suddenly seemed blacker, and woods creepier. The twins
giggled once or twice, but they were slow, nervous giggles,
like both boys might burst into tears any second.
I picked up my empty marshmallow stick and poked
the end into the fire. If I needed a weapon, a smoldering
stick would make a good one.
We were silent for a moment, and then Coralie
shuffling around on her log. “That was a good one.” She
paused, staring at her outstretched foot, before turning to
me and saying, “I know a real one. From here.”
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“No, don’t!” the boys protested, squirming. “That
one’s too scary!”
“That’s the point,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“They’re scariest when they’re real.” She turned to me. “Do
you know about the ghost girl in these woods?”
Mid-lifting my stick to see if the tip was glowing, I
froze. “What ghost girl?” My mouth went dry, and I glanced
over at Jasper. His eyes were wide.
The boys were still making protesting, whispered
giggles, squirming like a couple of ferrets.
Coralie looked smug. “The girl who died here.” She
leaned forward and rested her chin on her hands, watching
me closely. “There were a bunch of kids playing in these
woods one day. Three boys and a girl. They were daring
each other to swim out to one of the islands on the lake.”
My heart gave a heavy thud. The twins had stopped
squirming, and stared at Coralie with scared grins on their
faces.
“But none of the kids would do it. Only, the boys
were making fun of the girl, so finally, to make them stop,
she said she would. She didn’t have a swimsuit, though, so
she started to swim out to the island wearing her dress and
shoes. But she forgot that her shoes would weigh her
down, so she started to sink.”
My thoughts leapt straight to the girl on the island.
Had she been wearing shoes when I saw her? I couldn’t
remember. My heart began to hammer. Stop it, I told
myself. The girl I saw was real, she was real.
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“So what happened?” I asked, my voice croaking
slightly.
“She went under the surface of the water, and the
boys saw her hands waving for help. But they got scared.
The girl’s hands came up again, and then her head, and she
gasped, ‘help me,’ and then went under again. The boys
were too scared to swim out and try to save her, probably
‘cause they thought by the time they got to her it would be
too late. They were afraid of having to drag a dead body
out the lake, and then when they got home later all wet,
everyone would know it was their fault. So they turned and
ran… even before they knew for sure she’d drowned. And
as they ran away, the girl’s head came up one more time.
She saw them leaving her as she struggled to stay up. They
could have helped her. But they didn’t. And the last thing
she saw before she went down the final time was the boys
running away. She was scared and sad ‘cause she knew
she was going to die, and she was angry, too, because they
could have rescued her but didn’t even try.”
The fire gave another angry crackle, and I let my
stick fall from my hand.
“The boys ran home and didn’t tell anyone. When
people started asking about the girl, they said they hadn’t
seen her that day. It was only when the police asked them
that they started crying and said they’d all gone to the
woods together. But the boys lied and said the girl had
wanted to swim out to the islands, and that they’d tried to
stop her. They didn’t tell people that they’d dared her and
made fun of her. And they didn’t say how they ran away
while she was still drowning. They said she was way farther
out than she really was, and that she disappeared before
they could do anything. Which wasn’t true.
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“The police searched the lake for the body but never
found it. And so the girl’s ghost came back to haunt the
woods because no one knew the truth about her death. The
boys were too scared to ever go into the woods again, and
so she came to their homes to haunt them.
“One night, she visited the first boy, and he freaked
out and told his parents the next day. But the family didn’t
tell anyone else. They moved away because they were
ashamed. Then the girl haunted the next boy, and he
freaked out and started crying too, only he told everyone,
and that’s how the truth came out. His family moved away
too.
“Then the girl went to find the third boy and make
him confess, and he was the one who’d been meanest to
her. But his family had already moved away. And so she’s
still wandering in the woods, to this day, trying to find him
and make him sorry.”
I tried not to shiver in my jacket. Jasper sat
immobile.
Coralie stuck her leg out further and pivoted the foot
back and forth. Then she glanced slyly at us. “You’ll see her
in the woods sometimes. Even in the daytime, if it’s cloudy
or foggy. Just quick visions here and there. You think you
see a girl, and when you look back, she won’t be there. But
it’s at night you can see her clearly. She’s searching for the
boy, see, and she does that till it’s dark out. Then, at
midnight, she has to go back to the lake. She walks to the
water’s edge, and keeps walking till she’s completely
underneath again. Some people say she’s walking all the
way to the island she tried to swim out to when she
drowned.”
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My back started prickling as if someone was standing
behind me, but I refused to turn and look.
“And if you do see her…” Coralie leaned further
forward so that her face rippled in the firelight. “be careful,
because … she hates boys.”
The two boys squealed at this, then jumped up from
the log to run around in circles, shrieking and doing mid-air
shivers like two maniacs. This made me feel even jumpier
— my body wanted to thrash around in a similar way, in an
effort to shake off the scared feeling.
Coralie punched one of her brothers as he ran by,
and then grabbed the other by the arm. “Sit down, stupid.”
They sat, but continued to giggle and squirm.
“I have to go to bed now!” Jasper announced. He
suddenly jumped up and ran to the cabin, letting the door
bang shut behind him.
Coralie and the boys laughed. “Man, is he stupid,”
Brendan said in his snot-punctuated giggle.
“He’s sca-aaared!” Jason taunted.
down a challenge.
I kept my face straight and stared back. No way was
I going to let her see that her story had freaked me out.
She stood up. “I guess we’d better go. Hope you
guys’ll be fine alone.” She crossed her arms over her chest
and gave me a smirk.
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“Will you be all right walking back?” I asked quietly.
“Walking through those dark woods, all by yourselves?”
“Oh-oh-oh!” Her two brothers jumped up from the
log, then down again, then up, like they had ants in their
pants. They were both giggling, but in a freaked-out way,
and looked genuinely scared. Coralie glared at me.
“Cor-a-lie!” Brendan said. “I don’t wanna walk
through the woods!” He dodged away from the fire, then
back again. “Corey, make Pa come pick us up.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be stupid, we don’t need
him.”
But I thought I detected some fear in her eyes.
My dad came out of the cabin, then, I guess because
of Jasper running inside. “You kids leaving?” he asked.
“Yeah, we’re goin’,” Coralie said, rolling her eyes.
One of her brothers was still making a creepy “oh-oh-oh”
sound.
“Do you have a flashlight to see your way back?”
Dad asked.
They all stared at him.
“Uh,” Coralie said. “I guess we forgot.”
“Well, you can borrow one of ours. As long as you
bring it back tomorrow.” He walked back into the cabin.
“Dad,” I hissed when he came back. “If you give it to
them, we won’t have one.”
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“But we have another one, remember?”
Except we didn’t ― I had left the it on the island for
The Girl.
Coralie flicked the big flashlight on and waved it
around, blinding us as she passed the beam in front of our
eyes.
“Hey!” I snapped. “Watch it.”
“This thing is neat!” she said, and turned to leave.
“Seeya!” she shouted, and ran for the woods.
The boys bolted after her, yelling and shrieking the
whole way. “Corey, wait up! Don’t go too far, we can’t see!
It’s da-a-a-aaark!” Their voices trailed off as they
disappeared into the forest like a pack of crazed jackals.
I turned to Dad and met his gaze.
“Well,” he said. “Um. They’re quite something.”
We both laughed, and I was glad the laughter hid
my tension. We shoveled dirt onto the fire before heading
into the cabin.
Once inside, I kicked dirt off my runners and left
them by the door. “Where’s Jasper?”
“Upstairs. I think he’s reading. So, any idea what
you want to do tomorrow?”
“Um,” I said, my thoughts still consumed by
Coralie’s story. “Not sure yet. I’m going to bed now.”
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“Okay, see you in the morning.”
I ran up the stairs to the bedroom. To my surprise,
the lights were out and Jasper was in bed, sleeping. It was
curious, though, how silent he was. I couldn’t help but
wonder if he was pretending. After changing, I got into bed
with my blankets pushed back. I’d forgotten to fix the
window, but I wasn’t sure it mattered tonight — either the
air had grown cooler, or Coralie’s story had given me
enough of a chill to keep the heat away.
It’s just a story, I told myself.
Except that it wasn’t. Parts of it, at least, were true.
I tried again to reassure myself. The fact that a
drowned girl from ten years ago looked similar to the one
you saw is just a coincidence.
But the suspicious part of my brain reasoned back:
They looked more than just similar. It was her. I turned
restlessly on the bed, trying to keep the nagging thoughts
at bay. Pushing myself up on one elbow, I stared out the
window toward the island. All I could see was blackness.
So if she was real… then who was she? Where had
she come from?
I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to
signal her… and now the neighbors had the other flashlight.
“Dammit!” I muttered.
Wait, I thought, Jasper has a Maglite. “Hey Jasper,” I
whispered. No answer came. “Jasper!” I tried again, this
time louder.
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No sounds came from him, not even a snort or a
grunt, making me even more suspicious that he was
pretending sleep.
I was pretty sure that rifling through his stuff would
make him magically ‘wake up’ if he really was pretending,
so I crept over to his night table, slid open the drawer, and
began to rummage. My hand closed around a stack of
photographs, and then hit the Maglite. I withdrew it and
turned the top so that the beam of light was low, then
flashed it over the photos. The top one was of Jasper and
his dad.
Jasper seemed to be even more silent now. Had he
stopped breathing? If he was pretending to be asleep, he’d
got himself into a fix — there was no way he could stop me
looking through his stuff. I lifted another photo: Jasper’s
Dad again.
I guess Jasper missed him, even though Revo was
such a screw-up. Well, I didn’t have time for family drama
now, so I pushed the drawer shut and crept back over to
my bed. My heart sped up as I looked out to the island and
remembered Coralie’s words. ‘She walks to the edge of the
water when the night is completely dark… and she keeps on
walking. She goes into the lake, further and further, until
she’s submerged. Then she walks all the way out to the
island she was trying to get to when she drowned.’
Shivering, I turned the Maglite on full beam and
flashed once towards the island. Hello.
I touched my forehead to the cool windowpane.
Would I be able to see a flashlight from here? More
importantly, would she be able to see such a small one?
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The Girl Across the Water
Dammit, I thought again, cursing that the stupid neighbor
kids had our best flashlight.
No response came ― maybe the Maglite beam was
too small. After waiting another minute, I tried again.
And then it came back: one flash. I almost dropped
the Maglite in surprise.
I waited a second before giving gave two flashes.
You okay?
Another pause, and then two small flashes returned.
‘ I’m okay’.
I didn’t know what else to do. Our communications
were limited, so I flashed once again, hoping she knew it
meant ‘bye’. But it meant a lot more, too: I’ll be back
tomorrow. Are you scared? Who are you, what are you?
Dammit, why are you there?
I continued to press my face against the cold glass,
waiting for the final
flash, but it didn’t come. Why not? This
made me itch with anger. What, I bring you food and
supplies, and you can’t even flash goodbye? I waited
longer, but only darkness met my determined stare. What
was this all about? Had she already stopped looking? Had
she gone to sleep? Or was she walking back into the lake,
continuing in until the water came up to her waist, then up
to her, chest, then completely submerged her…
The back of my neck ran with goose bumps; I could
swear someone was standing behind me. “Paul,” a voice
whispered, and I jumped about a foot, yelling and dropping
the Maglite before turning to see Jasper’s outline in the
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darkness. “Dammit!” I hissed. “Don’t sneak up on me like
that!”
“Whatcha doing?” he asked in a sleepy voice,
rubbing his eyes. Maybe he’d really been asleep, then.
“Nothing,” I muttered. “Just looking outside. Go back
to bed.”
He did, and I lay there with my heart hammering
wildly. When it finally slowed to a normal pace, I thought
again of the girl. She was real, she had to be. Because one
thing I knew for sure: ghosts couldn’t work a flashlight.
I fell asleep wondering how she was getting to and
from the island. No way was she swimming, not at night. A
canoe, then? If so, it had to be from the other side of the
lake, or I’d see her coming and going. I decided that the
next day I needed to check out the far shore. If I didn’t find
her on the island first.
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Chapter 8
I awoke to a swirl of hazy, dream-steeped thoughts,
and remembered thinking I’d heard a motorboat during the
night. But even at the time, I had been aware that it might
be part of a dream.
My sleep had been deep, but not refreshing, and
now I felt stupid with tiredness. I wondered whether even
thinking I’d heard the motorboat had been part of a dream.
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. What was I supposed
to do today? Of course: the island. The girl had signaled
back, so I had to go and see if she was still there. If she
was, then this time I was going to hold her down and
interrogate her until she told me just what the heck was
going on.