Adventures in Reading

by Debra Chapoton

  Chapter 5

  It was a perfect July evening, warm, not too humid and with very few mosquitoes. The sun was due to set in half an hour and Kevin and Mr. Jackson were getting the wood ready for the bon fire that was a lodge tradition. It was always exciting on Saturday nights because most of the guests stayed for just one week and this would be their first bon fire. Everyone would gather at dusk and anyone who hadn’t already met that afternoon would get acquainted at the fire. The kids would roast marshmallows, someone would sing a song or two, Mrs. Jackson would bring out popcorn, and after it got really dark, there were always scary stories told.

  Missy had showered before dinner and then spent a few minutes on the phone to her mother who had to work in the city and only came up to the lodge a few times during the summer. Missy ate dinner with her great-grandfather and a family from Georgia who had been coming up to the lodge for over twenty years. The conversation was sometimes boring and sometimes interesting. The two daughters were in high school, at least four years older than Missy and not likely to be friendly with her because of the age difference. They were very pretty blonde girls who talked with an accent that reminded Missy of the characters in an old movie about the Civil War, one that she had watched with her mom last winter. The girls, Melanie and Tara, kept smiling over at Dave and Rob throughout dinner.

  As soon as she finished her dessert Missy headed back to her room. She shared one of the first floor lodge rooms with Angela, a college girl who worked here summers as a maid. Angela had skipped dinner to go out with the other maids to a pizza place twenty miles away. Missy flopped on the bed and let out a big sigh. She wanted to be pretty like the Georgia girls and have boys flirt with her.

  “What’s the matter?” Angela surprised her, popping out of the bathroom, a hairbrush in one hand.

  “Oh, I thought you were gone already,” Missy sat up.

  “Not for another ten minutes, Courtney’s the slowest person to get ready.” Angela pointed the brush at Missy, “So, tell me, what are you sighing about? Kevin?”

  “No,” Missy answered quickly, “it’s just, well, I wish I could wear make-up like you.”

  Angela started to laugh. “Wait a sec,” she turned and went back into the bathroom. A moment later she came out with a pink bag with a bow on the side. “Your mother gave me this to give to you if you ever got sick or sad.” She handed it over.

  “What is it?” Missy was suddenly very excited. It wasn’t even her birthday. It was so unexpected to get a gift. She had the best mother ever.

  “Open it and see.”

  She wasted no time and poured out the contents onto the bedspread. It looked like her mother had bought something from every shelf in the cosmetics aisle.

  “Now don’t go overboard,” Angela warned, “less is more, as they say. Try one thing, like the mascara, and save the rest. Work into growing up gradually. Trust me, you’ll be old before you know it.”

  Mr. Jackson usually let Kevin light the fire and tonight was no different. Kevin was fascinated by fire and Mr. Stark used to call him “Sparky” when he was smaller. The pet name stuck for a few years, but now Mr. Stark just called him Kevin, not wanting to take a chance of embarrassing him with the nickname.

  Kevin had used small sticks, dead leaves and some birch bark as his base, then placed larger dry branches in a teepee formation around the tinder. It took only one match to get the flames going. He steadily added more wood from the pile they had nearby. His dad set up lawn chairs in a circle around the fire. One by one families came out and settled around the blaze. Kevin took two water buckets to the lake and filled them up. They liked to have them close by for drenching the coals later.

  The sun set and the cloudless night sky was a wonder of constellations. Without the competing lights from big cities the stars were bolder in their sparkling glory and the adults commented over and over about how bright the stars were in the country. One dad was pointing out Orion’s Belt and the Big Dipper. A three-year-old started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and everyone clapped when she finished. Everyone except Lonnie and Ricky, who were standing at the dark edge of the circle whispering to one another.

  Kevin looked around for Missy who hadn’t shown up yet. It wasn’t like her to miss a bonfire. He also didn’t see the older brothers. What could they be up to? Maybe they were bothering Missy. He glanced at Mr. Stark and then decided to check on things himself. He threw one more branch in the fire and walked into the woods as if he were gathering more wood. He skirted around behind Lonnie and Ricky and saw one of them pushing something under a lady’s chair with his foot. A rock, maybe. He couldn’t tell, but they were chuckling about it and moving sideways, away from her. Last year they had set off a bunch of firecrackers at the bonfire and there had almost been a fight between some of the dads and the boys’ parents. It would be incredibly stupid of them to repeat that, especially at the first campfire. They’d be asked to leave for sure.

  Kevin looked toward the lodge and picked his way along the path. His night vision was pretty good and he didn’t have any trouble going along. The sounds of the group around the fire faded and he could pick up some new sounds – laughter, giggling and whispering. He swung his head in the direction of the voices and saw four silhouettes down at the shore. It looked like there were two people sitting in one beached canoe and another couple on the sand. He stopped and stared until he was sure it was Dave, Rob and the two pretty sisters he had waited on in the Snack Shack.

  “Spying?” Missy startled him.

  “Hey, where have you been?” Kevin answered.

  “Just doing stuff in my room.” Missy batted her eyelashes, but it was too dark for Kevin to notice anything different about her.

  “Well, come on. I already started the fire. Looks like those two jerks aren’t going to be joining us, but their brothers are there and they’re acting pretty suspicious. Last year they let off some firecrackers. I kind of hope they do that again so my folks and your great-grandpa will kick them all out.” Kevin turned and led the way back.

  Dave and Rob were trying their best to win points with Melanie and Tara. Though all four of them had been coming to Big Pine Lodge for many years they didn’t remember being there on the same week, though Melanie admitted to seeing the boys leaving last year on the same day they were arriving. Secretly, Dave was relieved that they didn’t remember four summers ago when he and Rob had chased several girls off the swimming dock. He was pretty sure that Melanie and Tara were among the ones they had splashed and teased and called names. They hadn’t been interested in girls back then especially not skinny little giggling girls who screamed at spiders, snakes and toads.

  “I can see the bonfire,” Melanie stated, but she made no move to get up.

  “Yup, same old bonfire,” Dave answered. “We should have our own.”

  “What? Here on the beach?” Tara looked around.

  Rob shook his head. “Nah, they’d make us put it out. Let’s go through the woods over to the old settlers’ ruins. There’s an old fireplace in the cabin ruins.”

  Melanie and Tara looked at each other and seemed to come to the same conclusion. “Sure, why not?” they said together.

  Missy and Kevin skirted around behind Lonnie and Ricky and stood just outside the circle of golden light thrown off by the roaring blaze. Someone else had been adding logs to the fire and it was as high as a man. Parents were keeping their smaller children back and, in fact, were scooting their own chairs away from the heat. Missy glanced over at Lonnie and Ricky and saw that one was nudging the other. Suddenly there was an embarrassing farting noise from one of the ladies. The little kids laughed out loud while the grownups tried to act like nothing happened. Lonnie and Ricky bent over double, laughing their heads off. As soon as they straightened up the loud farts began again. The lady stood up. “It’s not me!” she said and picked up her chair to move away.

  Ricky moved into the spot she had left and motioned for Lonnie to join him. They stood there w
ith their hands in their pockets trying not to laugh anymore. As soon as everyone’s attention turned to a father who was grabbing a burning marshmallow stick from his son, Lonnie bent down and picked up a dark object. He stuffed it under his armpit and folded his arms.

  “What’s he doing?” Missy whispered to Kevin. They had looped around to the beach side of the fire and had a good view of the boys.

  “I think I know,” Kevin said as he put two boards across the water buckets, cleverly making two seats for them. They sat down carefully and Kevin put his hand in front of his mouth, leaned toward Missy and whispered. “Watch what Lonnie does with that thing under his arm.”

  Just then Mrs. Jackson appeared with two huge bags of popcorn and last Sunday’s newspaper. “Help me, Kevin. Please.” She set one bag down next to Mr. Stark, a safe place, she assumed, and handed the papers to Kevin. He gave half to Mr. Stark and the two of them began to fold pages of newspaper into cones. Missy jumped up to help and as Mrs. Jackson poured popcorn into the cones Missy took them and handed them out to everyone around the fire. She started at her left and went clockwise around, but when she got to Lonnie and Ricky’s spot they had moved over to Mr. Stark. That was strange, she thought, because now they’d be last to get any. She watched to see if they were just helping themselves to the second bag, but no, Mrs. Jackson was pouring from that one now. When she finally handed them their popcorn they took them without a word and walked back to where they had been. Missy and Kevin got theirs last and sat down on their makeshift seats to eat.

  The campfire was burning down some now since no one wanted to feed the fire. People were throwing their unpopped kernels into it hoping they’d pop. A few of them did and if they exploded and flew out of the fire everyone would laugh. One by one each person crumbled up his or her empty newspaper cone and tossed it into the bonfire. The flames were blue or yellow and everyone seemed mesmerized and hypnotized by the dancing curls of flame. There were a few moments of complete silence and then it was broken. A long disgusting eruption of farting sounds came from Mr. Stark. This time no one laughed and Mr. Stark just reached under his chair and brought out an object about the size of a deck of cards.

  “Okay,” he said, “you can all laugh. It’s just a remote control farting machine.” He waved it above his head and then he pressed a button on its side several times and the same noises came forth in short little bursts. Everyone laughed as he flicked another switch off and stuck the box in his jacket pocket.

  Kevin leaned toward Missy. “That’s what I thought. Look at Lonnie and Ricky. They’re sneaking away.”

  “Good. I hope my great-grandpa keeps it till their last day here. It was kinda funny, though.”

  “Yeah, and at least it didn’t hurt anybody.”

  “That was hilarious,” Ricky said.

  “Yeah, until that old fart found it. Who would have thought such an old man would have known how to turn it on and off,” Lonnie said. “We’re gonna have to steal it back now.”

  “Or,” Ricky thought for a second, “we just torture a certain little someone into retrieving it for us.”

  Lonnie chuckled. “Yeah, I like your thinking.”

  They came out of the path near the back of the lodge and looked around for their brothers. They checked inside and made a pit stop in the bathroom. While Lonnie waited for Ricky he looked out from their second floor window. If he stood to the right he could angle his view to the left and see the large bonfire. Straight ahead the moon was now reflecting off the lake which was as still as a mirror. He moved left just as he heard Ricky flush. “Hey!” he hollered. “Come here. Check this out.”

  Ricky came out and crossed the room. “What?”

  Lonnie pointed to the right and scooted back so Ricky could take his spot. Ricky put his cheek up against the screen and let his eyes adjust to the darkness. “Yeah, so? Looks like somebody has a fire over near the settlers’ ruins.”

  “Who do you think, dummy? I didn’t see our brothers or those two girls from the beach at the bonfire, did you?”

  Ricky looked at Lonnie. “Quick. Let’s change into all black clothing.”

  “What’s your idea? Just spying? Catch them at an embarrassing moment?”

  Ricky looked thoughtful. He glanced around the room and his gaze settled on the extra blankets and pillows on the shelf. “Turn the lights off,” he ordered. He grabbed a blanket and threw it over his shoulders while Lonnie headed for the light switch. By the time Lonnie hit the switch and turned around Ricky was on the floor with the blanket covering his head as well. He let out some low growls then asked, “Well? Am I a bear or what?”

  Lonnie flicked the switch back on and laughed, “Well, you probably wouldn’t fool a real bear, but I think a couple of girls would fall for it. Especially with some snorts and some leaves rustling.” He pulled the second blanket off the shelf, thinking how lucky it was that both blankets were dark blue. Ricky got up, rolled his blanket up and the two of them started out the door.

  “Well, hello, boys.” Both sets of parents were just arriving. “Did we miss the bonfire? We didn’t mean to stay at that bar quite so long.” Lonnie’s father patted them both on the shoulders.

  “You didn’t miss anything,” Lonnie said. “We were just there. Same old, same old. Marshballows, popcorn, fire.”

  “Oh, let’s make an appearance, dear,” Lonnie’s mother said. She smiled and added, “After a little bathroom break, that is.” The adults all nodded at each other and disappeared into their rooms without one question to the boys about why they were carrying blankets. Lonnie and Ricky slipped down the staircase.

  Please continue the sampling with the first 5 chapters of A TICK IN TIME

  A TICK IN TIME

  Prologue – A Glimpse of the Future

  Out of nowhere two hairy arms reached around Noelle’s waist and locked tightly pulling her backward. She screamed for Tommy to help her as she dug her heels into the rocky path and scratched at the arms squeezing her middle. Tommy’s face registered disbelief as he reached for Noelle and struggled to free her. He gripped her hands and pulled her toward him. He felt encouraged as she seemed to move forward, her head dropping down, long blonde curls hiding her face, but she collapsed over on herself like a clam as her stomach was pulled back into nothingness and her feet actually lifted up and off the ground. Tommy still couldn’t see anyone other than the hairy arms magically coming out of thin air. He dug in his heels and yanked his friend with all his might. Their hands slipped apart and incredibly Noelle was sucked through the air with a whoosh and disappeared. Tommy fell on his butt, mouth open in shock. It was as if Noelle had been captured through a rip in reality. Now what would he do? He had escaped this strange land once before, but how could he go back without Noelle? How could he explain this? Surely they would lock him away in a dark and scary mental institution, a loony bin, a coo-coo cage, a padded room, never to return to 6th grade, never to make it to junior high.

  Tommy slapped his hands to the sides of his head. He squinted his eyes tightly shut and was about to holler as loud as he could when another idea smacked him on the forehead.

  “Of course!” he breathed aloud. “She must have been taken to the dungeon!” He pushed himself up off the rocky path and looked at the spot where Noelle had disappeared. He felt around blindly with his hands, feeling for something, anything, where she had been. He circled around to stand behind the spot and reached up and down and patted the air. He looked like a circus mime trying to find his way out of an invisible box, but when he pressed the air in one certain spot his finger disappeared.

  “Oh!” he jerked back then realized how stupid he had been. He searched the air again until he located the spot. It took twice as long to find it again. This time he used both hands and tried to enlarge the opening. There was nothing he could see, he had to work by touch only and his muscles strained to gain some kind of advantage over the rip. It wanted to close back up around his fingers, but slowly he widened it enough to poke his elbow
through and get more leverage. Tommy had started at chest level, but now the hole seemed to be higher up. With his elbow thrust through he tried to force the hole down, but although it was widening, it was also pulling him upwards. He kicked up off the ground and plunged his head and chest through.

  A stranger sight was never seen for on the Doldale side hung a boy’s torso and legs, kicking wildly, while on the Luruss side Tommy’s hands had found a round hairy object that was letting out screams and yelps of utter fear. It was dark, pitch black, blind, and Tommy screamed, too, trying to winch his way back from where he had come. But at that moment the other screams stopped and Noelle grabbed his arms and pulled.