Rewind
Page 6
He couldn’t take it.
He began to shake.
A moan welled up from somewhere deep inside him, buried under four years of grief. It exploded from his mouth. Then another, and another.
No one responded. Lianna and Ripley were probably halfway across town by now.
He sat there until he couldn’t moan anymore. Until he could barely feel.
Later—how long? Five minutes? Two hours?—Adam pulled up in front of Ripley’s house.
To thank him.
To let him know how much Adam had misjudged him.
But also to ask his advice. Eventually Adam would have to confront Lianna. One-on-one. And Ripley would know how to do it.
He rang the doorbell once. Twice.
Finally he heard a commotion inside.
The door flew open. “Heyyyyy, what’s up?” called a familiar voice.
Adam’s throat locked up. He tried to speak, but no sound would come out. “Adam? Did something happen?” Adam swallowed hard and blinked. Then he looked up at his friend’s face.
Edgar.
I didn’t think he could.
A little faith is all it takes. Sometimes.
18
THE FURNITURE. THE PERSIAN rug. The grandfather clock.
It was all back.
Edgar’s stuff.
Edgar’s house.
“Uh, Earth to Adam,” Edgar said.
“Where’s Ripley?” Adam asked.
“Ripley who?”
“You don’t—he didn’t—but Lianna killed you.”
Edgar gave him a strange look, then called over his shoulder, “Hey, did you happen to kill me?”
Lianna walked in from the kitchen, munching on a Ring-Ding. She was dressed in a hockey jersey. “Don’t tempt me.”
Adam was reeling.
Ripley’s family never moved here.
Because Edgar lived on.
And so did Lianna’s lie.
“Adam?” Edgar asked. “Are you all right?”
Adam shook his head. “No. I’m not. Nothing is. Edgar, remember that accident four years ago? On the ice? You—you were supposed to die that day!”
Stop. His death never happened, Adam.
“Is this some kind of weird joke?” Edgar asked.
“Do you remember what happened?” Adam struggled to keep his voice calm.
“You know I don’t,” Edgar replied. “I was wiped out, just like you. Traumatic stress, whatever they call it.”
Adam faced Lianna. “What did you tell him? You saved me and him? You’re twice a hero?”
Lianna groaned. “God, you’re not bringing that up again, are you? Okay, you want to take credit for it? Fine.”
“It’s a lie,” Adam said. “You were the one fighting with Edgar. You hit him with a hockey stick.”
Lianna’s face turned pale. “Where did you hear that crazy idea—?”
“Then, when we fell through, you just stood there and watched. You didn’t get help. After a while you started screaming — someone must have heard it. That’s how we were saved. How convenient for you that Edgar and I didn’t remember.”
“No one was there, Adam. No one could have seen any of that!”
“I was there, Lianna. I saw.”
“Oh. Right.” Lianna let out a strange, nervous laugh. She began backing up toward Edgar’s door. “This is like some kind of buried memory that came back in one of your dreams? This is silly, Adam. I’m hurt.”
Edgar looked from Adam to Lianna. “Where are you going?”
“He’s the one lying, Edgar!” Lianna swallowed hard. Her eyes darted. “You have no proof, Adam.”
“Do you?”
“I will not stand here and be insulted!” With that, she ran out of the house.
Adam fought the impulse to chase her.
Let her go. For now.
“Do you really remember?” Edgar asked, his face full of doubt.
Adam nodded. “We have a lot to talk about.”
Below them, the front door slammed. Edgar sank onto the bed, lost in thought. Confused.
Maybe it’s best to just leave it alone, Adam thought.
Let it die.
The squeal of tires made Adam jump.
He and Edgar ran to the window.
The first thing Adam saw was a hockey jersey.
Lianna’s.
She was lying on the road, facedown.
A car had skidded to a stop, diagonally across the road.
A green Volvo.
Lianna’s grandmother was pushing the driver’s door open, screaming.
“Oh my god,” Adam murmured. Edgar was already out the door. “Let’s help her!” Adam followed. It was the least he could do.
WATCHERS
Case File: 6791
Name: Adam Sarno
Age: 14
First contact: 54.35.20
Acceptance: YES
A Biography of Peter Lerangis
Peter Lerangis (b. 1955) is a bestselling author of young adult fiction; his novels have sold more than four million copies worldwide. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Lerangis began writing in elementary school, inventing stories during math class—after finishing the problems, he claims. His first piece of published writing was an anonymous humor article for the April Fools’ Day edition of his high school newspaper. Seeing the other students laughing in the corridors as they read it, planted the idea in his head that he could be a writer. After high school he attended Harvard University, where he majored in biochemistry and sang in an a cappella group, the Harvard Krokodiloes. Intending to go on to law school, Lerangis took a job as a paralegal post-graduation. But after a summer job as a singing waiter, he changed his path and became a musical theater actor.
Lerangis found theatrical work on Broadway, appearing in They’re Playing Our Song, and he toured the country in such shows as Cabaret, West Side Story, and Fiddler on the Roof, acting alongside theatrical greats such as Jack Lemmon, John Lithgow, Jane Powell, John Raitt, and Victor Garber. During these years, Lerangis met his future wife, Tina deVaron, and began editing fiction, a job that would eventually lead him to writing novels of his own.
Lerangis got his start writing novelizations under the penname A. L. Singer, as well as installments of long-running series, such as the Hardy Boys and the Baby-sitters Club. He eventually began writing under his own name with 1994’s The Yearbook and Driver’s Dead, two high-school horror novels that are part of the Point Horror series of young-adult thrillers.
In 1998, Lerangis debuted Watchers, a six-novel sci-fi series, which won Children’s Choice and Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers awards. The first book in the Abracadabra series, Poof! Rabbits Everywhere (2002), introduced Max, an aspiring magician who struggles to keep a lid on the supernatural happenings at his school. Lerangis followed that eight-book series with the immensely popular Spy X novels, about a pair of twins drawn into international espionage.
The stand-alone novel Smiler’s Bones (2005), based on the true story of an Eskimo brought to New York City in 1897, won critical acclaim and a number of awards. Most recently, Lerangis has collaborated with a group of high-profile children’s authors on Scholastic’s the 39 Clues, a sprawling ten-novel adventure series.
At times, Lerangis’s life has been as thrilling as one of his stories. He has run a marathon, rock-climbed during an earthquake, gone on-stage as a last-minute replacement for Broadway legend Alan Jay Lerner, and visited Russia as part of a literary delegation that included First Lady Laura Bush. He lives with his family in New York City, not far from Central Park.
In an apartment in Brooklyn, shortly after giving birth, Mary Lerangis urges her first-born son to become a writer.
In Prospect Park, Nicholas Lerangis entertains a son so obsessed with books that, by sixteen months, he had yet to learn to walk.
Lerangis, stylish even at four years old.
Lerangis (in back) with his younger sister and brother. He promised them that if they learned to play well
enough, the little man on the piano would start to dance. . . . They are still practicing.
To this day, Lerangis refuses to admit that this early work was created during sixth-grade math class.
Lerangis as a freshman at Freeport High School in 1970. Here, he shows off his writing style and his mustache, both of which were to develop quite a bit in the future.
Lerangis (standing, second from left) at the Charles River with his a cappella singing group, the Harvard Krokodiloes. The group still performs to this day.
Lerangis promptly retired his ruffled shirt after this performance at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater in 1976.
Lerangis with his soon-to-be wife, Tina deVaron, at their rehearsal dinner in Boston in 1983.
Lerangis with his sons, Nick and Joseph, in 1991. He remarks that, although this was a comfortable pose at the time, any attempt to recreate it today would be painful.
In 2003, Lerangis was invited by the White House to accompany First Lady Laura Bush to Moscow to represent the United States at the first Russian Book Festival. From left to right: R. L. Stine, Lerangis, Marc Brown, Cherie Blair QC, and First Lady Laura Bush.
The Lerangis/deVaron family in 2005 at the Gates exhibition in Central Park— just a hop, skip, and a jump from their home on the Upper West Side. (Image courtesy of Ellen Dubin Photography.)
A welcome reception during an author visit in Solana Beach, California, in 2009.
Lerangis connects with his audience after a school visit in Chappaqua, New York, in 2012.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1998 by Peter Lerangis
cover design by Angela Goddard
978-1-4532-4821-8
This edition published in 2012 by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
EBOOKS BY PETER LERANGIS
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
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