Locked in Time by Lois Duncan

Author:Lois Duncan [DUNCAN, LOIS]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: JUV018000
ISBN: 9780316191326
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2011-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

I arrived back at Shadow Grove at twenty past twelve. The fact that I managed to get there so quickly was thanks to a middle-aged woman in a gray Chrysler who stopped to offer me a ride. I had never accepted a ride from a stranger in my life, but I didn’t hesitate a second before accepting this one. Even if she had turned out to be some serial killer in disguise, I couldn’t imagine her doing anything to me that would be worse than the experience I’d just been through.

Of course, she didn’t do anything other than spread newspapers out to protect her upholstery and ask with concern what had happened. I was too worked up at this point to tell her anything but the truth, or, at least, a portion of it; I said that I’d gone fishing with a friend and fallen out of the boat, and that the boy I was with had gone off and left me.

“A lovers’ quarrel,” the woman said knowingly. “Dump him, honey. No guy who would do a thing like that is worth a dime.”

“I’m going to dump him, all right,” I told her vehemently, and to myself I added silently, When Dad learns what happened today, he and I will be dumping this whole weird family.

The woman let me off in front of the gate to Shadow Grove, and I trudged up the long driveway, finding it hard to believe that a few short hours earlier I had come swinging down it, basket in hand, as happy and unsuspecting as Little Red Riding Hood on her near-fatal trip to her grandmother’s house.

The first person I saw when I entered the house was Lisette. As I stepped through the front doorway, I could see straight across the entrance hall into the parlor. My stepmother was seated there on the sofa, in a posture of waiting, and from the stunned expression that crossed her face when she saw me, it was evident that I wasn’t the person she was expecting.

I didn’t speak or in any other way acknowledge Lisette’s existence. Instead, I wheeled around and continued down the hall to my father’s study. When I reached it, I flung open the door and hurried in.

Dad turned from his computer, obviously startled by my abrupt and unannounced entrance. His eyes grew wide and alarmed as they took in my condition.

“Good lord, Nore, what happened to you?” Dad exclaimed. “You look like a drowned kitten!”

“I almost became one,” I said, my voice ringing out so shrill and strange that I hardly recognized it as being my own. “Gabe almost drowned me!”

“Gabe almost drowned you!” Dad repeated blankly. “What in god’s name are you talking about?”

“Just what I said,” I told him. “Gabe took me out for a boat ride on the river, and when I was standing up and not holding on to anything, he ran the boat full-speed into a log. I was thrown out into the water, and I almost drowned!”

“Good lord!” Dad said again.

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