The Secret of Rover by Rachel Wildavsky

Author:Rachel Wildavsky
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Amulet Books
Published: 2011-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

“It sounded close; that’s the problem,” said Katie wearily. “It’s the way the directions sounded.”

“Right,” said David. “That plus a little machine called a car. When Mom and Dad did this, they always drove.”

They were both right, and they knew it. But it didn’t really matter. Nothing changed the fact that the trail to Alex’s, which they had always assumed you picked up right outside of town, was not right outside of town.

They were supposed to remain on the road through Melville until about half a mile past the first bridge. Then they were supposed to find the rock that had been split by lightning, turn off the road, and head up the mountain. After that it was easy: Left at the creek and you’re there.

It sounded like nothing. But that first bridge! It was now almost seven in the evening and they still hadn’t passed it. Soon it would be dark. In fact, in this hilly country the sun had already slipped behind a rocky peak, throwing them into shadow.

They continued to walk, and their road began taking them more and more steeply uphill. Until this point, David had not really put it together that because their uncle lived on a mountain, they would be climbing, and that climbing was hard. His huffing breath and trudging feet fell into a rhythm, and he tried to concentrate on that instead of thinking about his stomach. Step—unh—step—unh—step . . .

They would eat when they got to Alex’s, David told himself. Assuming they found him, that is. And assuming he fed them, and assuming their arrival didn’t make him mad, and assuming he didn’t turn out to be just too weird for them to get anywhere near him.

Step—unh—step—unh—step . . . For as Katie had pointed out back in Melville, being a hermit, there was a fairly high probability that Uncle Alex would be as weird as a . . . as weird as a . . . as a—“What’s that noise?” David demanded, cutting off his own thoughts.

“Water.” Katie’s head was down and she kept her answer short. She, too, had found a rhythm that she didn’t want to break.

“Water! It is! Katie, where there’s water there might be a bridge!”

“Not very smart, are we, David?”

He was too relieved to take offense. Just knowing the bridge was ahead of them put fresh energy into his step, even as his nerves buzzed with something that could be excitement or could be fear. They were close. They were very, very close after all.

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