Wish Girl by Nikki Loftin

Author:Nikki Loftin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2015-02-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Two hours later, I’d climbed more trees than I’d ever imagined and stripped more dead grapevines down than I had thought could exist.

“We’re making a spider web,” Annie informed me when I finally had the breath to ask why we’d gathered a ten-foot-wide, three-foot-high pile of grapevines.

“A spider web?” I echoed. I wanted to ask how that was art, but thought better of it.

“Well, not today,” she said. “You’ll see tomorrow.”

I looked up when a shadow fell. Dark gray clouds were stacking up on the rim of the valley. Rain, probably soon. It was time to go. Past time, maybe. “We’d better run, Annie, or we’re going to be soaked.”

If Mom saw my wet clothes, I would be in huge trouble. I heard a rumble of thunder from far off, like the sky was agreeing with me.

“Yeah, let’s get back,” Annie said. “I think I lost track of time.” She slipped out her camera and took a quick picture of the grapevine pile.

We ran back up the hill, Annie stopping a couple of times to hold her head. I guessed her headaches were back. At the top, she waved—“See you tomorrow!”—and darted off.

I saw the figure on the hillside again before I turned to run. It was closer—and it was definitely the Colonel’s wife. She was working around some trees. It almost looked like she was cutting grapevines down. Had she been spying on Annie and me? Maybe she was lonely. Maybe she wanted us to invite her to make grapevine spider webs.

“Sorry, lady, this valley isn’t big enough for all three of us,” I murmured into the wind.

A few seconds later, the Colonel’s wife looked up, and I heard her yell, “I reckon it is. Now go home before I get it to sic the bees on ya!” The breeze rang with her laughter.

Whoa. I took a step back. How could she have heard me? And did she mean she could talk to the valley?

“Sorry,” I mumbled, and the wind caught that, too. The Colonel’s wife made a motion with one arm, like she was brushing me off, and turned back to her cutting.

I turned, too, and ran home, hoping I’d get there before my parents did.

Even though Mom always said it was best to hope, she was wrong in this case. It would have been much, much better to stay in the valley.

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