Beneath Still Waters by Matthew Costello

Author:Matthew Costello
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2008-11-15T18:12:42+00:00

“Joshua!” she screamed, “are you down here? Joshua!”

And she began to wonder if maybe he went exploring in the

other direction, toward the highway, crossing the street . . .

just as some monster-sized truck with dozens of wheels

came roaring down upon him.

An exposed root—a snaky, arch-shaped thing—snagged

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m a t t h e w j . c o s t e l l o

her right foot and sent her down hard onto the leaves and

twigs. Her knee was scraped, like when she used to fall

skating down her driveway, but she popped up, not even

looking at it. She started running again.

It was dark in here—only tiny pinpricks of light got

through the leafy roof. It was a world removed from the

bright green lawn and the gentle willow. And so crowded—

leaves, plants, and hulking trees jumbled awkwardly to-

gether. Like some kind of battle was going on.

Then she came to the fence.

And no Joshua.

(Oh, please, where are you?)

The she heard him, just off to the side, crying quietly.

She hurried over to him.

He was lying on the ground, rubbing his arm back and

forth. It was the tail end of what had been a bout of crying,

with the streaks of his tears dried into blotches on his

cheeks.

She crouched beside him, fighting to hold back her fear

and her anger. “What happened, Josh?”

He looked at her, and his tears picked up fresh energy. “I

fell . . . off there,” he said, pointing to the fence. “I climbed halfway up, then I slipped.” He punctuated his sentence

with a long swipe of his runny nose into the shoulder of his

shirt.

“I told you not to go here, didn’t I? And your mom told

me that you were absolutely forbidden to—”

His eyes widened.

“You won’t tell her, will you? Will you?” He was poised

to begin crying again.

She paused, letting him dangle there a moment. Know-

ing, of course, that if she told Mrs. Benny, she would be the

one in trouble. Baby-sitters were supposed to keep some

kind of watch on the kids.

Claire gave his sandy-blond hair a light tussle.

b e n e a t h s t i l l w a t e r s

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“Deal.”

He grinned in relief.

“We’ll just say you bumped your arm on the climbing

toy.”

Joshua started to get up.

“What do you say we go back and dig up something

for you on the tube. Some robot show or—”

“GI Joe!” he squealed.

GI Jerk, she thought, and groaned. “Yeah, maybe

that’s on.”

She turned to go back to the house, glad that sick feel-

ing was gone. When she happened to glance at the other

side of the fence. Josh had already taken a few steps toward

the house.

“Wait a minute,” she said quietly. “Just a minute—”

From the fence, the ground sloped down to the water.

The plants gave way to a small, narrow strip of mud beach.

There was a boat in the water, not moving, and she could

make out three people on it.

“C’mon, Claire, the show’s probably started already.”

“Hold on,” she said.

But it wasn’t the boat that made her stop. It was some-

thing else. The colors right in front of her. She’d read a book

once with colors like that.

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