Come Fall by A. C. E. Bauer

Author:A. C. E. Bauer [Bauer, A. C. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-375-85827-7
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2010-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

17—Salman Page

Lost

As Salman walked through the woods, he replayed his conversation with Lu over and over. She had been embarrassed to be caught spying but was glad to be with him. When she had smiled saying goodbye, her whole body had smiled—from her pretty eyes behind her glasses to her long, graceful fingers. She had been happy that she was going to see him tomorrow.

What a strange sensation, Salman thought, that he was happy because Lu wanted to be with him.

He stopped. He had been walking for a while. Lu had told him to look for the stream.

“It’ll lead you back to the trailer,” she had said.

Why hadn’t he reached it? He had lost the path early on, but he thought he had headed in the right direction. He looked ahead, to either side, and off to his right he saw a large boulder. That was where he needed to go. But when he reached the boulder, he didn’t see the stream. Instead, the land rose. The forest floor became rockier. Perhaps if he climbed higher, he’d catch a view of the stream. He plodded ahead. Still no stream.

As the late-afternoon light began to fade, the woods became quieter. A bird whistled. A squirrel chattered. And then Salman heard whirs and thu-wunks, faintly, and then more constant and sometimes overlapping, getting louder as he climbed higher. The sounds were familiar, but he couldn’t place them.

He went through a row of trees to overgrown bushes and weeds. The sky opened up. Light flowed in. The sounds became more distinct. He pushed through the tall grasses and stepped onto crumbling pavement. A boy on a skateboard headed straight for him.

“Hey!”

The skateboarder maneuvered to one side, avoiding Salman but unbalancing himself in the process. The skateboard skidded off, and the boy landed on his butt.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the boy said.

Three other boys came running.

“Rob, what happened?”

Rob Puckett dusted himself off.

“This jerk came out of the bushes, just as—”

“It’s Crow!” a beefy boy said.

Salman recognized them. All but the smallest were from the junior high school. The beefy one, almost Salman’s height, was called Sean. Most kids were afraid of him. But Sean listened to Rob Puckett, who was now approaching Salman with hard eyes and a mean smile.

“Crow,” he said. “Need to be careful where you land.”

The smallest kid, no older than nine or ten—a mini Rob—tugged at Rob’s sleeve.

“Are you going to hit him?”

Rob pulled his arm away and glowered. The kid backed off.

“Naw,” Rob said. “I want to see how well he flies.”

The tallest boy of the bunch, a few inches taller than Salman, shuffled.

“Rob, he hasn’t done nothing—”

“Shut up, Walt.”

Without taking his eyes off Salman, Rob addressed all three boys.

“Someone lend Crow your board.”

The little kid stepped forward.

“Want to use mine?”

“Okay, Jimmy,” Rob said.

He took Jimmy’s skateboard and jammed it into Salman’s arms.

“Ever ride?” Rob said.

Salman shook his head. Rob smiled.

“Good.”

The boys marched Salman down the parking lot to where they had set up makeshift ramps and obstacles using plywood boards and bricks.

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