Forest of Lost Secrets by Emmett Swan & Clarice Swan

Author:Emmett Swan & Clarice Swan [Swan, Emmett & Swan, Clarice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781733640312
Publisher: River Path Press
Published: 2019-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Seven

Since the Peterson House was a mile away down a dirt lane, it was too far to walk in dinner attire. So Jessica, Riley, Uncle Basil, and Aunt Noreen piled into the car and drove. Jessica dreaded the evening. She and Riley had not spoken to Shelly and Grace since their unpleasant breakfast encounter, so they’d had no chance to patch things up. Not that they would have tried very hard to do so.

But now that Jessica realized part of the problem was on her—that she hadn’t been trying to get along because she resented having to leave Louisville for the summer—she was inclined to make more of an effort to be friendly toward the Peterson girls, though she couldn’t see herself becoming true friends with them. They just weren’t her kind of people.

She was determined to play nice and be respectful and courteous. There would be nothing to gain by being surly or antagonistic. She knew that, after this summer, she would never see them again. Why make a big deal of it? Just be nice and silently disagree with everything they stood for.

She smiled. Easy!

Still, she couldn’t believe she had to spend the entire evening with them. Maybe, with the adults around, they wouldn’t be so obnoxious.

But what if the whole damn family is like that?

She would do her best. Plus, she didn’t want to stir up trouble and jeopardize her opportunity to make a break for the woods later in the night. That was her primary goal.

As they rode along the rustic dirt lane, bordered on both sides by dry-stone fences, Jessica looked at her brother. He hadn’t said much since returning from their horseback ride to the swamp, and now he stared out the window. She suspected he was dreading the dinner as much as she was. She knew, though, that if she tried to be nice, he would follow her lead. And once the dinner was over and everyone was back home and in their beds, they could climb out of her window and head to their little forest. If everything went according to plan, later that night the Kyne brothers would be free after living as trees for more than two centuries.

She tried to imagine what it would be like to be a tree. What if you have an itch? She snickered, and Riley glanced over at her. She shook her head and turned to her window.

What if she could really make this happen? What if she could be a heroine? She imagined how happy the boys would be to be flesh and bone again. Restoring life—not ending it. What a complete turnaround.

And, for the first time that day, her mind went back to that day on the lake.

While trying to find Curtis in the water, she had prayed and hoped she would find him alive. But in the end, there was only abysmal, tragic disappointment. Later, she would play the scenario over in her head. She imagined pulling him from the lake, flailing and choking and spewing water, but alive.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.