Secrets of Thief Cave by Becky Freeman

Author:Becky Freeman [Freeman, Becky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-76918-3
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2013-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

8

TWIBLING TROUBLE

Within fifteen minutes, Jake and Joy had run down to the water’s edge and paddled their canoe across the lake to where Marco and Maria Garcia lived. Señora Garcia opened the cheery red door of the family’s two-story white brick home. Her dark hair was piled up in a bun of licorice-colored braids, and her black lashes had a light dusting of corn flour on them.

“Come in, Twiblitos,” she said with a smile, speaking her own Spanish version of the twins’ nickname. She pointed toward the kitchen, where the air was rich with the smell of fresh tortillas. Jake took off his sombrero and set the backpack down by the door. Señora Garcia offered Jake and Joy warm tortillas slathered in fresh, creamy butter before calling upstairs for Marco and Maria to come down.

The Garcia twins appeared at the same time, and soon the four friends were eating tortillas and drinking tall glasses of cold milk—or leche frio, as the Garcias called it—around the bright red-and-yellow tiled kitchen table. Normally Jake couldn’t resist Señora Garcia’s homemade wonders, but today he found himself distracted. The bites of tortilla balled in his throat as he tried to think of a way to confront his best friend, and swallowing was difficult. He didn’t say much.

When Señora Garcia finally left the kitchen to check on her marigold garden, Jake put down the butter knife, looked at Marco and asked bluntly, “So why’d you do it?”

Marco looked as though he’d swallowed a fly.

“Why’d I do what?” he asked.

“Don’t pretend to be so innocent,” Jake said, going quickly from sad to angry. “I know that you took Mr. Grant’s watch. What I don’t know is why—and why you took the gold wad of candy wrappers as well. They aren’t worth anything.”

Maria looked shocked. Marco looked as if he’d been kicked in the stomach. “Jake Bigsley!” he shouted. “I am your best friend. You know me as well as anyone. How could you even think I’d steal something—much less blame it on you?”

Immediately Jake looked at Joy and then looked down. Finally Jake spoke up and explained why they suspected Marco.

Marco listened quietly until tears of hurt and anger pooled in his eyes. “Jake, I didn’t do it.”

And Jake could tell, from this look of sadness and betrayal on his friend’s face, that Marco was telling the truth. Jake had made a terrible mistake.

“Marco,” Jake said, reaching for his friend’s arm. “Please forgive me. It’s just that so much has happened in the past two days. Dad tells me I need to learn to slow down and pray before I talk. And before I kick and karate chop. I wonder sometimes if I’ll ever learn.”

Marco nodded and gripped Jake’s hand the way football players do when they come off the field after a good play—or a bad one. It was a cross between an arm-wrestling hold and a handshake.

“It’s okay, chico. I forgive you.”

“Amigos?” Jake asked.

“Amigos,” Marco replied with a smile.

The phone rang, startling the Twiblings out of their private moment.

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