Strange Journey Back by Paul McCusker

Author:Paul McCusker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUVENILE FICTION / Religious / Christian, JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9781624052026
Publisher: Focus on the Family
Published: 2014-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

PATTI LED MARK TO WHERE THE river fed into Trickle Lake. The warm sun had begun to dry their clothes by the time they had started up the mountainside. After they had hiked awhile, Patti suggested they stop on the pathway to take in the view of lush pines and sparkling water below.

The lake glinted like an open bag of diamonds. Mark had never seen the lake at this angle before. This trail was uncharted territory for Mark, like many parts of Odyssey. It’s beautiful, he thought. When he turned to say this to Patti, she had disappeared. Surprised, Mark spun around.

“Patti?” he called out.

How did she vanish like that? he wondered. Is she hiding behind one of the trees? Maybe she hiked up the steeper side of the grade.

“Patti!” he yelled again.

She giggled.

Mark turned to see where the sound was coming from. Her voice seemed to be everywhere at once, but he still couldn’t see Patti anywhere.

Patti laughed and said, “I’ll bet Robin Hood didn’t have a hiding place this good.”

Again Mark turned around, now feeling foolish because he knew he must look foolish. He could feel his cheeks turning crimson.

“All right,” he said. “Where are you?”

“Over here,” she called.

Mark heard a rustling of branches.

Then, as if appearing out of thin air, Patti emerged from her hiding place. The illusion surprised Mark so much he blinked a few times to make sure he was seeing correctly. One moment he saw a wall of green foliage, the next moment Patti appeared in front of it.

“Neat, huh?” Patti said proudly, bowing like a magician.

Mark looked harder to see where Patti had disappeared. The scattered light, dense forest, heavy brush, and ivy had played a trick on his eyes. On closer inspection, he could see that a lush green curtain was camouflaging the hillside.

Mark stared in wonder. A casual passerby would never have seen it. “What is it?” he asked.

“Come on,” Patti said, spreading the green curtain aside and stepping into the darkness. “This is my hiding place.”

She struck a match and lit a small candle stuck in the top of a soda bottle.

“I’ll get a lantern later on,” she added.

When Mark’s eyes adjusted to the light, he could see that they were in a cave the size of a small room, with plenty of space to walk around. Patti had placed a couple of wooden crates in the center to use as seats. Otherwise the cave was barren rock and dirt. Toward the rear, it continued on in darkness.

“What’s back there?” Mark asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t want to go back there alone.”

Mark was going to tease her for being a chicken, but he thought better of it. He wouldn’t want to go back into the yawning blackness by himself, either.

“Patti, this is a terrific hideout!” he exclaimed. “How did you find it?”

“Last weekend when your dad was visiting I got bored playing by myself and decided to look around the lake. While I was up here, I started to think about pirates.

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