The Juniper Sawfeather Trilogy by D. G. Driver

Author:D. G. Driver [Driver, D. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-68046-605-8
Publisher: Fire & Ice Young Adult Books

Chapter Eleven

No one down below reacted to the sound I heard. No one heard it but me. Down there Mr. Mains was shaking hands with my parents, all heads nodding as they said stuff to each other about me. Polite smiles under scared eyes. Mom led him out of the area and back to the campsite where Mrs. Slater would be impatiently waiting for him. I assumed they rode in a car together. I could only imagine how that car ride back to Olympia was going to go for the two of them. No, I bet she took off already, stranding the principal. My mom would have to drive him back. That would tick her off, because there were decisions to be made here in the woods, and she’d want to be the one making them.

I heard Dad tell Deepak and Kyle to head back to camp and rest for a little bit and get something to eat. They’d try again in a little while. The guys left their gear, and I saw Deepak patting his shaken friend on the back before they went out of sight. Dad walked over to the ladder and picked it up. He leaned it up against the tree and climbed about three-quarters of the way up, as far as he felt comfortable without Randy spotting him, I guess. Then he craned his head up to speak to me.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “No tough girl act right now, June. I want the truth. Are you okay up there?”

I shook my head. “I’m scared, Dad. You guys don’t understand what’s happening.”

“We understand that you’re being unreasonable.”

“It’s not me, Dad. I swear it’s not. It’s the tree.”

“The tree?”

“Dad—” I took a sharp breath and stopped speaking. Dad was balanced on a ladder about twenty-five feet off the ground. The tree could get mad if I said anything. It could shudder and shake my dad loose. That’s all it would take, and my dad would be broken on the ground like Ronnie was. “I’m afraid to say anything.”

“Tell me.”

I did as he asked. “Touch the tree, Dad. Reach out and touch the tree. Tell it you aren’t here to get me down. You’re here to listen.”

“June...”

“Just do it!”

He did as I asked, reaching between the rungs of the ladder to press his right hand flat against the bark. He spoke the words I told him quietly, maybe not as sincerely as I’d like, but he did it. “Okay,” he said to me when he was done. “Now tell me what you’re afraid of.”

“Uncle Nathan is right about this tree. It’s got some kind of spirit in it. And it doesn’t want me to leave.” I saw my dad smile and shake his head. “I’m serious, Dad. You can’t send those guys up here again. The tree will try to kill them before it lets them take me down. Didn’t you see it happen?”

“I saw a couple of accidents...”

“And Ronnie fell yesterday, but somehow I’m able to be up in this tree no problem.

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