The River Keepers by Michael Stewart

Author:Michael Stewart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indie Author Project
Published: 2017-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

NATASHA

By the end of the field trip, Natasha had learned more about watersheds than she really wanted, but nothing about gnomes. Afterward, the bus dragged them back to school and another hour of classes before they walked home.

“Look.” Natasha pointed at their parents’ car in the driveway, already dreading what its being there meant. “Mom and Dad are home early.”

“How will we ever learn about gnomes with them around?” Teagan asked.

“You get Mom’s computer. I’ll distract everyone,” Natasha said as they neared the porch. “Meet me in the hideout in five minutes.”

Teagan drew an exasperated breath. In fairness to Natasha, however, Teagan was not a good distracter. The last time she had distracted the parents, she had babbled about fairy dragons with chocolate trolls on their backs. Mom had known something was up and caught Natasha sneaking a bag of chocolate chips out of the pantry.

“Ready,” Teagan said with her hand on the doorknob. Natasha’s mind churned to come up with a suitable diversion.

The rush of warm air greeted her with the smell of freshly baked cookies. “Cookies!” she called, pleased to be the one doing the distracting if it meant a snack.

“Sorry, honey,” Dad said from the kitchen counter, which looked out onto the dining and living room. “That’s just a special spray Rink uses to make the house smell good.”

“And it seems to be working,” Mom said without looking up from the table.

Teagan was already creeping toward the dining area. The computer rested on the piano at their parents’ backs. She glared at Natasha to say something.

“Let me tell you about watersheds!” she cried.

“Not so loud, Natasha, inside voices,” Mom said.

“Watersheds are areas of land into which all rain and snowmelt drains,” Natasha continued, lifting her hands and waving them around like she was Mr. Montages. Already Teagan shuffled back toward her, a rectangle up under her shirt.

“Natasha, we are a bit busy right now, can this wait?” Dad asked.

“Okay,” she said. “But I know all about this ecology stuff now.”

Mom’s eyes shone, and she smiled in a distracted way that Natasha didn’t think had anything to do with what she had been talking about. She followed Teagan up the stairs with her eyes; when Teagan reached the top, Natasha raced after her.

“That was so easy,” Natasha said after shutting the bedroom door.

“Too easy,” Teagan replied. “You see what was on the table?”

“I was too busy distracting.”

“Papers. A big, thick bundle of papers.” Teagan said it as if the papers were a gun or something.

“So?”

“Something’s up. Why else didn’t they give us a dozen chores like usual?”

Natasha thought about that. “They never even asked about homework . . . and Rink was shaking that man’s hand earlier.” She dashed to the window. “No—”

But she needn’t have panicked. No Sold sign was in the garden. Not yet. But hadn’t Maya said it didn’t always matter? That a house could be conditionally sold?

“Well, let’s use the time while we can, come on,” Teagan said.

When both were wedged cross-legged in the hideout on pillows beside the cage, Teagan turned on the computer.

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