Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers Read Online Free PDF Page A

burned a burger off in a couple of hours. Regina would pass on the shake since she was not the same effortlessly light-weight that she had been in high school and she no longer took much to country living. The young woman remained thin in her early twenties, but what had been simple before, now took a concentrated effort.
    Regina was so focused on the anticipated lunch that she took no notice of the deer crossing sign with the bullet-hole as the car sped past.
    Dreaming of the burger and sugared fries while listening to the euphoric classical music that played on the radio took Reginaaway. She closed her eyes and did her best to forget where she was and why she was there. When she opened her eyes, she could see the old Waterford factory. Once bright and promising, the building was long ago abandoned and now covered in a layer of smut that reflected the fact that no one loved the place anymore. Most of the windows were broken out and graffiti tattooed the walls. She sat up straight and moved closer to the window to get a better look at the landmark on Culliver Parkway that told her, no matter how much she despised the idea, she was home. Seeing the old place meant that she was now only a few minutes outside of Black Water, minutes away from Oakley High School where she had once laughed uproariously in the hallways, minutes from the Fairview two-screen movie theatre, where she and her friends had spent several Saturday nights eating popcorn and watching movies, minutes away from Klein park where she and the girls would sneak away to conduct secret girls club meetings.
    “Such a shame,” her father interrupted. With his words, Regina looked up to see that they were now passing the DeFrank estate. Wheezing for air, Regina withdrew from the window as if she had seen a ghost. Yellow tape was strung around the gates and trees that served as the perimeter of the property. The sight hit her like a brick wall.
    “You OK, honey?” Regina’s mother was watching her closely in the rearview mirror as she drove; her father unbuckled his seatbelt and turned completely around in the passenger seat to ensure that Regina was not too disturbed by the surprisingly tranquil scene.
    No longer were there trucks, police officers, or a dead body, just an empty shell of a home that sat far back in the distance across a massive field of browning grass and tall stretching trees on the verge of shedding their leaves.
    Drumming out of the radio, a robust classical piece of music continued rising frantically in her ears. Through the breaks in the tall trees that were scattered throughout the football field that the DeFranks had once called a front yard, Regina eyed the forlorn monolithic mansion, two vast stories of cold, unmoving paneland brick. The music drove full speed toward a climactic finish as the dormant domicile sat across from Regina, challenging her. It laughed at her. Lola was trapped there, on that unholy ground and it would not release her. Regina’s ears were pounded with the beats of the abusive music grappling toward crescendo. She pressed her fingertips against the cool window and suddenly she heard her own voice shrieking.
    “TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! PLEASE STOP!” Regina barely realized that she was now banging her fists against the thick glass. Charles Dean reached into the backseat trying to pacify his little girl as her mother pushed the radio station buttons hysterically hoping to relieve her daughter of the sounds that tormented her.
    “I’m so sorry, honey,” her mother was chanting loudly, trying to drown out the sorrowful cries of her daughter. Regina’s father joined her mother in the soothing.
    “We never thought that you would react this way to seeing the house,” her father assured her and with good reason. Regina Dean had always been one to push her emotions deep down inside, her stoic manner masking her true sentiment.
    Minutes later, Regina found herself breathing steadily in the back of the car, listening