Can You Keep a Secret? Read Online Free PDF Page B

realize she was standing next to me. I glanced down at the pendant. “It isn’t glowing,” I said. “It’s just catching the moonlight.”
    Callie squinted at it. “Weird. I really thought it lit up.”
    “I had a big dinner, but I’m starving,” Roxie said. “I think being outdoors makes me hungry. The air or something.”
    I squinted at her. She’s as skinny as a ten-year-old. “A big dinner? What did you have? A meatball?”
    Callie laughed but Roxie didn’t.
    “Not funny, Emmy. I eat a lot,” Roxie insisted. “Seriously. It just doesn’t show. I have a weird metabolism, I guess.”
    I kept gazing into the trees. I confess, I felt a little insecure without the guys around. The trees were still. There was no breeze at all. It was like the whole world was still. And for a moment, I thought this can’t be real. I can’t be here. This must be another dream.
    A dumb thought. I forced it from my mind.
    The guys returned with armloads of broken branches. They dumped them in the space between the three tents. Danny kept rubbing one hand. “Think I got a splinter.”
    “Man up,” Riley said, giving him a shoulder block that almost sent him sprawling to the ground.
    Eddie squatted down beside the pile of sticks. He pulled out a plastic lighter, clicked on a flame, and lowered it to the firewood. He raised his eyes to me. “Did you know I was a Boy Scout once? I got kicked out.”
    “Big surprise,” Danny muttered.
    “Why’d you get kicked out?” I asked.
    “We were learning how to tie knots, and I tied another scout to a tree.” Eddie shrugged. “I was just practicing. You know. But it turned into a big thing.”
    It took a few tries, but the fire finally caught. The twigs and sticks began to flame and crackle. Eddie climbed to his feet and stepped back. His face looked so serious and handsome in the shadowy red firelight.
    “That fire is going to last about ten minutes,” Danny said.
    “So we’ll get more wood,” Riley said.
    Roxie said something but I didn’t hear her. Something in the trees at the edge of the clearing caught my eye. Something moved at the side of a tall evergreen shrub. Just a blur. But I recognized it.
    “The wolf!” I cried, my voice tight, hoarse. “It’s there. The wolf!”
    “Everybody freeze!” Eddie shouted. He raised the revolver, aimed at the crouching figure beside the shrub, and fired it.

 
    10.
    The sound of the shot reverberated in my ears, like a sharp burst of thunder. I heard a squeal. Shrill and high. It lasted for only a second.
    No one moved. I kept my eyes on the shrub across the clearing. I didn’t see anything now. Nothing moved.
    Without a word, all six of us took off, running hard, sliding and slipping on the tall, dew-wet grass. I ran breathlessly across the clearing, the grass bright now under the light from the crescent moon.
    A few feet from the shrub, I skidded to a stop, breathing hard. I pressed my hands against my waist, struggling to catch my breath. And stared down at the raccoon Eddie had shot.
    It lay on its back, its dark, ringed eyes wide open, its forepaws limp at its side. Its belly was bloodstained, a large hole ripped through the fur.
    “A perfect shot,” Riley said, poking at the dead creature with the toe of his shoe. “You hit the bull’s-eye, Eddie. But that’s the weirdest looking wolf I ever saw.”
    Danny laughed. Roxie and Callie hung back, huddled together. Eddie still had the pistol in his hand. He tucked it back in his jacket pocket and turned to me. “Did you really think it was a wolf?”
    I nodded. I didn’t know what to say. My thoughts were a jumble.
    Danny stepped in front of Eddie, a grin on his face. “I know what we have to do now. Eddie, you have to bury this guy in the pet cemetery.”
    “Awesome,” Riley chimed in. “We’ll give it a name and make a tombstone for it.”
    “Or maybe we’ll call it the Tomb of the Unknown Raccoon,” Danny said.
    “You’re a grave digger now, right, Eddie? I