The Turtle Boy Read Online Free PDF Page B

thought. Behind them in the distance, the hungry heavens
rumbled as God made a dark stew of the sky. "Maybe he caught a
train out of here."
    Kim glanced toward the
tracks, which were silent and somehow lonely without a thousand
pounds of steel shrieking over them. "Or maybe a train
caught him ."
    Before Timmy could allow the image to
form in his mind, he heard something behind him, on the other side
of the pines.
    "Did you hear
that?"
    Kim shook her head.
    A twig snapped and they both backed
away.
    "It's probably a squirrel or
something," Kim whispered, and Timmy was suddenly aware that her
hand was gripping his. He looked down at it, then at her, but she
was intent on the movement through the trees behind them. He
ignored the odd but not entirely unpleasant sensation of her cool
skin on his and held his breath. Listening.
    "Maybe a deer," Kim said, so
low Timmy could hardly hear her above the breeze.
    They stood like that for
what seemed forever, ears straining to filter the sounds from the
coiling weather around them. Timmy could hear little over the
thundering of his own heart. Kim was holding his hand even tighter
now. A terrifying thought sparked in his mind: Does this mean she's my girlfriend?
    "C'mon," he said at last.
"There's no one there."
    She nodded and they both stepped
forward.
    Timmy was filled with
confused excitement. Then, just as quickly, uncertainty came over
him. Was she waiting for him to let go of her hand? Was she feeling uncomfortable and
embarrassed now because he was holding her hand just as tightly? He
tried to loosen his fingers but she squeezed them, and a gentle
wave of reassurance flooded over him.
    She wasn't uncomfortable.
She didn't want to let go. His heart began to race again but this
time for a completely different reason.
    And she continued to hold his hand.
Continued even when something lithe and dark burst through the
pines in front of their faces and dragged them both screaming
through the trees.
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Timmy's mother opened the
front door. Her look of surprise doubled when she saw the rage on
Wayne Marshall's face.
    She stood in the doorway,
leaning against the jamb. "What on earth is going on?" she said,
crossing her arms. The gesture meant to convey that she was
prepared to dispense blame wherever it was due.
    On the porch, Pete's father
still had a firm grip on the collar of Timmy's T-shirt, but he held
Kim by the hand. Timmy felt strangely jealous.
    "Sandra, I found these two
snooping around back at Myers Pond," Mr. Marshall said firmly, as
if this should be reason enough for punishment. Timmy's mother
stared at him for a moment as if she didn't think so. Her gaze
shifted briefly to Kim, then settled on her son.
    "Didn't your father tell you
not to go back there?"
    Timmy nodded.
    "Then why did you? And I
suppose you dragged poor Kimmie back with you, back into all that
mud and sludge? Look at your sandals. I only bought them last week
and you've wrecked them already." She shook her head and sighed.
After a moment in which no one said anything, she looked at Mr.
Marshall. "You can let them go now, Wayne. I don't think they're
going to run away."
    But he didn't release them
and Timmy thought he could feel the man's arms trembling with
anger. In a voice little better than a growl, he said, "Sandra,
it's not safe for kids back there. I don't think I have to remind
you what happened a few years ago. I know I certainly don't want
Pete back there and it's becoming blindingly obvious that your son
has taken the role of the neighborhood Piper, leading everyone
else's kids back there to get into all sorts of
trouble."
    A hard look entered Mrs.
Quinn's eyes. "Now wait just a second – "
    "If you had any sense you'd
send this little pup away for the summer like I sent Pete. It's the
only way to keep them out of trouble. I mean, what was your son
doing back there on the other side of the trees? With a girl? Is this the kind of
thing you're letting him do behind your