Water Rites Read Online Free PDF

here.”
    “You mean like you’re leaving?” Jeremy scrambled to his feet, forcing the words through the tightness in his throat. “Because of . . . what I did?”
    “No.” Dan looked down at him, forced a smile. “The job’s finished. I didn’t expect to be here this long. I shouldn’t have stayed this long.” He glanced restlessly down the valley again. “So. Are you coming?”
    “Yes.” Jeremy stood up as straight as he could. “I’m coming.”
    “Good.” Dan boosted Jeremy onto Ezra’s back. “I’m leaving early,” he said. “You better not tell your folks.”
    “I won’t.”
    *
    Nobody was pumping on the bicycle frame as they plodded past. Jeremy looked up at the brown hillside and looked away quickly before they could go green. He had thought that would never happen again. But maybe it could. Anyway, tomorrow he’d be gone.
    Ezra broke into a jouncing trot, and Jeremy had to grab the saddle frame as the pony headed for the barnyard and the water tub there.
    “Mr. Greely,” Dad called from the porch.
    Jeremy stiffened. Dad sounded cold and mad, like the day Jeremy had made the fields go green.
    “We want to talk to you.”
    Mr. Brewster stepped onto the porch behind him. Rupert and Jonathan followed, with Mr. Mendoza, Sally Brandt, and the Deardorf boys.
    Mr. Mendoza had his deer rifle. They all looked angry.
    “My brother got into town last night.” Sally’s voice was shrill. “He told me about this scam he heard about back in Pendleton. Seems this guy goes around to little towns pretending to be a surveyor for the Corps. He buys stuff with Corps vouchers.”
    “We searched your stuff.” Ted Brewster held up a fist full of white. “You carry a few spare letters, don’t you?” He opened his hand. “You’re a fake.”
    The white envelopes fluttered to the dusty ground like dead leaves. Stunned, Jeremy turned to Dan, waiting for him to explain, waiting for Dan to tell them how they were wrong, waiting for him to remind them about the water.
    “Dan?” he whispered.
    Dan looked at him finally, his head moving slowly on his neck, and Jeremy felt his insides going numb and dead.
    “Mother gave you dried apples.” Jeremy swallowed. “Dried apples are for birthdays.”
    For one instant, Dan’s gray eyes filled with pain. Then he looked away, turning a bland smile on the approaching grownups. “I heard about some bastard doing that.” He spread his hands. “But I’m legit.”
    Dad took one long step forward and smashed his fist into Dan’s face. “He described you.” He looked down at Dan sprawled in the dirt. “He described you real well.”
    Dan got up very slowly, wiping dust from his face. Blood smeared his chin. He shrugged. They took him into town, walking around him in a loose ring. Jeremy stood in the road, watching the dust blow away on the hot breeze. When the last trace of dust blew away, he put Ezra into the barn and climbed up onto the rimrock. He didn’t come down until dark.
    “I wondered about that guy,” Rupert sneered as they got ready for bed that night. “Federal survey, huh? They don’t care about us, out here. I don’t know how anybody could believe him.”
    “Hope is a tempting thing.” Jeremy’s mother leaned against the doorway. She hadn’t scolded Jeremy for running off. “If there was any water around here, no matter how deep, someone would have drilled for it a long time ago.” Her voice was tired. “I guess we all just wanted to hope.”
    Jeremy threw himself down on his mattress without looking at her.
    “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’m sorry for us, and I’m sorry for him, too.”
    “They’ll hang him. I heard ’em talking.”
    “Shame on you, Rupert. You don’t gloat about a man dying.”
    Jeremy buried his face in the pillow. I hate him, too, he thought fiercely. Why couldn’t have Dan been what he said?
    “They’re gonna hang him,” Rupert whispered to him after Mother had left. He sounded smug. “No wonder that