Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes Read Free Book Online Page B

you.”
    â€œI’m waiting,” yelled Lolly.
    When he was close enough to talk quietly, he asked, “Did you take my goggles from the front porch?”
    â€œNo,” said Lolly. “They’re on your head.”
    â€œI know that. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t take them from the porch. Did you? Did you take them and hide them?”
    Lolly’s face twisted into a look of pure confusion.
    â€œAnswer the question. Did you take my goggles?”
    â€œNo. Why would I take your stupid goggles? I know you won’t race without them, and I want to race you.” She paused. “Jeez.”
    Spencer believed her, truly believed her. “Okay. Sorry.”
    â€œLet’s race,” said Lolly.
    They agreed on a starting point and a finish line, a distance deemed fair by both.
    As Spencer lowered his goggles over his eyes and secured them, he considered confiding in Lolly. “Do you feel like something is about to happen?” he asked in a small, private voice.
    â€œYeah, we’re going to have a race.”
    â€œNo, I mean . . . Forget it.” But it did feel that way to him—that something was about to happen. The air and the water seemed to be teeming with mystery.
    Spencer shook out his arms and rotated his shoulders in preparation for the race. He squinted in resistance to the piercing sunlight on the surface of the water, and caught his bottom lip between his teeth in concentration. That was when an urgent and eerie thought occurred to him: Matty’s presence is in the lake. It’s all around me. It’s touching me. The thought was taking hold when Spencer felt something against his leg. “Ahh—” he cried, terrified to the bone.
    Lolly shrieked with laughter. “It’s Jasper! He really scared you!”
    An understatement. Spencer’s heart was hammering inside his chest with the force of a thunderstorm. Can your heart suddenly be twelve sizes too big for your body? Jasper brushing against Spencer’s leg had felt like a brush with death itself.
    Jasper had a stick in his mouth. Lolly pried it away from him and threw it toward the shore. “Let’s try again,” she said to Spencer. “On your mark—”
    â€œI don’t want to race,” Spencer told her. He flipped off his goggles and followed Jasper. His teeth were chattering.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Lolly asked.
    â€œNothing,” was the spoken answer. The real answer: everything.
    Spencer sat by his parents, lakeside, and stayed near both or one of them the rest of the day. Was he seeking protection? Safety?
    He reminded himself that the incident in the lake was simply Jasper pawing his leg. There was nothing mysterious about that. And he reasoned that there must be logical explanations for the goggles in the birdbath and the turtle drawn in sugar on the porch. Everything has a logical explanation, he repeated in his head. Although for the life of him, he hadn’t a clue as to what the explanations could possibly be.
    He also reminded himself that nothing out of the ordinary had happened inside the house. And despite the strangeness of the two incidents, he still loved the house, still wanted to keep it. And so he decided not to tell his parents anything. Who knew how they’d react? And telling Lolly was out of the question—she’d blabber for sure.
    Spencer also tried to comfort himself with the thought that even if there were such things as ghosts (impossible), this ghost would be okay because it would be Matty. If Matty were a ghost, he’d undoubtedly be benevolent. After all, he was only four years old when he died.
    â€œDo you think there are ghosts?” Spencer asked his father. Lunch was finished, and the two of them were washing the dishes in the cramped kitchen.
    â€œAbsolutely not.” And then, as if his father sensed the nature of the concern behind the question, he placed his hands on