Blair’s Nightmare by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Read Free Book Online Page B

sarcastically. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if Garvey has, too. I think he prefers to punch out people who are smaller than he is.”
    Amanda looked at David with a funny expression. “Okay,” she said. “He wants to punch you out. Why?”
    So David sat down on a rock and started telling her the whole story. Before he’d gotten very far, she sat down too and listened very carefully. She seemed interested, but it was obvious that she didn’t take it seriously because she kept grinning. David didn’t think it was all that funny.
    When David finished, Amanda said it reminded her of something that happened in the school she used to go to before Molly and Dad got married—some guy caller Killer Keller used to beat up on everyone. But right in the middle of a particularly gory part about what Killer did to some little guy who tried to fight back, she stopped suddenly and said, “Hey, listen.”
    â€œI don’t hear anything.”
    â€œI know,” she said. “That’s what I meant. They’re gone.”
    Sure enough, the roar of the dirt bikes was gone, and all you could hear was the usual soft natural sounds of the valley—the rustle of the wind and now and then the distant chirping of a bird. After a while Amanda suggested that they go on down to the lake. David wasn’t too sure he wanted to. It was possible that the bikers were just taking a rest. So he asked Amanda to finish telling her story first. It was quite a long story with lots of gruesome details, and when she finally finished, there still was no sign of the dirt bikers. “See?” Amanda said. “The coast is clear. Come on.”
    The first part of the trail down to the valley floor was fairly steep, but near the bottom it leveled out. Just before it turned toward the lake, there was a place where it forked. One of the branches led on down the slope toward the road that went over another rise and into Fillmore Valley. David was leading theway. He had just turned onto the valley trail, when he circled some bushes and practically ran into someone who was coming down the path in the other direction. It was Pete Garvey.
    â€œHey.” Garvey grabbed David by the shoulder. “Lookee, here.”
    David tried to pull away, but it was no use. Garvey was grinning, but the smile didn’t make David feel any better.
    â€œWhat’re you doing out here?” Garvey said.
    â€œWe were hiking.” Amanda had caught up. “What are you doing?”
    Garvey looked at Amanda. “Hey,” he said. “What’cha doing with this little twerp?”
    David felt Amanda bump against his shoulder, but he didn’t dare take his eyes off Garvey to look at her. “He’s my brother,” Amanda said. “What are you going to do?”
    â€œWell, now,” Garvey said slowly. “I been looking for this little twerp for a long time.” His grip tightened on David’s shoulder, and he lifted his arm, pulling David up onto his tiptoes. “I got a bone to pick with this little twerp.”
    David wished he’d get it over with—and that he’d quit saying “little twerp.” He wished it so hard he was actually clenching his fist to take a desperate and useless swing at Garvey’s grinning face, when all of a sudden a fist shot out of nowhere and smashed right into the middle of it. For a weird second or twohe almost thought the fist might have been his own, but of course it wasn’t.
    Garvey turned loose of David and stepped back with both hands over his nose. It had been a very hard punch. David winced. He could almost feel it himself. He was still standing there staring at Garvey when Amanda grabbed him by the arm and almost jerked him off his feet. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”
    A few feet down the trail he turned around and looked back. Garvey had turned loose of his nose, but he was still