Monster Lake by Edward Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

say that she heard someone down there or
something like that, and that she found the boathouse door already
open. Maybe he would think there were burglars or something. But
Terri didn’t like to lie, she knew it was something only crummy
people did, and she also knew that when you lied, eventually the
lie would catch up with you, and then you’d be in even more
trouble.
    So instead, she did what she felt was the
right thing.
    She told the truth.
    “ I was curious,” she told
Uncle Chuck. “You and Mom spend so much time down there, I was
curious. And—”
    Again, she hesitated. If she told him about
the toad she’d seen last night, or the giant salamander, he might
not believe her. He’d think she was telling lies, and that would
just get her in more trouble than she was already in.
    “ I was just curious,” she
repeated.
    Uncle Chuck looked down at her. His face
looked made of stone, and his foot never stopped—
    tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap
    “ I have a mind to call your
mother at work right now and tell her what you’ve done, and the
only reason I won’t is because it would upset her,” he said. “She’s
very busy at work, and she works very, very hard, and since your
father left, she has to work even harder to pay the bills and to
keep food in the refrigerator and a roof over your head. It’s not
easy for her, you know, and you just make it that much harder for
her when you do things like this. That’s pretty selfish of you,
isn’t it? That’s pretty darn inconsiderate of you.”
    tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap
    “ And,” he continued, “do
you have any idea how disappointed she’d be?”
    Suddenly there were tears in Terri’s eyes.
She felt smaller than a lima bean right now. She knew her mother
worked hard to keep the house and everything, and the last thing in
the world Terri would ever want to do was disappoint her mother.
All at once, she never felt more ashamed of herself.
    “ I’m sorry,” she
sobbed.
    tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap
    Uncle Chuck seemed to be
cooling down a little now, though. “I want you to understand
something, Terri. When your mother or I tell you to do something,
or in this case, when we tell you not to do something, there’s always a
good reason. And the reason is this: we told you not to go to the
boathouse because it’s very dangerous for a girl your age down
there. That pier is old. One of the planks could break, and you
could break your ankle, or worse, you could fall in the water and
drown. And there’s a lot of computers and electrical equipment in
the boathouse; you could get an electrical shock and have to go to
the hospital, or you could even die. Plus, there’s a lot of
chemicals and things in the boathouse that are
dangerous.”
    Chemicals.
    That reminded Terri of
something. Those bottles, she thought. Those stinky
bottles full of green and yellow gunk…
    Was that what Uncle Chuck meant? Those tall,
glass bottles she’d seen on the metal shelves?
    “ Anyway,” Uncle Chuck went
on. “You’re going to your room now, and you’re going to spend the
rest of the day there.”
    Terri sniffled. “Am I grounded?”
    “ I don’t know, that’s up to
your mother, not me. Go on now. Go to your room, and I don’t want
to hear a single peep out of you, do you understand?”
    Terri nodded. Then she got up from the
table, her eyes still cast down to the floor, and she went to her
room.
     
    ««—»»
     
    Each minute seemed to tick
by like an hour, and suddenly Terri’s room felt like a
prison. I’ll go nuts cooped up in here all
day long, she dreaded. Summer was almost
over, and whenever she looked out her window, she could see what a
beautiful day it was, and all that did was depress her even
more. I could be outside playing badminton
or doing something with Patricia, or—well, anything. Anything’s
better than sitting in my room all day.
    And, of course, once Uncle Chuck told her
mother about catching her in the boathouse, she’d probably be
grounded for the