On Etruscan Time by Tracy Barrett Read Free Book Online Page A

small and dull-colored but so sweet and juicy that Hector ate three of them.
    That must be why he was having so much trouble falling asleep, he thought an hour later as he flopped over on his narrow bed. He was wide awake and uncomfortably full. And the longer he lay there, the more alert he felt. He turned over again.
    Well, no wonder he couldn’t sleep, with that bright light shining from his bedside table. Funny he hadn’t noticed it before. But where was it coming from? It wasn’t his clock; the red numbers that showed 11:46 and then 11:47 were dim and familiar. Had someone left a flashlight in a drawer and he had somehow turned it on by accident? He groped to find it and switch it off. Maybe then he could get some sleep.
    But there was no drawer in the table. He picked up his summer reading book, which he’d halfheartedly started at bedtime, and the light that shot out at him from under it made him drop the book and cover his eyes.
    After a moment, when his heart had stopped thumping and when he thought his eyes must have adjusted to the glare, he squinted out from behind his fingers.
    It was coming from that Greek good-luck piece, or whatever it was. Maybe it was one of those glow-in-the-dark things.
    But no. He had seen glow-in-the-dark toys before and their light was nothing like this. It was always pale green and very dim. This was pure white and so bright that he still couldn’t look directly at it. With his head half turned away, he wrapped his hand around the stone, hoping to muffle its glare with his fingers. As he did so, his stomach lurched with a feeling of panic.
    What is with this crazy thing? he thought. Maybe it was radioactive. He made up his mind to show it to his mother. Surely she would have some logical explanation. He rose to his feet, the light streaming from between his fingers, and made his way out the bedroom door, then toward his mother’s room.
    Instantly, the light went out. Hector’s eyes had been so dazzled that now he felt blind in the dark hallway, and he put his hand on the rail to steady himself. Now what? He couldn’t go to his mother with this cold, dark stone and tell her that it had been glowing. She’d say he’d been dreaming and send him back to bed. Then she’d tell everybody about it in the morning and they’d all have a good laugh at him. No thanks.
    He tightened his hand on the railing. Was it his imagination, or did the light come back faintly when he turned toward the stairs? Experimentally, he faced his mother’s bedroom. The eye was cold and heavy and as dark as a piece of ordinary rock. He turned toward Susanna’s room. No change. He took a step toward the head of the stairs.
    It was unmistakable. A faint white glow came from the eye. He took a step down and it grew slightly stronger. With each step, it became brighter.
    At the foot of the stairs, he turned toward the kitchen. The light dimmed until it was almost out. Then he faced the front door and the glow came back. He reached out a hand and turned the knob, and he could have sworn that the eye shimmered as though with joy.
    Hector stepped out into the night air. It was cool, especially since he was wearing nothing but boxers. Not a sound disturbed the peace of the streets. He started down the hill, keeping his gaze fixed on the eye in his hand, watching it grow brighter and brighter. When the light dimmed, he knew he had headed in the wrong direction, and so he turned until it brightened again.
    Almost before Hector knew it, he was standing at the edge of the dig. That must be what it wants, he thought. I have to put it back where I dug it up. So he turned away and took a step toward the spot by the tree where he’d found the eye-shaped stone that morning.
    Instantly, the light went out.
    What did it want? He turned slowly until he saw the glow on his palm, then took a step, and then another. He stumbled forward, over mounds of earth and tree roots and stones.