Preacher's Boy by Katherine Paterson Read Free Book Online Page B

wicker basket that someone would be hunting for come morning.
    "Better try the railroad tracks—and the creek," Willie said.
    Lord have mercy. Surely Elliot wouldn't go to the creek in the middle of the night. Surely he had more sense than that! I followed Willie back up Main and then down Depot Street. We swung the lantern around the platform and down the tracks. Then we crossed them, recrossed Main, and walked along the North Branch at least half a mile.
    "He wouldn't have headed for the pond, would he?"
    "Nah! He ain't a total idiot!" I was talking too loud, trying to outyell the thought of Elliot floating facedown in the middle of Cutter's Pond.
    "C'mon, Robbie. Nobody's calling nobody nothing. I'm just trying to think of everything."
    "I know," I said. "Let's go check around the stone sheds. If he ain't there, we'd best go home. Why, he's probably there right now, safe and sound, while you and me is running around looking for him like crazy men."
    There was no sign of him around the stone sheds, their low metal roofs gleaming ghostly under the single tall gaslight. It didn't help to know that under those roofs lay hundreds of gravestones in the making. We
headed up West Hill Road, then turned at School Street, not talking until we reached the manse. Neither Elliot nor Pa was there, but Ma was so relieved to see Willie and me that she refused to let me go out again. "Go on home, Willie. Your aunt will be frantic if you stay out much longer. Mr. Hewitt will find Elliot. I know he will. Thank you, though." She gave him a large piece of pie to eat on the way and hurried him out the door.
    Letty was already in bed. Ma and Beth and I sat at the table and tried not to look at each other's faces, pale and drawn in the gaslight of the kitchen.
    "He's dead. I just know he's dead," Beth burst out.
    "Oh, Beth, I'm sure he's all right." But how could Ma be so sure?
    The silence among us was so huge that each tick of the hall clock hit my head like the stroke of Teacher's ruler against my palm. I cleared my throat.
    "What, Robbie?" Ma looked at me all expectant, as though I might have come up with a good idea. I felt pushed to say something.
    "Me and Willie combed the town—all Elliot's favorite spots. We even hunted up the creek." The look of fear that crossed her face made me hurry on. "It's running low," I said. "You know how dry it's been."
    She tried to smile.
    Beth scraped back her chair and got noisily to her feet. "I can't stand just sitting here staring," she said.
    Ma looked up, all lit up with hope. She really thought one of us was going to come up with some great idea, but we didn't have any, not any we could bear to put into words. The quarries east of town and the pond to the south—they were too unthinkable.
    I made a picture in my mind of Pa, the lantern swinging in his right hand, climbing East Hill Road toward Quarry Hill. He was calling out,
Elliot! Elliot!
and then a little voice from the dark calls back,
Here I am, Pa.
And he takes Elliot by his big left hand and brings him home, rejoicing.
    "I'll make some tea," Beth said, bringing me back to reality.
    "Thank you, Beth," Ma said, her voice low with disappointment. "That would be nice."
    We drank our tea. I put two large lumps of maple sugar into mine, stirred it as hard as if it was porridge, blew across it, and slurped it. Nobody corrected me, not even Beth. I wished they would.
    At first we couldn't be sure. When you been listening for what seems like hours, your ears strained with the waiting and wanting to hear the sound that's not there, you hardly dare to trust them when it does come. Then, suddenly, we all jumped up at once and ran to the door. Our chairs clattered backwards to the floor, but we didn't stop to right them. Ma got there first and yanked the door wide.
    There was Pa, bent nearly in half with the effort of carrying a long load of what we knew was Elliot onto the porch. Ma gave a sharp cry and was still. None of us could