Vampire Lodge by Edward Lee Read Free Book Online

be
ready in less than an hour.”
    “ Okay, Aunt
Carolyn.”
    “ And tell your sister,
too.”
    Kevin nodded, then he and Jimmy headed
up the wide, winding stairs to their room.
    “ I still want to know what
that Wally guy was doing digging holes in the woods,” Jimmy
said.
    “ Yeah,” Kevin agreed.
“Right in front of that forked tree, and while it was still
raining!” What could he possibly have been digging for? What could
be so important that he’d be digging holes in the rain?
    They changed into dry jeans and
flannel shirts, then combed out their wet hair. By then, the storm
had started up again; Kevin could hear the thunder slowly rumbling
outside, and then heavy rain began to patter against the roof. It
wasn’t the thunder or the rain that bothered Kevin the most—it was
the lightning, and the way it would crack and boom in the sky
without any notice.
    Kevin knocked on his sister’s closed
bedroom door. “Hey, Becky!”
    “ Yes, Kevvie?” she asked
from the other side.
    I HATE it when she calls
me that! “Dinner will be ready
soon.”
    “ I’ll be down in a little
while,” her snide voice replied. “I still need a little more time
to get ready.”
    “ Get ready?” Kevin
questioned. “What do you mean?”
    “ Just mind your own
business, you little twerp!”
    Kevin and Jimmy headed for the stairs.
“What does she have to get ready for?” Jimmy asked.
    But Kevin thought he already knew.
“I’ll bet she’s in there putting on her best clothes, in case that
Wally guy comes back around.”
    “ Jeeze, girls are
weird.”
    “ Tell me about it,” Kevin
said. “You ought to have one for a sister.”
     

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
    Aunt Carolyn, holding the curtains
open a few inches, was glancing out one of the front bay windows
when they boys came downstairs. “My,” she said, “your fathers
certainly picked a terrible day to go camping and fishing. I hope
they decide to come back to the lodge.”
    “ They probably won’t, Aunt
Carolyn,” Kevin said. “They’re die-hard campers. And, besides, they
brought ponchos and rubber boots and lots of other kinds of rain
gear.”
    “ Well, it doesn’t make much
sense to me,” Carolyn went on. Her white hand released the heavy
drapes, which fell back into place just as another spike of
lightning crackled across the sky. “They could catch terrible colds
in weather like this.”
    “ I wouldn’t worry about
it,” Kevin said.
    She turned then, with a strange look
on her face. Kevin couldn’t believe how pale she was, and her black
clothes and long black hair made her look even more pale. “Is your
sister coming down?” she asked.
    “ She’ll be down soon,”
Kevin said. “I think she’s up there getting all dressed
up.”
    “ I can’t imagine
why.”
    “ She’s got a crush on that
Wally guy,” Jimmy said.
    “ Oh, I see,” Aunt Carolyn
coyly remarked. “Well, he seems to be a nice enough young
man.”
    A nice enough young
man? Kevin thought in objection. He’s creepy, just like Bill.
    A few minutes later, they were all
seated in the big, gloomy dining room. In the high windows, they
could see the lightning flashing. Eventually, Becky came down,
dressed ridiculously in one of her very best dresses, and her blond
hair pulled back in a ponytail with a bow on it. Kevin and Jimmy
smiled at each other.
    “ He’s not here,” Kevin
said.
    “ Who?” Becky smirked her
reply.
    “ Wally, your Prince
Charming.”
    “ Oh, you’re so stupid,”
Becky moaned, and sat down.
    “ And he won’t be here any
time soon, either,” Jimmy said. “He’ll probably get washed away in
the rain. We just saw him in the woods, digging holes.”
    “ Digging holes? ” Becky
said.
    “ That’s right,” Kevin added
on. “In the middle of the woods, in the rain.”
    “ Why would Wally be digging
holes in the woods?” Becky countered from her place at the table.
“I’ve never heard anything so stupid in my life. You two are just
making it up, like you