When the Wind Blows by John Saul Read Free Book Online Page B

bike, with Eddie riding double, and the three of them started out of town.
    As they passed the Ambers’ they looked up at the house and saw that one light was still glowing on the second floor.
    “I bet it’s Miss Edna,” Steve whispered in the darkness. “Someone told me she never goes to sleep.”
    They went on by, neither of the other boys questioning Steve’s words, pedaling hard as they climbed the grade that led toward the mine.
    “We better leave our bikes here,” Steve told them. The three boys dismounted and pushed the bicycles under a patch of scrub juniper, then began walkingup the road. Soon they were at the foot of the mine tailings, and they left the road to scramble up the slag heap.
    As they climbed, the wind began to blow.
    Suddenly Jeff stopped.
    “Do you hear something?” he asked. The other two boys listened intently. From above them a sound was barely audible, like faraway voices muttering softly.
    “It’s the water babies,” Eddie Whitefawn whispered. “Let’s get out of here.” He started to turn around, but a movement at the foot of the tailings stopped him. “There’s something down there.” He pointed, and Jeff and Steve peered into the darkness.
    Below them, silhouetted in the moonlight, a shape was moving up the slag heap toward them.
    Jeff’s heart began to pound and he suddenly wished he’d stayed home. With the other two boys he shrank to the ground. “What’ll we do?” he asked, his voice quavering.
    “Stay still,” Steve whispered. Though he was as frightened as the other two, he was determined not to show it.
    The wind picked up, and the strange noises grew louder.
    “They’re coming,” Eddie whimpered. “I want to go home.”
    The dark shadow beneath them, coming steadily closer, advanced through the blackness.
    “Let’s run for it,” Steve said.
    “Run where?”
    Steve pointed off to the left. “That way. Back to the road, then down to our bikes.”
    They huddled together, wishing there was something else to do. But as the wind blew ever stronger the moaning noises seemed louder, and the shadow, still moving toward them, seemed to grow.
    “Let’s go!” Steve yelled. The three of them bolted, slipping and skidding across the loose rubble thatmade up the slag heap. The wind snatched at them, and down the slope they could see the shape veering off, moving parallel to them. Then they were on the road and pounding down the hill. They dashed by the hulking object just as it, too, reached the road.
    An arm reached out, and a hand closed around Jeff Crowley’s arm.
    He squealed in fright and tried to wriggle loose, but couldn’t. Then he heard a voice, close to his ear.
    “You guys playing?”
    Jeff stopped struggling and yelled to Steve and Eddie, who had paused a few yards down the road, unsure what to do.
    “It’s Juan,” Jeff called. “It’s only old Juan.”
    Sheepishly Eddie and Steve came back up the road and stood staring at Juan Rodriguez. His face, smiling happily in the moonlight, beamed at them. “You guys playing?” he repeated.
    The three boys looked at each other, and it was finally Steve who spoke. “We came out to look for the water babies,” he said. Juan nodded, though his expression didn’t change. “Now, you listen, Juan,” Steve went on. “Don’t you tell anyone you saw us, you understand?” Again Juan nodded, and Steve, followed by Jeff and Eddie, began backing away. “Now, don’t forget,” Steve said. “Don’t tell anybody!” He glanced at his friends, then back to Juan Rodriguez. “If you do, we’ll come back and kill you!” Then he turned and once more began running down the road, his friends at his heels.
    As he watched them go Juan Rodriguez’s smile faded from his face. He hated it when the other children teased him.
    Hated it a lot.
    Unhappily he turned and started back toward the cabin, listening to the voices of the children as hewalked. Not the voices of the children he had just talked to, but the