Skinny-Dipping at Monster Lake (7 page)

Only when I took off again, I realized I didn't get all of them. Shining the light to make sure I wouldn't sit down in the stupid things, I found a sandy spot on the bank. I pulled my right foot up in my lap and put the light down beside me so I could see.

By the time I got the stickers out, the others were quite a ways off. Frantic and still yelling, Zane ran from one guy to the next. He shook everybody except Pepper.

“Hurry! Come on. I saw it!”

They followed him a few more feet, then stopped to shine their lights out on the lake.

Tilted to one side and limping, I tried to catch up with them. Then—I decided to just walk.

“It was right there!” Zane's voice cried out. “Just to the left of that bank pole. I saw its eyes.”

“Zane, you're always seeing stuff,” Daniel's irritated voice growled.

“I swear! They were red or orange. They glowed. I saw it! We were skinny-dipping with . . . with that thing in the lake. We were skinny-dipping
with the monster. It was out there . . . with us. Right there!”

Streaks of light danced across the water. Then the moaning and groaning and griping started. All the guys took turns at him with:

“You idiot. You probably saw the light from a boat, across the lake.”

“Yeah. You're always seeing stuff, Zane.”

“It probably wasn't even a boat. It was just somebody's porch light, reflecting off the water.”

“Zane, you're a total knot-head. There's no such thing as a Lake Monster. Between you seeing the Lake Monster and Kent getting attacked by a wild catfish . . . man, this is turning into one
loooong
night.”

“I promise!” Zane pleaded. “I saw its eyes. They were red. I'm not lying this time. Honest.”

A movement caught the corner of my eye. Halfway to the gang, I stopped dead in my tracks. Without shining the light, I turned toward the lake.

Thirty feet out, and maybe two to three feet below the surface . . .

Two eyes stared at me.

The breath caught in my throat. Every muscle tensed, but I didn't move. I didn't even blink.

The eyes weren't red, though. They had sort of
an orangish glow—almost a dim yellow.

A little shudder raced from my tailbone up to the nape of my neck. It set the little hairs at the base of my skull up on end. I don't know how long I held my breath. I finally had to let it go and suck in a new one. I really
had
seen eyes before!

Zane was right. The thing was out there with us. We were skinny-dipping with the yellow-eyed monster. Then I saw how far apart the eyes were. It didn't matter that we were skinny-dipping. We could have had our bathing suits on . . . we could have had our jeans . . . no, all our clothes . . . it didn't matter. That thing was big enough that it could have swallowed us in one gulp and . . .

You wimp!
I told myself.
You're as bad as Zane. There's no such thing as monsters. The light's coming from someplace else.

I took another breath and stared at the bank, across the lake. No lights danced and shimmered on the ripples. I scanned to the left and then the right. There were no boats. Then I focused back on the spot where I saw the eyes. Sure enough, the light came from beneath the surface. The lake was pretty clear, and I could see the sediment or little particles of dirt and dust scampering before the glow. Then . . . the eyes blinked and flickered.

I didn't mean to slam into Jordan. I hit him so
hard, I almost knocked him flat on the bank. Trouble was, I was sprinting so fast, I just couldn't stop.

“Hey, what's with you?” He stumbled and caught his balance.

“Ah . . . er . . . ah . . . I was just coming to see what all the commotion was.” The stammering lie finally made its way out. “What happened? Is Zane okay?”

“Oh, he's having hallucinations again,” Jordan answered.

“Yeah,” Daniel chimed in. “He saw the Lake Monster.”

“We ought to feed
him
to the Lake Monster,” Chet scoffed.

“Yeah.” Pepper laughed. “Let's do it.”

There was a short wrestling match. I mean, really short. After all, Zane was outnumbered six to one. It took only a matter of seconds before Pepper had one arm and Daniel had the other. Foster caught one leg, and despite all Zane's hopping and bouncing around, Chet finally captured his free foot. Jordan cheered them on as they stretched Zane out between them and made their way out, until they were about ankle deep in the water. Then they started swinging him back and forth.

“One!”

There was something inside of me that wanted
to yell:
“Stop. Don't throw him in. I saw the monster's eyes.”

“Two!”

But there was something else inside of me that said:
“Keep your mouth shut, Kent. They're not going to believe you. You'll end up in the lake, too.”
So . . . with one part of my insides fighting the other part . . . I just stood there.

“Three!”

Even spinning and flailing and jerking and flopping, it was downright amazing how far Zane flew. Clothes and all, he hit the water with a splash that was better than any cannonball we could do in the pool. Still, somehow—the instant he hit the water, he managed to get his bearings. In the blink of an eye he was on his feet and charging toward the bank. Well, maybe not toward the bank, but at least
away from
the lake and the monster. He shot past us so fast that we hadn't even picked up our flashlights by the time he was halfway to the campfire.

As the rest of the guys headed back up the hill, I slipped off toward where I saw the eyes. There had to be some explanation. There wasn't really a monster living in Cedar Lake. But I knew I saw something. If I could just see it again . . . If I could just figure out what . . .

“Where are you headed, Kent?” Ted called.

I stopped. His flashlight made me blink. I shined my light at his eyes.

“Ah . . . I . . . I lost something,” I stammered. “Yeah, I lost something on the bank.”

“What was it? I'll help you find it.”

Frantic to cover up my lie, I dug into my pocket. Sure enough, there was a quarter in there.

“It was my lucky quarter,” I lied.

“Lucky quarter?”

“Yes. I . . . ah . . . always carry it when I go fishing.”

“Want me to come and help you look?”

“Nah. It's no big deal.”

The light bounced in Ted's hand when he shrugged. I was glad he turned and headed toward the camp with the rest of the guys. Lying is
not
cool. It always made me feel kind of creepy or ashamed inside. But this was different. I just couldn't tell.

Ted was my best friend, and I really wanted to confide in him. But . . .

Maybe I could tell Mom and Dad when I got home.

Maybe not.

Maybe I just couldn't tell a single soul—not until I knew for sure what I had really seen.

I
didn't see the eyes again.

I finally gave up and went back to camp, but I didn't get any sleep. About an hour or so after the sun came up, we had hot dogs and marshmallows for breakfast.

Zane didn't eat anything. Partly because he was still pouting about everybody making fun of him. And partly because he was still all wet and soggy. It's hard to be sociable when you're dripping and sloshing around in wet clothes. Ted asked me if I found my lucky quarter. I showed him the one I discovered in my pocket, and that was the end of it. But I still felt guilty about lying to him. I felt even worse about not taking up for Zane.

When we finished eating, everyone drank a pop. Then we started packing stuff up so it would be ready for the dads to load while we rode the horses back home. We were so tired, all thought of riding around the lake was forgotten.

When everything was in a neat pile, we each drank another pop so we could put the fire out.

Guys know how to put out a campfire.

It's one of those things that nobody—not even your dad or the older guys—have to tell you. You just know.

We formed a circle.

The embers and coals hissed and crackled. Steam and smoke swirled into the morning air. Daniel and Chet got in a sword fight with their streams, so the rest of us moved away and stood shoulder to shoulder on the other side. Just to make sure it was completely out, Ted poured the water from the minnow buckets and ice chests on it, too. Then we got our horses and rode to Ted's house to clean the fish. Mr. Aikman came out to help us. When he saw the big one, his eyes lit up. He went back inside and got his fish scales. The thing weighed out at thirteen pounds, eight ounces. He weighed a couple of the others. One went five even. Another went seven pounds and fifteen ounces.

Before we started cleaning the fish, Mr. Aikman made us go in and wash our hands at the kitchen sink. (Guess he knew how to put out a campfire, too.)

We put a
big
mess of fish in Ted's refrigerator.

Mr. Aikman took Ted and me to help him load the camping stuff in the back of the pickup. Once
it was all delivered, I rode Duke home. Mom left a note on the front door, telling me she was off showing a house to a client. I latched the door, took a quick shower, and crawled into bed.

I didn't even have the pillow fluffed around my head when the phone rang. It was Pepper. He told me that we were having the fish fry tonight and asked if it was okay with my parents. I told him they were both gone, but I knew Dad didn't have to work tonight, so I thought we should be able to be there.

As soon as I hit the sheets, the phone rang again. This time it was Jordan.

“Let's go out and dig the trench for the telegraph line.” His voice was all bright and cheerful.

“Huh?” I hadn't made it to bed yet. Still, I was so tired from working all day cutting bank poles, and staying up all night fishing . . . well, I guess I was already half asleep.

“The trench for the telegraph line,” he repeated. “We need to bury the thing. Our dads have hit it so many times with the lawnmowers, and we've spliced it with electrical tape so often that it will short out if we leave it exposed to the elements. We have to bury it. We have an adequate supply of PVC pipe left over from when we built the house. It's out behind the horse barn. We'll put the line in
it so it won't be exposed to the weather, then bury the entire thing and—”

“Jordan.”

“What?”

“Didn't you stay up fishing all night with the rest of us?”

“Yes.”

“Aren't you sleepy?”

“No, not in the least.”

“Well, I am! Let's do it some other time. Besides that, I don't even know Morse code. What am I gonna do with a telegraph line?”

“It's quite simple. I've a book that I can loan you. Once we have the line buried—”

“Not today, Jordan,” I cut him off. “Some other time.

“Well, fine!” he huffed. “I'll just do it myself.”

“Good! You do that, Jordan.”

I went back to bed. Trouble was, even after being up all night—now—I was wide awake. I tossed and turned and flipped and flopped.

Every time I closed my eyes, I could see those yellow eyes staring at me. I just couldn't get it out of my mind. Finally I sat up on the edge of the bed and started talking to myself.

“All right. You know you're going back out to look for the Lake Monster, right?”

“Right.”

“But you cant let anybody know, right?”

“Right.”

“So how do you expect to get out of the house without Mom and Dad hearing the alarm? Even if it doesn't screech and wake the whole country, it still makes that beeping sound when you punch the buttons. How can I get out of the house without . . .”

Elbows on my legs, I slumped over and rested my chin in my hands. Finally, unable to sleep and with nothing else to do, I got up and staggered into the living room. I flipped the TV on, but there was nothing but talk shows and soap operas. So I started looking through Dad's videotapes.

Suddenly I blinked. Then I blinked again.

Beverly Hills Cop II
was on the top of the video tape pile I was looking at. It almost seemed to stare back at me. An old Eddie Murphy film, it was one of Dad's favorite tapes. I don't know how many times I had watched it with him. A sly smile tugged at my face when I remembered the part when Eddie Murphy used the gum wrapper to fool the alarm system.

I raced to the kitchen cabinet where we kept the gum. I unwrapped two pieces, popped them in my mouth, then smoothed the foil out on the bar.
Smacking my gum, I raced to the front door and looked out to make sure Mom wasn't through showing the house and had come home.

All I saw was Jordan. He had a shovel and was working on the trench for his telegraph wire. I scampered back to the cabinet and got the gum wrappers. On my way down the hall, I punched in the code to set the alarm.

• • •

“So what did you do today?” Mom asked when she came home. She looked a little surprised to see me awake, I think.

“Oh, nothing much.” I shrugged. “Just watched TV a while.”

“I thought you'd be asleep.”

I shrugged again. “Wasn't sleepy.”

She looked a little suspicious when I said that. Then she put her purse on the coffee table. “Oh, by the way, Mrs. Hamilton got hold of me on the cell phone. You did know about the fish fry at Pepper's house tonight.”

“Yes. Did you tell Dad?”

“Called him at work. Said it would be fine and he should be home around six.”

• • •

The fish fry was fun. Our parents visited and seemed to have a good time. Our dads were proud
of all the fish we had caught. Just as always at the Hamiltons' house, the food was delicious. When we finished eating, we all went swimming.

The Hamiltons had a big pool. We played tag for a while. It was a blast having our parents play with us. But with so many people in the water, it was nothing at all to find somebody to tag. Then we played Marco Polo. One by one, our parents kind of drifted off to sit in the lawn chairs and talk.