Chapter Fourteen
Problems in the Pit
I swim back to shore and race to the house. I still feel terrible about Mr. Gordon’s heart attack, and about Aunt Daphne—even after all these years. But I just feel empty about my uncle. I don’t know if he’s really drowned, or how long he’ll stay “dead.” All I know for sure is I’ve got another chance to go through the screen and warn my parents.
And since it looks like my uncle, AKA the ferryman from Hades, really did tell me the truth, I won’t have to invent some wild explanation about what I’m doing, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. I just have to get there at the right time— before their brakes fail.
“You’re soaking wet!” Eric is standing in the kitchen, eating a cherry Pop-Tart. The cherry filling smeared on his fingers looks like blood.
I try not to think about that and just shrug. “I was out on the creek and the boat tipped over. No big deal.”
His eyes widen. “You took Dad’s boat out on your own? You know he never lets us use it.” He pauses. “I’ve never been out in it.” He sounds envious.
“He knew I was taking it,” I try to explain. I can see from Eric’s expression that I’m just making him more jealous. I guess I can understand how he feels. He’s had his dad to himself all these years, and I’ll bet he’s been worrying about sharing his dad’s attention with me. If he really knew about his father, though, maybe he’d be glad to have another kid on his side.
But it looks like Eric has no idea he’s the son of Karon the ferryman.
“Dad’s going to be really ticked off if you messed up his boat,” he says, frowning.
I don’t know how to answer. “Yeah. I guess.” Inspiration strikes. “Look—don’t tell him, okay?”
Eric looks torn between wanting to rush and tell on me, and wanting to be part of the age-old conspiracy of kids against adults. I say quickly, “I’ll explain later. I mean, there’s no point in ruining his morning now. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he knows it’s all my fault and doesn’t think you had anything to do with it.”
Eric thinks for a minute, and then the conspiracy against the grown-ups wins out. “Okay.” He grins. “Want to play on my Wii?”
I ring out the front of my dripping shirt over the sink. “Maybe after I get into some dry clothes.”
He laughs as I leave the room. “Yeah—you wouldn’t want to get the system wet and short it out.”
But I don’t go to my room to change. I go straight to the pit.
The stack of family movies is gone.
I look around wildly. Where would Uncle Karl put them? He must have guessed I’d try again. Or maybe he didn’t want Eric to see them. Who knows what he was thinking? But what am I going to do now? I don’t know if I can step through a blank screen and get where I need to go.
What did Uncle Karl call me? Death-in-Training. I probably don’t have enough training yet to go through without some sort of video.
I remember the DVDs I brought from Bozeman, Mom’s DVDs. I race to my room and dig them out of one unpacked suitcase. I’d picked them up pretty much at random, just wanting things that were hers. I shuffle through them now, and sure enough, there are a couple labeled simply “Family” and the date. I grab the most recent one and head back to the pit.
I put Mom’s DVD in the player, slam the tray shut and push PLAY. It’s the original of the DVD Uncle Karl had of her with her flower award, standing in our front yard.
Uncle Karl wasn’t clever enough after all.
I watch her laughing on the screen. Karon used his copy of that video as a starting point, and then moved through time to get there before my parents left to pick me up at Andy’s. That’s why I went through to the time of the accident instead of when Mom won her award. Can I tweak the time on my own?
I stare at the video, and focus on stepping through the screen to our house, right when Dad is packing the truck and getting ready to drive to Andy’s. I picture the truck in the driveway. I can see Dad in my imagination, loading bags and boxes into the bed, carefully arranging them so they won’t slide around.
I fix my eyes on the video of our front yard, focus my mind on Dad beside his dark green Ford truck, and walk forward.
– End Chapter Fourteen –
