Читать книгу Stay Out Of The Woods - Ruth-Anne Mullan - Страница 2

“We’ll tell you about it after school.”“You were right!”

Just then the bell rang, and they went to their classes.

Tommy could hardly wait until it was time to go home. He wanted to know what his friends saw.

“What happened? He asked just as soon as they were away from the rest of the kids.

James answered, “Just like you said. A whole bunch of men came to that building. They came in two trucks that had the backs covered with that stuff the army trucks have on them. We watched them load until we saw a man with a rifle come out and look around. We didn’t hardly even breathe until he walked around to the other side of the building.

“Yeah,” said Gary. “He was walking around and once he looked up and we thought maybe he saw us. We were flat on our bellies in the tall grass. We sure got out of there in a hurry when he went out of sight.”

“What do you think that they were loading?” asked Sammy

“We couldn’t tell. Maybe it was drugs or something.”

“I thought that they were carrying boxes, long ones----like as if they were guns.

“Maybe we should tell our parents.” Gary said.

“No way!” said James. “We’re not even supposed to go in the woods.”

“Let’s ask if anybody else knows what’s in there. Maybe some old person that has lived around here for a long time,” suggested Gary.

“Hey! That’s a great idea!” said Tommy. “I know someone like that.

Mrs. Pearson pays me to cut her grass and do stuff. She loves to talk, and she’s really old. She knows everything about everybody, so maybe she’ll know about this place in the woods too.”

“When do you have to cut her lawn again?” asked Eddy.

“Not until Friday. She likes her yard to look nice for the weekend.”

All of the boys groaned. They jabbered amongst each other. “That won’t be for three more days.”

“Maybe we can all try to find someone to ask, and by Saturday morning we’ll tell each other what we’ve found out.” said Eddy

“Remember, we can’t tell anyone what we’ve been doing until we’ve figured it all out.” Tommy said.

They promised each other with their secret oath, and they all spit on the ground to seal their pact.

Tommy ran home after the boys split up. His mother was working today. Sparky would be waiting at the door to go for a walk.

Tommy felt that Friday was never going to come. When it did, he was excited. He could hardly wait until the bell finally rang. Most of the kids ran out of school yelling, and jumping around because it was the weekend.

His pals waited until they were together to start their usual walk home.

“Can we get together after you cut the grass?” asked Sammy.

Tommy shook his head. “Yeah, but I might be later because mom’s taking me to get new shoes.”

As they sprinted; leaped into the air to grab leaves off the trees, and tossed a football back and forth to each other, they made plans. They agreed that they would meet and go to the Saturday matinee the next day. Their parents usually allowed them to be out later on Friday evenings. They decided that they would all try to find things out about that place in the woods.

“I better go home right now,” said James. “I’ve got chores to do. If I don’t get them done I won’t get my allowance. Then I won’t even be able to go to the show.”

Tommy’s mom was home today, and so he knew that she would be walking Sparky. He could go straight to Mrs. Pearson’s house. He still didn’t know how to ask her questions without making her suspicious. He

knew that he would be able to talk to her. Mrs. Pearson always brought him milk and cookies, and made him sit on her porch with her for a while when he was finished her lawn. She sat in her wicker chair that made squeaking noises as she rocked back and forth.

He didn’t know how old she was, but she sure had a lot of cracks on her face. She was nice to him though, and he liked her.

Sure enough, as soon as he had put the lawn mower and the rake away, and put the clippings in the big bag for the compost pickup she came out.

“Good job, Tommy.” she said.” Come up on the porch and have some milk and cookies.

He was glad to. He was hot and tired, and this was the chance he’d been waiting for all week.

Tommy looked around as he rested and waited for his milk and cookies. He liked to sit on Mrs. Pearson’s porch. She had some kind of smelly flowers that were all around it. The grass looked nice now too since he’d just cut it.

The porch was huge. It was painted gray, and there were flowers growing in baskets and pots all around. There was a swing hanging down from the

ceiling that was his favourite place to sit. She always sat in the rocking chair that squeak, squeak, squeaked as she rocked. She didn’t seem to care that it made so much noise. Maybe she was almost deaf, and didn’t know that her chair was squeaking.

Tommy heard her coming out and realized that he didn’t know how to start asking her questions.

“This house is big.” he started.

“Yes, it used to be a farmhouse. My great –grandfather built it. We had a very prosperous farm here once.”

“Did you live here even before all of these other houses were built?” he asked.

“Oh my, yes. Our barn stood right over where Maple Street is now. We had cattle and horses, pigs and chickens. They all had their own fields and buildings to stay in. We had big chicken coops, and sties for the pigs. The horses had their own stable. The cows were in the big barn. We milked the cows and sold the milk. We churned our own butter, and sold eggs. We even had horseback riding lessons. Some of the horses were work horses and some were just boarding with us. My grandfather knew how to turn a dollar.” He let me keep some of the money when we took people for trail

rides in the forest. All around this farm was forest from here clear over to the next county.”

“Who else lived around here then?”

“Well, we owned a couple of sections. That’s a lot of land.” She thought for a minute. “There was the Graham’s farm. They had orchards and grew vegetables and berries and things.” It was mostly their land that the developers bought when they planned on building the sub-division.”

Tommy munched on the cookies as he listened. They were chocolate chip, and they were still warm from her oven. He just had to find out what she knew but he’d have to be careful. He didn’t want her to know what he’d seen in case she told his parents. She was a nice lady, but grown-ups couldn’t be trusted not to tattle on you. Especially if they thought you were doing something bad.

“When did you sell your land?” he asked, being careful not to talk with his mouth full.

“Oh, about the time the houses were starting to go up my father died. There wasn’t any way my mother and I could carry on alone, so we sold everything but what this old house is sitting on. I’m glad that we did. Farm life is very hard, especially if you have to tend to livestock. My mother worked so hard all of her life. I’m glad that her last couple of years were spent in leisure. It was hard to see houses on what used to be our land, but I’ve gotten kind of used to it. Some of my neighbours are wonderful, and it’s nice to have a boy like you to help me when I need it.”

Tommy blushed, because the main reason he was here was to be sneaky and ask her questions.

“Did anybody ever live in the woods that you know of?” he asked

“Well, there was a ranger that lived in there. He was to watch for fires. He also had to stop poachers. He had a son, if I remember right. Sometimes they came into town for supplies. I think that they left after the meteor landed. I’ve never seen them since. That was about the same time that the army took over the area.”

“We were on holidays when the meteor landed.” said Tommy.”

“It was only a small one, they say, but the sound it made shook the whole town. Everything lit up so bright you’d have thought it was noon.

I’ll never forget that night.” Mrs. Pearson said.

Tommy’s friends had told him all about the meteor when he got back. They told him that it sounded like a bomb. Police and fire trucks came from all around. Everyone was afraid. Some people tried to go down and see it later that night, but the police had it all blocked off and posted. Some newspaper men took pictures of it, before they got booted out. The army goes in and out now, but nobody else is allowed in except teams of scientists. Those men with guns certainly didn’t look like scientists to him.

Mrs. Pearson broke into his thoughts. “If you’re finished with your milk and cookies, young man, I have to get my hair done and I have some errands to take care of. Don’t forget to come back next week.”

“I won’t, Mrs. Pearson, see you.”

Tommy headed over to the school to meet anybody that showed up after his mom bought him new shoes for Sunday School. Sammy was there already tossing his basketball into the net.