a height. But the others had done it. He didn’t want to look like a chicken by turning around and trying to lower himself off the boardwalk so the drop wouldn’t be as great.
Shiner leapt.
As she fell, Jeremy stepped into space. He didn’t want to think about the troll, but suddenly he imagined himself as the old man plummeting from the top of the Ferris wheel, knowing he was as good as dead. For just an instant, terror seized him.
Then his feet struck the sand. The impact collapsed his knees. His rump was pounded, and a knee clipped him on the chin, jarring his teeth together. He flopped onto his back. As he sat up, Shiner reached down to give him a hand. He took hold of it. She pulled, helping him to rise.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Nodding, he ran his tongue across the edges of his teeth. He half-expected to find some chipped, but they seemed all right.
“You should’ve rolled,” she told him.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“If you two don’t require my assistance,” Randy said, “I’ll catch up with Tanya.”
“Sure,” Shiner said.
The boy rushed off into the fog.
Jeremy and Shiner wandered around, bending over and gathering the troll’s scattered clothes.
“I kind of feel sorry for Randy,” she said. “He’s a pretty sensitive kid. This was rough tonight.”
“That’s for sure.”
“He’s not…into this like some of us. He’s only here because he’s got some kind of crush on Tanya.”
“Really?”
Shiner stepped up close to a piling and tossed the troll’s jacket and pants into the darkness.
“Shouldn’t we take the stuff in under there? Maybe like scatter it around some?”
“No. Just throw it. There’s probably trolls.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. We’d better not hang around too long.”
Jeremy hurled the shoes, socks, and shirt, then backed away. “You think anybody saw what happened?”
“You mean trolls? Some might’ve. They’re always hidden around. I bet they know everything that goes on.” She picked up the long johns, pulled the cane out of the sand, and retrieved the feathered derby.
Jeremy lifted the duffel bag. It was awfully heavy. “Will they tell?” he asked.
“Not a chance.”
They stopped just under the edge of the boardwalk, and Shiner threw the troll’s things into the darkness.
“I’d better carry this in a little ways,” Jeremy said.
“No, don’t. Just toss it under. It’ll be picked clean by morning anyway.”
Holding the canvas bag by its strap, he swung it forward and let go. It vanished. A second later, it landed with a soft thump and a clinking of glass, as if bottles were knocking together.
“Some trolls’ll be glad to find that,” he said.
“Tha’s a fack.” The dry, withered voice came out of the blackness in front of him.
He flinched rigid. Shiner grabbed his arm. He wanted to spin around and run, but she held on to him and walked slowly backward. He heard her breathing hard.
“Aren’t you glad you didn’t go under there?” she asked after several strides.
“God.”
“I have all kinds of nightmares about getting caught by them. That’s about the worst thing I can imagine, you know?”
She let go of his arm and turned around.
Jeremy turned around too. Then he looked back over his shoulder. The black space beneath the boardwalk was a vague blur through the fog. He tried to spot the Ferris wheel, but it was out of sight.
“I bet you never thought you’d get into anything like this,” Shiner said.
“That guy biting it.” He shook his head.
“Bad. Real bad. Makes me feel kind of sick, you know? I mean, he was a troll, but still…” She leaned against his side, and Jeremy put an arm across her back. “It was pretty terrible, anyway.”
“Yeah.”
They kept walking. He could see nothing in front of him except sand and the fog.
“I hope he doesn’t wash in sometime,” Shiner said. “That’d be awful if people are on the beach and he comes in, you know?”
From the sound of the surf, Jeremy guessed they must be getting close to the shore. But he still couldn’t see the water, or Tanya and the others.
“Nate’s going to take him out on a surfboard?” he asked.
“I guess so.”
“Does he have to go all the way home to get it?”
“No. Shouldn’t take him very long. He keeps it in a storeroom in the arcade. He surfs in the morning sometimes before the place opens.”
“He’s Tanya’s boyfriend, huh?”
“Yeah.”
Jeremy noticed that his feet no longer pushed into the sand. The beach felt solid. It slanted downward slightly. Here and there, it was littered with dark clumps of kelp that looked less like seaweed than like strange