The Secrets of Lake Road - Karen Katchur Page 0,28
as time elapsed. And for a few minutes she had forgotten about the little girl Sara and the underwater recovery team on the lake. But when she remembered, she crossed her fingers hoping Sara would be found soon and not because she wanted the public beach opened, but because the image of Sara’s parents sitting on the hood of a car was the saddest thing she had ever seen. Even at her age, she understood the scene would forever be imprinted on her mind. It was something she would never forget.
“I’ll pump. You hold the jug,” she said to Adam. He held the jug under the spigot. Caroline lifted the handle up and down, up and down until a steady stream of water flowed.
Once the jug was filled, she screwed the cap on tightly. They decided to make the trek back, but this time they’d take the shorter route. Adam was worried his mother would be looking for him. Caroline assumed he didn’t tell his mother initially where he was going since she was always quick to say no. His mother constantly worried about him, keeping close tabs on him, more than the other mothers around the lake. In a way, Caroline envied Adam. At least his mother showed she cared.
They approached Hawkes’ cabin, where Chris lived. She hesitated, anxious about passing by his front door. If he saw her carrying a stupid water jug and hanging out with Adam, she thought it somehow made her look like a baby.
“Let’s walk around back,” she told Adam.
“But it’s quicker this way,” he said in that high-pitched voice of his.
“We don’t want to bump into my brother.” Partly true, and she knew Adam would agree. He took enough teasing from the older boys as it was.
They circled around the back of the cabin. She quickened her pace, but Adam made her stop so he could tie the laces on his sneaker. She leaned against an oak tree to wait. She wished he’d hurry up. Birds fluttered in the branches, crying at the intrusion. She looked up and thought of an old silly rhyme Gram had taught her. “Birdie, birdie in the sky, why’d you do that in my eye? I’m sure glad that cows can’t fly.”
She laughed and pushed off the tree. Not far from where she stood she noticed a ring of rocks around an old campfire site. It wasn’t unusual for campfires to burn deep into the night, but this one hadn’t been used for some time. She wasn’t sure what exactly drew her toward the abandoned site, but she stepped in for a closer a look. Painted in white on a large rock that could have been used as a seat near the fire were the initials J+B surrounded by a heart. The paint was old and faded and nearly rubbed out, but there was no mistaking the letters.
“Ready,” Adam said.
“Yeah, okay,” she said absently, turning J and B over in her mind. Maybe they were Johnny’s and his big-boobed girlfriend’s initials, but that seemed unlikely. Their initials would’ve looked freshly painted, not old and faded.
Her mind jumped to other possibilities, to her mother, Josephine, and the mysterious boy named Billy. It was unsettling, almost frightening to think of her mother with anyone other than her father. But really, what did she know of her mother’s life other than that she had married young and soon after, her brother, Johnny, was born? It was an uneasy feeling, realizing for the first time her mother had been someone else before she had married Caroline’s father, before she had been Johnny and Caroline’s mother.
* * *
Caroline didn’t mention the painted rock to Adam. Instead she hurried him away from the abandoned sight and Hawkes’ cabin. She wanted to forget she ever saw it, but at the same time she knew she wouldn’t.
They reached the dock where she had seen Stimpy and his men setting traps. They stopped and looked around. They were alone, although Stimpy’s cabin was only a few feet away.
“Let’s pull up the lines,” she said, and set the water jug on the pier.
Adam’s eyes darted around. “What if we get caught?”
“We’re just looking to see if they caught anything.” She squatted next to the post where the line was attached. She pulled. The trap felt heavy. “They got something.”
“Isn’t it against the law to mess with a fisherman’s line?” Adam asked, but he crouched next to her and peered into the water.