Being Dead Read Free

splash, in the same area as before. I still couldn't see anything. I waited where I was, hoping that if I stayed long enough I'd see something.
    The third splash came from exactly where the previous two had. All right. Apparently if I was to see anything, I was going to have to move closer. I stepped on some of the decorative rocks between the plants at the edge of the water.
    Yet another splash. This time I caught a glimpse of something light colored. One of those fat pale goldfish, maybe, jumping into the air? Was it trying to catch something? Or was
it
caught on something and trying to wriggle loose? I hoped I wouldn't need to administer first aid to a fish.
    I put one knee down on a rock and leaned over the murky water. I couldn't make out the bottom, couldn't make out any movement. "I bet you just waited for me to get here before you'd move," I whispered to the fish. It was only when I heard my own voice that I was aware the bicycle bell had finally stopped.
    The water in front of me rippled, so I had fair warning that the fish was moving. I waited for it to come to the surface....
    Except it wasn't a fish that flopped in the water—it was a hand.
    I sat back with a startled yelp.
    The hand clawed at the air—I could distinctly see the fingers—then it disappeared back under the water.
    Jeez! Some kid must have fallen in and was drowning right there in front of me. "Hold on!" I yelled at the kid in the pond, even though there was no way a kid entirely underwater could hear me. I scrambled to my feet and waded in.
    And found that the pond was only a foot and a half at its deepest.
    How could any kid bigger than a baby drown in a foot and a half of water?
    And there was no kid.
    There I was stomping around on all those delicate little water plants—and no kid. Nothing that looked at all like a human hand. Whatever had been Hopping in the water wasn't flopping anymore.
    I don't want to do this; I don't want to do this,
I told myself. But I had to, just in case. I forced myself to reach down with my hand, to feel in the dark water, to touch the mucky, slippery bottom.
    I jerked back. Was that hair? Had I just touched someone's hair?
    Or was it those wispy plant tendrils?
    Clamping my teeth together to keep them from chattering, I once more reached into the cold water. Tendrils brushed my fingers, just tendrils.
    I took a step forward to check that last corner of the pond.
    Nothing.
    Except that the pump suddenly turned on, which had to mean Danny was in the kitchen, watching me be a fool.
    Setup,
I thought. There might not have been a drowning kid in the pool before, but let me get my hands on Danny....
    I clambered out of the pond, squashing more of the plants and upsetting a little tower of rocks.
    Gee,
I thought sarcastically,
maybe Mom and Dad won't notice.
    I walked back to the house, my sneakers squishing rudely with each step.
    No sign of Danny. Smart boy.
But he can't have found a good enough hiding place,
I told myself.
    Going upstairs I tripped over the hose to my water bed, even though I thought I wasn't stepping anywhere near it The way things were going, I knew I'd better detour into my room to make sure I hadn't yanked the hose loose.
    That wasn't the surprise I found in my bedroom.
    The surprise was that the double doors to the closet were open and all my clothes were on the floor.
    "Danny!" I yelled in fury.
    "What?" he called from his room. That was not what I'd expected.
    Still, "Get in here," I shouted.
    "I'm busy."
    I stomped down the hall to his room.
    He looked up from arranging his action figures on one of his shelves and obviously took in that my shorts were wet and muddy. As though he hadn't already seen, he demanded, "What happened to you?"
    "What happened to my room?"
    The fact that Danny didn't have a snappy comeback, that he waited to hear what I was going to say, made his innocence more credible.
    "Did you or did you not knock my clothes on the floor?" I asked.
    "I did not," he said.
    "And