Firestorm Read Free Page B

darker in the forest first, and that’s
when the real fear of disaster began to creep up my spine.
    “Usually around
eight, right Meg? But that’s in the house. By eight it’ll be black
in here.”
    We found a
narrow pathway that led down towards the water and Meagan and I
yelled for Grandpa and Don in between pants as we climbed down.
There was no answer. We even stopped at one point just to listen
for any kind of response, but there wasn’t any that we could
hear.
    Ali moved ahead
of us and then stopped to stare at the water with his hand over his
sunglasses like a visor.
    “Do you see
that? It kind of looks like an inlet way over there. You said that
your Grandfather said it was a quiet place out of the way. So what
do you think? Should we try to get over there? It’ll take us about
half an hour.”
    A few seconds
later we were standing beside Ali and trying to block out the sharp
rays of the sun as we focused on the tiny inlet on the far side of
the river. There was no direct path down to the water and no
visible way of crossing it to get there. That’s when Meagan grabbed
my arm and gasped.
    “Sarah, we have
been this far before when we were little. Remember when Grandpa
took us along the trail when we were little and we crossed a sway
bridge?”
    Meagan was
pointing up the path and I was focussing on a sway bridge that I’d
seen years ago.
    “Yeah, I
remember the bridge now that you mentioned it, and I remember
crossing it, but I don’t remember this surrounding. Sorry. It was
years when we were here, Meg.”
    Ali stared at
the inlet and then looked at the trail in the direction we were
heading.
    “Maybe we
should just keep going along for a bit. If there is a bridge it’ll
be up there somewhere. It’s not going to be right here where the
river is so wide.”
    We agreed and
continued along the shaded, stony trail that eventually ran beside
a very long and terrain of dry grass and dead trees. My legs were
beginning to ache slightly from all the fast moving and my insides
were jumping all around with worry for Grandpa.
    We kept
trekking for the next half hour or so and nothing struck either
Meagan or I with any familiarity until Brad read a sign posted on a
huge oak tree.
    “Cypress
Outlook one mile ahead.”
    I heard myself
gasp aloud as Meg shouted hurray.
    “I remember
this sign, too.”
    Brad was
concerned over finding Grandpa and he and Ali were both totally
focused on the search almost as he was their own grandfather. Yet,
Brad had a way of letting me know that no matter what priority
thing he was doing, my thoughts and feelings were always important.
He motioned for Ali to walk with Meagan and he picked up the pace
beside me.
    He took hold of
my arm and stopped walking for a second.
    “We’re going to
find your grandfather, Sarah. I don’t care what it takes, but I
won’t stop until we’ve found him.”
    I stared into
Brad’s deep brown eyes and his passion was genuine and it almost
melted my heart. I wiped away the tears that I’d been trying to
hide and he cupped my face gently with his hands.
    “We’ll find him
and get him home safely, I promise. But you’re not going to make me
have to rescue you on a bridge again, are you?”
    He had a sense
of humor and knew just when to say the right thing to break the
tension. I smiled at him even though my insides churned like a meat
grinder. He took hold of my hand and looked ahead to where Ali and
Meagan were.
    “Coming?”
    When we reached
the lookout point we were all exhausted from running in the
unbearable dry heat, and we were relieved when we saw the water
pump that stood so boldly a few feet away from the benches. After a
short refreshing splash of cold water, Meagan began to shout with
excitement.
    “This is it.
This is it. We are really close to the bridge. Remember, Sarah?
Remember when Grandpa took us down that path there and you saw that
snake and woke the whole forest?”
    I looked where
she pointed and my chest pounded with