Forest Secrets Read Free Page B

arvo was the one I saw last night. That’s for sure.’
    I drew a deep breath. I needed to calm down. My heart was racing and thumping against my chest like a bongo drum. I sat back and told myself that I had to face the facts. What Snook had seen was real. There was no denying that.
    And then I remembered.
    I’d seen something last night too – at about nine o’clock. I’d been fairly tired when we got home yesterday so I’d gone to bed early, and like Snook, I’d dreamed. I hadn’t given it a second thought when I woke up this morning or for the rest of the day; it was one of those dreams that you have and then think no more about it.
    â€˜Look,’ I said to Snook, feeling slightly wimpy about what I was going to say. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but I wouldn’t go around spruiking about what you saw if I were you. People might find your story hard to accept. After all, what you saw was pretty incredible. They’ll probably try and tell you that your imagination’s playing tricks, or that you’ve been dreaming. I don’t reckon they’ll believe that what you saw was real. For some reason, people find it hard to believe the unbelievable – even when it’s true.’
    â€˜I don’t care what other people think or believe.’ His voice was low, almost deadpan. ‘I know what I saw.’ Then suddenly, he leaped from his chair, crossed the room and disappeared through the doorway waving his arms in the air like an orang-utan. ‘The other people,’ he called back from the passageway, ‘can go jump in the nearest lake!’
    I could have kicked myself. I’d hurt his feelings and no wonder. I’d handled that with the subtlety of a sledge hammer. I got up and hurried after him. Shadow, ears pricked, head cocked to one side, rose from his prone position at the foot of my chair and followed. I caught up with Snook in the passage just before the kitchen. Turning him towards me so that his face was inches from mine, I said, ‘Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just wanted to warn you about what other people might make of your story because it’s so … awesomely jaw dropping. I didn’t mean to suggest anything else.’
    My next words seemed to just pop out. ‘Did you see anything else besides the kid and the asteroid?’
    He looked directly into my eyes and said, ‘You know the planet Venus, the real bright one?’
    â€˜Yes, the one that sits low in the western sky. I know it.’
    He nodded with his chin towards the lounge-room. ‘Let’s go back in there. You might wanna sit down for this.’
    Seeing that he’d calmed down I did as he suggested and walked back into the lounge. I sat down in the chair once again. Shadow, with a sigh, followed and settled once more at my feet. I sat back and waited.
    â€˜I’m pretty sure the asteroid came from behind Venus,’ he began. ‘It happened real sudden. It kinda burst from behind the planet like it was explodin’ into itself, but it didn’t fly into bits like you’d expect – nothin’ like that. It just turned into a humungous fireball and then started comin’ towards the earth … goin’ flat out and drawin’ closer and closer, gettin’ bigger and bigger. Then I saw how big it really was. It was as big as a … a mountain.’
    â€˜What then?’
    â€˜I saw it crash into the sea and then I saw it make one of those tsunamis. There was a huge wind too. The wind was awesome. It was blowin’ down every tree in its path like they were made of straw. It must have been a really hot wind too, ’cause fires were startin’ up everywhere.’
    I had to ask. ‘Did you see anything else? Were there any animals?’
    â€˜Yeah, I saw a dinosaur. It looked like it was scared out of its wits. I felt really sorry for it.’
    A cold shiver