Hidden Deep Read Free Page A

hand, causing me to shiver. His mouth slowly spread into a wide smile. So beautiful. So familiar.
    “All right,” I breathed, my stomach quivering, “I’ll go with you. Where is it?”
    Lad wasted no time capitalizing on the moment, scooping my hand inside his and starting to pull. “I’ll show you.”
    He stopped as we passed the pool and retrieved his books then led me deeper into the woods, much farther than I’d ever explored. It was like walking back into a simpler time in my life, a time when magical boys and enchanted forests and happily-ever-after families were entirely possible. As we walked, I was hyper-aware of his hand around mine. Warm. Strong. Rough-textured but gentle. It seemed silly I should even notice that stuff. I’d touched people and been touched my whole life, but this felt like a whole new thing.
    And the fact that I was actually with him, that it was actually happening, was just… breathtaking.
    None of the searchers had recalled seeing a boy when I was finally discovered the next morning. The ER doctor told my parents hypothermia was known to cause hallucinations, though they said I was in much better condition when they found me than anyone had dared to hope.
    At first I’d been eager to tell everyone why I was okay, about the boy, fiercely insisting it was all true. But I’d quickly learned discussing that particular part of my adventure was “not okay.” My story was initially met with sympathy and later with discomfort and disapproval. Even at that young age, I’d understood no one believed me or even wanted to. As time passed, the memories had grown hazy, mixing with my recurring dreams about that night, confusing me, and it had all started seeming less and less likely. Eventually I’d accepted the grownups were probably right.
    Lad dropped my hand and moved ahead of me, finding the easiest path through the wildness of the late-spring undergrowth. His bare feet smoothly and unflinchingly navigated the rough ground. How does that not hurt? My mind skipped from wondering about that to wondering how angry my mother would be if she could see me—agreeing to go somewhere with a strange man—okay, a boy, but a man-sized boy.
    Maybe I should have been afraid of him, but I just wasn’t. He was the living answer to all the questions I’d been told to stop asking. I tried to get it through my head that maybe I hadn’t imagined the whole thing, as everyone had insisted.
    “They said it was hypothermia.”
    “What’s that?” he said.
    “It’s when the body gets too cold and…”
    “Oh— Call of the Wild !” Lad said with perplexing enthusiasm.
    “What?”
    “ Call of the Wild . Jack London? I read about hypothermia in Call of the Wild . You don’t have it.”
    “I know—I didn’t mean now—never mind. How did you know it was me?”
    Lad gave me a side glance as we walked. “I recognized you as soon as you came up from under the water.”
    “You did? But… you look so different. Don’t I look different?”
    “Well…” I could swear he darted his eyes at my chest as he searched for the right words. “In some ways. But I knew when I saw your hair.”
    “My hair?”
    “Yes, I’ve never seen hair like yours. It’s the color of wet maple leaves in the fall.”
    Wow . That was definitely the first time someone had spoken poetically of my hair. Or anything else about me. I felt myself flush.
    We stopped at the base of an ancient tree with gnarled limbs starting close to the ground. Lad took both my hands inside his and pulled me to face him. An excited grin lit his face. “Do you know where we are?”
    “Um… should I?”
    “This is where we first met.”
    “Really?” I glanced around us. “How do you know? It looks the same as everywhere else out here in the sticks.”
    Lad laughed. “No it doesn’t, Ryann. Besides, this is a special tree.”
    He patted the thick trunk next to us. Looking up into its impossible heights, I spotted something about halfway from