Teetoncey Read Free Page B

man's mouth was open and his lifeless eyes were filled with terror as if he'd seen something he couldn't believe.

    Ben glanced again. The body was broken and sand-dredged, almost stripped of clothing. The legs were at crazy angles. He turned his head. He didn't exactly like looking at dead people. He'd only seen three or four in his lifetime. This man would join the others in walking the beach.
    Catching his breath, Jabez yelled, "She's a bad one, Cap'n." Then nodding south, he slopped back that way along the licks of foam. The storm-driven tide was setting down-coast.
    Ben took another look at Keeper Midgett who was still grimly inspecting the form on the sand and decided to join Jabez, who would be more friendly. He ran after him, Boo Dog pacing by his heels. In a moment, he spotted the wind-whipped flickers of several steaming lanterns; then the dim shapes of the surfmen strung out along the beach. They were pulling debris from the water, searching for more victims.
    Catching up with Jabez, Ben shouted, "Can I help?"
    Tillett yelled, "Go south." Then turned down into the surf, wading out toward flotsam.
    Ben dashed on past Mark Jennette, a likable man about twenty-five who lived in Chicky village. Lathered with foam up to his waist, Mark was busy tugging at a spar entangled with line and a huge torn sail.
    Another hundred feet and Ben spotted something bobbing in the foam. He stopped and eyed it, afraid it might be another body. Looking back north, he saw that the darkness and spray had already hidden Jennette. Then, setting his teeth, holding the lantern high, he forced himself into the water.
    Edging through the foam, a lump forming at the hollow of his throat, Ben finally touched the mound of floating doth and sighed relief. It was only a hump of mattress, straw washing out of a split. He grabbed it and towed it back to the sand slope, the hammering of his heart beginning to subside. He truly wanted to find someone in the water. Yet he didn't. Perhaps he should just sneak home again.
    Another sound carried faintly over the boom of the surf and Ben realized it was Boo Dog. The barks were insistent and Ben looked in that direction, down the beach. Boo was barely visible, though only thirty or forty feet away. Ben dropped the mattress and ran toward him.
    Closer, Ben saw what all the barking was about. Something was on the sand, two or three yards up from the foam line. A shape, sprawled out. Maybe a body.
    He stopped again and looked north, hoping to see Jabez or Mark moving toward him. But there was only darkness and those whirling clouds of spray.
    Forcing himself on again, he drew up and then gasped. A human, not debris, was on the sand, three feet away from Boo. Ben took a deep breath and moved closer, staring down. Finally, he could see the body plainly.
    He bent over, hardly breathing. It was a girl. About ten or eleven years old, he estimated. Almost his own age of just-turned twelve. Her blue dress had been pushed up around her waist. One arm was tucked beneath her. Her mouth was half open. Face smudged with sand; bruised and beginning to swell. Sand was in her nostrils and eyes. She looked dead in the dim lantern glow.
    Ben backed away, swallowing; then collected his wits. He'd never seen a dead girl. "Stay here, Boo," he shouted, and then took off north.
    Jennette was still in the water, struggling with the heavy canvas, trying to see if anyone was beneath it, when Ben floundered up to him.
    For a second, Ben couldn't speak His mouth opened but nothing but an "ah" came out.
    "What is it?" Mark shouted.
    Ben swallowed. "Girl!"
    "Where?"
    Ben pointed, and Jennette dropped the spar, splashing back toward the beach, Ben following as fast as his boots would allow him.
    In a moment, the surfman was on his hands and knees by the body.
    Feeling queasy, Ben watched as Mark felt her pulse, then took his forefingers to pry her eyelids open. "Still livin I think," Jennette muttered, and then turned her over on her