Witherwood Reform School Read Free Page B

dust and gravel.
    â€œYou wanted this job!” Ralph yelled at her disappearing car.
    Ralph turned slowly back to his house. The curtains quickly closed, and he could hear his children scurrying about inside. He took small, methodical steps toward the front door.
    Closing his eyes, Ralph counted to ten … twice. He then pushed the door open and walked into the small family room. The place was eerily quiet; only the thin tick of the wrongly set clock filled the space with an uncomfortable beat. The pulsating veins on Ralph’s forehead began to slow. A clear memory of his childhood flashed into his mind, giving him an idea.
    â€œTobias!” Mr. Eggers yelled. “Charlotte!”
    Ralph heard their bedroom doors open. The sound was followed by footsteps crossing the creaky wood floor. After a few moments of silence, his children’s faces appeared around the hallway corner.
    â€œCome here,” their father said.
    Tobias stepped out first, and Charlotte followed. They walked toward their father and stood side by side a few feet in front of him. Standing next to each other, they looked a bit like a sad set of salt and pepper shakers. They were a pair, a set, and doubly in trouble.
    â€œDad, we didn’t—” Tobias couldn’t get his words out before his father interrupted.
    â€œYou must have holes in your head,” Mr. Eggers said calmly.
    While it is true that everyone has holes in his head—mouth, ears, nose, etc.—neither of the Eggers children felt it would be right to point that out to their father at the moment.
    â€œGet in the car,” Mr. Eggers ordered.
    â€œYou have to understand,” Tobias tried again. “We—”
    â€œThe car!” their father insisted. “GET IN THE CAR!”
    Tobias and Charlotte shuffled slowly out the door and down the steps, with their father right behind them. It was getting dark now, and the sky looked as if it was slipping into something a bit sinister.
    When they got to the car, Tobias climbed into the back seat, and Charlotte got in next to him. Mr. Eggers took the driver’s seat and slammed his door shut. He turned the key, and the engine roared. It was at that moment the first drops of rain began to fall. They plinked off the windows as the car wound through the neighborhood and onto the main street.
    Their father drove the car onto the freeway. He pressed the gas pedal, and they flew down the interstate like a charging bull. The previously little raindrops became gushy wads of water that slapped at the windshield as they raced on.
    Mr. Eggers kept his hands on the steering wheel in the positions of ten and two o’clock. His knuckles were white, and the back of his neck looked like a steamed ham. He stared straight ahead through the wet windshield and out at the dark road. The rain grew stronger, and the car shivered as the wild wind blew through it.
    â€œHe looks pretty mad,” Charlotte whispered to Tobias.
    â€œThat’s a look worse than mad,” Tobias said.
    Headlights from the cars on the other side of the freeway flashed past them. In the rain the lights appeared messy and shot past them like wet sneezes. Mr. Eggers kept his eyes on the road and drove directly into the storm.
    â€œMy stomach hurts,” Charlotte said.
    â€œMine too,” Tobias agreed. “I really didn’t think Martha would take such a big bite.”
    A sad and silent half an hour later, their father turned on his blinker and they exited the freeway. The rain seemed to slow as they traveled east down a small two-lane highway. Tobias and Charlotte gazed out the dark windows. There were no lights anywhere. It was just a dark, wet desert with little form or definition.
    â€œIt looks like there’s nothing out here,” Charlotte whimpered.
    As if on cue, a large weathered sign came into view: WITHERWOOD.
    Just past the sign, Ralph Eggers turned off the highway onto a small road. The road was