Read Online Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel - Free Book Online Page A

“I’m determined to beat you at this.”
    I set the timer going again. He glared at the letters—as thoughhe could order them into shape with the same uncanny ability he said he had with bones. He was very clever, and he knew it, but this was something I was undeniably better at. I got to work.
    â€œWell,” I heard him say, “I’m glad you won’t be riding sidesaddle. I’ve heard the terrain can be pretty punishing. Especially around the South Platte.”
    â€œIs that right?”
    â€œSo’s your father hoping to complete his horse collection out there? He’s had good luck in Nebraska.”
    â€œThat would please him no end.”
    I kept my answers vague. Was he fishing again? Was that the real reason he’d come to talk to me? The only reason? I was surprised by the prick of hurt I felt, even though I’d been asked to do exactly the same thing.
    â€œTime,” I said, more sharply than I’d intended, and started reading out my words. He’d done better this time, but halfway through he said, “ Salvage? You got salvage ? Where?”
    I tapped out the letters with the tip of my pencil. “That’s worth seven points, by the way.”
    He shook his head in bewilderment. “I can’t believe I missed it.”
    â€œMaybe you’re not as sharp a prospector as you thought.”
    He frowned at his word list, and I felt a bit sorry for him.
    I said, “I’m sure your expert eye will help your father find his king of all dinosaurs.”
    He glanced up at me so sharply I sensed I must’ve touched on something.
    â€œAll his talk of behemoths.” I nodded over at his father. “He seems to have his sights set on something big.”
    He shrugged, but he still looked guarded. He was poor at hiding his thoughts. “Bigger is best with my father,” he said.
    I wondered if I’d made a discovery. Did they truly know about something vast waiting for them out there?
    â€œAnother lead from your dentist in Kansas?” I made a joke of it.
    He grimaced. “I don’t think Father would trust him to dig up a potato for him now. Anyway, Kansas is mostly aquatic reptiles—we’re looking for true Dinosauria.”
    So he wasn’t looking for any more reptiles. Nor was he going to Kansas. . . .
    â€œIf you could find anything out there, what would it be?” I asked.
    â€œOh, I don’t know. Not another hadrosaur, not something that’s already been discovered. Something amazing!”
    His enthusiasm was so genuine I smiled, because it reminded me of the feeling I had when I thought of prospecting.
    â€œWill you be able to put it together again in three minutes? Like the raccoon?” I made my eyes wide, wanting to flatter him, to make him talk even more. It surprised me when his face reddened.
    â€œWell, the story didn’t go quite like that. I left a bit out. My father had a stopwatch and gave me three minutes. I had it nearly put together, all except a pair of bones, and I didn’t know where to place them.” Even as he retold it, there was a faint echoof frustration and even panic in his voice. “It made me question all the work I’d already done. Was it even a raccoon? I started undoing everything and my father called time and I was still holding these two mystery bones, and I said, ‘What are these?’ And he laughed and said, ‘I just added those to throw you off.’ And everyone laughed with him, and I was furious.”
    â€œHow old were you?”
    â€œEight.”
    â€œThat’s a cruel joke to play on a boy.”
    â€œIt was a good lesson, I suppose. Taught me to trust my instincts and not get flustered.”
    The fact that he’d told me the real story—and not the bragging feat he’d related when we’d first met—made me like him much better, this new, more vulnerable boy.
    â€œWas your father a good