Read Online Hide and Seek by Jack Ketchum - Free Book Online

you."
     
    She stood and walked away from me into the shallows. As far as I knew it was the first time she'd gone into the water all summer. I called out to her.
     
    "You won't like it."
     

She turned around and looked at me. She spoke quietly. "Neither will you."
     

The opportunity to ask her about her brother came along two nights later.
     
    I think I remember everything there is to remember about that night.
    The smell of fresh-cut grass on her lawn, the warmth of the air its exact temperature-the scent of the hair moving toward me and then away on the flow of breeze through the open windows as we drifted along in the car, the feel of damp earth under me later and the smell of that too, the long empty silences, crickets, night birds, her awful shallow breathing.
     
    I remember every bit of it, because that night put all the rest in motion. And the next day was Saturday, and the next night was Saturday night. And I've never looked at Saturdays the same way since. Maybe you'll find that hard to believe. But you weren't there.
     
    You don't carry it around with you like a sackful of cinders.
     
    Like I say, you weren't there.
     
    I'd taken the day off again and this time the boss wasn't happy with me at all. I was "ill" again. McGregor wasn't stupid. You only had to look at Casey once or twice to know what was keeping me away.
     
    I was endangering the job. I didn't care.
     
    We drove to Campobello for the day to see the Roosevelt summer home. We were the only ones there, so the guide gave us

special attention. Steven, whose hand was still wrapped in bandages, found it all a bit hard to take.
     
    "There's an awful lot of wicker."
     
    He was right as far as I was concerned. Nice house, big, but otherwise nothing special. The guide was a lot more impressed than any of us were. But that was her job. She was a nice old woman and you didn't want to insult her. Except for Steve, who kept wandering off impatiently by himself, we followed her and nodded attentively.
     
    It was a relief to get outside, though.
     
    "Thank god," said Steve as we piled back into the car. "How do tourists stand themselves, anyway?"
     
    "They still believe in education," Casey said.
     
    Steve nodded. "Self-improvement."
     
    "History."
     
    We stopped for a drink at the Caribou on the way home. Hank always served us, though I'm sure he knew they were underage. I suppose he needed the business.
     
    It was still early and the after-work crowd hadn't arrived yet, so we had the place nearly to ourselves. Steve played some Elvis and Jerry Lee on the jukebox. All the drinks were the usual-scotch with beer back for me, Bloody Marys for Casey and Steve and a tequila sunrise for Kimberley. We finished one round and ordered another. And that was when the disagreement started.
     
    We'd planned to drive to Lubec that night to listen to a local band there, one Kim happened to like. Steve and I were agreeable. But Casey hadn't committed herself. And now it turned out that there was a movie she wanted to see over in Trescott. It was nothing to me either way, but Steve got annoyed with her.
     
    "Anything you want, Casey. Don't mind me."
     
    She swirled the ice in her Bloody Mary, oblivious to his irony.
     
    "Fine."
     
    "You go to your movie and we'll go see the band."
     
    "All right."
     
    "What about you, Clan?"
     
    He was pointing his finger at me again. He was using the bandaged hand and it was sort of funny-looking but I didn't dare laugh. I kept it straight.
     

"That's fine too."
     
    You could see he was ready to walk out in one of his ten-minute sulks.
    He still had a half a drink left, but he got up off his stool.
     
    "Sit down, Steven," said Kimberley. "We can all get together tomorrow night. Relax."
     
    It didn't really take. He still wanted to march off on us, you could tell. It was all display. Competitive, possessive and pretty silly.
    By tomorrow he'd have forgotten all about it. In this kind of contest of wills with Casey he