Read Online Lost at Running Brook Trail by Sheryl A. Keen - Free Book Online Page A

know what’s in there. So we’re going to check it out.”
    Susan literally jumped back. “I can’t check it out!”
    Elaine held up her open palms. “I meant me and Miriam. You and Kimberly will stay here until we give the all clear.”
    Kimberly was still pouting about her electronics being used as a source of light in the cave. “You volunteer me to stay here; how do you know I want to stay out here? I might want to look in the cave.”
    “I’m not staying here alone,” Susan said.
    “Kimberly, do you want to accompany Elaine inside instead of me?”
    “No, I don’t want to. I just want you guys to ask my permission for me to stay or go.”
    “Of course.” Miriam tilted her head back, looked at the orange sky and took a deep gulp of cold air. “You’re the focus of our entire existence. You’re not helping with solutions, but you will not just go along with the plan that is made. You know what, give us the phone and the iPod.”
    Miriam held out a hand. Kimberly obviously didn’t like Miriam’s tone, so she refused to hand over the gadgets.
    “I could take them out of your pockets, and I would so enjoy it.” Miriam rubbed her hands together in anticipation. Kimberly stepped back. She almost stepped back into Elaine. With Kimberly directly in front of her, Elaine said, “Just give me the things so we won’t have another silly cat fight.”
    Kimberly reached into her pockets and handed the phone and iPod to Elaine.
    “She robs me of all joy.” Miriam spoke to Kimberly but referred to Elaine. “She saved you from a good smack-down, UFC style.”
    Elaine searched through her bag, found the lighter and then walked toward the cave with Miriam, who carried the Storm and the iPod.
    Susan and Kimberly sat on a rock. Susan rummaged through her bag, found more chocolate bars and ate another two. It felt good to have this comfort when she felt so fearful and even terrified.
    “She’s a big bully! That’s what she is. Don’t you think so?”
    “No.”
    “How could you not? She’s quarrelsome and overbearing and tries to intimidate me.”
    “Are you intimidated?”
    “No, but that doesn’t mean she’s not a bully.”
    “She’s just mad.”
    “About what?”
    “How would I know? Maybe you rub her the wrong way.”
    “Why would I rub her the wrong way? Why not you or Elaine?”
    Susan ate her chocolate bar and thought about the faded native pictographs. Whatever Kimberly’s beef with Miriam was, it was secondary in her thoughts. What if the cave collapsed inward?
    “Want some chocolate?” Susan asked to divert her thoughts from the collapsing cave.
    “No, too many calories.” Kimberly picked up dried twigs, which she snapped apart at intervals. The snapping sound perforated the cool, silent air and created a false rhythm of normalcy. “She’s probably just hating on my looks.”
    “What?”
    “Miriam, she’s a hater.”
    What was Kimberly’s ongoing obsession with Miriam’s motives? They were going to sleep in a place where they couldn’t even tell night from day. It would be a whole new world inside there. Susan was still afraid of whatever was inside. Why would that dark hole be any different from everything else? The lawns of Anne Beaumont were pristine. The school was on an estate filled with trees. It was gated, and it all gave an impression that high scholastic achievement was going on inside. It all screamed social prestige. And that was exactly what you would find on the inside. The school had a pass rate in the high nineties. There wasn’t a lack of resources either, as the school had many affluent donors. So it was either brains or wealth or both. This was obvious on the outside and further cemented on the inside.

    Elaine and Miriam entered the dark cave to dead calm. Elaine turned the wheels on the lighter and hoped there was enough fuel to last the night and get them through whatever else they may need a lighter for. She felt the fast pace of her heart and hoped they