Read Online Shadow Tree by Jake Halpern - Free Book Online Page B

with his hand.
    Roughly ten more minutes passed and then, finally, Alfonso opened his eyes. When he did, he found himself staring at a woman in her late twenties who bore a striking resemblances to Marta.
    â€œYou morphed,” said Alfonso.
    â€œI did,” said Marta. “I figured we’d travel faster if we were both around this age.”
    Alfonso nodded.
    â€œI think I figured something out,” said Alfonso, as he rose to his feet. He looked strong, healthy, and determined. “I want to visit that tower – the one off in the distance.”
    â€œThe one from your dream?”
    â€œYes,” said Alfonso.
    â€œOkay,” said Marta, “I’ll go with you to the tower, then I want to head back to Jasber.”
    Alfonso wiggled his fingers and moved his arms about – as if he were still getting used to feel of his own body.
    â€œWeird isn’t it?” asked Marta.
    â€œYeah,” said Alfonso. “And by the way, I figured something else out.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou’re not my wife,” said Alfonso.
    â€œYeah, I know,” said Marta with a smile. “You’re not that lucky.” She laughed merrily. “Come on, let’s go.”

Chapter 9: Into the Forest
    After the man from Jasber departed into the woods, Leif spent much of that day preparing for his own departure. He salvaged everything he could from the old rowboat including a pocket knife, a coil of rope, and an old leather flask. He spent several hours hunting for crabs and, with some luck, caught two. He hiked to a fresh-water spring at the far end of the beach where he bathed and drank until he could drink no more. Finally, he built a fire to stay warm and tried to sleep through some of the night.
    Leif woke at dawn and promptly set off, walking backwards into the shadowy depth of Straszydlo Forest. Kõrgu followed Leif quite closely. At first, Leif had tried to discourage the wolf from coming, because he did not want her to break the rules unknowingly and suffer the consequences. But the wolf could not be dissuaded from tagging along. Leif hoped for the best; after all, Kõrgu usually seemed to manage.
    As he walked, Leif kept his eyes trained on the ground. There were two sets of tracks: the first was fairly large and almost certainly belonged to the man with the green cloak; the second set was slightly smaller and Leif suspected that these tracks belonged to Alfonso. It wasn’t easy to follow tracks while walking backwards – on numerous occasions, Leif tripped and fell over a log or large stone – but he persisted. As he went, he often called out to his son. Leif suspected it would do little good, but he couldn’t help himself.
    Leif walked for much of the day and, though he had no way of telling the time, it was late afternoon when he came upon the tattered remains of the green cloak. The cloak was shredded into hundreds of small pieces; and all around it were bones that had been picked so clean, it was almost as if they had been dipped in acid and bleached in the sun. The larger set of tracks stopped here and there could be little doubt that these bones belonged to the Jasberian who saved him. What had happened to him? Why had he been attacked in this manner?
    Leif recalled his exchange with the man from the previous day. The man had said: “It came to me and I said to myself, ‘Yes, of course, it is:
You must never look backwards
. But then, thank heaven, I realized that was not quite right – not at all. The rule was, I am of certain of it now, as follows:
You must only look backwards
.”
    Perhaps the man with the green cloak had gotten it wrong. Perhaps the rule was, as the man had first suspected, that you must never look backwards. If that was the case, then Leif had been breaking the rule all day, and his best bet might be to spin around and face forward. He didn’t know what to do – there was no way to know for certain