Read Online The Summer We Lost Alice by Jan Strnad - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jan Strnad
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be here when Alice comes back, and because they aren't going to find her where they're looking.
Mrs. Nichols kidnapped her and took her to the nursing home. I know she's there. I know, too, that the sheriff and the FBI searched and said Alice wasn't there, but maybe they didn't look hard enough. Maybe there's a secret room they didn't even look for. Maybe there's a bookcase that swings open and all the kidnapped kids are on the other side. They didn't even use police dogs. Police dogs would've found her. They could have given the dogs an old shirt of Alice's out of the laundry basket and they'd have tracked her down even if she was hidden inside a secret room.
They used dogs in the woods. They tracked her into the woods farther than I could follow that night. They reached a point and the dogs went crazy and circled around and bumped into one another with their noses to the ground, and that's where the trail ended.
"It's like she sprouted wings and flew away," one of the men said. "It's the damnedest thing."
The sheriff ordered them home. He could've told them to search the nursing home but he didn't.
I don't have a police dog, but I have Boo.
This is my last night in Meddersville.
I'm going back to the nursing home, and I'm taking Boo with me . We're going to find Alice.
* * *
I find a map of "Meddersville and Vicinity" in a drawer and sneak it upstairs.
I have a good idea how to get there, but I'm not good at things like that. Boo took a way I could never duplicate, the dog route. I could put him on the leash and try that again, but I don't want to get pulled every which way and maybe lose him and end up lost myself.
I set the map on the bed and turn it the right way. I find Aunt Flo and Uncle Billy's street, and I find the nursing home. It's marked on the map along with the graveyard. I figure out how to get there following streets and not cutting through yards and making all of Boo's twists and turns. It's a little bit longer to go this way, but it makes sense. I can memorize where to turn and which way to go. I commit the route to memory. I repeat it in my head while I sit with Boo in the backyard and stroke his fur.
Aunt Flo is already in bed when Uncle Billy turns in. Catherine, too. I've been lying in bed with Boo and waiting for the house to go to sleep. I hear Uncle Billy turn off the TV and go to the bathroom and then I hear his bedroom door shut. I lie awake and wait. I wait for an hour or more, until there's nobody awake but me, not even Boo. I nudge him and throw back the covers. I pull on my jeans and my shirt and we sneak downstairs.
I open the back door as quietly as I can. The hinges squeak . They sound loud enough to wake the dead. Boo scratches at the screen door, which is latched, wondering why I don't open it. I'm waiting to hear if Uncle Billy or Aunt Flo or Catherine wakes up and comes to the kitchen to see what's going on. Nobody comes, so I unlatch the door. Boo rushes out, barking. It's no good trying to shush him. Our best bet is to get away from the house as fast as we can.
I run to the back fence . Boo jumps it while I'm climbing over. We run off into the dark. I look back at the house and no lights come on. We've made it.
I repeat the directions to myself. I've been over the map a million times. I left the map on my bed, and I drew a circle around the nursing home. If I don't come back, they'll know where to come looking for me.
I run down the sidewalk. Boo runs alongside of me, smelling things. He circles me like a moon. I make all the turns, checking the street signs with a flashlight to make sure I stay on course.
Pretty soon we reach the lake and the road that runs around it. I could take the shortcut that Boo took but I don't dare. Boo vanishes into the woods and reappears, running, snuffing, doing his doggy business, but he never wanders far from me. I don't need a leash. Boo isn't going anywhere I don't go, even if he does make his own side trips to smell this and that. He
Mrs. Nichols kidnapped her and took her to the nursing home. I know she's there. I know, too, that the sheriff and the FBI searched and said Alice wasn't there, but maybe they didn't look hard enough. Maybe there's a secret room they didn't even look for. Maybe there's a bookcase that swings open and all the kidnapped kids are on the other side. They didn't even use police dogs. Police dogs would've found her. They could have given the dogs an old shirt of Alice's out of the laundry basket and they'd have tracked her down even if she was hidden inside a secret room.
They used dogs in the woods. They tracked her into the woods farther than I could follow that night. They reached a point and the dogs went crazy and circled around and bumped into one another with their noses to the ground, and that's where the trail ended.
"It's like she sprouted wings and flew away," one of the men said. "It's the damnedest thing."
The sheriff ordered them home. He could've told them to search the nursing home but he didn't.
I don't have a police dog, but I have Boo.
This is my last night in Meddersville.
I'm going back to the nursing home, and I'm taking Boo with me . We're going to find Alice.
* * *
I find a map of "Meddersville and Vicinity" in a drawer and sneak it upstairs.
I have a good idea how to get there, but I'm not good at things like that. Boo took a way I could never duplicate, the dog route. I could put him on the leash and try that again, but I don't want to get pulled every which way and maybe lose him and end up lost myself.
I set the map on the bed and turn it the right way. I find Aunt Flo and Uncle Billy's street, and I find the nursing home. It's marked on the map along with the graveyard. I figure out how to get there following streets and not cutting through yards and making all of Boo's twists and turns. It's a little bit longer to go this way, but it makes sense. I can memorize where to turn and which way to go. I commit the route to memory. I repeat it in my head while I sit with Boo in the backyard and stroke his fur.
Aunt Flo is already in bed when Uncle Billy turns in. Catherine, too. I've been lying in bed with Boo and waiting for the house to go to sleep. I hear Uncle Billy turn off the TV and go to the bathroom and then I hear his bedroom door shut. I lie awake and wait. I wait for an hour or more, until there's nobody awake but me, not even Boo. I nudge him and throw back the covers. I pull on my jeans and my shirt and we sneak downstairs.
I open the back door as quietly as I can. The hinges squeak . They sound loud enough to wake the dead. Boo scratches at the screen door, which is latched, wondering why I don't open it. I'm waiting to hear if Uncle Billy or Aunt Flo or Catherine wakes up and comes to the kitchen to see what's going on. Nobody comes, so I unlatch the door. Boo rushes out, barking. It's no good trying to shush him. Our best bet is to get away from the house as fast as we can.
I run to the back fence . Boo jumps it while I'm climbing over. We run off into the dark. I look back at the house and no lights come on. We've made it.
I repeat the directions to myself. I've been over the map a million times. I left the map on my bed, and I drew a circle around the nursing home. If I don't come back, they'll know where to come looking for me.
I run down the sidewalk. Boo runs alongside of me, smelling things. He circles me like a moon. I make all the turns, checking the street signs with a flashlight to make sure I stay on course.
Pretty soon we reach the lake and the road that runs around it. I could take the shortcut that Boo took but I don't dare. Boo vanishes into the woods and reappears, running, snuffing, doing his doggy business, but he never wanders far from me. I don't need a leash. Boo isn't going anywhere I don't go, even if he does make his own side trips to smell this and that. He
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