Read Online Took by Mary Downing Hahn - Free Book Online Page A

her,” I said. “I don’t know what got into me. I thought—”
    â€œThat’s enough, Daniel,” Mom said. “Forget about what you thought you saw in the woods. You’re just making matters worse.”
    â€œBut Mom—”
    Outside, Dad blew the horn, already annoyed.
    â€œI have to leave.” Mom grabbed her purse and fumbled with the zipper on her parka. The horn blew again.
    â€œAll right, all right,” Mom muttered. To me she said, “Find the doll. Erica’s very upset. She cried all night.”
    The door slammed shut, and the van drove away, its tires spraying gravel. I took Erica’s untouched cereal and put our bowls and glasses in the sink. “We have to leave in ten minutes,” I reminded her.
    She nodded, but she didn’t move from the table.
    â€œAren’t you going to brush your teeth?”
    No response. I did what I had to do in the bathroom and returned to find Erica sitting exactly where I’d left her.
    I took her parka and mine off the hook. “Here, put this on.”
    Erica got up slowly and allowed me to help her with her jacket. “You should at least comb your hair,” I told her. “You look terrible.”
    â€œWho cares what I look like?” Erica pulled on her mittens and a knit cap Mom had made for her. “Everyone at school hates me.”
    â€œWhere are your schoolbooks?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    I looked around and saw her book bag on the floor by the front door. From its weight, I knew her books were inside. “Did you do your homework?”
    â€œNo.” Erica slipped the straps over her shoulder and followed me outside. The wind was cold and damp and smelled of winter.
    Silently we walked down the driveway. Now that the trees were bare, we could see farther into the woods, all the way to the road.
    â€œErica,” I said, “did you see anything in the woods? A sort of dark shape, a shadow maybe?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œBut you were sitting on that log, staring into the woods as if you were talking to somebody. And then you got up and walked straight toward whatever it was.”
    She shook her head. “That’s what
you
thought I was doing.”
    â€œWell, what were you doing?”
    â€œNothing.”
    I wanted to shake the truth out of her, but I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and finally said, “You told me you had a secret. Is it something you do in the woods? Someone you see? Or talk to? Do you still hear whispers in the dark?”
    Erica looked at me at last, her pale face closed tight. “A secret is something you don’t tell anyone, Daniel. That’s what it means.”
    â€œDoes Mom know?”
    â€œI just told you. It’s only a secret if you don’t tell anyone.” With that, Erica ran down the driveway ahead of me.
    I picked up a stone and threw it into the woods as far as I could. Thonk. It hit a tree and bounced off. I was frustrated. No matter what I asked, Erica would not give me an answer. Somehow, my seven-year-old sister was getting the best of me.
    I caught up with her at the end of the driveway. Shivering in the wind, we waited silently for the bus. I’d given up talking to her. What was the point?

Eight
    As soon as we boarded the bus, Mrs. Plummer noticed Erica’s mood. “What’s the matter, sweetie? You get up on the wrong side of the bed or something?”
    Or something
, I thought.
    â€œIt’s my doll, Little Erica, you know—the one I told you about. My brother made me leave her in the woods, and now she’s gone.”
    Mrs. Plummer turned around and looked directly at me. “Why on earth did you do something like that?”
    As usual, I was being blamed. “It’s kind of complicated,” I said. “I thought, well, I won’t tell you what I thought. It’s dumb, and you wouldn’t believe me. Let’s just say I made a mistake, and