I lifted my head and looked around. I was two houses from the spot where I’d gone into the forest. That was it. I’d run for what felt like hours, and I’d barely traveled a hundred feet.
I blinked and looked around. Then I smiled.
I’d done it. I’d solved the mystery. I’d survived. I hadn’t lost my way, and I had survived.
When I could breathe again, I rose and brushed off my jeans. Then I fetched my bag of candy from two yards down and went home.
Thenext morning at school, I waited for kids to discover that no one had disappeared the night before. It might take a while, but kids would talk, as they always did. They’d whisper until they figured out that no one had an empty chair in his class.
It wasn’t until after school that one of my friends caught up with me and said, “Did you hear about Richie?”
I looked over sharply. “Richie Gibson?”
“Yeah. Poor kid. He’s the one.”
“The one…”
“From last night. The one who disappeared.”
Afterschool, I walked into the kitchen to find my mother chopping onions. Or that was what I thought she was doing. Her eyes were red. Nose red, too. Her hands trembled as she chopped.
“Here, let me,” I said, and she jumped, knife flying up, as if under attack. She saw me and quickly lowered it. Then she returned to her work, and I saw she was only chopping walnuts.
“Is everything all right?” I asked.
She said nothing, just kept chopping. I climbed onto my stool. My feet touched the floor now, and the seat felt too small under me, but this was still where I sat, my favorite spot.
“You heard about Richie,” I said.
She tensed.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
No answer.
I shifted on the stool. “He was a good kid.”
“Yes, he was.”
“But he lost his way.”
She resumed chopping. “I guess so.”
“It happens.”
“It does.”
She pulled over the bowl, and as she dropped in the nuts, I saw chocolate chip batter.
I smiled. “My favorite.”
She nodded.
As she stirred, I watched, and there was a long silence before she said, still stirring, “I thought you promised to stay out of the forest.”
“I did.”
Her gaze lifted to mine, and I realized she knew I’d been there last night. That was why she was so upset. Someone had spotted me by the forest.
