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“He may have made a chart,” said Brian. “And hid it somewhere. Separate from the log. Or maybe a page of the log got torn out. Dunno. We’ll have to go back to the cabin. It’s at least a place to start looking.” He took a breath. “And I’d rather talk to the axe man than the monster. I don’t see a lot of other options.”
Coco said, after a pause, “Neither do I. Unfortunately.”
They gathered around their dying fire. Phil had already thrown on the final log; their wood had lasted the night, just, but they didn’t have any for another night. They were all exhausted, pinched-pale with cold. Coco’s teeth were chattering continually now, even though they’d all slept piled like puppies, uncomfortably, so near the fire that smoke stung their eyes and noses, and wrapped as best they could be in one emergency blanket. All three of their faces were smudged with soot.
Ollie’s dad said ruefully, “Water and granola bars for breakfast, Ollie-pop. I wish it were pancakes.”
“Piney iodine water,” said Ollie, and smiled at him. “I don’t mind.”
Ollie, Brian thought. You look sad. Happy and sad. Why?
The silence from the forest was thick and heavy. But not, Brian thought, empty. He wondered what was going to happen.
“Ollie,” said her dad softly. “You’re as brave as your mother.”
Ollie’s smile was the first real one Brian had seen from his friend in a while. “No way,” she said. “No one’s as brave as Mom.”
“Nope, no one else in the world,” said her dad, weirdly serious. “Except you.”
Ollie smiled. But she also glanced down at her watch, turning her hand just enough that Brian could read the word, there and gone on the watch face.
dont, the watch said.
Ollie, what are you up to?
* * *
—
The kids had to convince the adults that no, really, we don’t think a boat is coming. Ms. Zintner took some convincing.
“Mom,” said Coco, while Mr. Adler, the good camper, carefully smothered the last of the fire with rocks and dirt. “Sheehan and the people from the Goblin couldn’t get a boat to pick them up. And they were here for months.”
“But that was over two hundred years ago,” her mom pointed out, not unreasonably. “The lake has changed a bit since then, you know.”
“Yeah,” said Coco. “But no one saw the smoke signal yesterday or our fire last night. Just like no one saw the signals from the survivors of the Goblin. Maybe—there might be—an atmospheric condition that makes this island hard to see. If there’s a boat on this island, it’s better to go look for it than just wait. We don’t have enough firewood for tonight, anyway. Or food.” She sounded certain, and fierce.
Ms. Zintner eyed her daughter as though seeing her for the first time. “Coco,” she said, sounding a little puzzled. “You’ve grown up a lot this year.”
Coco looked surprised.
“All of you have,” put in Ollie’s dad, looking up from the remains of their campfire. “We were so worried about how all of you had changed that we didn’t stop to celebrate you growing up. Zelda, I think we should trust them. Kids, what do you think we should do?”
It had never occurred to Brian that all the terrifying things—the corn maze, the scarecrows, Mother Hemlock’s malevolent face, and the smiling man—were anything but bad. Well, they were. But since a
ll that had happened to him, he trusted himself more. He trusted his friends more. He could make a hard decision; he could do a dangerous thing. He could keep going even though he was afraid. That wasn’t nothing.
He said, “I think we should try to find the boat.”
The grown-ups looked at each other.
“Yeah,” said Coco. “Let’s find the boat.”
They collected as much of their stuff as they could. The emergency kit, the first aid kit. They had a couple of granola bars left, but that was all. The empty water bottle was a bigger worry, though. Dehydration would get them much sooner than being hungry. Brian wondered if that was how the snake had gotten some of the crew of the Goblin. Once they’d made it harder for the snake to hunt from trees, it just lurked in the water like a crocodile. Waiting.
Phil said, “I don’t remember how to get to the cabin. Do you?”
Brian said, “I think I do.” He hoped he did. How big could the island be?
