Lost on Brier Island (11 page)

They walked for ages without talking. Rachel reached down
as if to pick a flower. Then she stopped and looked back at Alex with a wide smile. “Don't kill the flowers, right?”

“Right.”

Rachel brushed her fingertips over the petals of the flower before straightening up and continuing along the trail.

“What was he like?”

“Who?”

“Your brother. I don't have any brothers or sisters. What was he like?”

Alex walked for a while and thought about Adam. “He was totally different from me,” she finally said.

“I thought you were twins.” Rachel turned around with a puzzled expression.

“Oh, we looked alike.” Alex pulled the folded photo from her pocket and showed it to Rachel. They were side by side, with the same dark, wavy hair and grey eyes.

“He's cute.”

“That was right before he took Dad's electric razor and shaved his head.”

Rachel's laugh tinkled through the air. “Bald?”

“As a bowling ball.” Alex smiled at the memory. “He said the older boys at the skate park all shaved their heads and that it was cool. Mom didn't think so.”

“Did he get in trouble?”

Alex shook her head. “Nope. But he had to let it grow out to a buzz cut.”

“He sounds like fun.”

“Mm-hmm,” Alex nodded. “I remember when I was little and I got my first two-wheel bike. It was dark green and I hated the colour. I wanted purple but they didn't have any. When I went out the next day to ride it, my whole bike was painted purple. Adam snuck into Mom's sewing room and stole her craft paint.”

“Cool.”

“Every bit was covered in different shades of purple—the spokes, the handle bars, the seat…and the floor of the garage.” Alex laughed and swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. “The girls on my street thought it was ugly.”

“Bogs!” Rachel huffed. “It sounds perfect.”

“It was—I loved it. Even when the paint started peeling off.” Alex sighed. “I had forgotten all about that.”
Another perfect memory,
she thought.

They stopped and watched a monarch butterfly flutter around them in a circle. It landed on a tall flower, its wings barely moving.

“Did you do lots of stuff together?” Rachel asked wistfully.

“Sometimes,” Alex said.

“Like what?”

“We used to go exploring behind our house—it was a greenbelt. Adam is…was…a great tree climber.”

“I love to climb trees too,” Rachel said, looking around. “Should we try to find one?”

Alex shook her head.

Rachel looked disappointed as they resumed walking. The landscape was changing. There were fewer trees and the bushes were shorter, more scraggly. Different kinds of plants were lining the path, which had been slowly veering away from the shore. They were now far away from the ocean. Alex could no longer hear the waves.

“Do you live with your mom or your dad?” Alex asked.

“Both.”

“How do you do that?”

“I spend two weeks at Dad's and two weeks at Mom's.”

“Do you go to the same school?” Dad said he was downtown. Did that mean she'd have to go to two different schools now? Maybe he didn't want her with him at all.

“Uh-huh,” Rachel nodded.

“So…do you like one place better than the other?”

Rachel thought for a minute. “Well, Mom and I live in the same house where I always lived. So, I like my room better and everything. But Ren
é
e is nice too, and she and Dad made me a cool room.”

“So it's good, then?”

“It's okay, I guess.” Rachel twirled a twig she'd picked up off the path. “But Mom doesn't like me to talk about how nice Ren
é
e is and she always wants to know weird stuff.”

“Like what?”

“What kind of furniture they have, what jewellery Ren
é
e has, what kind of trips they take, stuff like that.”

Alex shrugged. That was weird.

“Will they ever get back together?”

Rachel sighed and shook her head. “I don't think so. Ren
é
e is going to have a baby—a girl.”

“So you'll have a sister?”

“Yeah, but she'll only be small. It's not like I'll be able to do anything with her. I'll be way too old by the time she can climb a tree.”

“Oh, right.”

Long, grassy stalks brushed their legs, the path narrower as they strolled slowly along.

“They're moving my room so they can have the nursery next to theirs.” The twig snapped in Rachel's hands.

“Oh.”

“Forget what I said before.” Rachel tossed the twigs into the tall grass. “Divorce stinks.”

What if Alex's dad got married again and had another baby? Or her mom got a boyfriend she didn't like? Or they moved away? Nausea swirled inside her.

They walked for a bit longer and came to a big, flat boulder. Rachel and Alex sat cross-legged and shared sips from Alex's bottle of water.

The fog had edged closer, like it was following them.

“Can I ask you something?” Rachel asked.

Alex glanced at her. “Haven't you been already?”

“It's kind of serious.”

“I don't know…I guess.”

“It's about your brother's accident.” Rachel leaned forward.

Alex bit her lip. The skate park flashed in front of her eyes…
Watch this, sis…

“Sorry, you don't have to.”

“I can't.” With Adam and now her parents, her whole world had turned into a nightmare. It was hard to talk about. It made it more real somehow.

“Never mind.” Rachel jumped up and grabbed Alex's hand. “C'mon.”

Rachel dragged her through the grass into the middle of the sea of wildflowers until they found a patch that was flat and open. “Close your eyes.”

“No way.” Alex thought Rachel had gone totally nutty.

Rachel snorted and placed her hands on her hips. “Close your eyes.”

“Fine.”

“What do you hear?”

“You, talking like always.”

“Stop kidding!” Rachel poked her in the arm. “Concentrate—what do you hear?”

“Nothing? I don't know…the wind through the grass, I guess.”

“What else?”

Alex focused on the sounds around her. “I hear bees
,
a bird chirping, and…no, wait, different kinds of birds…and peepers—I hear peeper frogs.”

“Cool, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Now keep your eyes closed.”

Alex felt Rachel's hands grab hers and pull. Alex didn't resist, and spun around with her. Soon, they were whirling in circles.

“I have my eyes closed too,” Rachel squealed. “It's fun, huh?”

Alex felt lightheaded and floaty. It was kind of silly—like being a little kid again.

Laughing, they both stopped at the same time, wobbling from side to side. “Ooooh, I feel dizzy,” Alex said.

“Me too.”

Alex opened her eyes and gasped. She couldn't see anything. They had been totally engulfed in white, just like on the whale watch. The fog had snuck up and captured them.

“Uh-oh!” Alex said.

“What's wrong?” Rachel still had her eyes closed and was giggling as she staggered around in a circle.

“Open your eyes.”

“It's not as much fun if you do that.” Rachel plunked down on the grass.

“We've got a problem.”

“You have to go to the bathroom? Just go. I won't watch.”

“It's not that!”

“So, what else—oh!” Rachel opened her eyes and gasped.

Alex sat down. The icy fingers of fog brushed against her skin, making her shiver. She rubbed her goosebump-covered arms.

“I can't see anything,” Rachel whispered.

“Me neither.”

It was pretty creepy. Barely a few feet in any direction were visible. What else was hidden out there, just out of sight?

“How are we going to get home, Alex?”

“Jeez, you're asking
me
? You're the one that's been here before. You tell me!”

Rachel gaped at Alex, her eyes huge. “Yeah, for a few weeks last summer. But I was mostly on the boat with Gus or around his house. He lives on the other side of the island. Over here, I've only been as far as the lighthouse.” She looked wildly around her. “And there was no fog! It's like trying to find your way in the dark! I'm scared of the dark. I have a nightlight!”

“Okay, okay, take it easy. Remember on the whale watch before? The fog moves around a lot. It'll probably be gone in a few minutes.”

“You think so?” Rachel's voice sounded relieved.

“Sure,” Alex said.

They stared at the thick white wall. Every few minutes, Alex would be convinced it had moved—something within the fog would shift. But it must have been her eyes playing tricks on her. Nothing more became visible beyond their same small circle.

Rachel was sighing more loudly by the minute. “Alex…it's not moving!”

“Be patient. It will.”

“When? I'm f-freezing!” Rachel griped through chattering teeth.

Alex pulled her bag off her shoulder and looked inside. “Here, take my jacket.”

“Don't you want it?”

“We can take turns. You go first.”

Rachel quickly thrust her arms into the jacket and wrapped it tightly around her. “Oh, thanks,” she sighed. “This feels better.”

Trying to take her mind away from her own freezing limbs, Alex dug through the rest of her pack. She found one of Eva's scones wrapped in a paper bag from the other day. It was squished flat, but it would still taste good. It might come in handy later. Stuffed at the bottom was the book on Brier Island plus the map that her aunt had given her.

They smoothed the map out and looked at the various trails. “Which one were we on?” Alex asked, tracing her finger along the shore. “The dotted lines here are marked as hiking trails.”

“Your Aunt Sophie's is by the lodge, and that's here,” Rachel pointed.

“Right, so we were at the northern lighthouse, then…up here?”

Rachel stared into the fog. “Yeah, and then we walked along the ocean trail for a bit. But then we came into the meadow, remember?”

“So which trail are we on now?” Alex studied the several dotted trails that zigzagged across the map of the island.

“I don't know,” Rachel said. “Maybe this one…it comes away from the shore, see? That's what we did.”

“We'll just have to find that same trail, that's all.”

“But we were spinning in circles with our eyes closed…”

Alex could hear the thud of her heart pounding in the stillness. “So…we don't know which direction will take us back to the ocean, do we?”

“Does it matter? I mean, we can't stay here…what if the fog never leaves?”

Alex didn't know what to do. What if they went farther towards the centre of the island? They could get even more lost. Anxiety rippled through her. She tried to calm her breathing and listen, like they had done before when they played the game. She tried, but she couldn't hear the ocean, just the peepers and birds.

“What are we going to do?”

“Why are you asking me? I don't know!” Alex snapped.

“Sorry,” Rachel said. “I thought you'd know what to do. You know, since you used to explore with your brother.”

“Adam was the explorer, not me,” Alex said, softening her voice. “He always decided where to go. I just followed.” She wished he were there now. He'd take charge and blaze on through the fog or whatever else was in their way.

“Oh.”

Alex sighed. What were they going to do?

“Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking…” Rachel tilted her head and stared into the white.

“About what?”

“Do you think it's like this in heaven? You know, all misty, like living inside a cloud?”

Heaven? The strange feeling returned that there was something hovering out there, just beyond her reach. Sh
e wished it was heaven—then she could see Adam. It would be amazing to be with him again, to hear his laugh. She wouldn't even mind if he teased her.

“Or maybe it's more like sitting on top of the puffy clouds with the sun shining down…you know, like that cream cheese commercial.”

Cream cheese? Alex blinked, the spell broken. “Maybe we should just start walking.”

“Okay.” Rachel stood up. She lifted her foot to take a step, but then stopped.

“What's wrong?”

“Which way?”

“Um.” How was she supposed to know? Alex examined the flattened grass around them. One little part by her feet looked a bit more trampled—maybe. “I guess this could be a trail.”

“Ooh, I think you're right. You're awesome!” Rachel grabbed her hand. “You lead.”

Sucked back into the swirling wind that was Rachel, Alex tentatively led the way through the wall of white.

It seemed to be a path, for a while. Long grass leaned across the narrow clearing as they slowly made their way over the terrain. But the fog was not cooperating at all. It seemed to be getting thicker, if anything.

Alex kept listening, hoping for the sound of ocean waves, but couldn't hear anything above the constant thump of her heart banging against her ribs. Rachel's comment about heaven kept popping back into her head. Maybe he was with her. The swirling white brushed past
her like a ghostly whisper.

They'd been walking for ages, and the ground began to feel different under Alex's feet. It was soft and spongy. Did that mean they were close to the ocean? It couldn't. That path had been hard and dry.

“Ew, yuck,” Rachel said. “The ground is all squishy!”

“That's odd, it wasn't wet before,” Alex said. She looked down, feeling water seep into her sneakers.

“It's covering my shoes!” Rachel cried.

“Stop!”

Rachel froze. The fog chose that moment to drift away from them, widening their circle of vision. Nothing looked familiar. Even the grasses and plants looked a bit different. She was sure they hadn't been this way before.

Alex turned back the way they had come. What she had thought was a path before definitely didn't look like one now. She stared down at her map, her eyes drifting away from the coastline to the centre of the island. If they hadn't found the coastline by now, they must have been going in the wrong direction.

Alex squinted at the markings in the middle of the island map. They looked like sprigs of grass. She compared them to her aunt's hand-drawn legend along the side. It was the symbol for a bog. A bog? Bogs were full of water, weren't they? Water—which was now brimming over the tops of her toes. She was sinking.

Rachel yelped.

Alex looked up from the map. Rachel was already up to her ankles in water. Frantically, Alex scanned their surroundings. There was a small bare patch of ground that wasn't covered in the spongy material they were sinking into.

“Grab my hand,” she said. Tugging Rachel sideways, she jumped towards the bare ground. Then she stumbled as Rachel yanked her back.

“What?” she cried.

Rachel whimpered. “I'm stuck.”

Alex reached for Rachel's other hand. “Can you pull one of your legs free?”

“Get me out!”

“Stop squirming around—you're making it worse.” Alex watched in horror as Rachel sank up to her calves.

“I'm going to get sucked under!” she screamed.

“RACHEL!” Alex bellowed.

Rachel froze, staring at her with frightened eyes.

“I'll get you out, just calm down. Okay?”

Rachel nodded.

“Can you pull one of your legs out?”

“I don't think so.”

“Try, okay? And I'll pull at the same time.”

Rachel nodded again.

“Okay—one, two, three, pull!” Alex yanked on Rachel's arms as hard as she could. There was a loud squelching noise and Rachel toppled forward. Alex quickly dragged her to the small patch of earth.

Rachel threw her arms around Alex's neck. “You saved my life!”

“Hold on!” Alex said. She got back up and tested the surrounding ground with her feet. It seemed solid enough. And it was dry. “Okay, I think we're safe for now. What is that spongy stuff?”

“I think it's the stuff that grows in bogs. It's got some bizarre name.” Rachel said, picking leaves and grass from her bare, wet legs. “Just our luck, getting stuck in a bog! At least my shoes stayed on!”

“Those strange flowers are growing out of it too.” Alex pointed to stalks of tall, fleshy, purple and green plants. “They're everywhere.”

“When I came here before, I was only on the paths on the other side of the island, but I think that a few of the bogs are bigger, part of some nature reserve.”

“Maybe it's in Aunt Sophie's book. That might help us find out where we are exactly.” Alex sat cross-legged on the ground and pulled out the plant book. Flipping quickly through the pages, she stopped at a photo of the flowers. “Here—those purple fleshy things are called pitcher plants.”

“Oh, I didn't know what they were called.”

“And it says they live in bogs in that green spongy goop. It's called sphagnum moss. And it only grows in bogs too. Rats! I was hoping it was just a little patch of something.”

“Is this one of the big bogs?” Rachel asked, looking around her with dismay.

“I don't know. There is one that looks sort of big on the map. And there are no paths through it.”

“We'll drown!”

“It's not like a lake or anything. It can't be that deep.” Alex looked at the pools of water surrounding them. How deep
was
the water? The book didn't say. She looked back at the map. She hoped they weren't around Big Pond—it looked like a big stretch of water on the map, so it would likely be deep. But that was on the other side of the island. They couldn't have walked that far. Her heart flipped again. “Anyway, you can swim, right?”

“What good is that going to do if we get sucked into that mossy stuff? It'll be like quicksand!”

The moss was everywhere. Alex got one long look at it before the fog dropped back down over them like a curtain. “I guess we're not going anywhere,” she whispered.