It was dinnertime. Zach was the last person to reach the dining hall … again. When he got there, Mrs. Lomeier was waiting for him. “Where have you been?” she asked with her piercing snake eyes.
“Mrs. Lomeier, you won’t believe what I just saw out in the woods. Did you see that glowing thing out there?” Zach gasped for breath. Despite being in excellent shape, the brisk air had made it difficult to run.
“Zach, I don’t want to hear it. Come with me.”
“But I swear, there’s something out there!”
Mrs. Lomeier ignored him.
Zach followed her as they walked toward the administration building. “Where are we going?” he asked.
“We’re going to call your mother and tell her about the stunt you pulled on the ropes course.”
Zach’s gait slowed. “You can’t call my mom! She’ll kill me! She’ll probably send me away to live with my dad.”
Mrs. Lomeier turned around to face Zach. She paused, looked at the ground, and then looked at Zach again. Quietly, she replied, “You should have thought about that before you put your life at risk. I’m in charge of all of you. I have a responsibility to inform your mother about that kind of behavior.”
She turned and opened the door to the admin building, waving to Zach to follow her in.
Zach stood his ground, and then spoke softly to himself. “It’s my life. Why can’t I risk it? We don’t control any of it anyway.”
He took a deep breath and clasped his fingers together on top of his baseball hat, helping him warm his chilled, buzzed head. Then he followed Mrs. Lomeier into the building.
When he entered, Mrs. Lomeier was standing in the lobby, her cell phone in her hand. The only other person in the room was the secretary at the information desk. The desks behind her were empty and the lights dim. The secretary’s eyes looked pitifully on Zach.
“Will you give me your phone number please?” Mrs. Lomeier asked.
Zach was a bit surprised. He was sure she would have had it memorized by now. Mrs. Lomeier had made numerous calls to Zach’s mom to discuss his “inappropriate behavior” and his “poor academic effort.” “952-555-9962,” he said.
Mrs. Lomeier dialed the number. It seemed to take an hour to place the call. He grimaced with the “beep” of each button. He could hear the faint ringing from where he stood.
“Mrs. Sutton? This is Patricia Lomeier, Zach’s Science teacher. Yes. I’m calling from Pine Ridge and I wanted to talk to you about Zach’s behavior …”
A small sofa sat near the entrance of the lobby. Zach sat down on it. He listened to Mrs. Lomeier tell his mom about his antics at the rope course.
He was tired of getting into trouble. He was tired of teachers calling his mom. There was a time when things were different. A time before his grades and behavior had slipped, and a time before Chris had disappeared.
Report cards had come out. Zach was in sixth grade. He had received all A’s and B’s. Chris was in fourth grade. His report card had all A’s. Zach’s parents were proud. They would all go out to celebrate at Red Lobster. He and Chris loved the popcorn chicken. As far as Zach was concerned, there was nothing better.
The two boys sat on one side of the booth, their parents on the other. After ordering their food, they held a tic-tac-toe tournament on their napkins—a Sutton family tradition. Chris played against his dad and Zach against his mom. The semifinal matches were a foregone conclusion. Zach and Chris always played in the championship.
Zach went first, strategically placing an X in the center spot. Chris countered with on O directly below the X. The battle seemed endless, carrying on for a good three minutes.
In the end, Zach had won, but Chris had made it clear that if he had gone first and placed his letter in the middle, he would have won. Zach considered it a mere technicality. But he also knew Chris was right. There was no skill involved in tic-tac-toe.
When the food came, Zach and Chris devoured it, while their parents explained to them the schedule for the week. “On Saturday, Zach has baseball practice and Chris has the science fair, so we’ll have to figure out how to juggle that,” their mom said.
“I can bring Zach to practice and afterwards we can come right over to Chris’s fair,” said Zach’s dad.
“You’re in that science fair again?” Zach asked Chris.
“Yeah, I made a little machine that automatically waters your house plants. It works on a timer. Mr. Jensen helped me with it quite a bit.”
“Do I have to go again this year?” Zach asked his parents. “I can see Chris’s invention when he brings it home. I don’t need to go. Those things are always so boring.”
“Chris comes to all your baseball and basketball games. You will go to his science fair,” said Zach’s dad.
Pouting, Zach put his head down and doodled on his napkin. Chris gave no response to Zach’s protest. He simply grabbed a blue crayon and colored in the fish on his kids’ menu.
Zach followed his family out of the restaurant. His mom and dad held hands through the parking lot and Chris, a few paces ahead of him, jumped over each painted parking space line.
Zach was quiet the whole ride home. He stared out the window and thought about all the baseball games Chris had come to. All the times he had cheered him on from the bleachers. Chris had always supported him.
Zach never apologized to Chris for that night.
“Zach … Zach?” Mrs. Lomeier held out her phone. “Your mom would like to talk to you.”
Zach stood up, bracing himself. He took the phone from Mrs. Lomeier. “Hello?”
“What were you thinking? You could have been killed!” His mom was irate. “I am tired of getting these phone calls from your teachers, Zach. Don’t you remember the conversation we had before you went on this trip? Didn’t it mean anything to you?”
“I remember, Mom.”
“So what am I supposed to do about this?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s all you have to say? You don’t know? Maybe we need to revisit it then. Maybe you want to go live with your dad.”
“Mom, do we have to do this right now?”
“We’ll discuss this further when you get home. Don’t get in any more trouble before then, you understand?”
“Yes, I understand.” Zach handed the phone back to Mrs. Lomeier. “Can I go eat now?” he asked.
“I’ll walk you over there.” Mrs. Lomeier said goodbye to Zach’s mom, hung up the phone, and thanked the secretary.
Zach went through the dinner line, remembering that the next night he would be on Kitchen Patrol. He was the last one to get his food, but luckily there was still enough left for him. Logan was sitting with Jenny and Tanya. Adam and Mitch had already finished eating and had gone outside. He sat down next to Logan.
“Where have you been?” asked Logan.
Zach explained how Mrs. Lomeier had called his mom.
“Geez, Zach. Well, you can’t be surprised, right? That was a pretty crazy thing you did out there, even for you.”
“I s’pose.”
“What’s your mom gonna do?” asked Tanya.
“I don’t know. We’re gonna talk about it when I get back. It’s not going to be good though.”
“Two Harbors?” asked Logan nervously.
Jenny and Tanya looked confused. Zach had only told Logan about his mom’s ultimatum. “Don’t know.” Zach quickly changed the subject. “Hey, did any of you see some weird glow in the woods after the ropes course?” he asked.
Logan laughed. “You’re still trying to scare us with that crap?”
“No, I’m serious. Something was out there. It made this creepy knocking sound too.”
“I think you’re seeing things,” said Logan.
An old woman, dressed in a pure white uniform, wearing a hairnet, was wiping down one of the empty tables across the room. Zach had seen her working in the kitchen at other mealtimes. She looked like she had been around Pine Ridge for a while. He wanted answers and he was getting no help from his friends. So, he finished his dinner, put his tray away, and approached the woman.
Zach stood behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.
Startled, she spun her ahead around and dropped her washrag. She had wizened, droopy skin, and a short stocky build.
“Hi … Miranda,” Zach said, looking at her nametag.
“Hi. Can I help you?”
“Yeah. Question for ya.”
“Okay. I’ll see if I can give you an answer.” Her voice was scratchy, as if it had spoken to thousands of kids like Zach over the years.
“Do you know anything about an old pickup truck in the woods? I saw one near the huge staircase, but when I went back to find it again, it was gone.”
Miranda bit her bottom lip and her eyes opened round like a cat’s. “You saw a pickup truck in the woods?”
“Yeah, I did, but I have no idea what happened to it. It’s like it just disappeared.”
“Uhh … well, no. I don’t know anything about a truck. That seems odd.” Miranda fumbled with her speech. She seemed to be searching for an answer.
“Really? You’ve never seen one down in the woods? How about a strange glow in the forest? Ever see anything like that?” Zach decided to press further.
“Uh, son. I’m real sorry, but I have to go finish cleaning the kitchen. Lots of work to do. And I think you need to get to that campfire. Your classmates are already out there. Sorry I couldn’t help you more.” Miranda waddled quickly toward the kitchen. When she reached the kitchen door she paused, turned around, and looked at Zach with the paleness of someone who had just seen a ghost.