I sat in my room alone for a few minutes after Sam had left, not sure what to do. I felt as if I had done something wrong, but I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t know who to ask. The idea of calling Sam and asking him why he ran out the door seemed ridiculous. Likewise, I could hardly call Ben and ask him.
After a few moments, I took the box and hid it und
“That is possibly the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” Joshua said as he stepped over. He was talking about the staff, of course. It did look impressive, especially the way that it was glowing now in the darkness of the forest. All of the gems were lit up, and the ruby in the middle was so beautiful as it sparkled there in the dim light.“Thank y
“How was your trip?” I asked my mom, not sitting down at the table with her and Grandma. I was actually starving since I’d been out in the forest all day long and hadn’t eaten anything, but I knew Joshua was waiting on me, too, so I set about making myself a sandwich, hoping I could just take that and some chips up to my room without having to talk too long.
I slid my bedroom window open as quietly as I could and leaned out of it. “Toss it up!” I whisper-shouted to Joshua.Ordinarily, I would not trust myself to catch a sponge ball under these circumstances. I’ve never been the most athletic person and have never played any sports, other than the ones I was forced to play in PE at school. But when Joshua toss
I went to the door and threw it open to find my sister standing there with her arms folded. “What?” I asked her, exhausted, hungry, and ready to be done with my whole family, which was sad since they were leaving the next day. I didn’t want to feel so grumpy, but I did want some privacy.“Who were you talking to?” she demanded, coming into my
My family has gotten very good at packing. Since a lot of the stuff they’d be needing was still in boxes in the garage, when Max got back to the house with the rental moving truck he’d found a few towns over just before noon, Mom and us girls had a lot of it moved out of the garage and positioned near the back porch so we could start loading it in. Max would need to get the bigger stuff himself. I’d asked Sam to come over and help with that, even though we still hadn’t talked about what had happened. He’d agreed to help out. Ben was at work, and Joshua was finishing up those few lawns he had needed to work on.
It took several trips to bring Gray’s boxes downstairs. We made a pile by the truck. By the time we were done, Max and Sam had everything else loaded up and were able to put the boxes right into the truck. Only the suitcases they’d left for the minivan so that they’d know exactly where their toothbrushes and other necessities were when they got to Great Falls remained to be loaded up.
After a couple of hours of meditation, I felt more calm than I had before, though I was still upset at Sam. Or disappointed. Or frustrated. Or something.I decided I’d spent enough time on myself, and it was time to go see if Ben was available to help me test out the staff. At least, with my parents gone, I didn’t have to worry about anyone trying to take
“Where are we?” I asked Ben, staying pretty far back from the edge of the hole.“It’s a quarry,” Ben said. “I thought it would be best to get away from as many life plants and animals, etc. as possible.”