Monster Lake by Edward Lee Page A

She’d dialed Patricia’s number right after breakfast,
remembering their plans to go to the town library.
    “ What’s wrong?” Terri
asked. “Is it her knee?”
    “ No, we don’t know what’s
wrong with her,” Patricia’s mother worriedly replied. “We couldn’t
get her out of bed this morning. We think she may have come down
with the flu. The doctor’s coming over shortly. Why don’t you call
back this afternoon? Maybe she’ll be feeling better
then.”
    “ Okay,” Terri said.
“’Bye.”
    Terri hung up, raising an
eyebrow. That’s funny, she thought. Yesterday Patricia had had to go to the hospital
to get stitches in her knee, and today she’d caught the flu. She didn’t look sick when I saw her last night.
She looked fine.
    Oh, well. There was nothing Terri could do
about it. She hoped Patricia would get better soon, but it was
still disappointing because Terri was looking forward to going to
the library with her today, to find out more about those words.
Now, she’d have to go by herself.
    “ Hi, honey,” her mother
said, walking into the kitchen.
    “ Hi, Mom,” Terri replied
but then paused. Her mother was dressed in jeans and an old blouse,
not one of the usual dresses she wore to work. “How come you’re
dressed like that, Mom?”
    “ Oh, I guess I forgot to
tell you, but I won’t be going to work today.”
    “ Your mother’s taking the
day off, Terri,” her Uncle Chuck said, coming into the kitchen
himself. “But we’ll both be working down in the boathouse most of
the day.”
    As usual, Terri thought.
    “ It’s for that special
project I’ve told you about,” her mother added.
    Yeah, right, Terri thought sarcastically. “What kind of project
is it, exactly?” she asked.
    Uncle Chuck and her mother looked at each
other, as they had many times in the past.
    Like they were hiding something.
    “ Never you mind about
that,” her uncle cut in. “It’s complicated stuff that you wouldn’t
understand. Say, aren’t you going to the library with Patricia
today?”
    “ No, I’ll have to go by
myself,” Terri said. “Patricia’s got the flu.”
    “ Oh, that’s too bad,” her
mother said. “We’ll get pizza tonight for sure, okay?”
    “ Great!” Terri said
enthusiastically. It would be the first time in months that they’d
had dinner together.
    “ Well, have fun at the
library,” Uncle Chuck said. “Remember to be home before dinner
time.”
    “ Okay,” Terri
said.
    Then her mother and uncle, both toting the
familiar black briefcases, went out the back sliding door and
walked down to the boathouse.
    Terri frowned after them. Why would her
mother be taking a day off work only to spend the entire day
working with Uncle Chuck in the boathouse? And it was weird the way
Uncle Chuck had cut Terri off when she’d asked about this “special
project.”
    Things are just getting
weirder and weirder, Terri thought. But at
least there was one good thing: they’d be having pizza together
tonight, and that was something they hadn’t done in a long time. It
would make things feel more like a family for a change.
    She took her piece of notebook paper and
left the house, walking down the street. The day was so
beautiful—bright, warm, and sunny—it was hard to believe how weird
things seemed at night, how unreal and scary.
    It didn’t take her long to get to the town
library; it was just a short walk. The air-conditioning momentarily
chilled her when she entered the narrow-windowed, gray-brick
building. It didn’t look like many people were here right now,
probably because it was still pretty early. Mr. Seymour, the
librarian, said hello to her when she passed by the check-out desk.
Terri returned the greeting and went on her way. One of the
library’s wings, called the Natural Science Wing, was devoted
completely to science, zoology, and biology books, and this was
definitely where she’d be able to find out more about the words
she’d found in her uncle’s