Second Child by John Saul Page A

back—the tide’s taking us out!”
    Teri rolled over and glanced around. “We’re fine. You go back if you want to—I’m going to swim for a while.”
    Melissa hesitated. Did Teri think she was chicken? But then Teri said, “Really—go on back to the beach. I’ll be fine.”
    Still Melissa hesitated. “Okay,” she said. “But come in closer, all right? If the tide pulls you out of the cove—”
    “Then I’ll drown,” Teri finished for her. With a couple of strong strokes, she swam over to Melissa, passed her, then slowed down to let her half sister catch up. When they were in water shallow enough for them to stand up in, Teri paused. “Okay?”
    Melissa nodded, then swam on in to the beach, where she dropped down onto the hot sand, shivering from the freezing water. A moment later Blackie trotted out of the water, bounded over to her and violently shook himself, covering Melissa with an icy spray. Teri, floating on her back again, was bobbing once more on the gentle swells. Melissa watched her for a few minutes, then a flock of sandpipers, skittering along the waterline a few yards up the beach caught her attention. When Blackie dashed off to chase them, Melissa’s concentration shifted from her sister to the frolicking dog. The birds fanned out in front of the lumbering animal, letting him get within a few inches of them before spreading their wings and leaping into the air, wheeling out over the water, only to settle back on the sand an enticing few yards away from the dog. Melissa watched the game for a few minutes before her attention was jerked away by a terrified yell.
    “Help! Someone help me!”
    Melissa leaped to her feet, her eyes scanning the bay. A moment later she saw Teri, fifty yards out now, frantically waving her arms in the air. Melissa gasped, and instinctively ran down to the water, but to the north she saw Brett Van Arsdale already sprinting across the beach. He dived into the water, and launched himself into a powerful crawl that took him out to Teri within less than a minute. Meanwhile Melissa raced down to the beach to join the group that had gathered at the water’s edge, her feelings about the other kids forgotten. Jeff Barnstable was in the water now, too, swimming strongly, but not fast enough to catch up with Brett before he’d reached Teri.
    Almost before it had begun, it was over. Brett, one arm curved around Teri’s chest, was using the other arm in a clumsy backstroke, but after a few moments Teri said something and Brett let her go. Side by side, with Jeff escorting them the last twenty yards, they came back to the beach. Teri, shivering with cold, pulled herself out of the water and dropped onto the sand. Instantly, the small crowd of teenagers surrounded her.
    “Are you all right?” Ellen Stevens asked.
    Teri, gasping, nodded, then spat some saltwater out onto the sand. “Dumb,” she finally managed to say. “I feel so dumb.”
    Kent Fielding knelt down next to her. “What happened?”
    Teri shrugged. “I went out too far. Melissa warned me what would happen, but I guess I didn’t listen. The tide caught me, and I panicked. I thought I was going right out to sea.” She looked up at Brett Van Arsdale, standing a couple of feet away. “Thanks,” she said. “I was so scared—I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there.”
    Brett grinned. “Nothing to it,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m Brett Van Arsdale.”
    Teri scrambled to her feet. “I’m Teri MacIver—Melissa’s half sister.”
    The rest of the kids began introducing themselves to Teri, and soon she was in the midst of the crowd, telling them what had happened. “I was just floating with my eyes closed, almost asleep. And then I decided to look around and see where I was, and I’d gotten so far out, I just panicked. It was really stupid to start screaminglike that, I mean, it’s not like I was drowning or anything.”
    “Well, you might not have been then,”