Where Secrets Lie by Donna Marie Lanheady Page B

tomorrow when we hike the blue trail. If you like it here, you’re really going to love that. It’s a way bigger pool, and the water’s much deeper. Beau’d be in heaven.”
    “ Sounds like it.”
    “ I always wanted a dog, but my mom is allergic. At least that’s what she says. I think she’s really just allergic to the mess they’d make.”
    Lara laughed. “I think my mom let me get Beau because she felt guilty that I didn’t have any brothers or sisters. Do you have any?”
    “ Yeah, an older sister. She’s cool.”
    “ Does she come to the camp too?”
    “ God no, she’d rather die. She doesn’t like the woods. She says there are too many wild animals that she doesn’t want to come into contact with.”
    “ But you hardly ever see them.”
    “ I know, I’ve told her that, but she won’t budge.
    “ Well, in some ways I don’t blame her. If I thought too much about everything that lives out here, I probably wouldn’t come either.”
    “ Good point.”
    Katie made her way back to the bank.
    “ You ready to get back on the trail?” she asked.
    “ Sure,” Lara said.
    About ten yards down the trail, Katie froze.
    “ Oh my God.”
    “ What’s wrong?”
    “ Look at the size of that snake.”
    Katie backed up until she was standing behind Lara.
    Curled up in the middle of the trail was a black snake about two inches in diameter and at least five feet long. It raised its head while they stared at it.
    “ I thought you weren’t afraid of animals in the woods,” Lara said.
    “ That’s no animal. Animals have fur. That thing has scales and slithers, and I’m not going anywhere near it.”
    “ What are we going to do then?”
    “ You could move it out of the way.”
    “ Me? Why me?”
    “ I thought you weren’t afraid of it.”
    “ That doesn’t mean I want to touch it,” Lara said. “Let’s walk around it.”
    “ I’m not walking within striking distance of that damn thing. It’s big and could reach a long way.”
    “ Do they do that? I thought they wouldn’t bother with you as long as you left them alone.”
    “ That’s what they say, but I’m not taking any chances.”
    The languorous snake uncoiled and moved toward the creek.
    “ Oh good, it’s leaving,” Lara said.
    Once the snake was off the trail, it stopped and looked back at them.
    “ What’s it staring at us for?” Katie asked.
    “ Maybe it’s waiting to see if we’re going to come down the trail.”
    “ It needs to move farther away before I’m doing that.”
    “ It doesn’t look like it wants to.”
    “ Probably too tired digesting its lunch.”
    The snake had a lump in its midsection that was visible now that it was uncoiled.
    “ Maybe it’ll move if we start toward it,” Lara said.
    “ You first.”
    Lara started up the trail, and the snake turned around so it was facing in their direction.
    “ Oh shit, it’s coming back.”
    “ Move away from it,” Katie said.
    Lara did, and the snake stopped moving, but its head was still up, and it was staring at them.
    “ Great,” Lara said and smiled. “Now what?”
    Katie picked up a stick and tossed it near the snake’s tail. The snake moved away from the stick but continued to watch them.
    “ Good,” Katie said. “It just needs a little encouragement.”
    They both looked for sticks and threw them toward the snake’s tail. After they’d thrown a few sticks at it, the snake stopped, raised its tail, and shook it. It made a soft hissing sound.
    “ Is that a rattle?” Lara asked.
    “ No, but it is coming from its tail, isn’t it?”
    “ I think so, but I thought only rattlesnakes did that.”
    “ Me too, but that doesn’t look like a rattlesnake. It doesn’t sound right either.”
    The snake stopped shaking its tail and wasn’t moving.
    “ Maybe there’s a rattlesnake around that we can’t see and the noise wasn’t coming from that snake,” Katie said.
    “ Throw another stick, and see if it does it again.”
    Katie threw a stick