• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Jackson swallowed.

One…two…three.

Josh yanked him, hard.

Jackson couldn’t stand on his wobbly legs. Josh held him upright.

“Thank you,” Jackson stammered. His heart beat wildly in his chest.

“Have you found your stone yet?” Josh asked.

“Um…maybe? I thought I had, but…” he trailed off.

Josh nodded.

“I’ll see you at the finish line,” he said. And he left, climbing effortlessly up the cliff.

You’d think there would be more conversation here. That Josh would stay and answer the many questions that Jackson might have. But when you face death, death that you know is coming whether you like it or not, and then it doesn’t happen, you don’t talk much. So Jackson really had nothing to say. His mind was void of questions. All he could think was…

Meeka didn’t die.

Chapter 58

In Which There Is a Great Deal of Dancing

Jackson staggered down the path alongside the cliff and climbed to the bottom when…

“Gaagh! Ger off!” he gagged.

Meeka loosened her grip a little from his neck.

“Oh, Jackson! Thank you! You saved my life!” she squeaked as she danced around.

Jackson shook her off, trying to regain his balance. “Meeka…MEEKA! What were you doing up on that cliff?”

Meeka stopped dancing, her hair wild in her face. “Well, you dropped your satchel, and I thought you might miss it, so I went after it.”

“You were following me?” Jackson asked incredulously.

Meeka shrugged, casually pushing the hair off her face.

“I almost died! You almost died! Are you crazy?” he yelled.

“But I didn’t! And you didn’t! So it’s okay!” And she danced again.

Jackson looked at her in disbelief. “But you could have!”

“But I didn’t!” Meeka twirled even faster.

She spun right into a tree. She fell down, laughing. Jackson looked back at the waterfall, blinking in amazement and confusion. Its menacing churning splashes waved at him. Not literally, of course. Water can’t wave at you; it just has waves. Oh, never mind.

Meeka grabbed Jackson’s hands and twirled him.

“Meeka, STOP it!” Jackson shouted and he yanked his hands from hers. Meeka looked at Jackson, surprised, and then she twirled off.

Jackson picked up his soggy bag from the ground. It was ruined. The strap was ripped. It was very, very heavy. He opened it and turned it upside down to empty it. The contents fell to the ground with a big splash.

There was the Book.

Jackson paused for a moment and then picked up the Book. The pages were thick with water. He peeled open the first page. The writing was smudged.

It was ruined.

He carefully peeled back another page.

Smudged.

Next page?

Smudged as well.

Next page?

You guessed it.

Jackson sighed bitterly. He dropped to the ground, leaning uncomfortably against a dead spruce. He looked around dispassionately. (Dispassion is when you have no passion. Like when your mom tells you you’re having leftovers…again. What’s your emotion? Dispassion.)

Meeka twirled about, kicking up bits of dust in the air as she spun. And then she fell over from dizziness. She giggled a little and then just lay there quietly, looking up into the sky. She hummed something indistinct. Jackson turned another sticky-wet page in his book. He couldn’t make out any of the words.

What had they said before? He couldn’t remember. It didn’t matter anymore. If the words were important, he would have remembered, wouldn’t he? His heart felt…empty.

He felt empty.

Jackson lay down and stared at the sky. His body was so tired. His head hurt, his chest hurt, and he was getting hot again. Jackson placed the Book over his face covering his eyes from the glare. And within a moment, he was asleep.

Chapter 59

In Which Meeka Is Bossy

Jackson! Jackson!”

Jackson opened his eyes to darkness. He pulled the Book off his face and squinted in the bright sun. He was groggy. And tired. He felt strangely sad. And still empty.

“Jackson, we have to finish the Tour,” Meeka said worriedly.

Jackson looked at his watch. It was five in the morning. Five in the morning. He didn’t care. He put the Book back over his eyes. Quiet, darkness…ah, much better.

Wait a minute!