Monster Lake (7 page)

Suddenly there were tears in Terri’s eyes.
She felt smaller than a lima bean right now. She knew her mother
worked hard to keep the house and everything, and the last thing in
the world Terri would ever want to do was disappoint her mother.
All at once, she never felt more ashamed of herself.

“
I’m sorry,” she
sobbed.

tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap

Uncle Chuck seemed to be
cooling down a little now, though. “I want you to understand
something, Terri. When your mother or I tell you to do something,
or in this case, when we tell you
not
to do something, there’s always a
good reason. And the reason is this: we told you not to go to the
boathouse because it’s very dangerous for a girl your age down
there. That pier is old. One of the planks could break, and you
could break your ankle, or worse, you could fall in the water and
drown. And there’s a lot of computers and electrical equipment in
the boathouse; you could get an electrical shock and have to go to
the hospital, or you could even die. Plus, there’s a lot of
chemicals and things in the boathouse that are
dangerous.”

Chemicals.

That reminded Terri of
something.
Those bottles,
she thought.
Those stinky
bottles full of green and yellow gunk…

Was that what Uncle Chuck meant? Those tall,
glass bottles she’d seen on the metal shelves?

“
Anyway,” Uncle Chuck went
on. “You’re going to your room now, and you’re going to spend the
rest of the day there.”

Terri sniffled. “Am I grounded?”

“
I don’t know, that’s up to
your mother, not me. Go on now. Go to your room, and I don’t want
to hear a single peep out of you, do you understand?”

Terri nodded. Then she got up from the
table, her eyes still cast down to the floor, and she went to her
room.

««—»»

Each minute seemed to tick
by like an hour, and suddenly Terri’s room felt like a
prison.
I’ll go nuts cooped up in here all
day long,
she dreaded. Summer was almost
over, and whenever she looked out her window, she could see what a
beautiful day it was, and all that did was depress her even
more.
I could be outside playing badminton
or doing something with Patricia, or—well, anything. Anything’s
better than sitting in my room all day.

And, of course, once Uncle Chuck told her
mother about catching her in the boathouse, she’d probably be
grounded for the next week, or maybe even the next month…

And she didn’t even want to think about
that.

But there were other things—scary
things—that she had no choice but to think about: the toad she’d
seen last night, the giant salamander, and all those other animals
in the back room of the boathouse—all with long, sharp fangs.

Sitting on her bed, Terri
pulled out some of her Golden Nature books. She had the whole
series:
Flowers, Trees, Rocks and
Minerals, Mammals, Birds,
and, the one she
was most interested in now,
Reptiles and
Amphibians.
These were great books that
were informative and easy to read, plus they had lots of pictures;
her father had given her the entire set of books as a Christmas
present several years ago, because Terri had told him that she
wanted to be a zoologist when she was older, just like him and
Mom.

Amphibians,
the book’s introduction began,
are a special kind of animal that include frogs, toads, and
salamanders. Amphibians are cold-blooded, which means that their
body temperature varies with the weather, and they hibernate during
the winter when it’s cold. Amphibians breathe air like most animals
but they are unique because they can live in the water too, because
that is where they lay their eggs, and they need to keep their skin
wet. In fact, that is how amphibians drink water, they absorb it
through their skin. Amphibians eat insects, moths, and
worms…

Terri already knew this; she quickly turned
through the pages to “Toads.” She wanted to double-check her facts.
Maybe there were some rare kinds of toads that had fangs and ate
animals instead of insects and worms.

The book also told about how toads laid eggs
in ponds and fresh-water lakes—sometimes they laid as many as
20,000 eggs at a time—and that they slept during the day and only
came out at night to feed. Terri already knew all about this too;
this wasn’t the information she was looking for.

But then—

I knew it,
she thought.

The book plainly stated
that toads, however rare, had no teeth; instead, they had big,
sticky tongues which shot out of their mouths to catch insects to
eat. And the book also stated that American toads never grew larger
than six inches long. The toad she’d seen last night was over
a
foot
long! And
so were the ones she’d seen in the glass tanks when she’d snuck
into the backroom at the boathouse.

Then she turned to the
“Salamanders” chapter and discovered the same thing.
Salamanders
never
grew to be more than ten or so inches long, and Terri was sure
the one she and Patricia had seen on the pier was easily three-feet
in length, and the ones she’d seen in the glass tanks were huge
too. And salamanders didn’t have teeth or fangs either. Like toads
and frogs and all other amphibians, salamanders ate insects. In
fact there was a special word for that, Terri noted. According to
the book, toads, frogs, and salamanders were called
insectivores
, which meant
that they only ate insects and worms.

But the toad I saw last
night,
she felt certain,
was trying to eat that baby rabbit. And rabbits
definitely aren’t insects! They’re mammals!

All these things, all these facts and
details, only mystified Terri more. And she knew now that there was
no way her eyes could have been playing tricks on her. Patricia had
seen the salamander too.

Terri didn’t know
what
to do.

She wished she could call Patricia, but how
could she? Uncle Chuck had confined her to her room all day, and he
was in the house.

clack!

Terri glanced up. The sound she’d just heard
was familiar, and after a moment’s thought, she knew what it
was.

It was the sound of the back sliding door
closing.

She went quickly to her bedroom window,
which faced the back yard, and she saw—

What’s he doing?
she wondered.

Her Uncle Chuck was walking across the
yard.

Maybe he’s going to mow
the grass,
Terri considered, but that
couldn’t be, could it? He’d have to go out front to the garage
first, because that’s where they kept the lawnmower.

But then Terri saw what he was doing.

He had a briefcase in his hand, like one of
the briefcases she saw him and her mother bring home every day…

So that’s where he’s
going,
she noticed next.

Uncle Chuck was walking toward the path,
then entering the path, then disappearing into it between the
trees.

The path that led down to the lake, and to
the boathouse.

And that gave Terri an idea…

««—»»

You’re in enough trouble
as it is,
Terri reminded herself.
You must be crazy to take a chance like
this.

But she couldn’t help it; this was an
opportunity she wouldn’t have otherwise.

Still peering out her bedroom window, she
waited a few minutes, to give Uncle Chuck plenty of time to get
down to the lake.

Then she left her room.

She had to be quick. Getting caught out of
her room would get her in more trouble than she could even think
about.

But she had to call Patricia.

She moved quickly yet quietly, back into the
kitchen, keeping an eye on the big glass pane of the back sliding
door so she could see if Uncle Chuck was coming back up to the
house.

No sign of him.

She snatched up the phone and dialed
Patricia’s number as quickly as she could—

beep-beep-beep

It was busy.

She hung up and decided to wait a few
minutes, keeping her eyes glued to the path entrance in the back
yard. She had no idea how long he’d be down there. Sometimes he
worked in the boathouse with her mother for hours on end, and
sometimes he went down there by himself for hours too. But, then
again—

Maybe he’s only going down
there for a few minutes,
Terri
considered.
To check some notes or
something. Or…

Here was another thought.

Maybe he’s going to the boathouse to check
up behind me, to see if I touched anything, or broke anything.

But if that were the case, then why would he
be taking the briefcase with him? The fact that he was carrying the
briefcase seemed like a pretty good sign that he’d be down there
for a while, probably several hours, as usual.

Terri scratched her chin. Another thought
occurred to her. Yes, Uncle Chuck definitely caught her in the
boathouse, but only in the front room. She had gotten the door to
the back room closed before he’d seen her. Which meant:

He doesn’t know that I was
even in the back room,
she guessed.
So that means he doesn’t know that I saw those
glass tanks with all the big toads and salamanders in them, or
those bottles of gunk, or that trapdoor on the floor with the
padlock on it.

And there was one more thing. Uncle Chuck
had never asked her how she was able to get into the boathouse in
the first place, had he? No, Terri was sure he hadn’t, and that
seemed pretty absent-minded of him. Usually, adults always asked
about every little detail.

These questions itched at her, along with
many others. But her biggest question for the moment was this:

What’s Mom going to say when she finds out I
was in the boathouse?

But Terri pushed these questions aside, at
least for the time being. She would have to worry about them later.
Right now, though, her goal was to call Patricia.

Terri glanced out at the path entrance
again, and didn’t see any sign of Uncle Chuck. Then she picked up
the phone and redialed Patricia’s number.

It’s ringing!
Terri thought.

A woman answered, Patricia’s mother.
“Hello?”

“
Hi,” Terri said. “May I
please speak to Patricia?”

But suddenly Patricia’s mother sounded very
upset, like something awful had happened. “Patricia’s not here
right now,” she said, her voice shaking. “She—oh, the poor
thing!”

“
What?” Terri asked. “What
happened?”

“
Patricia had to go to the
hospital—”

««—»»

The hospital!

Terri couldn’t believe it; she felt crushed.
Patricia was in the hospital! When Terri asked Patricia’s mother
exactly what had happened, her mother said she wasn’t sure. “She
got cut very badly,” Patricia’s mother had said over the phone,
still very upset. “She has to get stitches.”

And that was all Patricia’s mother had said;
she had to hang up quickly because she was expecting her husband to
call from the hospital, and she didn’t want to tie up the phone
line.

Terri went back to her room and sat glumly
on the bed. With all the bad things that had happened lately—now
this. Would it ever end? For the last year, it seemed, nothing good
had happened. First, her parents’ divorce, her father moving away.
Then the strange way her mother had been acting, and all the extra
hours she had to work, and Uncle Chuck too. Then the big toad with
teeth, and the salamander, the strange glass tanks she’d seen in
the boathouse, and all the other weird things that had been going
on. And now this—

Terri’s best friend had gotten hurt and was
in the hospital to get stitches…

It’s not fair,
Terri thought.
Sometimes
the world just isn’t fair at all…

She stayed in her room the rest of the day,
as Uncle Chuck had ordered. All she could do was worry about
Patricia. But she’d been right about Uncle Chuck. She sat looking
out her bedroom window for the entire afternoon, keeping her gaze
trained on the backyard. As expected, hours later, Uncle Chuck had
trudged back up to the house, toting his briefcase. He’d spent most
of the day working down at the boathouse.

And what bothered Terri
most was that her mother and uncle
must
know about the giant, fanged
toads and salamanders because they had so many of them in those
glass tanks she’d discovered in that locked back room.

Terri strained her mind to think of a reason
for this. The only thing she could guess was that her mother’s
zoology laboratory must have discovered some new kind of toad and
salamander that were unknown to the world until now, and that’s why
they had so many of them in those glass tanks: to study them and do
research on them. And some of the toads and salamanders must have
gotten out of their tanks somehow and gotten into the lake.

That would explain the
toads I saw in the back yard last night,
Terri guessed.
And the huge
salamander Patricia and I saw on the pier this morning…

She only wished she could
find out more, but how could she? Once her mother got home from
work—and Uncle Chuck told her about how Terri had snuck into the
boathouse—she’d probably be grounded.
There’s no way I’ll be able to get into the boathouse
again,
she realized, and if there was one
thing she knew, it was this: