Wild Rescue (6 page)

Chapter 20

Soon it seemed everyone was whining
about being stuck here. Some waved their soggy swimsuits.

“Come on! Let us go!”

Mr. Scarberry stood on a table and announced that Hayley was missing. “No one’s going anywhere until we find her.”

Some flute players gathered around Ashley, but Liz and Denise didn’t join them. I found them at the back of the meeting area and was about to point them out to Giraffe Girl when an alarm sounded and the loudspeaker system came to life, paging Hayley Henderson throughout the whole complex.

Rumors spread like dust bunnies under my bed. Someone heard Hayley had been led away by a stranger. Another said a police helicopter chase was under way. A third said she had drowned in one of the water rides.

Ashley grew pale. I’d never seen her this worried.

Then another call came over a nearby security guard’s radio. “We’ve found something.”

Chapter 21

My heart nearly burst through my rib cage.
What in the world did “something” mean, and why didn’t they say they’d found “her”?

Bryce put his arm around me as Mr. Scarberry and the chief of security ran off. The wait was killing me, and all I could do was pray.

Finally I saw Mr. Scarberry’s grim face through the crowd and beside him, Hayley. Her eyes were red and her lips trembled.

Everybody just stared.

I ran and hugged her. “Where’d you go?”

“When that girl told me you were hurt, I forgot the rules. The ambulance didn’t come, and I tried to get back in, but I was stuck outside the big fence. When they called my name over the loudspeaker I just about lost it. I knew Mr. Scarberry would be furious.”

I looked at Liz and Denise. Since Giraffe Girl had left, they had come out of hiding. “They’re so mean,” I said.

Everybody whooped when Mr. Scarberry announced that we would stick with our schedule and stay until 9 p.m.

Duncan held out a stuffed unicorn with pink rings around its horn and wearing purple shoes. “Hayley, would you like this?”

“I’d love it,” she said.

Duncan smiled and walked off.

I took a deep breath and let it out. I was actually jealous of Hayley, in spite of what she’d been through. It would have almost been worth it to get a gift—or even the time of day—from Duncan.

Skeeter Messler brought me a green ring with a spider on top. “I won it for you,” he said.

I wondered how much money he’d dropped down the skee-ball slot for that worthless piece of plastic. “Thanks.”

Mr. Scarberry turned to Hayley and me. “You two stick with me the rest of the evening.”

“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to just wait on the bus,” I said.

“Me too,” Hayley said.

Chapter 22

Toby and I went down the Toilet again
and were still drenched at the end of the night. There was no way a kid this much fun could have a thief for a father.

Sam picked us up and just shook his head when he heard the story. He handed me a police report from the local paper. I read:

A Red Rock woman returned from a short vacation to find several valuable items missing from her jewelry box. There were no signs of forced entry, and the woman said no one else has a key to her house.

“Same MO as with Mrs. Watson,” Sam said.

“MO?”

“
Modus
operandi
. Latin for ‘mode of operation.’ It means how they do it.”

“Does this mean we can’t go on a vacation this summer?” Ashley said.

“No, it means you two have to figure out who’s doing this before we go.”

Chapter 23

I was so tired
I couldn’t hold my eyes open. But as soon as I got in bed I started thinking about Liz and Denise, and my eyes popped like gourmet Orville Redenbacher’s. I lit my candle and tried to write in my diary, but all I could write was
I hate them!
over and over.

I looked for a verse that would help, but I have to admit I was hoping for something like, “If people mistreat you, put poison ivy in their backpacks” or “If someone causes you heartache and trouble, make them pay.”

What I did find was a place in Matthew where Jesus says:

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.”

So was I supposed to hug Liz and Denise and tell them I loved them? They’d probably just step aside and let me fall and break my nose.

Jesus said, “If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? . . . If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?”

God, you can’t expect me to love Liz and Denise, can you? It’s too hard.

I waited for some kind of answer—you know, thunder or lightning or even a car honking. But nothing came.

The more I thought about the trip, the more I realized I was not just ticked at Liz and Denise but at Hayley too—not to mention Duncan. He had given
her
the stuffed animal, and I was stuck with the creepy spider ring from a guy who’s called Skeeter because he looks like one.

“If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?”

I prayed,
They don’t even think they’re doing anything wrong. How can I forgive people like that?

No thunder. No lightning.

On my nightstand was a picture of my father, who’d been killed years ago in a plane crash caused by terrorists. Did I have to do good to terrorists too?

I closed my diary and my Bible and blew out my candle. “I can’t forgive those two,” I whispered. “I don’t know how. And I don’t want to know how. They don’t deserve to be forgiven.”

Do you?

It wasn’t an actual voice. It was just a question in my head.

I was hoping it was the funnel cake I had before getting on the bus (I’ve heard food can make you dream weird things), but maybe it was my conscience.

No, I don’t deserve to be forgiven,
I prayed,
but at least I asked. If Liz and Denise never ask, it’s not the same thing. Is it?

Nothing.

No thunder.

No lightning.

Just sleep.