Page 1 of The Spirit Key
Prologue
Summer, 2002
WHAT MEMORYstands out most in your mind from when you were a kid? For many of my friends, it was getting a good grade on a test they were sure they’d fail, making a catch during a football game, or finding out the person they were crushing on liked them back. For others, it was more physical, like their first kiss or having sex for the first time.
For me, the one that topped that list was in the summer of 2002. The memory? Me dying. Well, almost dying. I mean, technically, Iwasdead for twenty-seven minutes, at least according to the paramedics and doctors.
See, I had gone down to the quarry with my brother and some of his friends. I was eight at the time, and to be invited to go along with the “big kids” was a heady thing.
Okay, fine. My mom told them they had to take me, but they weren’t supposed to let me know.
That’s not the point of the story, however. Still, between us, when your brother tells you that Mom said hehadto take you and that you ruined his day bydying? That kind of sticks with you.
Anyway. The whole week had been hotter than hell—upper nineties, heat index topping a hundred, with no breeze at all. What made it worse was the humidity. Everyone complained their clothes stuck to them, and we all would have given anything for a bit of cool air. Those were the days you wanted to do nothing more than stretch out in front of the air conditioner and fantasize about being in the arctic.
Of course, those are also the times that drive Mom mad, like when we’re there, whining about how hot it is, and my brother announces he’s going swimming with his friends, and she tells him to take me along to the quarry with him.
Fine. I’m a little hostile over that memory, but in my defense, I died, so I think I have a right to be a tad grumpy.
Moving on….
There were a few old trees that stretched out over a pit of water. In the seventies, the place had been used to mine rocks that were crushed to use in gardens and the like. When the company that owned it shut down, it left a huge hole in the ground. Over time, it filled with water, which attracted kids from all over, wanting to swim. That was our destination for the day.
By the time we got there, all of our T-shirts had soaked with sweat. I distinctly remember looking at Cole Turner and seeing wisps of dark hair on his chest and wondering to myself what it would look like once he took his shirt off. I wasn’t sure why that thought flitted through my head, but it was gone just as quickly, because I saw Tim Jennesee sitting on a rock, taking off his shoes.
“Tim!”
He turned and smiled at me, waving like a freak. I took off running. Tim had been my best friend forever—which at the time was probably a few months, but in my eight-year-old mind, that qualified as a really long time—and seeing him there was a surprise. Normally he preferred to stay inside and play on the computer, indulging in game worlds like theSims. Later he graduated to MMORPGs likeEverQuest, with the promise that one day he would be creating them instead of playing someone else’s.
I got to where he sat and took my spot at his side. He nudged me with his shoulder. “I didn’t know you were going to be here!”
“Ryan asked me to come along.” See? I thought my brother was all cool and stuff. Shows how much I knew.
“Really? My mom said I had to get out of the house. I figured I’d come swimming for a while. I tried to call, but—”
“We were already on our way here.”
I hadn’t thought to call him, and I felt bad… for about three seconds. I was with Tim and the day had gotten a thousand times better. His dark hair shone in the sun, and his brown eyes sparkled. Being with him was enough to make me smile, and having him there with me made the day perfect.
Okay, here’s where things go to shit, so you’ll have to indulge me a bit. I don’t often discuss my death with people, because they ask all kinds of inane questions, and I’m so over that shit.
There was a big tree that stretched out over the watery pit. Someone had climbed it, tied off a rope, then knotted it at the other end. See, the idea was to grab hold, push off, and soar out into the nothingness, then arc high in the sky before letting go and plunging into the water, sinking, then rising once again until you broke the surface, then rushed to have another turn.
Doesn’t that sound idyllic? Like a Norman Rockwell painting or something?
Yeah, you’d think that.
It was my turn. I’d hedged about it all day, because I hated the idea of being so high in the air and falling. Ryan openly mocked me, and his friends teased me to no end. When Tim got up and announced he was going to do it, well, that raised the bar right there. How could my best friend do it, while I was too chicken?
Wrapping his hands around the rope, Tim ran and leaped off the edge, soaring into the air with a loud cry. Then, as he reached the apex of the arc, he let go. For a moment everything stopped, as he rose a little higher, then hung in the air before he dropped like a stone, laughing all the way.
When he broke the surface of the water a few seconds later, my heart started beating again.
“So, nerdy Tim can do it, but little Scotty is too much of a baby.”
It’s funny how you don’t remember how much of an ass your brother was when you were a kid, isn’t it?
“I’m not a baby!”
