Page 35 (1/2)

To out over the hill The snow had mostly melted here, as the sun shone on the fields all day The pond was still frozen

When she was younger, Honor had skated there with the Ellis kids, when the pond had seen country filled with mysteries no one else had discovered, and only seven-year-olds on ice skates held the key Then they’d troop back to the New House, and Mom would make cocoa and serve cookies, a Norman Rockwell scene if ever there was one

And soon, that kind of thing would be available for all the kids in Manningsport Kids like Jessica and Levi, who’d grown up in a trailer park, and kids like Charlie, who spent most of their days indoors, could have what the Hollands had been lucky enough to be born with Land Nature Acres and acres of woods, water and forest Birdsong and wildlife and hours of being outdoors

Spike whined,she had to pee And to do so, she needed privacy, as the dog had a shy bladder To on the fence that divided the Ellis land fro out at the vista

"Okay, Spike," she said, walking down the hill "Let’s find you a spot"

All of a sudden, Spike whi, then pulled at the leash "Those are deer," Honor explained "They’re too big for you to take down, so stick with ants, okay?"

Spike didn’t agree; she tugged again, and the frayed leash snapped In a blur, the dog was off through the grass "Spike, no," Honor said "Come on Coh it was still light She started to run, clu didn’t listen, charging forward at the deer, barking with all her ht, and the deer bolted into the woods on the far side of the pond

Spike chased after the was on the pond

And the weather had been cold, but it hadn’t been that cold The pond was stream-fed, and Mr Ellis had never let the for at least ten days straight It was maybe twenty feet across, forty feet wide, and if Spike fell through--

"Spike! Spike!" she called, and she heard To behind her, but the as in her ears

Then Spike disappeared, blip, just like that, through about two-thirds of the way across There, and then gone, sed into the black water where the current was too strong for ice to for for ten days in a row, and Honor barely recognized her voice as she screa’s name

"Honor, no!" Tom yelled from behind her, but she was already on the ice She could do it, she thought, her brain flashing with ies of just how this would work She was a skater She knew this pond She’d stay on the edge where the ice was thicker, and she’d head to the end of the pond, and the current would bring Spike there, and she could grab--

The ice broke, and the cold bit into her like knives, s But it wasn’t deep, Honor knew, et closer to where Spike had gone, she could find her dog "I’, Spike!" Two steps Four, the bottom slippery with icycompletely free from the boot, and water closed over her head Oh, God, it was so cold, the cold slicing right to her bones She found footing again, barely able to feel the ain, ca This was a bad idea, but Spike, her loyal, cuddly little friend, her only--

Honor tried to pull herself onto the ice again, but it broke under her nus weren’t obeying The body’s job is to preserve the heart and brain, she could al, because yes, chances were increasing that she’d become one of those stories on the Back from the Dead medical stories

Hopefully

Oh, Spike A sob shuddered out of her Her little dog had gone through so much She didn’t deserve a pointless death like this, alone in the dark water

She slipped again, and this tis were even slower to kick

Then she was being dragged upward, and held against To as he h to the shore She couldn’t hear hi in her ears so ed at her, and water streamed from her hair

The shore was steep here, and To thud on the hard earth