Fool's Gold (22 page)

“And your mom and dad? Did you tell them too?”

“Nope. They weren't home, as usual.”

Rudy nodded and Barney looked at him—long and level—and then he nodded too. And Rudy knew the nod meant something important and he thought he knew what. They sat quietly for a moment and then Barney unwound his long legs and got up. “I better get going,” he said. “I have to run some errands in town for Granddad.”

He was partway down the steps when Rudy called to him. When he turned back Rudy said, “I was just wondering if you'd like to be here when I talk to Murph and Natasha? I mean, about Pritchard's Hole—and everything.”

Barney's smile disappeared and he began to shake his head.

“Come on, Barn. You'd better say yes. I'll tell a bunch of lies about you if you don't.”

But Barney didn't smile. He looked at Rudy and then down at his feet and then he ran his hand through his hair and down the back of his neck. Then he raised his chin up high, just the way he'd done in kindergarten when all the kids were expecting him to cry. “Okay. Okay, I'll be here. You call and tell me when and I'll come.”

When Barney left, Rudy went back to lying in the hammock for a while. Thinking. He thought first about Barney and how it hard it would be for him to talk to Murph and Natasha, or to anybody, about anything personal. But he'd said yes because—well, probably because Rudy had asked him to.

Just then Ophelia came back from escorting the girls to the sitter's, and that got him started thinking about Margot and Moira and what Moira had told him about her problem with teasing people. He was still thinking about Moira when a horn tooted and there was Heather driving by in her new Toyota. He waved and she waved back and drove on up Lone Pine—and then he thought about Heather, and Barney's crush on her, and the riding lessons. And then Ty's riding lesson that wound up in the hedge—and a bunch of other stuff about Ty.

He was still thinking about Ty's problems—with bats, being homeless, and Shetland Ponies from Hell, when he heard the slam of a screen door and there was Murph shuffling across his veranda in his bedroom slippers, carrying a watering can.

Murph came down the south side of his house watering his geraniums and when he got across from the hammock he nodded and said good morning.

“Hi, Murph,” Rudy said.

“Noticed you there in the hammock,” Murph said.

“I'll bet you did. And I'll bet you thought I was just goofing off. Didn't you?”

“But you weren't, I'm sure.”

“No, I wasn't. Not at all. What I was doing, actually, was studying humanity. Yeah, that's it. I was studying humanity. It's my new research project.”

“I see.” Murph was grinning. “Well, let me know if I can be of any assistance.”

“Okay,” Rudy said. “I sure will.”

Zilpha Keatley Snyder (b. 1927) is the three-time Newbery Honor–winning author of classic children's novels such as
The Egypt Game
,
The Headless Cupid
, and
The Witches of Worm
. Her adventure and fantasy stories are beloved by many generations.

Snyder was born in Lemoore, California, in 1927. Her father, William Keatley, worked for Shell Oil, but as a would-be rancher he and his family always lived on a small farm. Snyder's parents were both storytellers, and their tales often kept their children entertained during quiet evenings at home.

Snyder began reading and telling stories of her own at an early age. By the time she was four years old she was able to read novels and newspapers intended for adults. When she wasn't reading, she was making up and embellishing stories. When she was eight, Snyder decided that she would be a writer—a profession in which embellishment and imagination were accepted and rewarded.

Snyder's adolescent years were made more difficult by her studious country upbringing and by the fact that she had been advanced a grade when she started school. As other girls were going to dances and discovering boys, Snyder retreated into books. The stories transported her from her small room to a larger, remarkable universe.

At Whittier College, Zilpha Keatley Snyder met her future husband, Larry Snyder. After graduation, she began teaching upper-level elementary classes. Snyder taught for nine years, including three years as a master teacher for the University of California, Berkeley. The classroom experience gave Snyder a fresh appreciation of the interests and capabilities of preteens.

As she continued her teaching career, Snyder gained more free time. She began writing at night, after teaching during the day; her husband helped by typing out her manuscripts. After finishing her first novel, she sent it to a publisher. It was accepted on her first try. That book,
Season of Ponies
, was published in 1964.

In 1967, her fourth novel,
The Egypt Game
, won the Newbery Honor for excellence in children's literature. Snyder went on to win that honor two more times, for her novels
The Headless Cupid
and
The Witches of Worm. The Headless Cupid
introduced the Stanley family, a clan she revisited three more times over her career.

Snyder's
The Changeling
(1970), in which two young girls invent a fantasy world dominated by trees, became the inspiration for her 1974 fantasy series, the Green Sky Trilogy. Snyder completed that series by writing a computer game sequel called Below the Root. The game went on to earn cult classic status.

Over the almost fifty years of her career, Snyder has written about topics as diverse as time-traveling ghosts, serenading gargoyles, and adoption at the turn of the twentieth century. Today, she lives with her husband in Mill Valley, California. When not writing, Snyder enjoys reading and traveling.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1993 by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Cover design by Barbara Brown

978-1-4804-7150-4

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com