Forest Secrets (16 page)

Blowhard, who'd been listening to every word from behind the trees and bushes, slowly backed off. He chuckled to himself. He'd be back first thing in the morning too. Dinosaur bones were going to be brought to the surface and there was no way he was going to miss out on that. He'd ring all the newspapers and television stations as soon as he got back to town. They had a right to be in on the action too.

W
ith a promise to let us know if anything further came to light, the diver and photographer finished packing the bones into the long body bags. Then, with Constable Sweetman lending a hand, they carried the bags back to the cars. I noticed that Percy also carried the bone, the one shaped like a cricket bat, firmly under his armpit. Quenton, clearly miffed at what he'd seen earlier – the reconciliation of Snook and Gloria – had decided to leave too. That left Snook, Gloria and me, standing on the edge of the lagoon … wondering what to do next. I glanced at my watch. It was nearly five o'clock; time had flown. We'd better head for home.

We were about to do that when Snook and I saw a familiar sight. ‘What are you looking at?' Gloria asked. ‘You both look like you've seen a ghost. You're both staring … at nothing.'

The phantom kid.

He was walking towards us, smiling. It was a faint, brief smile, as quick as a bird's shadow, but there was something about it. It was like a signal, a sign that everything was okay now.

When he drew close, Snook asked, ‘How come you keep turnin' up and botherin' me and Jars like some sort of spirit? We're gettin' sick of it. Who are you anyway?'

To my surprise and unlike our previous encounters with him when he didn't say a word, he responded to Snook's prodding. Looking at us with a sad, pleading face, the kid said, ‘My name is Aaron Cooper. I used to live at Mole Creek and I want to thank you.'

Not missing a beat, Snook was quick to ask, ‘Thank us? Why?'

Gloria, probably thinking that Snook – and I for that matter – was losing it, grabbed Snook's arm and pulled him close. She then whispered in his ear, ‘For goodness sake, who are you talking to?'

‘A kid who thinks he's the Phantom,' Snook answered.

‘What?'

‘You know, the Phantom … The Ghost Who Walks!'

So, I thought to myself, the kid was actually talking … communicating. I didn't know about Snook, but the kid's visiting us this time didn't bother me anymore – I was getting used to it, I supposed. Or maybe it was because I realised the kid could maybe tell us what was going on, explain what the
visions
of the asteroid and the dinosaurs meant and why we were able to see his spirit – or whatever it was.

‘I am thanking you because you found me,' the kid said, picking up from before. ‘I've been lying in that lagoon for sixty years. I didn't mind that so much. I had a dinosaur to keep me company and there was a girl too; her name was Lucy. The thing that really got to me was that no one knew I was there, in the lagoon – until you found me.'

Snook, the muscles around his eyes quivering, managed to ask, ‘And there really is a dinosaur in the lagoon?'

‘Oh, yes. He's a rhotosaurus; his name is Stomposaurus. I've been calling him Stompy for short. He's been good company too. The thing is, he wants to be discovered. He wants to be raised to the surface, to be put on display in one of your big museums.'

‘How come you know about our museums? You've been under the water.'

‘We could see everything from down there, including you and Jars, and … my parents.' His voice dropped here. ‘Do you think you could help find Stompy, like you found me?'

‘Hang on a minute,' Snook said, as if suddenly thinking of something. ‘How come you and Lucy and Stompy all ended up in the same place like you was just picked up and put there?'

‘That's easy to explain. One way or the other, we all ended up in the fast river in the gorge. The current below the surface of the river flows fiercely and acts like a whirlpool. We three got caught in that and hey presto, we ended up together.'

Nodding that he understood, but frowning as though he wanted something else cleared up, Snook said, ‘You owe me an apology, you know … for makin' me look a ravin' loony in front of my girlfriend last Thursday night and every now and then since. What have you got to say about that?'

‘Yes, I'm afraid I did. Sorry about that. That was all my doing, but there was a reason I did all that. You see, I knew that both of you had the guts to go looking for Stompy's bones. I've seen you both in action over the last couple of years and I figured you wouldn't let me down. Selfish, wasn't I?'

‘How come you died?' I asked, getting into the conversation. ‘Snook and I have been talking with your parents and they're desperate to find out what happened to you, how you disappeared like you did.'

‘I wanted to climb Ghost Mountain to see if it really had a ghost,' he replied. ‘Kids do funny things sometimes.'

‘Then what?' I asked, thinking of Malu.

‘I walked out there and climbed it. I wish I hadn't. When I was up there, right on the top standing near the edge of a cliff, I fell, although it felt like I was pushed – maybe by the ghost, I don't know. Anyway, I ended up in the gorge on the edge of the river. There was a flood shortly after and I was washed downstream by the current, grabbed by the whirlpool and then thrown into the lagoon next to a dinosaur. That's when I got to know Stompy. We've been friends ever since.'

Gloria, who was standing there gawking at the pair of us, didn't say a word. She could only stare, first at Snook and then at me as though we were both stark raving mad.

‘Wow. All that really happened?' Snook said, stroking his chin.

‘Yes, it did. Now I have a favour to ask,' the kid said.

It wasn't hard to guess what he was going to say next, so I said, ‘Don't worry. We'll tell your parents you've been found. We'll even tell them that we've actually seen you. I know that your mother – I'm not sure about your dad – will believe us. I just wish we had the ring, though – your Phantom ring.'

‘Oh, that? The ring fell off my finger when that boy was passing it back to the girl with the pony tail. When he saw the ring on my bony finger, he got a fright and went all queer. He threw his hands in the air and my finger went flying into the water like a spear. That's when the ring came off.'

Resolving to look for it later, I had one more thing to ask. ‘Before you go disappearing again, tell me
–
how come Snook and I are the only ones who can see you?'

‘It's because of The Dreaming, Jars; it's part of you. Snook knows about it, too. You've shown him what the elders and your mother have shown you. That's why you and Snook can see me;
I'm in the spirit world now … The Dreaming.'

Smiling once again, he waved to us and then disappeared, and for once neither Snook nor I collapsed into a screaming heap like we did all the other times.

I know that it's completely and utterly stupid but I found myself feeling sorry for Stompy being left alone down there … in Mucky Lagoon. Walking back to the camping ground, I said as much to Snook, who told me that it'd be all right. Graeme and Percy would sort things out tomorrow – they'd fish Stompy out of the drink.

In the meantime, Gloria, whose eyes looked like they might pop at any tick of the clock, was still speechless. I was about to explain it all to her, or at least try to, when I realised that I couldn't talk either. I was shaking too much and for some reason the words wouldn't form in my mouth. It was as if I'd just been to the dentist and he'd given me one of those mouth-numbing needles. Seeing and hearing the kid speak, and learning
why
we were having the visions had affected me profoundly. Knowing that he knew my mother in The Dreaming was a great comfort, too. I'd have to explain it all to her later as soon as I'd returned to normal.

Gloria, however, had put two and two together and asked Snook in the simplest of terms, ‘You saw that boy again, didn't you?'

‘Yeah, I did,' he replied rather self-consciously, ‘but he could talk this time. He told Jars and me lots of things. I'll tell you more when we get back to camp, but do you know what the best thing is?'

‘No, what's that?'

‘Jars and me won't be seein' 'im anymore, and that means I won't be havin' any more of those turns that make me go all ga-ga. You might even start to like me again.'

Blushing, it looked as though Gloria was stuck for words. Helping her out, I said, ‘I don't think Gloria has
ever
stopped liking you, Snook.' I winked across at Gloria. ‘I saw the looks she was giving you yesterday.'

‘Fair dinkum?'

‘Yes, fair dinkum.'

‘You know what I reckon we should do now,' Snook said turning to me. I shook my head. ‘Go find that ring.'

‘Okay, good idea. There's still plenty of light. We could ask Quenton to help; he knows where he was working.'

‘Nah, I know exactly where Quigley was standin' when we were passin' back the bones.'

We walked down to the lagoon barefooted, and then into the shallows. We began searching. Shadow joined in. ‘This is the spot,' Snook said. ‘Quigley hardly moved from here. If he came across a finger with a ring on it, this would've been the place.'

‘Good boy,' I said to Shadow, whose nose was already hovering above the water. ‘Look for a bright, shiny thing.' We'd been searching for about five minutes, carefully moving pebbles out of the way and trying not to stir up too much mud when Shadow and I both spotted it at the same time. It was wedged up against one of the larger pebbles. ‘Got it!' I cried. ‘The ring! This could be the proof that Mr and Mrs Cooper have been looking for. This could be Aaron's Phantom ring.'

‘Yeah, could be,' Snook agreed. ‘Put it in your pocket and let's head home. I'm gettin' hungry.'

A
rriving back home just before tea time, Snook and I then sat at the kitchen table explaining our day to Snook's parents. ‘I feel sorry for old Mr and Mrs Cooper though,' I was saying to Aunt Irene. ‘They looked so sad out there when they paid us a visit to talk about their son, and now I don't know what we should do, especially after us finding the ring.' Despite Sergeant McGruff's instruction to keep quiet, we'd gone ahead and told Snook's mum and dad about that ring and the human bones that we'd found as soon as we got home. It seemed the right thing to do.

We'd also told them how Shadow had somehow sensed that we were looking for something and how, when he saw the ring's pretend silver band glinting among the pebbles – not buried in the mud, thank goodness – he whimpered and pointed to it with his nose.

‘But do you know what?' I said to my aunt and uncle. ‘We're still not allowed to tell the Coopers about the ring or anything. The police are insisting. But it seems so cruel not to tell them.'

My aunt, probably feeling the same way I did, spoke up. ‘The Coopers should be told; I can't see the harm in it. It certainly looks like their boy has been found … at last.'

‘It's not up to us to tell them,' my uncle said in a knowing sort of voice. ‘That's a job for the authorities. The kids were told to keep quiet, so that's what they should do.'

‘But why?' my aunt asked.

‘They probably don't want the media swarming all over the place. They'll want to tie up all the loose ends first.'

Snook, who'd been unusually quiet, decided to speak up. ‘I reckon we need to go back to the lagoon real early tomorrow. The police will know what's what by then. We might even find out what that funny lookin' bone is, the one Percy, the photo guy, spotted.' Grinning, he looked around the table. ‘I betcha anythin' ya like that it's a dinosaur bone.'

‘Dinosaur bone?' Snook's dad asked, raising his eyebrows and wiggling his fingers in a
tell me all
sign. ‘What are you on about now?'

I heard myself sighing. I purposely hadn't mentioned the peculiar-looking bone that Snook was on about because that would have meant explaining our visions to his parents
.
The time didn't seem right to be doing that
.
Neither Snook nor I had really got to the bottom of that. Not yet. But now poor old Snook had let the cat out the bag. Oh well, I thought; I'd tried to do the right thing.

I needn't have worried; a knock on the door saved us from any awkward explanations about asteroids and phantom kids.

‘I wonder who that could be?' my aunt said, getting up from the table. ‘I'll go and see.'

‘Good evening, Doctor,' she said opening the front door and looking over his shoulder at the two old folk behind him. ‘You've brought the Coopers with you, I see. How nice. Hello Marge, Harry. Come in. My husband and the young folk are in the kitchen. Did you want to see them, or …'

‘Yes, we would,' the doctor said. ‘Some new information regarding Mr and Mrs Cooper's son has just come to hand. I was hoping Jars and Snook could set us straight on a few points.'

‘I'm sure they'll help if they can, Doctor, but please, come in. You can go through to the lounge room if you like. I'll go and fetch them.'

After saying hello to Snook and me and after my aunt had turned the sound down on the television – which Snook and I were going to watch later – the doctor got straight to the point. ‘My apologies for disturbing you all so close to your meal-time, but I, or rather we, have just heard some rather startling news. Apparently, some human bones have been found at Mucky Lagoon by a Mr Reginald Blowhard. It's on all the news stations. We were wondering whether you knew anything about that.'

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. ‘Wha-what did you say?' I asked, struggling to get the words out. ‘Someone's found some bones?' I looked at Snook and he looked at me. Snook's bottom jaw had dropped and his mouth had started working like a blow fish. I figured I'd better say something. Telling everyone the full story might be a good start, police directive or not. I didn't think it'd matter that much now. The news was already out there; the whole of Tasmania, and probably mainland Australia, would have seen and heard it by now. I looked across at Snook. He didn't look like a fish anymore. That was good. But his mouth still didn't look the best; his lips were pulled back and teeth were sticking out like an angry dog.