SARA, BOOK 2 (3 page)

CHAPTER
4

All Is Well

“S
ara!” Seth called out to her.

Sara continued to move forward, turning to walk backward to see who it was. “Hey, how’s it going?” she asked tentatively.

She stopped and waited for Seth to catch up to her, shifting her book bag to the other shoulder. She felt a strange mix of
emotions. Part of her was sincerely drawn to Seth, while she didn’t understand why; she had only just met him and really knew
nothing about him. Another part of her wished that he would just go away—away from Grandmother Thacker’s house, away from
Thacker’s Trail, and away from knowing anything about Solomon.

Seth ran to catch up with her, and as he reached her, he took off his jacket and tossed it over his shoulder. Sara felt tense,
bracing herself for the inevitable next question,
Who’s Solomon?

“I’ll carry that for you if you like,” Seth said politely.

Sara stammered for a minute. She had been so sure he was going to ask about Solomon that she wasn’t sure what he actually
had said.

“What?”

“I was offering to carry your bag.”

“Oh no, that’s okay. I’ve got it.” Sara took a deep breath and relaxed a little.

“Have you lived here long?”

“Yeah, all my life.”

“All of your life? Really? That’s amazing!”

Sara wasn’t sure if it was good amazing or bad amazing.

“Why are you so surprised?” Sara asked. “Lots of people who live here have always lived here.”

Seth was quiet. He was thinking about how many places his family had lived in his short life. He could barely imagine what
it would be like to live in the same place your whole life. He longed for such stability. He’d never lived in one place even
for one whole school term. He couldn’t imagine being in a classroom with the same kids year after year after year. “Must be
nice to have so many friends,” Seth said.

“Well, they’re not really my
friends,
” Sara sighed. “Just because I know their names doesn’t make them my friends. Where are
you
from?”

Seth laughed and scoffed at the same time. “From?” Seth chided. “I’m from nowhere.”

“Come on,” Sara teased, “you have to be from
someplace.
Where did you live before you came here?”

“Arkansas. But we didn’t live there very long. We never live anywhere very long.”

“Must be fun,” Sara said, thinking about how completely she had already explored her little mountain town. “I’d love to live
in lots of different places. This place is so small, and there’s so much out there to see.”

Seth liked it that Sara seemed interested in his unstable life. Sara felt easier, too, finding that Seth wasn’t pushing about
Solomon.

They stopped in the middle of the intersection. This was the corner where Seth turned off to his house while Sara continued
on down another block to hers. “I’d like to hear about some of the places you’ve lived.”

“Yeah,” Seth said, hesitantly. He really didn’t want to tell Sara about any of that. He hadn’t liked much of it. “Maybe you
can show me around
here.
I’m sure there are some neat things to see.”

“Sure,” Sara replied, even though she was certain that this little town had very little to show Seth. He’d lived in so many
different places.
Yeah,
let’s go off for an hour and I’ll show you every place I
know,
Sara thought sarcastically.

“See ya,” Seth said, as he turned down his street.

“Yeah,” Sara said.

Hello, Sara.
Sara heard Solomon’s voice in her head.

She quickly looked back at Seth. She had become so accustomed to hearing Solomon’s voice that for a brief instant she thought
maybe Seth had heard it, too.

At that moment, Seth was looking back at Sara. Sara waved an embarrassed half wave; so did Seth.

“Oh no, not again,” Sara said under her breath. How did Seth keep getting into the middle of her conversations with Solomon?
Sara didn’t really believe that Seth had heard Solomon’s voice, for no one else could
hear
his voice, but the whole set of circumstances and the timing of Solomon’s chiming in had rattled her.

Sara wanted to make sure that Seth had gone on his way, so she waited until he turned the corner and was out of sight.

“Hi, Solomon.”

I see you have met Seth.

“You know Seth?” Sara blurted, and then she smiled as she remembered that Solomon knows about everything.

Oh yes, Sara, I have been aware of Seth for quite
some time now. I was pleased about the two of you meeting
even before the two of you actually met.

“You
knew
that we would meet?”

Seth’s life experiences have produced many intensely
focused questions. I could feel him making his way into
my experience, and so, of course, it is logical that he
would also make his way into your experience, Sara. We
are all birds of a feather, you know.

“Really, Solomon, Seth is like you and like me?”

He is, indeed, Sara. An intense seeker, a born up-lifter—
and a true teacher.

Sara felt a pang of discomfort. She had come to adore her relationship with Solomon. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to share
that with this strange new boy.

All is well, Sara. All is extremely well. We will all
have a wonderful time together.

“Well, if you say so, Solomon.”

Sara could see her younger brother, Jason, running to catch up with her, but she’d had enough of people listening in on her
conversations with Solomon.

“Thanks, Solomon, I’ll catch you later.”

Solomon smiled. Sara was growing up so quickly.

CHAPTER
5

Seth Has Found Thacker’s Trail

“H
ey, Sara, what’s up?” Sara looked up from her book and smiled as Seth slid into the chair next to her in the school’s upstairs,
hardly ever used, library. The librarian looked up with a stern glare, wanting to hush these two who were openly talking in
the library. “Oh, nothing much,” Sara whispered.

Not wanting Seth to get involved in her journal, she quickly closed her book. One of the things Sara loved most about school
was putting together a journal on some special subject for one of her classes. Although she wasn’t really a very good artist,
she loved clipping associated articles, pictures, or anything that fit into the subject, and arranging them neatly on pages
for her class. Her journals were often regarded as excellent by her teachers, and were nearly always equally scorned by her
classmates. She knew that she usually went overboard, but the approval of the teachers somehow outweighed the disapproval
of her classmates; and so, mostly happily, Sara journaled on.

This journal was about leaves. Sara had gathered hundreds of leaves from trees and bushes and ditch banks and flower gardens,
and was now doing her best to identify them. She had books about leaves spread out all over the table in front of her but
had really only identified a fraction of them. She was surprised at how little she really knew about the things that were
around her, and had been around her all of her life. There is so much to know.

“You like leaves?” Seth asked, seeing the books opened in front of Sara.

“Yeah, I guess,” Sara answered, pretending boredom. “I’m really just trying to figure out what
kinds
of leaves I’ve gathered. It’s for a class. I’m not very good at it.”

“I know about leaves,” Seth offered. “Or at least I know about the leaves where I
used
to live. They’re different here, but some are the same. I’ll go with you if you want and show you the leaves I know. If you
want, I mean.”

Sara didn’t really like the idea of anyone getting involved in one of her projects. That hadn’t worked out very well for her
in the past. Sara often described herself as “all or nothing,” meaning she often went very much overboard when she got involved
in a project, or if the project didn’t interest her, she didn’t touch it at all. And rarely did anyone else share her outrageous
enthusiasm—or absolute lack of enthusiasm—for a subject. And nearly always, feelings would get hurt.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Sara hesitated. “I’m probably better off doing this by myself.”

“Okay, I understand,” Seth said, “but if you change your mind, let me know. It sure is a lot easier to find something in a
book if you have an idea of what it’s called, and I know lots of names of trees and bushes and stuff. My Grandpa knows all
of them. He makes medicine with them and eats them. He says that anything you would ever need grows right out in the open
where anyone can find them, but almost no one knows they’re even there.”

Seth had made a good point. Sara had spent the better part of her lunch hour looking through book after book before she found
a picture of the big red leaf she had pressed in her journal. Seth could save her lots of time, and he seemed nice enough,
not too pushy or anything.

“Well, okay, then. You want to go after school today?”

“Okay,” Seth said. “I’ll meet you by the flagpole. I found a cool place last weekend, not too far from here, over by the creek,
not far from the tree crossing. It’s a neat trail with lots of big old trees and bushes. We’ll go there.”

Mrs. Horton stood up with a big scowl on her face. It was bad enough that Seth and Sara had been talking out loud, but now
Seth was calling clear across the room.

The door banged closed, and Sara’s body jumped as she realized he was talking about Thacker’s Trail.
Seth has found Thacker’s Trail!

CHAPTER
6

Coming Back to Life?

S
ara waited by the flagpole.
I can’t believe I agreed
to do this,
she grumbled under her breath.
I
mean, Thacker’s Trail is my secret place. . . . I guess I
knew he’d find it sooner or later. I just thought it would
be later.

She looked at her watch and said to herself, “Where is he?” Then she noticed a folded piece of paper sticking out of the base
of the flagpole with “Sara” written on it in very small print. She opened the note and read it:
Sara, meet me at our
corner. I have something neat to show you. It’s a leaf-covered
jungle trail. See ya!

Sara felt such an odd mix of emotions. She had already really come to like Seth. And she liked the idea that someone who had
lived in so many places would find something that interested him in this little mountain town that Sara had known all of her
life. But the idea of him discovering her special secret place so soon didn’t feel good to Sara.

As Sara approached the corner where Seth always turned off to go to his house, she saw a rock right in the middle of the intersection
with another piece of paper fluttering in the wind beneath it. “What in the world?” Sara laughed. “This is a very odd boy.”

The note said:
Turn right, cross over the bridge,
go past my house, and then immediately left. There’s
a trail, hard to see, but it’s there. Follow it. I’ll meet
you.

Well, there was no doubt now—Seth had found Thacker’s Trail.

“Well, of course he’s found it. How could he not? He practically lives right on it,” Sara grumbled, feeling resentful that
the inevitable had happened.

Sara wadded the note and put it in her pocket. “Like I need directions to find
my
trail,” she said out loud. She crossed the bridge and passed Seth’s house and turned down her beloved, and oh-so-familiar,
Thacker’s Trail.

As she walked, the memories of this trail began moving through her mind so clearly it was as if she were watching a movie.
She remembered her reluctant trek there at the insistence of her little brother, Jason, who had seemed driven in a way Sara
had never seen before, and how he insisted that there was a giant owl named Solomon hiding somewhere in the woods. She remembered
them looking in vain, and how disappointed she had felt that no owl was found, but she would never have admitted her disappointment
to her pesky little brother.

As Sara walked down the long, dark path, she began to relax back into the quiet and peace of this trail. Then she broke into
a big smile as she rounded the corner and saw the fence post where Solomon had been sitting that day. Her eyes filled with
tears as she remembered this big, sweet, loving, and oh-so-very-wise owl just sitting there waiting for her.

It’s strange,
Sara thought.
Solomon is still very
much a part of my life. I mean, we still visit nearly
every single day. But I do miss seeing his beautiful body
and looking into his wonderful eyes.

Sara felt a bit ashamed that she still missed Solomon in his physical form. She understood what Solomon meant when he had
explained that “there is no death,” and she certainly knew that their relationship was continuing. And, on most days, Sara
never even thought about the old Solomon, and she absolutely enjoyed her
now
Solomon. But being here, where they had first met, only a few feet from where Jason and Billy had shot him, was putting Sara
off her usual balance, and she was missing her old physical, feathered friend.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed something moving in the leaves, and her heart jumped right into her throat when she
realized that this movement was happening on the very spot where Solomon had died. For a moment Sara thought,
Maybe he has decided to come back to life.

What in the world is that!?
Sara strained her eyes trying to make out whatever was moving beneath the leaves in the shadows of the thicket.

As Sara got closer, she gasped and jumped back. There, lying in the leaves on the very spot where Solomon had died, was Seth.
He was half covered in leaves and his eyes were closed, and his tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth.

Sara couldn’t speak. She just stood there, paralyzed. “Ss. . . sss . . . Seth,” she stuttered, “are you all right?”

She knew he
couldn’t
be all right. He looked
awful.
Sara stood and stared; she bit her lip so hard it began to bleed, and tears flowed down her cheeks.

“Geez, Sara, don’t take it so hard. I was only kidding!” Seth quipped as he jumped to his feet, brushing the leaves out of
his hair.

“I hate you!” Sara blurted, turning and running away from Seth and from the thicket. “How could you do that to me?” she cried,
running away as fast as she could.

Seth was stunned. He had no idea that Sara would react this way. He didn’t know why he had felt compelled to lie on the ground,
half covering his body with leaves, pretending death or at least severe injury. The idea just seemed to come out of nowhere.
A very
bad
idea, he now realized.

“Sara, wait, what’s the matter?” Seth called. “Hey, can’t you take a joke? Hey, don’t you want to look for leaves?”

Sara didn’t answer.