Sydney and the Wisconsin Whispering Woods (9 page)

She stood and faced Duncan. He stepped back. She realized she was at least a head taller than he was, and she had muscles—Sydney kept in shape. Duncan, on the other hand, didn’t look at all strong.

“Let’s just try to get along,” she said, lowering her voice.

“Okay?”

Duncan backed off. “Okay,” he said, nearly whispering. He freed the last bit of his line and reeled it onto his pole. “Hey, what’s this stuff?” He pointed to the bag of dough balls.

“Bait,” said Sydney. She picked up the bag and held it protectively.

“What kind of bait?” asked Duncan. “Secret bait,” Sydney said.

“Yeah, well, it’s not as good as mine,” Duncan told her. “Hey, did you hear that howling last night?”

Alexis put another minnow on her hook. She asked Sydney and Duncan to stand back, and with all her might, she cast her line into the lake. “We heard it,” she said.

“What do you think it was?”

“The ghost of Jacques Chouteau,” Duncan said matter-of-factly.

“What makes you think so?” Sydney asked. She picked up her pole from the dock and continued fishing.

“Everyone knows the story,” said Duncan. “Old Jacques got trapped in a cave in the forest. An avalanche or something trapped him inside, and he died in there.

Now, his ghost howls to get out.
Ow-wooooooo…
. And sometimes he says, ‘I’m gonna get you. I’m gonna get you. I’m gonna get you!’ “ Duncan put his arms in the air and walked like a monster toward the girls.

“Just ignore him,” Sydney said.

“I am,” Alexis agreed.

“Aw, come on.” Duncan sighed, putting his hands on his hips. “Don’t you have a sense of humor?” “You’re not funny,” said Sydney.

Then something pulled hard on her line. She held tight to the pole with both hands and yanked. All at once, the crank on her reel spun around and around making the line shoot forward.

“Hang on! You got something,” Duncan cried. “Here, let me do it.” He reached for Sydney’s pole.

“Get away!” Sydney said, shoving him with one shoulder.

“Aw, come on,” said Duncan. “You got something big on there. Let me reel it in. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“No!” said Sydney.

Alexis thrust her pole into Duncan’s hands. “Here,” she said. “Hold this.” Then she grabbed the handle of Sydney’s pole with both hands and helped her to hang on. “Reel it in, Syd,” she said.

“Nice and slow,” Duncan added.

Sydney let the fish take a little more line. Then she reeled it in. She did it again and again. Suddenly, she felt a strong jerk on the line. Then the fish shot up and out of the water! It was about twenty yards offshore, and when it splashed back into the lake, it fought hard against the hook.

“Oh man, you got a muskie on there,” said Duncan.

Sydney couldn’t tell if he was excited or complaining. She fought the fish until it was too tired to fight. Then she reeled it in. “Here it comes,” she said. “Here it comes.”

The fish’s long snout appeared near the dock. The muskie opened and closed its mouth and thrashed in the water.

“It’s huge!” Alexis squealed.

The fish was way too heavy for Sydney to lift by herself, besides she was afraid of its teeth. “Now what?” she asked.

“I dunno,” said Alexis. She looked at Duncan.

“You gotta get it in your net,” he said. Then he looked around the dock. “Don’t tell me you don’t have a net.”

Sydney hadn’t even considered that they might need one. She should have known that they would need help lifting a big fish up onto the dock.

Alexis sensed Sydney’s embarrassment.

“We can do it,” she said. “Come on, Syd. We can both grab it and lift it up.” Alexis got down on all fours and leaned over the edge of the dock.

“No,” said Duncan. “Wait.” He turned and sprinted toward Dock Two. Soon he was back with his net. “Here, I’ll help you.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” said Sydney. Secretly, she wished she hadn’t said it. She needed that net, but she didn’t trust Duncan to help her.

“Aw, come on,” Duncan said. “I’m not going to do anything. Besides, I can tell already that it’s not a winning fish.”

He pushed between the girls and scooped the fish into his net.

Sydney saw that he struggled to lift it up. She reached over and grabbed onto the handle, and together they pulled the net onto the dock. “Remember,” she said. “Helping me to net it doesn’t give you any rights to the fish.”

“I don’t want your dumb old fish,” said Duncan. Carefully, he removed the hook from the fish’s mouth. Then he took a small tape measure from his pocket and measured it as it lay gasping on the dock.

“Thirty-two and a half inches,” he said. “Not big enough.”

“How do you know?” Alexis asked.

Duncan took his cell phone out of his back pocket. He punched in some numbers. “Didn’t you read the rules?” he said. “When you catch a fish, you call Tompkins’ and text F
ISH
. They’ll send you a message saying what the biggest catch is so far. If it’s less than that, you’ve gotta let the fish go.”

“I don’t believe you,” said Sydney.

Duncan’s cell phone rang. “Look,” he said, handing her the phone. “The message on the screen says 34
INCHES
. See? Not big enough.”

Sydney looked at the muskie flopping on the dock.

“He’s right, Syd,” said Alexis. “I read the rules again this morning. If it’s not the biggest fish, you’re supposed to release it.”

She reached down and grasped the fish around its middle, steering clear of the razor-sharp teeth in its huge, gaping mouth. The fish’s body was motionless; it seemed to melt in her hands. With all her might, Alexis pushed it off the dock and into the water.

“Swim away,” she said. “Go on. Swim.”

The big fish treaded water just below the surface. Then, sensing that it was free, it shot away from the dock.

“Wow,” said Duncan. “You touched it and everything.”

“Yeah,” said Alexis. “So what?”

“So, girls don’t touch fish,” Duncan said. But this time his voice sounded confused. Sydney sighed deeply.

“Listen,” she said. “I’ve had it with all this
girls don’t
stuff. Girls do a lot of things that boys do. If your mom wanted to,
she
could fish. So could your sister. And if they wanted to, they could touch the fish and
everything
!”

“I don’t have a mom, and I don’t have a sister,” said Duncan. “It’s just me and my dad.”

Suddenly, Duncan seemed different and not so much of a bully.

“Well, anyhow,” Sydney said softly, “thanks for your help.”

Duncan picked up his net. “Not a problem. And don’t forget, I’m going to win the contest.”

He started walking toward the end of the dock. “And don’t get your line anywhere near mine.” He looked over his shoulder at Alexis. “Next time, I won’t be so understanding.”

He went back to Dock Two, baited his hook, and cast his line into the water.

“I can’t figure that kid out,” said Sydney. “For a minute there, I thought maybe he wanted to be our friend.”

Alexis threw her line back into the lake. “He is a bit strange. And what did you make of what he said about Jacques Chouteau’s ghost? Do you think he was really trapped in a cave and died there?”

Sydney put another dough ball on her hook and cast her line. “It all adds up with what Mr. Miller said. Remember? He said Jacques hid his money and furs in a cave and that he died in the woods.”

“But he didn’t say anything about him dying in a cave,” said Alexis.

“No,” Sydney said. “The legend says that he died in the woods, and he haunts them.”

Alexis was quiet for a while. “Well, I don’t believe it, do you?”

“Do I believe that he’s a ghost? No,” said Sydney. “But we know that Jacques Chouteau was a real person, so it’s possible he might have died in a cave in the woods. Something is out there. And it lurks in a spooky, purple light, and it hangs around with some sort of big dog that howls and maybe kills coyotes.”

“Oh Syd,” said Alexis, easing her grip on the pole. “Do you think that thing we saw last night killed the coyote? It sure didn’t look like a wolf.”

Sydney turned the crank on her reel and added some slack to her line. “I’m sure it wasn’t a wolf,” she said. “It was much bigger than a wolf, and black, and not at all shaggy. And Alexis, when that thing stood up, it must have been six feet tall!”

“I know,” said Alexis. “I don’t even want to think about it. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

“Neither could I,” said Sydney. “In fact, when I woke up this morning, I wondered if it had all been a dream—just something in my imagination.”

Alexis reeled in her line a bit. “It wasn’t your imagination, Sydney. I saw it, too. I think it was his dog—
Fang.”

They fished silently for a while. The sun was up over the trees now, and its reflection on the water hurt their eyes. Alexis watched Sydney’s pole while Sydney went back to the cabin and got their sunglasses.

“You know,” Sydney said when she returned. “I just saw that mushroom book on your nightstand, the one you found on the ground yesterday morning.”

“Yeah, what about it?” Alexis said lazily.

“Well,” Sydney continued, “it’s a field guide to mushrooms. And we just found a mushroom on the dock and more floating in the water. Do you think they’re somehow connected?”

“They could be,” said Alexis. “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know yet what I’m thinking,” said Sydney. “But maybe they have something to do with the mountain man.”

“Could be,” said Alexis. “Maybe he’s a farmer or something.”

“No,” said Sydney. “My instinct tells me that he’s not a farmer. I don’t know yet what he is, but we’re going to find out. And when we do, we’ll know what that purple light is, too, and the howling.”

“Whoo-hooo!”

A shout came from Dock Two. Duncan stood, pole in hand, fighting with something on the end of his line. As the girls watched, he reeled it in. He dunked his net into the water and, after almost falling in, he scooped a big fish onto the dock.

Duncan took out his tape measure.

“Thirty-five and a half inches!” he shouted.

Kate’s package arrived as promised.

“Great,” said Sydney. “Let’s see what’s in here.” She put the box on the kitchen table and got a sharp knife from the drawer. Carefully, she cut the tape that held the box shut.

“Hurry,” said Alexis. “I want to see what Inspector Gadget sent us.”

The lid popped open. The first thing Sydney saw was a watch.

“Cool!” she said. “Kate sent us the Wonder Watch.”

Kate loved inventing things, and the Wonder Watch was one of her best creations. It could connect to a computer, surf the net, and read e-mail. Kate set it up so that with the push of a button, the girls would be connected to the Camp Club Girls chat room.

Also in the box was a plastic bag, carefully wrapped and surrounded by Styrofoam peanuts. Sydney removed the wrapping and pulled out a pair of mirrored sunglasses.

“Check this out,” she said. “Kate gave us a note. ‘If you wear these, you can see what’s behind you.’ “

She handed the glasses to Alexis.

“Whoa,” Alex said after she put them on. “This is weird. Depending on where I look through the lenses, I can see straight ahead or behind me. These are awesome, but they’ll take getting used to. Here. You try them.”

Sydney put the glasses on and looked in front of her.

“Oh!” She gasped. “What?”

“I saw someone looking in the window behind me.” Just then, there came a soft knock on the back door. The girls saw Mr. Miller standing on the little concrete porch. “Hi, Mr. Miller,” Sydney said, opening the door.

“Howdy,” he said. “Nice sunglasses. Say, I hear that you might need one of these.” He held up a fishing net. “And one of these, too.” He handed Sydney a metal tape measure. “So, you caught a big one this morning, huh?”

“You must have been talking to Duncan,” said Alexis.

Mr. Miller took off his baseball cap and scratched his head. “Well, let’s just say that a little bird told me.”

He gave Sydney the net, and she put it on the table next to Kate’s box.

“Well, that little bird has been giving us plenty of trouble since we got here,” Sydney said. “And his dad hasn’t been very nice, either.”

Mr. Miller plopped his cap back on his head. “Well, that’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about. You see, Duncan’s not a bad kid. His family’s been comin’ here since he was a baby. Then a couple of years ago, his mom and sister were killed in a car accident. Duncan and his dad haven’t been the same since. His dad’s still mad that it happened, and poor Duncan gets the worst of it sometimes. I don’t think he has many friends.”

A guilty feeling sank into the pit of Sydney’s stomach. “I’m glad you told us,” she said.

“Me, too,” Alexis added. “We’ll pray for them.”

Mr. Miller smiled. “You seem like nice girls. I figured you’d give Duncan a break and try to be friends with him.”

“We’ll try,” said Sydney. “And thanks for the net and the tape measure.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. “Good luck with your fishing, and may the best man … er … I mean … um … may the best man or woman win!”