Fast Slide by Melanie Jackson Page A

Being a champ won’t help even you.
    No. I wouldn’t think about that. I wouldn’t waste energy on Brad’s taunts. I had to survive second by second. I had to prepare for the Boa’s first twist. I remembered hearing the echoes from rafts hitting the turns. A rubber raft could survive being hurled against a wall. I wasn’t so sure about my damaged skull. I wrapped my arms over my head—
    Wham. I took the first turn. My left shoulder crunched against the wall. I barely missed bashing my skull.
    Down and down I went. The water was tossing me around. I was going to ram feet-first against the next turn. If that happened, I could break both legs.
    I curled into a ball. Smash. I hit the turn sideways.
    There was a long plunge here. I had a few seconds’ break from worrying about the next turn. The drawback to falling straight was that I built up speed. I was really going to slam into the next turn.
    The water cartwheeled me again. I was falling so fast, I was disoriented. I couldn’t tell how I was going to hit the turn. I tightened my arms around my head and prayed—
    BAM. BAM .
    I collided against the wall so hard, I actually bounced and met it again. I heard my right arm crack and splinter. Pain seared it. I opened my mouth for an agonized yell that blew out in a hundred bubbles.
    Forget swimming back up the tube once I reached the bottom. There was no way I’d manage that. My right arm was totaled.
    But then, I didn’t need to swim up the Boa again.
    Because Brad was wrong about the door. The Boa barfed me out with a mega-splash into the landing pool.
    One of my knees touched bottom. After what I’d been through, the bump was more like a caress. Unable to use my right arm, I flailed with the left and kicked clumsily upward. I had to fight against the water gushing out of the Boa. My lungs and ears felt ready to burst with the strain of holding my breath.
    I swam upward at a diagonal to avoid the force of the downpour. I needed to reach the side of the pool…I needed to breathe…
    By the side of the pool, the water was calmer. I could see the surface— and through it—to the huge Boa mouth leering down at me. I plowed up and felt air on my face.
    I exhaled, then glugged oxygen back in. Propping my good arm over the side of the pool, I heaved breaths in and out. No dessert was sweeter than this. Why had I never noticed how pure and fresh the air was around here?
    I heard footsteps.
    My first thought was: Brad .
    But Brad couldn’t have made it down the mountain this fast. Or could he? I wasn’t sure how long I’d been hanging on to the side of the pool.
    With an effort, I leaned my chin on my arm and looked up.
    Detective Mulligan leered—not unlike the plastic Boa—down at me. “So, I get to make my arrest, after all.”
    I couldn’t say anything. Couldn’t speak.
    The detective knelt. “Looks like you wrecked your arm pretty bad, son.”
    I glanced behind me. Blood was clouding the pool. I nodded. Then I shook my head. “I don’t know anything anymore, sir. Do what you have to do.”
    â€œOh, I will.” Mulligan dragged me out of the pool. Removing a pair of handcuffs from a jacket pocket, he dangled them in front of me. In the slanting sun, they sparkled like Brad’s cuff links.
    â€œDetective! No!”
    Janice was running toward us.
    â€œDon’t arrest Clay. He didn’t kill Aggie—he didn’t steal Dad’s money. I’m sure of it!”
    Mulligan rolled his eyes. “Young love. Give me a break.”
    Janice bounded up the stairs to the platform. She sat down and put her arms around me. “I’m so sorry, Clay. What happened? Did he do this to you?” She shot a foul look at Mulligan.
    It should have been funny. Yeah, I’d laugh about this one day. When I was eighty.
    But I could live to be a hundred, and Janice would never put her arms around me