Scared Stiff by Willo Davis Roberts

pushing with our hands against slimy walls. Well, maybe they weren’t slimy, but I felt as if they would be.
    It only took a slight push to send our gondola close enough to the yellow one so I could grab hold of the back of it. “Come on, Kenny, cut it out. We’ll come back with a flashlight later.”
    â€œLook! There it is again, and it’s not very far inside! We can still see daylight behind us, Rick! And I can move just pushing against the wall, see?”
    With that he leaned out and shoved as hard as he could, and since I was hanging onto his boat it pulled both gondolas inside the tunnel.
    â€œDarn it, Kenny, I told you—” I began, and then my voice trailed away.
    Because he was right about the light; I’d seen the flicker of it, too. Kenny pushed again, carrying us away from the oval of light behind us at the mouth of the tunnel. We bumped theother wall, where Kenny pushed again, sending us around a curve so that the light behind us almost vanished.
    It was pitch black ahead. I heard Julie suck in her breath, and then the hair stood right up on the back of my neck. A leering pirate with a parrot on his shoulder suddenly loomed up to our left, an evil grin on his face and a hooked hand carrying a lantern.
    It wasn’t the lantern that illuminated him, though, but a flashlight, I realized as my heart thudded in my chest.
    It wasn’t a real pirate, of course, nor a real parrot. But there was someone real in the tunnel with us; when I heard the maniacal laughter I stumbled backward and sat down without intending to.
    I wanted to shout out and ask who was there, but for just a few seconds my voice wouldn’t work, even when I heard Kenny whimper as he, too, sank onto the seat of his gondola.
    And then the light went out and we were in darkness, while the wild laughter continued to echo off the walls around us.

Chapter Seven
    I heard Kenny’s wavering voice say “Rick?” and felt our boats bump, then drift apart. I’d let go of the one he was in when I sat down, and I felt a moment of panic that I’d lost contact with my little brother.
    He hadn’t really meant to come far enough inside the tunnel to get completely away from the light, and he’d never have done it if he hadn’t thought I was right behind him. He didn’t spook about the dark unless he was alone in it.
    I could hear the blood thundering in my ears as the crazy laughter died away, and then Julie spoke behind me.
    â€œWho’s there?”
    There was no response, only the faint sound of one of the boats rubbing against the tunnelwall. I tried to calm down, because there wasn’t anywhere Kenny’s boat could go except on through the tunnel; there wasn’t room to pass, and my boat was right behind his.
    I wanted to say his name, to reassure him that I was close by, but my voice wouldn’t work. Off to the side there were small scuffling sounds, and then a giggle.
    Julie’s words were sharp and didn’t sound as afraid as I was. “Who is it? Who’s there?”
    The only answer was another smothered giggle.
    â€œIs that you, Connie Morse?”
    The flashlight came on, glancing off the fierce pirate with his parrot and his hooked hand, then settled on Julie’s face so that she lifted a hand to shield her eyes.
    â€œYou don’t have to blind me,” she said. “What are you doing in here?”
    â€œI been following you for half an hour,” a perfectly normal boy’s voice said. The beam of light swung over me, picked out Kenny crouched in the gondola ahead of us, then dropped so it didn’t shine in anybody’s eyes.
    At first I couldn’t see behind the light towhoever was holding it, but at least if it was someone Julie knew maybe I didn’t need to have a heart attack.
    â€œWhy have you been following us? And why are you in here?”
    â€œYou were heading this way. I figured there was a chance you’d