Still Waters by Emma Carlson Berne Page A

the maps again. Hannah bit her lip.
    Colin straightened up. “Okay, look, that’s probably the lake.” He pointed at a small splotch of blue in the middle of a vast tract of green spread over the middle of the map, near the highway exit they’d taken. “Let’s just try to get there.”
    “So why do you think the roads from the homemade map aren’t on the county one?” she asked.
    Colin shook his head. “Maybe they’re too small. Plus this map is like a hundred years old. All the roads are probably different now.” He handed the maps back to Hannah. “My dad must have had the way up memorized,” he said and threw the truck into drive again. “Let’s just get up there. I’m sick of being in this car.”
    Hannah shot him a quick glance. His face was getting that drawn look again and there were lines around his mouth. He did look tired, and pale. “Okay,” she said quickly. This wasn’t going at all as planned. She stared at the hand-drawn map again. Maybe those two intersecting lines in the middle were the crossroads they were at now. If that was the case, they were almost there. “Left,” she said, taking a chance.
    Colin swung the car left. Here, a rough rock wall bordered the road for several miles, enclosing overgrown farm fields. Broken, rusty machinery was scattered across the landscape like mastodon skeletons. In the distance, Hannah could see a gaunt white farmhouse. But they were too far away to tell if anyone lived there or not. She shivered. Everything about this trip since they got off the highway was wrong. First Colin’s bad mood, then the weird gas station, and now the desolate landscape. Into the back of her mind wiggled the faint worm of worry that this might have all been a mistake. But Hannah shoved that thought away firmly.
    The rock wall ended and the car bumped onto dirt. Colin and Hannah looked at each other. “Guess this is where the paved road ends,” Hannah said. She tried a tentative smile. Her heart lifted when Colin smiled back.
    “Good thing I just got new shocks put on.”
    Heavy pinewoods lined either side of the road, making a tunnel of arcing boughs. This had to be it. There were all those woods around the house in the photo. “Colin, I think we’re getting close.” Her spirits rose a little. They’d get to the house and then everything would be fine. The ride was just stressing Colin out—that was all. They’d get to the house and unpack and take showers and a nap on some comfy old bed, all twined up in each other. Hannah hung on to this vision. She ran her finger along the triangles indicating woods on the old map. There were several more turns. She examined the county map again. None of these roads were on there. She flung the map in the backseat.
    They turned down another dirt road and then a third. Hannah hoped they were going in the right direction—they hadn’t seen a road sign since they left the crossroads. Not another car either. Colin drove steadily, silently. Gray shadows had appeared under his eyes.
    Just tired,
Hannah reassured herself, leaning forward in her seat. She could see an opening in the dense woods. “I think this is the turnoff here,” she said.
    Colin turned the car down the tiny dirt road. It was barely big enough to get the truck through. The pine boughs scraped the truck on either side, like reaching fingers. The road could barely be called a road—it was a rutted path. Weeds grew knee-high up the middle. Hannah clutched the door handle as Colin hung onto the steering wheel to keep it from flying out from his grasp.
    Her mouth was dry. She licked her lips. Any minute she’d get her first glimpse of Pine House. Hannah kept her eyes fixed on the path, waiting to glimpse some kind of opening at the end. She glanced at Colin’s face but his expression was unreadable.
    Suddenly the woods opened up, pulling back on either side. “That’s it!” Hannah couldn’t keep the excitement from her voice. She grasped his sleeve as he stopped