The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki Page B

splashing several times before disappearing underneath the surface. “I’ve already taken the one code book out of the library,” said Eddie. “But it’s really confusing and not much help.” The raven called to them from the top of the hill near the statue, louder this time.
    “Forget about it then,” said Harris. “I’m sure we can find some sort of pattern on our own.”
    Eddie was about to take
The Enigmatic Manuscript
out of his bag so they could get started, when near the far shore, the calm surface of the water suddenly rippled, as if something large had risen from below. The raven at the top of the hill took off for the sky. Wide-eyed, the boys looked at each other.
    “I think the sun’s starting to go down,” said Harris, stepping away from the shore.
    “Did you see that?” said Eddie. Small waves disturbed the water at the center of the lake. Eddie stepped forward, trying to peer through the blue sky’s opaque reflection. He could see a dark shape shifting and squirming in the hazy depths fifteen feet from the shore. The shape reminded Eddie of a fast-moving storm cloud, swirling and rolling in upon itself as it grew stronger. The forest behind him was suddenly quiet, as if all its inhabitants did not want to be heard. From where he stood, Eddie could see the dark cloudy shape rise to the surface of the water from below, creating a black spot nearly five feet in diameter. The edges of the black spot seemed to pulsate and roil, spreading its wide fingers out across the top of the lake like a fist slowly opening. “Is it an oil slick?” Eddie asked.
    “I don’t know
what
it is,” said Harris, staring at the spot intently as it continued to grow. Now it had doubled in size. It floated in stark contrast to the sky’s blue reflection, turning the water black as it spread outward.
    “It’s coming up from the bottom of the lake.” Eddie leaned forward. “Like a geyser.” He was frightened, yet at the same time, he was curious. “Or maybe not. I can’t really tell.” He’d never seen anything like this before. After Harris’s spooky stories about the woods and the town, he felt compelled to run away, but he also wanted to stay to see what would happen as the black shape grew and grew. This almost seemed like something that would happen in a Nathaniel Olmstead book, but, of course, Eddie told himself, those stories were not real, in spite of what people believed.
    Now the dark shape in the middle of the lake was as large as a small island, taking up almost all of the water’s surface. The blue reflection from above had been replaced by darkness from below, as if someone had covered the sky with a blanket; yet, when Eddie looked up, he could see the sun still shining somewhere beyond the canopy of trees near the horizon. Even so, the afternoon light barely broke through the tree-tops. Then Eddie noticed something even weirder. In the water, there began to appear little white specks of light, which wavered as the surface rippled slightly. Eddie was reminded of a book he’d read about phosphorescent algae. He also remembered reading about a type of shrimp capable of producing a small amount of light, like a firefly. But these specks of light didn’t look like algae or shrimp or fireflies. They appeared to be something else—something familiar that Eddie couldn’t quite name.
    “Are those … stars?” whispered Harris.
    The darkness reached the shore, so that now, except for the specks of light, the entire lake had turned black. The water did not merely look dirty—but impenetrable and infinite. Eddie cautiously leaned forward even farther. “You’re right,” he said. “It almost looks like … a reflection of the night sky.” He glanced up at the cirrus clouds wisping in the afternoon light, then shook his head, baffled. He bent down and picked up another pebble from the edge of the water. He was about to toss it in to see what would happen, when Harris grabbed his