Read Juniper Berry for Free Online Page B

circumference. It was as if a perfect circle had been burned into the middle of the woods. She had never seen anything like it before. Giles appeared similarly perplexed.
    In the center of the clearing, drawing their gazes, were the remainders of a campfire. Slowly, Juniper and Giles approached the soggy woodpile. Who was all the way out here ? Juniper wondered. Stalkers ? Her parents had had more than a few problems with overzealous fans recently.
    Kicking at the charred tree branches, she noticed some debris sprinkled about. It appeared to be burned paper. She crouched down and picked up one of the scraps, part of a journal—there was a portion of a date at the top, April something or other, but because of the fire and rain the rest was indecipherable. She picked up another, as did Giles. Nothing could be made out. Then Giles came across yet another page, this one mostly intact. They looked it over. Some Roman numerals and random symbols, none of which meant anything to them. Juniper shifted more of the wood. There! A page with writing. She snatched it up and began to read.
    Walls are walls are walls
    And what we see is what we see
    See?
    Up and over is the only way
    To an ornery new world
    Not round and round and round (we go)
    There is no either/or
    Tranquilized eyes, I saw—
    Oh, please, I must have a sickness
    The sun’ll come out tomorrow, tomorrow, won’t it?
    From such heights, one can only fall
    HURRY UP PLEASE IT’S TIME
    It always is even when it shouldn’t
    It always is even when it couldn’t
    Memememememememememememe
    These aren’t my thoughts
    I don’t know my self
    The words terrified her. They were gibberish, mad ramblings. But this wasn’t the part that set her stomach fearfully tumbling.
    â€œThis is my father’s handwriting,” she said. There was no doubt this was true—the way the letters leaned and swirled, the faint punctuation—and yet there was not a trace of her father within them. What did it all mean? Why was he out here? She thought he might be trying to hide, but from what? What was happening to him?
    â€œJuniper, the back.” Pointing at the paper, Giles looked bewildered.
    Juniper flipped the torn page. On the back of the journal entry, scrawled across the top, she noticed the same numerals and symbols from the previous paper. And below that was a sketch of a very particular and striking bird.
    â€œI’ve seen this bird before,” Juniper said. “It’s a raven.”
    â€œI’m sure there are lots of them in these woods.”
    â€œNot that I’ve noticed. I’ve seen only one around here.” Her eyes met Giles’s. “And I know exactly where to find it.”
    Juniper led them back through the woods and to a tree near where she and Giles had met the day before.
    It was an ugly tree. If any were to be chopped down, it should have been this monstrosity. Its branches were bare and sharp, reaching out as if to pierce the sky, although the sky certainly did nothing to instigate such an assault. The tree, not incredibly thick, not incredibly thin, was riddled with knots and odd twists, roots that ripped the ground, killing the grass and welcoming the weeds. Nothing else grew from the base all the way to the top. There was nary an insect crawling across the trunk or a squirrel nesting in the branches.
    However, there was the raven. Juniper looked up at it, wanting to say hello, and the raven seemed to nod. Its feet were wrapped around its usual branch, wings tucked comfortably to its sides, eyes fixed on the two children.
    â€œIs this what my parents were searching for?” Giles asked. “This tree? Do your parents know about it, too? They must.”
    â€œI don’t know. It couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? But I don’t get it. What would they want with a dying tree?”
    Circling the trunk, they both began inspecting. They yanked on branches, kicked at roots, pressed each