Read The Water and the Wild for Free Online Page B

ones.
    Lottie hit the damp grass with a solid
pomp
. A shower of apples gave their thudding applause at her successful landing.
    â€œDo you think Mrs. Yates heard us?” she asked.
    â€œNot a chance,” said Adelaide, who was rustling in the folds of her billowy skirt. “You people have atrocious hearing.”
    â€œWhere are we going? Do you live in town?”
    â€œNo,” said Adelaide. Then, “Well, yes.”
    The girl pulled something from her pocket. Lottie gasped. A lavender finch was perched on Adelaide’s finger. Not only that, but Adelaide was whispering something to it. The finch gave a single chirp, then fluttered up and alighted on the lowest branch of the apple tree.
    â€œAs to where we’re going,” said Adelaide, hopping up so that both of her hands grabbed ahold of the branch where the finch had landed, “you might call it going down. Or up, depending on your perspective.”
    The branch Adelaide hung from bent reluctantly and then swung down to the ground with a terrific screech, like brittle fingernails grating against metal. What had once been the dull brown bark of the apple tree trunk now began to shine and glint like silver in the moonlight. With a great creaking shudder, the branches, leaves, even the trunk itself started to shift and shake. One moment,the apple tree looked like the dear friend that Lottie had known and loved her whole life. The next, the tree’s trunk had whorled into a splintery, human-sized opening.
    Adelaide let go of the branch, wiped her hands on her skirt, and gave a low whistle. The lavender finch flitted back to her hand.
    â€œWhat did you just do?” Lottie whispered.
    â€œPulled the silver bough,” said Adelaide, as naturally as she might say that she had eaten peas for supper.
    She tucked the lavender finch into her pocket.
    â€œBut—you can’t do that to a bird,” Lottie said stupidly.
    Adelaide looked confused. “Of course I can. Lila
lives
in my pocket. Doesn’t yours?”
    Yes, this must be a dream, Lottie decided. It was all pretend. Until now, all of that pretend had been neatly locked in her copper box. But her copper box was shut tight; Lottie could see it even now, winking out from under the tree roots. How had she managed to let the magic out?
    â€œMy what?”
    If Adelaide had heard Lottie, she did not bother to reply. She pushed her aside and looked the tree over, upand down. Then she marched right up to the dark opening, motioning for Lottie to follow.
    â€œIn we go,” she said.
    Lottie shook her head. “I’d rather not,” she said. “Trees and I aren’t on good terms right now.”
    Adelaide rounded Lottie and nudged her forward. “It’s perfectly safe. How do you think I got here?”
    Lottie wondered. It now seemed very likely to her that Adelaide had escaped from Hopewell Manor, the lunatic asylum on the mainland. Then again, Adelaide wasn’t the only one seeing doors in trees. But before Lottie could further contemplate her own sanity, Adelaide had given her a firm shove into the tree and hopped in after.
    â€œWait!” Lottie cried, but Adelaide was already crowding in.
    The bark door closed in on them, and they were cast into darkness.
    â€œBy the way,” Adelaide said, “this might hurt.”
    â€œWhat might—?”
    There was great groan, followed by a
snap
. The tree shuddered. Suddenly, it felt like lead weights were pressing in on Lottie from her sides, her kneecaps, her fingertips, her toe tips, and even her ear tips.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” she choked out to Adelaide. “Make it stop!”
    The pressure grew heavier, as though Lottie were being condensed into a jar. The bridge of her nose tingled, and her ears filled up with a gauzy dullness. She was being pressed, pressed,
pressed
. But just when Lottie thought that her brains would be shoved down into her small intestine, the pressure