“He’s not bullshitting.”

The tone got through, or when he bothered to look, the expression on Cal ’s face tripped a chord. Fox shot off toward the edge, spooked enough to send a couple of wary looks over his shoulder.

Gage followed, a careless dog paddle that made Cal think he was daring something to happen.

When his friends hauled themselves out, Cal sank back down to the ground. Drawing his knees up, he pressed his forehead to them and began to shake.

“Man.” Dripping in his underwear, Fox shifted from foot to foot. “I just gave you a tug, and you freak out. We were just fooling around.”

“I saw her.”

Crouching, Fox shoved his sopping hair back from his face. “Dude, you can’t see squat without those Coke bottles.”

“Shut up, O’Dell.” Gage squatted down. “What did you see, Cal?”

“Her. She had all this hair swimming around her, and her eyes, oh man, her eyes were black like the shark in Jaws. She had this long dress on, long sleeves and all, and she reached out like she was going to grab me-”

“With her bony fingers,” Fox put in, falling well short of his target of disdain.

“They weren’t bony.” Cal lifted his head now, and behind the lenses his eyes were fierce and frightened. “I thought they would be, but she looked, all of her, looked just…real. Not like a ghost or a skeleton. Oh man, oh God, I saw her. I’m not making it up.”

“Well Jee-sus.” Fox crab-walked another foot away from the pond, then cursed breathlessly when he tore his forearm on berry thorns. “Shit, now I’m bleeding.” Fox yanked a handful of weedy grass, swiped at the blood seeping from the scratches.

“Don’t even think about it.” Cal saw the way Gage was studying the water-that thoughtful, wonder-what’ll-happen gleam in his eye. “Nobody’s going in there. You don’t swim well enough to try it anyway.”

“How come you’re the only one who saw her?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care. I just want to get away from here.”