Cougar: Part 2

By HELEN V. GRIFFITH

They drove up to a white box of a house smothered in bushes, covered in vines, knee-deep in fallen leaves.

Drove to the back and pulled up beside a pickup truck decorated with cats.

When Joe opened the car door, the cats jumped off, streaked away. Nickel and Starla got out, followed Joe. Not to the house, though.

Joe went straight for the barn, through the open door in the stone wall. Nickel smelled an old smoke smell, unpleasant, sad.

He would have followed, but Joe said, "Don't come in." That's when Nickel saw that the door wasn't just open. It was gone, burned away.

Inside the doorway there were only a few feet of packed earth to walk on and then a big hole where the floorboards had fallen into the barnyard below.

Joe came out of the barn looking sick. "I can't believe this.""Your mother told you the barn burned," Starla said.

Joe shook his head. "I couldn't picture it."

Publisher: HarperCollins
Price: 14.95
Age group: 8-12 years

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