بگو سیب و بمیر فصل 17

Say Cheese and Die! - Chapter 17

“How’s it going, Bird?” Greg called, making his way across the flagstone patio to Shari’s backyard.

“I’m feeling okay,” Bird said, slapping his friend a high five. “The only problem is, ever since that ball hit me,” Bird continued, frowning, “from time to time I start— pluuccck cluuuck cluuuuck! —clucking like a chicken!” He flapped his arms and started strutting across the backyard, clucking at the top of his voice.

“Hey, Bird—go lay an egg!” someone yelled, and everyone laughed.

“Bird’s at it again,” Michael said, shaking his head. He gave Greg a friendly punch on the shoulder. Michael, his red hair unbrushed as usual, was wearing faded jeans and a flowered Hawaiian sports shirt about three sizes too big for him.

“Where’d you get that shirt?” Greg asked, holding Michael at arm’s length by the shoulders to admire it.

“In a cereal box,” Bird chimed in, still flapping his arms.

“My grandmother gave it to me,” Michael said, frowning.

“He made it in home ec,” Bird interrupted. One joke was never enough.

“But why did you wear it?” Greg asked.

Michael shrugged. “Everything else was dirty.”

Bird bent down, picked up a small clump of dirt from the lawn, and rubbed it on the back of Michael’s shirt. “Now this one’s dirty, too,” he declared.

“Hey, you—” Michael reacted with playful anger, grabbing Bird and shoving him into the hedge.

“Did you bring it?”

Hearing Shari’s voice, Greg turned toward the house and saw her jogging across the patio in his direction. Her black hair was pulled back in a single braid, and she had on an oversized silky yellow top that came down over black spandex leggings.

“Did you bring it?” she repeated eagerly. A charm bracelet filled with tiny silver charms—a birthday present—jangled at her wrist.

“Yeah.” Greg reluctantly held up the camera.

“Excellent,” she declared.

“I really don’t want—” Greg started.

“You can take my picture first since it’s my birthday,” Shari interrupted. “Here. How’s this?” She struck a sophisticated pose, leaning against a tree with her hand behind her head.

Greg obediently raised the camera. “Are you sure you want to do this, Shari?”

“Yeah. Come on. I want to take everyone’s picture.”

“But it’ll probably come out weird,” Greg protested.

“I know,” Shari replied impatiently, holding her pose. “That’s the fun of it.”

“But, Shari—”

“Michael puked on his shirt,” he heard Bird telling someone near the hedge.

“I did not!” Michael was screaming.

“You mean it looks like that naturally?” Bird, asked.

Greg could hear a lot of raucous laughing, all of it at Michael’s expense.

“Will you take the picture?” Shari cried, holding on to the slender trunk of the tree.

Greg pointed the lens at her and pressed the button. The camera whirred, and the undeveloped white square rolled out.

“Hey, are we the only boys invited?” Michael asked, stepping up to Shari.

“Yeah. Just you three,” Shari said. “And nine girls.”

“Oh, wow.” Michael made a face.

“Take Michael’s picture next,” Shari told Greg.

“No way!” Michael replied quickly, raising his hands as if to shield himself and backing away. “The last time you took my picture with that thing, I fell down the stairs.”

Trying to get away, Michael backed right into Nina Blake, one of Shari’s friends. She reacted with a squeal of surprise, then gave him a playful shove, and he kept right on backing away.

“Michael, come on. It’s my party,” Shari called.

“What are we going to do? Is this it ?” Nina demanded from halfway across the yard.

“I thought we’d take everyone’s picture and then play a game or something,” Shari told her.

“A game?” Bird chimed in. “You mean like Spin the Bottle?”

A few kids laughed.

“Truth or Dare!” Nina suggested.

“Yeah. Truth or Dare!” a couple of other girls called in agreement.

“Oh, no,” Greg groaned quietly to himself. Truth or Dare meant a lot of kissing and awkward, embarrassing stunts.

Nine girls and only three boys.

It was going to be really embarrassing.

How could Shari do this to us? he wondered.

“Well, did it come out?” Shari asked, grabbing his arm. “Let me see.”

Greg was so upset about having to play Truth or Dare, he had forgotten about the snapshot developing in his hand. He held it up, and they both examined it.

“Where am I?” Shari asked in surprise. “What were you aiming at? You missed me!”

“Huh?” Greg stared at the snapshot. There was the tree. But no Shari. “Weird! I pointed it right at you. I lined it up carefully,” he protested.

“Well, you missed me. I’m not in the shot,” Shari replied disgustedly.

“But, Shari—”

“I mean, come on —I’m not invisible, Greg. I’m not a vampire or something. I can see my reflection in mirrors. And I do usually show up in photos.”

“But, look—” Greg stared hard at the photograph. “There’s the tree you were leaning against. You can see the tree trunk clearly. And there’s the spot where you were standing.”

“But where am I?” Shari demanded, jangling her charm bracelet noisily. “Never mind.” She grabbed the snapshot from him and tossed it on the grass. “Take another one. Quick.”

“Well, okay. But—” Greg was still puzzling over the photo. Why hadn’t Shari shown up in it? He bent down, picked it up, and shoved it into his pocket.

“Stand closer this time,” she instructed.

Greg moved a few steps closer, carefully centered Shari in the viewfinder, and snapped the picture. A square of film zipped out the front.

Shari walked over and pulled the picture from the camera. “This one better turn out,” she said, staring hard at it as the colors began to darken and take form.

“If you really want pictures of everyone, we should get another camera,” Greg said, his eyes also locked on the snapshot.

“Hey—I don’t believe it!” Shari cried.

Again, she was invisible.

The tree photographed clearly, in perfect focus. But Shari was nowhere to be seen.

“You were right. The dumb camera is broken,” she said disgustedly, handing the photo to Greg. “Forget it.” She turned away from him and called to the others. “Hey, guys—Truth or Dare!”

There were some cheers and some groans.

Shari headed them back to the woods behind her backyard to play. “More privacy,” she explained. There was a circular clearing just beyond the trees, a perfect, private place.

The game was just as embarrassing as Greg had imagined. Among the boys, only Bird seemed to be enjoying it. Bird loves dumb stuff like this, Greg thought with some envy.

Luckily, after little more than half an hour, he heard Mrs. Walker, Shari’s mom, calling from the house, summoning them back to cut the birthday cake.

“ Aw, too bad,” Greg said sarcastically. “Just when the game was getting good.”

“We have to get out of the woods, anyway,” Bird said, grinning. “Michael’s shirt is scaring the squirrels.”

Laughing and talking about the game, the kids made their way back to the patio, where the pink-and-white birthday cake, candles all lit, was waiting on the round umbrella table.

“I must be a pretty bad mom,” Mrs. Walker joked, “allowing you all to go off into the woods by yourselves.”

Some of the girls laughed.

Cake knife in her hand, Mrs. Walker looked around. “Where’s Shari?”

Everyone turned their eyes to search the backyard. “She was with us in the woods,” Nina told Mrs. Walker. “Just a minute ago.”

“Hey, Shari!” Bird called, cupping his hands to his mouth as a megaphone. “Earth calling Shari! It’s cake time!”

No reply.

No sign of her.

“Did she go in the house?” Greg asked.

Mrs. Walker shook her head. “No. She didn’t come by the patio. Is she still in the woods?”

“I’ll go check,” Bird told her. Calling Shari’s name, he ran to the edge of the trees at the back of the yard. Then he disappeared into the trees, still calling.

A few minutes later, Bird emerged, signaling to the others with a shrug.

No sign of her.

They searched the house. The front yard. The woods again.

But Shari had vanished.