Free The Summer We Lost Alice by Jan Strnad

doesn't have anything to carry off to his secret place.
    There's wind in the trees. The rustling of the leaves to my right and my left terrifies me. That's another reason to stick to the road. Whatever grabbed Alice, it came from the trees. I look up. Straight over my head I see stars and clouds. The moon makes the clouds glow. A few tree branches overhang the road, but not many. I'm safer here, under the moon and the stars, than under the trees.
    Boo bursts out of the undergrowth beside me, scaring me half to death. He prances up to me and gives me a sniff . I pat his shoulders, then he's off again, to the other side of the road, into the brush.
    I recognize where we are. We're on the road where Sammy's car was parked. This is where Catherine caught me and Alice. Boo runs across the road. I call to him as I walk along the road. Pretty soon he comes bounding out of the woods and takes off ahead of me, but still following the road. Now and then he stops and looks back to see if I'm there.
    We circle the lake and hit the country. We walk along the highway. There's no traffic, none at all. There's no one to find us and stop us, but if I see headlights along the road I'm ready to jump in a ditch and lie down and wait for the car to pass. I don't figure they'll pay any attention to Boo, another stray dog out on the highway at night. But there are no lights. There's no reason for anybody but me and Boo to be out on this road at this time of night.
    I see the nursing home. Boo and I run up the gravel path that leads to it. You can't see the graveyard from here, but I know it's there, behind the house full of old people presided over by the witch. The moon lights our way. It seems like feeble protection against the darkness that threatens to engulf us. Clouds are gathering. Soon even the moon will disappear.
    I run up to the nursing home and press my back against the wall. Boo bounces around me. He barks . I tell him to shush. He doesn't have any idea what we're doing here, but I know that, once I get him inside, he'll find Alice. He'll snuff around and catch her scent and he'll go right to her. All we have to do is get inside.
    The windows are too high off the ground for me to reach easily. I could climb up if I had to, if the window was open. I walk around the nursing home looking for an open window, but I'm halfway around and all of the windows are shut. I don't know if they're locked or not, but I figure they are. First I'll try to find an open one that I know I can get in. If I don't find one, I'll get something to stand on and try one of the closed windows.
    I reach the back side that faces the graveyard . I see the doors to the storm cellar. That would be a good way in, if the cellar doors aren't locked. I go pssst at Boo and he runs up. We run over to the cellar doors.
    I stand beside the doors and my heart sinks. There's a big padlock on the doors that I couldn't bust in a million years. I pull at the bottom of one of the doors, thinking maybe that the door is rotten and the latch will pull out, but the latch and the padlock hold firm. I look at the hinges and think maybe I could work them loose if I could find a screwdriver or something. This is my best way in, if I can only figure it out.
    Boo's gotten bored and run off into the graveyard to smell things. I hope he doesn't dig up any dead bodies. The moon's been swallowed by the clouds and it's dark out here. I can't see him but sometimes I hear him snorting and digging.
    I find a stick and use it to try to pry the hinges loose. The stick breaks and the hinges don't budge at all. It was a stupid idea. I need something stronger if I'm going to get those doors open. Maybe I can find a board and wedge it between the doors and pry them apart. It all seems so hopeless and stupid and I want to give up, but I won't.
    I turn around to look for something I can use on the doors and I jump halfway out of my skin. An old man is looking at me. He's walked right up behind me while I was