Free Tunnels by Lesley Downie Page A

silly if you ask me. So she keeps it all pent up—until a day like today happens and she just can ' t help but let it out.
    Doggone war has upset so many lives. But this is for the greatest of causes and I told Emily as much. I asked her how she ' d feel if the Germans were ready to invade her neighborhood, let alone the rest of Europe. It didn ' t help. She locked herself in her room and wouldn ' t come out. Wonder when my number will be up?
    Edward

    How weird. I didn't even know Pops had a sister, let alone his name was Edward. I wonder what happened to Emily. It's strange Evan never mentioned her. It's also strange I never realized his family has so many names beginning with the letter E! Flipping to another page, I read some more.

    August 1, 1943
    Found Emily down in the basement again today, but it wasn ' t like the other days. This time she acted nervous and seemed to be fidgeting in the corner where we keep the air raid supplies. Says she was just cleaning up but something was off. When I went down again later, she ' d drawn a heart on the wall. I don ' t know what to think about that. Wish life would just go back to normal and we could have our talks. But she doesn ' t seem to want to speak much to me or anyone else and has been inconsolable because she ' s received no word from George yet. I told her sometimes in war no news is good news, and if George ' s folks haven ' t hung a gold star on their door yet, then chances are he ' s okay. Mother wants to take her to a head doctor, but I don ' t think it ' s a good idea. I told her that kind of doctor couldn ' t fix a broken heart. Besides, Emily ' s almost done with her nursing program and once she starts working I ' m sure she ' ll be much better. Father always says, " An idle mind is not a healthy mind. " Guess he ' s right. Too much time to think has led Em down a scary path.
    Edward

    Another heart? Wait just a minute. Was it just a coincidence, or were the hearts Evan and I were finding somehow connected to Emily? I wanted to read more, but the clock above the stove said eight o'clock and I needed to get going. Leaving now would give me a lot of time before Mom and Dad came home. Sam'll stay at his friend's house forever because he says they have better food. And for once he'd be totally right. Everybody has tastier food than we do.
    So I decided I needed to try another spot to get into the tunnels because the crazy dude had me scared. And I think I knew just the place. There's an old irrigation system called the Zanja which runs through Citrus Grove. Yeah it's really spelled that way, but we pronounce it like Sankey. It was built by the Native Americans in the eighteen hundreds when they lived and grew crops here. We even got to visit it a bunch of times in elementary school during Local History Week every year. We were taught the huge rocks from a nearby river were used by the native people to build it all by hand. Sometimes you can still see parts of the old watering system when you go down the older roads.
    Anyway, I'm wondering if there's a connection to the tunnels. Hoping I'll be able to link to the whole tunnel system from the Zanja. Then I can explore recent history and maybe find the ruins of the ancient lizard people. After getting chased in the tunnel, I'm even surer now they exist. Just never thought any of them could still be alive. Were they the real reason why the tunnels were built in the first place? And why does no one seem to know about them except a handful of people who've already died? Again, I wished Pops was still here. Bet he knew the answer.

Chapter Twelve
    GUESS I DO HAVE SOME SKILLS
    "What?" I answered the phone in a definite not-okay-according-to-Mom kind of way. I'd just put the journal away so I could get to the tunnels and this was one more thing stopping me.
    "I'm outside your house." It was Evan. "You ready?"
    Ready? "Not sure. What are you talking about?"
    Big sigh on the other end, so I knew I'd epically messed up. I