Free Alpha Alpha Gamma by Nancy Springer Page B

necessary force, Kerri almost told him to shut up—but suddenly Burke started talking as if he wanted to. “Little brat, she was just hanging around. Pestering. I was watching The Aviator , like, I rented it, I’d never seen it before, and Bethany was just in and out of the room. I wasn’t paying much attention. Anyway, when the movie was over, I went looking for her to put her to bed. I figured she’d fallen asleep on the sofa or someplace, like she usually did.”
    A long silence followed, broken by crashing sounds as they made their slow way through rocks and brush. Kerri saw bloodroot in bloom. She saw fern fiddleheads, turkey-tail bracket fungus, and tiny mushrooms growing Day-Glo orange, like a search dog’s uniform, on a rotting log.
    She did not see any sign of a little lost girl.
    The skinny guy asked, “Was the house door open or anything?”
    “No.” Burke’s voice wobbled. “I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. I’d swear she didn’t go out of the house. I mean, she never did before.”
    “But you looked—“
    “Everywhere. Under beds, in closets, in the attic, the swimming pool, all the shower stalls, the Jacuzzi, the toy chest, both the freezers and refrigerators…my parents came home and looked. Then the cops looked.”
    One of the girls asked, “Are your parents pissed at you?”
    “I—I really don’t know. They’re too freaked to even talk to me.”
    “Ow. I’m sorry.”
    The other boy said, “There’s something white—no, it’s just flowers. Damn.”
    Burke called to the wilderness, “Bethany! Bethie?”
    * * *
    Back at the VOLUNTEERS desk, they turned in the wood stakes as well as the compasses. They had not found a thing.
    They uttered platitudes to Burke: “Well, um, good luck.”
    “Yeah, hang in there.”
    “Things have got to get better.”
    He barely nodded, all alone in a sea of people. Kerri Ellen wished she could think of something to say to him, to tell him she understood how he felt—which she did, probably better than anybody else there. But forget it; even more, she just wanted to get the heck away . Good; the girl who drove the MINI Cooper was ready to head out, car keys in hand.
    “Um, thanks for trying, guys.” Burke’s voice had gone wooden again.
    The skinny boy asked suddenly, “Burke, would you show us where Bethany was, you know, the last time you saw her?”
    Oh, no . What was it with the nerd? He had some kind of detective complex?
    “Um, sure.” Burke seemed surprised, but more alive. “Why not? Come on.” He led the way.
    Sighing, trailing behind, Kerri looked around with the scorn of the have-nots toward the haves: how could four people possibly require so much space? Burke’s barn-sized house echoed cavernous. Of course, there was nobody home; Burke’s parents were busy with the command center, the posters, the radio and TV reporters—Kerri Ellen knew how it was. But even on an ordinary day this place would have felt like an under-booked hotel. Burke took them through a living room the size of a gymnasium and past a formal dining room, a decorative downstairs bathroom and a white, gleaming kitchen, then along a wide corridor—above her head, on a sort of indoor balcony, Kerri Ellen glimpsed a crawl-in plastic play house with a doll perched on its pink roof. Hastily she looked away, following Burke down curving stairs to a family room. Way in the back of the house, as far as possible from its gracious spaces, this was a windowless den apparently meant for turning up the volume. Vast plasma screen TV. Stereo, CD, DVD, racks of discs to choose from. Five speakers positioned around the room. Lush velvety cream-colored carpeting and oversized cushy sofas.
    “Wow,” said the three sorority girls in unison.
    Kerri Ellen said nothing.
    “What a great place to watch a movie,” said the girl with the MINI Cooper, gazing around with a hungry look.
    The skinny boy asked, “Where did you sit?” Nosy nerd, would he never run out of