Free Bungee Jump by Pam Withers Page A

rusty bedsprings.
    “The real name of the island is Thorn Island. But the locals started calling it Hospital Island when the hospital was built.” I kick a loose brick on the floor, which sends up plumes of dust. “This place only ran for ten years.”
    “I knew that.” Caitlin sniffs and runs her hand through a giant cobweb.
    “One doctor and one nurse worked here—”
    “What happened to the nurse?” Caitlin asks.
    “Disappeared after the doctor jumped.”
    “Where did the kids go then?”
    “To some other leper hospital in California.”
    “What else?” Caitlin asks, moving into a different wing.
    “The story about the cash box is baloney. Made up.”
    Caitlin shrugs. “Makes a good story. Might be true. Evil doctor rips off all the money meant to feed the children and buy medicine—”
    “—and buries it somewhere on the island, never yet found,” I finish for her. “Made up. False.”
    “If you believe old Dubin,” says Caitlin.
    “Why would she lie about that?” I ask.
    “I don’t know,” says Caitlin. “She’s a crank. You know she hates our bungee-jump idea.”
    “Yeah. She doesn’t want history disturbed,” I say. “And I kind of get that.” I don’t know why I’m defending the old librarian.
    “Nah, it’s ’cause she’s too old to bounce on a bungee-jump rope. She’s jealous of us.” Caitlin and I both laugh at that.
    “Shhh.” I hold up my hand. “Hear something?”
    We go dead silent. I hear lapping water and two faint voices. I shudder. Phantoms of the doctor and leper kids?
    We move out of the hospital ruins and stand onshore. Caitlin leans into me. I don’t like that she’s scared too.
    Smack! A tall dark figure holding a noose leaps from the water and knocks me down. Then starts howling.
    I scream and flee into the frigid channel, ready to swim home. But the cold instantly gives me corpse legs.
    As I back up, there’s deep laughter. A strange man leans down and pulls me aboard a barge.
    “That was just Dad,” Caitlin calls out, giggling. “He was landing with the rope to tie up the boat, silly.”
    “Chris,” says Dad from shore, “sorry to knock you over. But why’d you head into the water? This here’s Gord Plant, our engineer, by the way.”
    Gord, a skinny man with a mop of red hair, has hold of my jacket. He’s laughing a belly laugh. “I thought you were going to do a polar-bear swim there for a second. Sure soaked your jeans and shoes, eh? Did you think we were ghosts?”
    “What’re you doing on the island anyway?” Dad asks, looking from Caitlin to me. “You’d better not have come by the pipe, or you’re both grounded.”
    “Aww, give ’em a break, Buzz,” Gord says. “Good to meet you, Chris and Caitlin. Chris, I’ll fetch a towel for you from the trailer.”
    That’s when I see that the barge I’m on is hooked up to a towboat Dad was driving. Tied securely on the barge is a scruffy little trailer. Gord’s home during the platform construction.
    “H-h-hi,” I say, my burning face warming me. I drip onto the barge deck amid the noise of three people laughing at me once again. “Welcome to Hospital Island.”

Chapter Two
    It’s lunchtime when I know Caitlin has said something at school about last night.
    Two guys walk by with smirks. “Quick! Run into the water! They’re after you!”
    Ten minutes later, Caitlin’s friends Bella and Anya cruise by, waving their arms and chanting like ghosts. “Owoooo! Ooooo! Boo!”
    In the lunchroom half the school is walking stiffly, imitating zombies, then falling down and cracking up. Even my friend Tom and some of our gang have smeared their faces with paint.
    “Tom, not you too,” I say. “Knock it off.”
    “Aww, Chris, we’re just having a little fun.”
    Right . I offer a weak smile and sit down next to Tom. We chat for a while as we eat our sandwiches. Some of our other friends join us, done with the teasing.
    But other students keep making digs as they pass our