CHAPTER 1 WELCOME TO SEASPIRE
PETER
Twelve-year-old Peter Syracuse found himself breaking into a cemetery.
It hadn’t been his idea, of course. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t there, shuffling his feet, as his twin brother Kai searched for handholds on the old brick wall that surrounded the graveyard.
“This is a bad idea,” Peter said for the thirtieth time.
“Someone has to get the Frisbee back,” Kai returned. He pulled himself a step up the wall, Grandma’s wooden cane hanging from a belt loop on his shorts.
“I know, but—” Peter didn’t know what he wanted to say.
It had been Peter’s idea to join the Frisbee game in the park when they’d seen the other kids playing. And he understood that since it was his pass to Kai that had gone wide, landing over the wall of the old, locked cemetery that rested beside the white-painted church, it was their responsibility to get it back. But …
But climbing over the wall seemed risky. And surely the cemetery had been locked for a reason.
Not that Peter believed the stories the other Frisbee kids told about the ghost of a Revolutionary War soldier haunting the graveyard. And in any case, it was day, and sunny. No ghost came out to play during the day.
Still, the coastal town of Seaspire, Massachusetts, had an eerie quality to it. Not right now, when the sun danced brightly on the slate rooftops and the blue summer sky matched the endless blue of the sea, setting off green trees and red brick in a merry way. It was the perfect day for a picnic, which was what Peter and his family were doing when Peter spotted the Ultimate pickup game.
But at nightfall, or when rain clouds shrouded the sun, everything took on a sinister tone. The bricks became jagged, and white paint revealed its cracks. Even the colorful fish-man painted on the Fudge Kitchen window changed from friendly to malevolent. When the light faded, the town forgot its merriment and felt like it was waiting for the worst to happen. Peter couldn’t help but wonder what that might be.
He shook his head and brought his mind back to the present. No, Peter didn’t believe in ghosts. He was more concerned about the person who cared for the graveyard coming after them. They were trespassing. He said as much to Kai.
“Don’t worry so much,” Kai said, finally reaching the top of the wall and swinging a leg over. “We’ll get in and out before anyone sees us.”
“But what if they do?” Peter looked around. Behind him, the park glowed green in the summer sun. Families milled around, enjoying picnics and playing at the small playground—a mix of new plastic slides and an old, wooden swing set.
And the other kids waited in the field behind them for their Frisbee to come back.
Abandoning the Frisbee ran its risks. Peter and Kai had three more weeks in Seaspire. Making the other kids angry by losing their Frisbee meant isolating themselves with their family for nearly a month.
But continuing this could mean getting into serious trouble.
Peter was tired of getting into trouble.
“I see it,” Kai said from his perch on the wall. “It landed on a mausoleum.”
“Oh, well. We tried.”
“No, we can still get it. Together.” Kai shifted his weight and leaned down, hand extended. “Come on up.”
“I will not.”
“This is the only way. I can reach the Frisbee if I climb on your shoulders, but first we have to be on the other side of this wall. So come up. It’ll be an adventure.” He grinned, flashing a tooth that had been chipped many years ago. The one casual acquaintances used as a way to differentiate between Peter and Kai, who were identical. Same light skin that held a tan easily, same dark hair, and even the same freckles. However, Peter’s hair was a little bit curlier, and Kai’s eyes had a little more green in their hazel.
Kai waved. “Come on! We need to hurry.”
Peter looked back at the kids waiting behind them, and then up at Kai. What should he do?
He did what he always did: follow Kai. Though a bitter taste developed on his tongue.
Matching Kai’s movements on the wall, Peter climbed up and sat beside his twin. Beneath them on the other side of the wall was the little cemetery. Well-kept grass was interrupted by gray headstones reaching skyward like fingers. The church stood on the other side of the yard, a door connecting it to the graveyard. And there was the mausoleum with the red Frisbee on the roof.
A cloud passed over the sun, and Peter shivered.
Kai, on the other hand, looked enlivened. Eyes gleaming, he adjusted Grandma’s cane. “Let’s do this,” he said, jumping off the wall before Peter could shout out.
Fortunately the wall wasn’t too high, so Kai just stumbled and collapsed when he landed. Peter didn’t move, wondering if he should turn around and go back to the park before it was too late. But he didn’t want to go back without the Frisbee.
Which move was right, and which one would lead to disaster?
Kai was already at the mausoleum. “Peter, hurry up!”
But Peter didn’t come.
So Kai threw his hands in the air, drew Grandma’s cane from his belt loop, and reached up to fish around on the mausoleum roof for the Frisbee.
When that didn’t work, Kai climbed onto a nearby headstone and bent his knees. With a lurch, Peter realized that he was about to jump.
“Don’t!” he called.
“There’s still time to come down here,” Kai sang back.
Peter gripped the edge of the wall, about to jump, but then released it. As much as he wanted to bring back the Frisbee he’d tossed over the wall, he couldn’t banish the vision of himself and Kai being dragged back to Dad and Grandma by the priest or whoever was in charge here, embarrassed and in trouble again.
Had Kai even thought about that before jumping in feetfirst? If history was any indication, no, he hadn’t.
Kai’s tooth had been chipped when he, at six years old, had tried to rescue a friend’s sister’s kite from a tree back home in Ohio. He’d failed to notice one of the branches was cracked. And in fourth grade, Kai raced into the street to heroically retrieve the neighbor’s ball. Only the quick reflexes of the driver had saved Kai from being hit by a car.
Peter could have managed if it was just that. But a few weeks ago, when school let out, Kai had proven how reckless he really was. Their mom, Thera Regas Syracuse, had just left on her summerlong expedition. Probably another one to the Mediterranean; because Mom’s parents were from Greece, she tended to prefer digs that related to ancient Greece.
Dad had decided it would be fun to take the family rafting while Mom was gone, so they could all have an adventure. Peter and Kai, and their older sister, Sophie, were even allowed to bring friends.
Sophie and her high school friends were on one raft. Dad and the boys and a couple of their friends, Geoff and Milo, were on the other one. The river was pretty mild, so Dad said it was okay to get out and swim if they wanted to. This wasn’t a white-water-rafting excursion. At least, it wasn’t supposed to be.
After hours of floating, Sophie’s raft got caught on a fallen log. Dad got out to unstick the teenagers, but Kai and Peter and their friends floated away while he was working. This shouldn’t have been a problem, but then they lost sight of Dad and it soon became clear they’d taken a branch of the river they weren’t supposed to take.
They’d tried shouting for Dad, but got no answer. Geoff and Milo started to worry. They were lost and alone on the river. Peter wanted to pull over to the side, stay put, and use Dad’s cell phone to call for help. But Kai had a different plan.
According to Kai, the branch would come back to the main river. He’d seen it on a map. He could guide the group forward, and they’d meet up with Dad again. It sounded so easy, when Kai said it, and the truth was, it never took much to convince Peter to go along with Kai’s plans. They were twins, after all. Best friends for life.
So they did it. They floated ahead, with Kai at the front of the raft like George Washington crossing the Delaware. Before long, all four boys were splashing and laughing again.
And then they saw the bridge pylons. And heard the roar of white water.
Up ahead was a bridge, and below it, a drop. Geoff and Milo started yelling, and Peter brought out Dad’s phone to call someone for help. But who could he call? Who could come in time?
Kai began to paddle hard, trying to steer the raft away from the bridge and waterfall. But it was too little, too late. They went over.
The drop was about seven feet. The raft capsized. Peter felt like a linebacker had tackled him from behind. Dad’s phone slipped out of his fingers and fell to the bottom of the river. All around him, Kai and their friends choked on water and flailed, trying to get out of the bubbling spray they found themselves in.
No one was hurt. But everyone was scared and they weren’t able to right the raft. An hour later, Sophie found them hanging on to the side of the raft, minus one cell phone and more than a little traumatized.
After she’d found Dad and the other boys had gone home, Dad delivered a blistering tirade to Peter and Kai about safety and sent them to their rooms for the rest of the evening. And the next day, he announced that they were going to visit his mother in Seaspire for a whole month. He never said it was because he didn’t trust his sons to stay out of trouble, but he didn’t not say it, either.
The whole raft thing had been Kai’s idea, not Peter’s. Yet Peter had almost drowned, and then shared Kai’s punishment all the same.
He should never have decided to follow Kai’s lead. And Kai should never have tried to be the hero and save everyone when he didn’t have all the facts, like the existence of that bridge and the waterfall.
It was so easy to make the wrong choice, a dangerous choice, when you didn’t have all the details.
Back in the Seaspire cemetery, Peter stayed on the wall. He didn’t know where the cemetery groundskeeper was, or if they’d get into trouble, or if giving up and getting down on the park side would land him in turbulent water with the other kids, so he didn’t move. He didn’t have all the facts.
Kai leaped from the headstone to the mausoleum and was hanging on to its roof by his fingertips. As he tried to swing himself up, the church’s door opened and Peter’s heart lurched in his chest.
Kai let go of the mausoleum, and Peter swung his leg to jump back down on the park side. But then they both stopped.
Two figures had emerged from the church. One was a gray-haired man carrying a stepladder, and the other was a dark-haired teenage girl in a bright pink shirt.
Sophie.
Sophie waved at Peter and came over to the wall as the old man went to Kai. “Bet you have a good view up there,” Sophie said. Holding out a hand, she added, “But maybe we get down now?”
Peter nodded, and Sophie helped him jump down off the wall and into the graveyard. He sighed. “How much trouble are we in?”
“Oh, lots,” Sophie said, grinning. “We’re talking military school, Mom and Dad disowning you both. You’re going to wish the earth and ocean would rise up to swallow you whole.” She laughed and nudged Peter’s shoulder, and they went over to join Kai.
Kai was busy watching the old man step down from the ladder with the Frisbee. “Happens all the time,” the man said, handing it to Kai. “But you know, you boys could have just asked for help.”
Peter’s ears burned with embarrassment. He hadn’t even wanted to climb the wall! But he hadn’t thought of just asking, either.
Kai, on the other hand, wasn’t fazed. “Thanks!” he said, taking the Frisbee.
The old groundskeeper folded up his stepladder and gave a meaningful look to Sophie. Then he went back inside the church.
“This way,” Sophie said, waving them toward a wrought-iron gate. It unlatched from the inside, so she opened it and led the way out.
“How did you know we needed help?” Peter asked, his neck still burning.
“I saw you.”
“You saw me?”
“Anyone looking could see you sitting at the top of that wall,” she said. Her dark eyes glinted. “Anyone.”
Peter’s shoulders tightened. “Dad and Grandma?”
Sophie twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “I may have encouraged them to go back to the car to search for Grandma’s cane after I spotted you so I could get the groundskeeper and get you out of trouble.” She glanced at Kai. “What kind of monster steals a cane from an old woman?”
Kai scoffed. “She said I could look at it. It was fine. Anyway, I refuse to take criticism from someone who wears that ungodly color every day.”
Sophie snorted. “It’s not that bad.” She tapped her shirt, her work uniform for the Fudge Kitchen. It was bright pink with a stylized swirly taffy piece on the chest.
That was Sophie. Junior class president last school year, AP student, did three sports, and over the summer had signed up for extra tutoring to prepare for college. And, of course, once she arrived in Seaspire she got a job to “make the most of their trip.” Yet, somehow, she still found time to rescue the boys from the cemetery.
At least she hadn’t applied to the Seaspire Whale Watching Tour company. She brought home reject taffy and day-old fudge instead of fish reek.
Feeling a lot better since Sophie got them out of the church cemetery, Peter grinned. “It’s pretty bad. Is that color even from Earth?”
Sophie snorted. “It’s magenta.” She checked the time on her phone. “Speaking of which, I’d better go. My shift starts in ten minutes. And Kai, go return Grandma’s cane. Not even I can save you from everything.”
“Fine.” Kai sighed and handed Peter the Frisbee. “Take that back to Todd and the others, will you? Thanks.”
Peter flipped the Frisbee in his hands, watching his sister and brother walk off to the picnic table where Dad and Grandma were once again sitting. It had been so easy for Sophie to just ask and get help, but Kai had to be dramatic and climb the wall. And Peter had just gone along with it, even though he hadn’t wanted to.
Peter sighed. When they’d arrived, Grandma had taken them down to the beach and warned them about riptides: invisible currents that could drag you along the beach, pulling you farther and farther out to sea until you were miles away from where you wanted to be.
Whether Peter liked it or not, Kai was a powerful riptide.
CHAPTER 2 A HOT DOG BY THE SEA
KAI
As Peter ran back to restart the Frisbee game, Kai went to return Grandma’s cane.
He hadn’t stolen it. She’d told him he could look at it. He just decided to look at it again when they lost the Frisbee. They would have needed a long stick like that if the Frisbee had been lodged in a tree, and if Grandma was sitting at the picnic table, she didn’t need it.
Grandma used a cane to get around Seaspire. She had walked with a limp since before Kai’s dad was born, although asking about it yielded a variety of answers.
“This is what happens when you don’t stretch before a marathon.”
“I had polio as a child.”
“Shark. Big one.”
On reflection, it was pretty thoughtless to take Grandma’s walking stick. Kai would make sure to apologize.
He passed Sophie, who had grabbed her purse and smiled as she hurried away to work, and approached the table. Where Grandma and Dad were having an argument.
“I don’t see the issue, Alexander,” Grandma was saying. In her hand was a knife with a pattern of silver swirls on the blade. It looked like it belonged in a museum, not in the hand of a grandmother wearing a pastel T-shirt painted with waves and seashells. “It’s my knife, and I can do with it as I please.”
“That is Damascus steel, Mom,” Dad said. He scratched at a peeling sunburn, creating a patch of pink against his white skin.
Grandma nodded, making her short, gray curls bounce. “The genuine thing.” She sounded proud. “At least five hundred years old, from Persia.”
Kai stopped and admired the knife. The metal rippled like flowing water, strange and beautiful. Under the crumbs and mayonnaise spots, of course.
Dad snatched the knife from Grandma and wiped it on a napkin. “You can’t use a five-hundred-year-old knife to cut sandwiches,” he said as he worked. He muttered something about “Beowulf” and “utterly priceless” and “show some respect.”
“Honestly, Alex,” Grandma said, snatching the knife from Dad. “How would you have me ‘respect’ these blades? Leave them to rust in a glass case? Bah. They’re weapons. Tools. They were made to be used.” She spotted Kai. “Ah, so there’s my cane.”
“Yeah, I borrowed it. I’m sorry.”
Dad turned his exasperation on Kai. “We looked everywhere for that.”
“And now we have it back.” Grandma’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “Kai, tell me. How closely did you look at it? Did you notice this?”
Copyright © 2022 by Allison K. Hymas
