Summer Reading Excerpt #8

Summer storms can be fun, but not when you’re alone in a graveyard at night – like Matt is in One More Clue, the last in a 3-book series of summer adventures for young readers.

… Just then a flash of lightning lit the sky. On the wind rode another rumble of thunder. If Matt was going to find what he was looking for before the storm hit, he had better get digging. When he’d stopped to stretch, the hole was only halfway to his elbows.

Thunder grumbled more and more loudly as Matt continued digging. He wanted to dig faster, but the deeper he dug, the harder it was to stop himself thinking about worms and insects with a million legs, all kinds of things that crawled underground, especially where there were dead bodies for them to munch on.

The hole was deeper each time he reached in, but it was darker, too, because he couldn’t figure a way to prop his flashlight so it would shine where he had to stick his arm down.

Matt scooped out one trowelful of dirt after another. He shone the flashlight on each scoop as he sifted through it to make sure he wouldn’t miss something tiny. He could smell the rain coming. He wished Lennox was there. Or David. The thought surprised him. Had he somehow dug away how mad at them he had been?

The sleeves and the knees of Matt’s sweatsuit were caked with dirt. He hadn’t heard thunder for several minutes when the sky opened up. He was instantly soaked.

He dug on. He dug till his armpit was almost touching the muddy ground around the top of the hole. He shone his flashlight down into it. Mud, more mud, and brown water seeping into the bottom of the empty hole.

Matt sat back on his heels, his clothes clinging to his skin. Rain trickled down his neck.

That’s the end of my summer reading series. Come back soon to find out what I’ve been reading this summer!