Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Grak
Someone throws open the sliding door of the wood shop with a loud bang.
I look up from the table saw, where Ron is showing me how to cut the size planks he needs to fix one of the stalls that the horses kicked a hole into.
Ron was indeed surprised to find me in his wood shop, just as Ginger had predicted.
But he wasn’t angry.
I told him I was a friend of Ginger’s. He was taken aback, but then, when he saw the work I had done to replace the baseboards and wainscoting in the cabin, he seemed impressed.
Ginger is acting strange.
Breathlessly, she stumbles into the woodshed. “Dad,” she gasps. “I can explain everything.”
“You ought to explain why you never told me you had a gamer friend who knew woodworking,” Ron says.
A strange look comes over her face. “You’re…you’re not freaking out?”
Ron sets down the plank we’ve just finished and sets it against the wall with the others.
“Listen, Gingersnap. Where I grew up, you didn’t go into the woods.
We knew not to be out there after dark. My granny taught me never to follow strange blinking lights or respond to the sound of people whispering my name. Do you know why?”
Ginger blinks rapidly. “Not exactly, no.”
Ron crosses his arms. “Because my granddad, her husband, believed he was abducted by aliens.”
Ginger squints. “This story again…”
“He wrote a whole book about it. If my granddad believed he broke bread with little green men, well, I’m sure not going to be scared of a giant green one, especially not if he’s this talented.”
Ginger props herself up against the wall, and I go to her.
“Lean on me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You look ill,” I say.
“I knew my family was cracked. This explains so much,” she says.