Dillon Hunt And The Desert Oasis Resort by Chad Stewart (books suggested by bill gates txt) 📕

Dillon looked around the lobby trying to appear casual as he waited for Claire to show up. It was only five minutes past nine which was not unusual for his sister, especially due to the fact that she was probably still angry at him for coercing her into helping him get to town. Knowing her, she would probably stretch it out to the last minute. Dillon wasn’t too worried yet as the first shuttle bus didn’t leave for town until about twenty passed nine. He still had time.

As Dillon waited, his thoughts kept going to the meaning of the symbol on the wall. Perhaps maybe the only person who might be able to help him with this knowledge was Tom Tom, and Dillon didn’t even know if he was still alive. He thought about asking another tribe member—maybe the woman from the bike shop—but he really didn’t know who he could trust and didn’t want to risk it.

A moment later Claire surprised him by shambling out of the elevator and into the lobby. She had a whole eight minutes to spare! This was uncharacteristically like her. As she approached Dillon he could tell that she was still mad at the way he was able to get her to “volunteer” to go with him into town.

“Good morning Claire,” Dillon said in an innocent tone, trying to appear as meek as possible.

“Morning,” she grunted. The look on her face further confirmed that she wasn’t just mad, but potentially infuriated with her little brother.

Dillon didn’t know what to say as they both walked outside to the front of the resort in order to wait for the shuttle. The silence was deafening!

They got to the bus stop and stood there, neither saying a word. Dillon looked around, pretending to be interested in some birds that perched on a pole nearby. Claire looked down at her phone, tapping away at one of her games. Dillon cleared his throat a couple of times seeing if she would look up from her game. No response. The tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife! After a moment Claire finally turned to Dillon and spouted angrily, “How do you know about Jeff?”

Dillon wasn’t really surprised by the question as Claire had gone to great lengths to keep her taboo relationship a secret. “I overheard you talking to one of your friends about it when I was passing by your room,” he responded. “I also saw you and Jeff hanging out in the park after school a few times on my walk home.”

“Ya but that doesn’t mean anything,” Claire snapped. “Lot’s of girls and guys hang out!”

“Yes but normally the guys don’t give the girls a flower like I witnessed just before spring break of last year,” Dillon said with a wry smile. “Not to mention the notes you have neatly tucked into your binder, or the kiss you gave him after school. Do you want me to continue?”

Claire fumed! “How do you know about the notes?” she demanded.

“One of them fell out of your binder once and I found it.” He paused. “And it was a good thing that I found it and not Mom and Dad,” he asserted. “Anyway, I didn’t know what it was until I opened it and found that Jeff was swearing his undying love to you.”

Claire’s face went beet red at that last remark.

“So after discovering what it was I thought that the decent thing to do would be to put it back when you weren’t looking and pretend that nothing ever happened.”

She relaxed a little at Dillon’s display of discretion.

“Come on Claire,” Dillon continued. “I didn’t want you to get in trouble. That’s why I didn’t say anything before.”

“But what about now?” Claire asked, her anger starting to rise again with the thought of Dillon’s play on her that got her stuck going with him to town.

“Sorry about that,” Dillon replied. “But I really need to get to town and I knew that Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me go without someone else coming—someone older—and you seemed like the best choice.”

“Why do you need to go there so badly?” asked his sister, her curiosity starting to peak.

“Oh … it’s nothing important,” Dillon replied, trying hard to think of a good reason that would allow them to split up. “It’s just some boring stuff that I read in one of my books that I want to check out.” He pulled his backpack up onto his shoulder a little more as he saw the shuttle bus approaching the stop. “How about you head to the mall and I’ll meet you there after?”

“Oh no. You conned me into going with you to keep an eye on you and that’s just what I’m going to do! Mom and Dad expect us to stay together, remember?” Claire replied angrily.

Dillon took a step back. “You won’t have fun where I’m going,” he shot back.

“Does it matter? I didn’t even want to come in the first place!”

Dillon was dumbfounded. He didn’t see this coming. And he knew he couldn’t take Claire with him. He needed to think of something fast.

“Wouldn’t you have more fun at the mall?”

“Maybe. But it wouldn’t be as much fun as making your life miserable for a couple of hours,” she replied with a wicked grin.

“Fine. How about I give you my weeks worth of allowance?”

Claire stared at him. “And … you … can use ten of my minutes to call Jeff when we get back,” he said desperately.

Claire was silent. “Okay. That sounds reasonable,” she smiled as the bus pulled up.

Dillon shook his head in disbelief as he walked onto the bus behind his sister. He was thankful that it wasn’t Jordan he had to bribe as he was sure his brother would have been a little more suspicious about why he wanted to be alone. Fortunately, Claire wasn’t as deep of a thinker as he was.