Fathom by L. Standage (spanish books to read .TXT) 📕

“No, really, how do you do it?”

“Come here, Natasha,” said Walter.

“No, don’t do it on me.”

“Calder then.”

“No thanks,” he called from where he sat next to me on the floor. He’d chosen to sit by me, which made it really hard for me to keep from grinning like an idiot. Good thing the conversation was so lively, everyone else smiled too.

“This stuff isn’t too bad,” said Seidon as he chewed. “What’s it called again?”

“Pizza,” three of us answered.

“Pizza. I like it. What do you think, Cordelia?”

“It’ll do.” She ate her pizza with a knife and fork.

“I wish I could take some home with me.” Seidon examined his fifth slice of pizza as if it were a puppy.

“What kinds of things do you eat at home?” I asked. “Obviously not shrimp.”

“Ugh, no,” said Seidon with a cringe. “We eat fish and different kinds of seaweed. Now, you tell me…what sort of things do you eat in Arizona?”

Sam and I laughed.

“The same things we eat in California,” she replied.

“I’ve heard Arizona has the best Mexican food outside of Mexico,” said Eamon.

“Maybe, but they’ve got the worst German food,” said Uther.

“Have you been to Arizona?” I asked him as I went to the kitchen to get myself another slice of pizza.

“I did some security work for a company there a few years back. My employer brought me some schnitzel and spaetzle from a place called ‘Edelweiss Haus’ and it tasted like sh—”

“Shrimp?” Seidon finished for him with a commiserating nod. This time, everyone laughed. Well, except for Cordelia, but I expected that.

“Cards, anyone?” said Walter, pulling a deck out of his pocket.

We spent the next few hours playing spirited card games, one Uther taught us and another from Calder. I’d never seen him more animated than when involved in the card games. He loved to trash talk and hated to lose. It was hilarious. And appealing enough to make me thoroughly depressed.

Walter, on the other hand, was the opposite. He kept the peace, calming the occasional breakout of good-natured tempers every time Uther tried to cheat or Calder lost to a good hand by Natasha.

Around ten o’clock, Eamon yawned and looked at his watch again.

“All right, it’s late. We’ve got an early start in the morning.”

“Not yet, I’ve got a great hand,” I said. Calder tried to peek at my cards. I elbowed him. He elbowed me back. I looked for Samantha to meet her approving eye, but she wasn’t here. “Where’s Sam?”

“Seidon is gone too,” said Cordelia, though she sounded like she was trying to digest a brick. She gritted her teeth. “That boy is in serious trouble.”

“They’re probably just out on the back patio,” I said.

“Saying goodbye,” said Natasha, wiggling her eyebrows. I burst out laughing. Cordelia scowled, stomped to the back door, and threw it open.

“I kept telling her she’s only making it harder on herself to leave,” I said, shoving Calder again as he made another attempt to look at my cards.

“They’re not here!” Cordelia shouted from the patio. I looked up. She stood at the back door, holding Samantha’s camera. I jumped to my feet. Sam wouldn’t leave her camera sitting outside.

“I’m sure they’re nearby somewhere,” said Eamon. Cordelia thrust the camera into my hands and flew back outside.

“How long have they been gone?” asked Uther.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“They must have sneaked out,” said Walter. “They haven’t been playing cards with us for at least the last hour.”

Soon Cordelia came back inside. “That boy is in very serious trouble! They aren’t anywhere around the house or on the beach.”

“Should we go look for them?”

“Calder, Walter, go see if you can find them along the street. Uther and I will search the beach. The rest of you, stay here.” Eamon looked at Cordelia; she clenched her teeth and jutted her jaw in anger at being given orders.

Calder ran into the garage and emerged with flashlights. The rest of them hurried out the door. Natasha and I waited on the couch while Cordelia paced, muttering to herself.

“This is ridiculous. I should be out there with them. He is my responsibility. If something has happened…”

Five minutes, ten minutes, a half hour passed without a change. Why did Samantha and Seidon have to sneak out? The worry gurgling in the pit of my stomach boiled into anger.

At a quarter to eleven, the front door opened. Calder and Walter came in, looking weary and switching off their flashlights. Natasha and I stood.

“No sign of them,” said Calder. He went into the kitchen and got some bottles of water out of the ice chest.

“If Seidon doesn’t get a drink of water soon, he could faint,” said Cordelia, watching as Calder drank his water. “He’ll die if we don’t find him by morning.”

“He’ll be all right, Captain,” said Walter. “He can take care of himself.”

I sat back down and clutched my hair, sick with anxiety and trepidation. Where were they? Calder sat next to me.

“She’ll be fine,” he said. “They’ll probably walk in any minute now, looking guilty.”

I kneaded my temples and nodded, trying hard to believe him. The minutes passed by, each one more sluggish than the last.

The door opened again. I looked up. Eamon and Uther came in, supporting someone between them. I stood, about to run, but stopped, aghast at what I saw. Seidon, barely conscious, leaned on Eamon and Uther. Droplets of dark blue blood leaked from his lip and from a cut over his eye.

“By Nereus! What happened?!” Cordelia cried, rushing to Eamon and taking Seidon’s weight on his side.

“We found him like this,” said Uther. Walter gave Cordelia a water bottle. She placed it at Seidon’s lips.

“Bring him upstairs. We need to get him in the water, he’s dry as a bone,” said Eamon, running ahead of them.

“But where’s Samantha?” I asked, looking between Uther and Eamon as if they had forgotten to bring her too.

“They…took…her.” Seidon murmured around his choking gulps of water. “Took…Samantha…”

Cordelia