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He didn't respond. I walked along the short. The water was flowing faster and wider than I could ever remember it. It was no longer a bubbling brook. It actually roared as if it was remembering itself when it had been a river. I went upstream a bit and then, after not finding him, ran back downstream until I turned a corner with the creek and saw Noble squatting on a large boulder out in the water. He had obviously followed a trail of smaller rocks out to it. He reached back with his pole and flicked it forward, just the way Mr. Kotes had shown him.

"Noble!" I called.

If he heard me, he ignored me.

"Noble, come back home this instant!" I screamed. He didn't turn around.

I had to go into the water, stepping on rocks toward the boulder. They were like ice because of the glistening water rushing over them.

"Noble!"

Finally he turned around and smirked at me. "What do you want?"

"You can't stay here. You have to come home now. Mommy doesn't want you here. Noble."

"Go away," he said. "I'm going to catch a big fish and make her happy."

"I'm not going away. You're coming home." "I'm not," he said defiantly. "Get away,"

"I'll drag you home. I swear I will, Noble Atwell, Now come home."

He turned his back on me again. I worked my way closer to him, and this time, when he reached back with his pole to flick his fishing line. I managed to Arab hold of the end of the pole. He jerked forward and fell back with surprise.

"Let go!'' he shouted.

"No. You come home right now. I'm not getting into trouble because of you." I pulled on the pole, and he pulled back. For a few moments we were in a tugof-war, which he seemed to relish.

"Stop it. Noble!" I screamed, nearly losing my balance on the smaller rocks.

"No, you let go," he shouted.

He stood up to get more leverage and pulled very hard. The pole began to burn my palms. so I had to release it. When I did so, however, he kept his momentum and fell backward off the rock. I didn't see him for a moment, and then I saw his leg and the rest of him turning in the water. Streaming around his head was a line of crimson. His body hit another boulder and then dipped under the water and came up. For a moment I couldn't move a muscle, and then I screamed and charged through the water toward him.

The around beneath me seemed to sink, and I was in as deep as my waist. The stream of red looked like it was flowing out of Noble's ear. For a moment he was caught against another boulder. so I thought I would get to him, but then the water just lifted him away and he floated faster and faster downstream, his body bouncing against rocks like a rubber tube.

I kept screaming his name, but he didn't lift his head, nor did he try to stop himself from being carried away. As I went forward, I sank deeper and deeper until the water was up to my neck. It was icy cold. but I didn't really notice. My body was already numb from what I had seen. Unable to go farther. I stopped and watched Noble disappear around another turn. The brook raged on around me, sounding more like it was growling now.

I made my way back to the shore as quickly as I could, and then I stopped, looked down the creek to where I had last seen Noble. before I spun about and charged through the forest, screaming and crying all the way home.

8

Death and Rebirth

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Mommy looked like she didn't understand what

I was saying. Maybe that was because I screamed it all so fast. She kept her head on the pillow and stared at me in the doorway, her eyes blinking rapidly as if she was trying to decide whether I was real or a dream. I probably looked like a nightmare, I was soaked through and through, dripping on the floor, Finally , she braced herself on her elbows and sat up.

"What did you say. Celeste? Speak slowly. I don't understand you

I struggled to catch my breath. The words just felt bunched up in the base of my throat. and I couldn't stop crying, All I could de was stand there and shiver. My whole body trembled so hard. I thought I could hear my bones rattling.

"Noble... went.,, fishing." I managed,

"What? What did you say? He did what?"

She emerged from wider her blanket and found her slippers,"I want him back here immediately, Why are you soaked?" she asked as she stood up. "Talk!" she screamed and then had a coughing fit.