“No doubt,” Skink said.
“So what do you do when you’re not working for your uncle? You in college somewhere?”
“Nah,” he said, settling on the stool beside me. “Not yet, anyway. I just graduated from high school in June. Gonna take some community college classes starting later this month. Do that for a year or so and think about what I might want to get a degree in, maybe apply to a college somewhere far away. Get outta this town for a while.”
I nodded. “That’s smart. You’ll save money doing community college for a year. And I think it’s good to take some time to think about what you really want to study.”
“That’s exactly what my dad says.” He smiled at me, then eyed my books. “Looking into local history, huh?”
He picked up Unexplained Vermont, flipped through it, then held it out to me. “Look, she’s got her own entry. ‘Rattling Jane, Chickering Island.’？” He showed me the drawing next to the short entry: a woman-shaped figure made of fish skeletons, bird skulls, feathers, rocks, even pieces of trash. In the drawing, she was holding open the palm of her hand to show a small round stone. He read out loud from the entry. “？‘Where did Rattling Jane come from? What, or who, is she looking for when she ventures out onto the land? Some legends say a lost love. Some say she’s searching for her sister. Whatever or whoever she’s looking for—watch out! She’s known to take those unlucky enough to meet her back down to the bottom of the lake.’？”
“Hey there, Skink,” said the bartender, who appeared so suddenly that I jumped. “You here for lunch?”
Skink shut the book. “Nah, just a Coke, please, Sam,” he said. When she brought his Coke, he added excitedly, “Do you know who this is?” I shook my head. No. Don’t do this. The last thing I wanted was for word to spread. “This is Lizzy Shelley. She’s got this sick podcast: The Book of Monsters. But she’s most famous for the TV show!”
“TV?” This got the bartender’s attention. “You an actress?”
I shook my head again. The bell in the kitchen dinged.
“Monsters Among Us!” Skink said. “You must have seen it—Lizzy and these two other researchers going all over the country. There was one episode where they went into this old silver mine in Texas looking for a chupacabra! Man, that one scared the crap out of me.” He smiled at me. “The way you belly-crawled through that tiny tunnel… and the scratch marks on the stones—all those animal bones you found. A monster lair for sure!”
I nodded. I didn’t have the heart to tell him the scratches and bones had been put there by the production team.
The waitress smiled. “Never seen it, but it sounds cool. Hey, I think your food’s ready.” She sneaked back to the kitchen.
“Skink,” I said as kindly as I could manage, “I appreciate your… support and enthusiasm, but I was really hoping to kind of lie low here. Not let people know who I am or what I do.”
He grinned. “I get it! Incognito! I totally get that.”
“In my experience,” I went on, “people can be a little more… forthcoming when they think I’m just a regular stranger asking questions. At least at first.”
“Forthcoming,” he repeated. “Totally. I get it. Listen, I was thinking, maybe you’d like to meet some of the kids Lauren was hanging out with, the ones who saw the stone and heard her stories about meeting Rattling Jane.”
“Absolutely,” I said, as Sam set my burger down.
“We’ll take a walk after you eat,” Skink said, stealing a fry off my plate. “I’ll show you the exciting sites of Chickering Island.”
I nodded and went to work on my food, both bothered and intrigued by the new information I’d gleaned, feeling like it held a secret message just for me: