Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon Read online

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  This book is dedicated to three locations that helped inspire it.

  The first is Ben Delatour Scout Ranch in Colorado, and the nearby Red Feather Lakes. I’m grateful for the years I spent walking these trails and scrambling over these boulders.

  The second is Traunsee, a lake in central Austria. I gasped the first time I saw it, and marveled every time after that.

  The third is Pont d’Avignon, an unfinished bridge across the Rhône river in the south of France. Like the best fiction, the mind fills in what’s missing.

  —J.A.

  1

  THE BROKEN BRIDGE

  THEY WEREN’T COMING.

  He didn’t blame them. It sounded crazy, and he hadn’t made much sense on the phone. You just have to hurry!

  But why? What had he found?

  Arlo Finch couldn’t really explain. That’s why he needed them. That’s why he was standing atop Signal Rock on a hot Sunday in June, watching the canyon road far below. There was only one way up to Arlo’s house on Green Pass Road, so if his friends were coming, he’d spot them.

  He adjusted the focus on the binoculars. His hands were shaking a bit, and the vibration was making him dizzy. He exhaled, trying to control his breath. That helped. His thoughts steadied as well.

  Arlo would show his friends what he’d found. Wu would have a wild theory. Indra would have a reasonable explanation. They would argue it out. Eventually, together, they would arrive at a third idea that was more or less correct.

  But only if they came.

  None of them had their own phones, so Arlo had used the old one in the kitchen. He’d called Indra first. She was practicing piano; he had heard it in the background when her father answered. Even though Indra said she would come right away, her parents probably made her finish her lesson. Plus she had an aunt visiting from Boston. Odds were they wouldn’t let her leave.

  Wu had seemed hesitant to come at all. For the past few months, he had been playing Galactic Havoc 2 nonstop, competing in virtual sci-fi battles with a league of strangers from around the world. Arlo had watched over his shoulder, but didn’t really understand the game. Arlo’s family still didn’t have internet at the house, so he couldn’t play with Wu anyway.

  Arlo knew it took fourteen minutes to bike here from town. It had already been twenty. They weren’t coming.

  He lowered the binoculars, wiping the sweat out of his eyes. He had to make a decision.

  He could go back and investigate by himself. It might not be that dangerous. After all, Arlo had been exploring the edges of the magical Long Woods by himself for the past few months without incident. Usually, he would just cross in deep enough to feel that shift where normal directions no longer applied, where north and south became meaningless. After a brief visit, he would make his way back to the normal world, using his Ranger’s compass to find a path out.

  But this afternoon, just after lunch, his curiosity had taken him down a new trail, one leading deeper into the Woods.

  That’s where he’d found it. That’s where he’d found them.

  The clock was ticking. If Wu and Indra weren’t coming, Arlo would have to go back and do the best he could by himself. It might be smart to write down what he’d seen first, in case he didn’t return.

  He had just made the decision to go alone when he saw something. Movement.

  He raised the binoculars so fast they banged his nose. There, on the road. One bicycle. No, two. It was Indra and Wu, riding side by side, pedaling furiously.

  His friends were coming.

  * * *

  Wu and Indra ditched their bikes on the gravel road.

  When they got to Arlo, both were breathing too heavily to speak; the last quarter mile was steep. Wu hunched over his knees, dizzy. Indra held an elastic in her mouth while she wrestled her hair back into submission.

  Arlo handed them his water bottle. “We have to hurry. I’ll explain when we get there.”

  Nodding, they followed him across the tall, dry grass, where tiny insects flitted in the bright sun. As they approached the edge of the trees, Arlo could smell the pine sap in the air. Unseen birds were singing in the forest, the sound interspersed with bursts of woodpecker hammering.

  In the six months since the Alpine Derby, Arlo had discovered five different paths into the Long Woods. He suspected there were dozens more around Pine Mountain, each route leading into and out of some distinct part of the Woods.

  Of course, the trails were never straight or obvious. They couldn’t be mapped, because they invariably required doubling back, or crawling under a fallen tree, or circling a specific boulder counterclockwise.

  Sometimes the paths disappeared altogether. Arlo had spent weeks trying to find a way back to the Valley of Fire, with no luck. He wasn’t certain the canyon even existed anymore. Maybe it had died along with the hag, the forest witch who had lured them there back in the winter.

  “Stay close,” he said, leading Indra and Wu down into a gulch just taller than their heads. A thin trickle of spring water ran along the bottom. In the wet dirt, he could still make out his footprints from an hour earlier.

  Arlo led his friends forward no more than thirty feet until he felt his compass vibrate. This was the spot.

  To the left, the bare roots of a tree reached into the ditch. Arlo grabbed hold and pulled. The roots shifted in the dirt, but held firm. A few pale beetles scurried out, alarmed.

  Something was wrong. This wasn’t how it had worked before.

  “Maybe we all have to do it together,” Arlo said.

  Wu and Indra didn’t question why. They each grabbed a section of root and tugged along with Arlo.

  This time, the roots didn’t budge at all. Instead, the world around them seemed to swing, as if the roots were the handle to a very heavy door. The sun slid across the sky, strobing as it ducked behind branches.

  Wu gasped. “Whoa!”

  Water rose up over their sneakers. The stream was suddenly much more substantial—and ice cold.

  “Sorry,” said Arlo. “I should have warned you.” He let go of the root and they continued along the path of the burbling creek.

  Ahead, iridescent moths fluttered in a shaft of light, forming elaborate patterns as they chased each other. As always, Arlo wished he could take a photo or video, but the strange magic of the Wonder made that impossible.

  Indra was fascinated. She reached out her hand. A moth landed on her finger, shimmering dust falling from its wings. “Is this why you called us?”

  “No.” Arlo pushed through the moths as if they were curtains. Wu and Indra followed him.

  The gulch opened to a clearing, yellow grass swaying in a gentle breeze at the border of an ancient pine forest. It wasn’t the landscape that made this place remarkable, but rather a building.

  An immense stone tower stood at the edge of a cliff. From its base, a trun
cated arch reached for a matching tower on the far side of a great chasm.

  “What is that?” asked Indra.

  “It’s a bridge,” answered Wu. “At least it was.” It was easy to envision the intact structure, its heavy stone arms connecting the span. What was harder to imagine was how it got there, and who had built it.

  Everything they’d encountered in the Long Woods so far had been natural—or, in the case of the hag’s hut, primitive and handmade. But this ancient tower, this bridge, was a massive feat of engineering. The huge stones appeared to have been carved to precise specifications and somehow placed into position. There was artistry and planning behind this structure. It had a purpose, a history and a maker.

  “This is what you wanted to show us,” said Wu.

  “No,” said Arlo. “Over there.” He pointed to the far side of the chasm, where a group of four kids stood beside the matching tower. They were all wearing Ranger uniforms with blue neckerchiefs. One girl with wild, curly hair waved to them.

  Arlo handed Indra the binoculars.

  “Who is that?” asked Wu, confused.

  Arlo waited for Indra to answer. She slowly lowered the binoculars, perplexed and intrigued.

  “It’s us,” she said. “Blue Patrol. That’s us over there.”

  2

  HIDDEN LIGHT

  WU TOOK THE BINOCULARS to see for himself. And to see himself.

  Henry Wu and Indra Srinivasaraghavan-Jones were, quite impossibly, standing on both sides of the canyon simultaneously.

  It wasn’t a mirror. The Wu and Indra standing next to Arlo were wearing everyday clothes, while Other Wu and Other Indra were in their Ranger uniforms, as were twins Jonas and Julie Delgado.

  Somehow, these four members of Blue Patrol were on the far side of the canyon, staring back at them. All that stood between the two groups was a broken bridge, a vast chasm and a thousand unanswered questions.

  “Is that really us?” asked Indra.

  “How can we be there and here at the same time?” asked Wu.

  “I don’t know,” said Arlo. “When I called you, I wasn’t sure you’d answer. I figured maybe you and Jonas and Julie had ended up in the Long Woods for some reason.”

  “How?” asked Indra. “You’re the only one who can find your way in or out.”

  “And why would Jonas and Julie be with us?” asked Wu. “We don’t hang out with them.” It was true; other than Ranger meetings and monthly camping trips, none of them socialized with the twins.

  Indra took back the binoculars. “Maybe it’s an illusion, some sort of trick. Like with the hag.” In the Valley of Fire, the hag had been able to make herself appear as a beautiful woman. Indra studied the group on the far side, who were busy conferring with one another. “I mean, I don’t even look like that.”

  “You do,” said Wu.

  “He’s right,” said Arlo.

  Indra was aghast. “No, I don’t! That girl’s hair is crazy. And she’s so slouchy and gross. It’s not me!” Arlo didn’t know what to say. For better or worse, the girl on the far side of the canyon looked and acted exactly like Indra.

  “I think it could be a parallel dimension,” said Arlo. “Like in comic books. Maybe the Long Woods connect to another Pine Mountain, and that’s the Blue Patrol in their world.”

  Wu sparked to that idea. “Maybe they’re evil. Maybe the Rangers in their universe commit crimes and rob banks.”

  “Why would they rob banks?” asked Indra.

  “Because of the Anti-Ranger’s Vow. It’s a whole thing.”

  “I don’t think they’re evil,” said Arlo, raising the binoculars. He watched as Other Indra and Other Wu had a whispered disagreement. Jonas shook his head and rolled his eyes. Julie stood a few feet away, lost in thought. “I mean, they seem totally normal.”

  “Guys,” said Wu. “Where’s Connor? They’re all in uniform, so it’s something to do with Rangers. But why would they be out here without their patrol leader?”

  “And where’s Arlo?” asked Indra. “It’s weird that both Arlo and Connor are gone.”

  “Maybe they’re dead,” said Wu. Indra glared at him. “I mean, in their universe. I’m just saying that if you and I are there and Arlo isn’t, something is deeply messed up.”

  “Well, obviously. But you don’t need to say it while Arlo’s right here.”

  “It’s okay,” said Arlo. “When I saw them earlier, it seemed like they were waiting for me. Like they knew I was going to come. They were trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t understand it. That’s why I needed you guys.”

  “What do you mean, ‘tell you something’?” asked Indra.

  Arlo pointed across the canyon, where Julie was readying two sticks with neckerchiefs tied on the ends: improvised semaphore flags. She slowly raised and lowered them to indicate she was about to send a message.

  “I still haven’t really learned semaphore,” said Arlo. Between knots and first aid and supernatural zoology, he hadn’t had time to memorize the semaphore alphabet. But he was sure Indra had it down. It was required for the Owl rank, which she’d already earned.

  “We have to send back an R,” said Indra. “‘Ready to receive.’” She held her arms out to her sides at ninety degrees. Arlo and Wu followed her example.

  Julie began signaling individual letters, positioning the flags at specific angles. As she did, Indra and Wu called it out character by character:

  B-E—

  The next letter stumped them. “Is that a P?” asked Wu. Indra shrugged—she didn’t recognize it, either. Julie kept going.

  U-I-E-T

  “It was a Q. ‘Be quiet,’” said Indra.

  “Why?” asked Wu.

  “I don’t know! Ask her.”

  Wu held his arms up overhead in a Y.

  “That’s U,” said Indra, pulling his left arm down to ninety degrees.

  “Are you sure?”

  The truth is, while both Indra and Wu could read semaphore, neither of them were particularly adept at sending it. The patrol had always relied on the twins, who were remarkably fast and accurate.

  Arlo watched through the binoculars as Julie turned to the others for guidance. Other Indra said something, which Julie relayed with the flags: D-A-N-G-E—

  “Danger,” said Indra.

  Julie held the flags on the final R, indicating that was all she was going to send.

  Arlo felt his pulse quickening. Should they have been talking at all? Had they already made too much noise? He looked back at the dark trees behind them. Anything could be out in the forest, watching them.

  “They’re moving,” whispered Wu.

  Indeed, the four members of Blue Patrol were headed towards the giant tower on their side of the canyon. Using the flags, Julie pointed at the matching tower on Arlo’s side.

  “They want us to follow them,” said Arlo. He led the way, with Indra and Wu close behind.

  * * *

  According to page 223 of the Ranger Field Book, one could use trees and angles to accurately estimate distances outdoors. Yet despite the simple-looking illustrations, Arlo had never gotten the hang of it.

  The world wasn’t a triangle, and trees seemed to come in lots of sizes. Like semaphore, it was a skill he hadn’t yet mastered.

  So as Arlo made his way along the rim of the canyon, he had no means to calculate its width. He figured it was greater than the length of a soccer field, but a perfectly thrown Frisbee might make it across.

  Arlo could, however, estimate the canyon’s depth: it was endless.

  “Holy cow,” said Wu, getting his first real look over the edge.

  Even in bright sunlight, there seemed to be no bottom to it. It never stopped, never narrowed. It just went on forever, until it finally went dark. This canyon was a fracture in the Long Woods, an unlikely feature of an impossible place.

  Wu slowed, then stopped. He looked around, unsettled. “Wait. Something’s weird.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Ar
lo.

  “Look at their tower. See how the bridge is broken off? There are chunks missing.” Arlo and Indra followed Wu’s pointing finger as he indicated the notches and gaps.

  “So?” asked Indra.

  “The exact same things are missing on our side,” said Wu. “And look at the stuff on the ground. See the big rocks? They’re in the same place on both sides. Everything lines up: tree, tree, rock, rock. It’s symmetrical. Their side is the mirror image of ours.”

  Arlo had a hard time picturing it until he imagined a bird’s-eye view looking down on the scene. The left side and the right side of the canyon were exactly the same: matching towers, matching cliffs, matching stones.

  The only difference was who was on each side.

  Indra pointed to the other patrol, where Julie was slowly raising and lowering the flags to get their attention. “They’re signaling something.” Indra put her arms out to form an R.

  Julie held her flags low. On a clock, she would have been pointing to 6:35.

  “That’s A,” said Indra. “But A what?”

  On the far side of the canyon, Other Wu and Other Indra were emphatically gesturing at a pile of rubble next to their tower.

  Lowering the binoculars, Arlo turned to find an equivalent pile beside their tower. Many of the stones were square on the edges, apparently broken-off pieces of the missing bridge.

  “I think they want us to look for an A,” said Arlo. He started climbing through the rocks, searching for one with the right shape. Indra and Wu joined him, each taking a section.

  The fallen stones had evidently been on the ground for quite a long time. They were covered in moss and lichen, which made it harder to discern their edges. Arlo picked up a promising rock only to find a stickbug clinging to the underside. The frightened insect trilled and snapped itself into two pieces, each scurrying in different directions.

  “Over here!” called Indra in a whisper-shout. As Arlo and Wu joined her, she pointed to a chunk of granite roughly the size of a school desk.