Pam Withers Yeah geek he’ll be asking you for your expertise for sure My sister laughs More important Dad says it’ll bring us real money Mmm The only trouble is I know Dad spent way too much money on the plans the engineer and materials The bungee jump was my idea Caitlin and I got to go on one in Oregon during spring break There was a huge lineup for it and the site was nowhere near as cool as our property It took Dad a while to come around to the notion that a bungee jump could make money on our pipe bridge but he even tually decided to have plans drawn up Then he arranged to hire an engineer contractor to build it That guy will be arriving any day now Hope no one tells the contractor that the island has ghosts I joke Local legend claims that the island is haunted by the ghosts of the leper children who 4
Bungee Jump died there And of the doctor who fell or jumped from the pipe when he got the disease Sometimes I hear creepy noises near the pipe or island We slide down the muddy path toward the ruins of the hospital It’s invisible in the fog I tell myself no spooks are hiding out in the soupy cloud Mrs Dubin says there were fifty children here before the hospital closed I say I run my hands along the mossy top of a tumbledown wall Mrs Dubin is annoying Caitlin says What is she like a hundred My sister doesn’t like the old lady who runs our school library It’s true that she’s moody but she’s usually friendly to me Anyway I like hearing her stories about our hick town in the old days She told me she was born the year the hospital got shut down I say So she’s seventy And she knows a lot about Hospital Island 5
Pam Withers Like what Caitlin is winding through the corridors of the old place She pokes her head into rooms where pieces of ceiling have fallen onto rusty bedsprings The real name of the island is Thorn Island But the locals started calling it Hospital Island when the hospital was (cid:69)(cid:88)(cid:76)(cid:79)(cid:87)(cid:17)(cid:180)(cid:3)(cid:44)(cid:3)(cid:78)(cid:76)(cid:70)(cid:78)(cid:3)(cid:68)(cid:3)(cid:79)(cid:82)(cid:82)(cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:69)(cid:85)(cid:76)(cid:70)(cid:78)(cid:3)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:3)(cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:3)(cid:192)(cid:82)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:15)(cid:3) which sends up plumes of dust This place only ran for ten years I knew that Caitlin sniffs and runs her hand through a giant cobweb One doctor and one nurse worked here What happened to the nurse Caitlin asks Disappeared after the doctor jumped Where did the kids go then To some other leper hospital in California 6
Bungee Jump What else Caitlin asks moving into a different wing The story about the cash box is baloney Made up Caitlin shrugs Makes a good story Might be true Evil doctor rips off all the money meant to feed the children and buy medicine and buries it somewhere on the (cid:76)(cid:86)(cid:79)(cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:15)(cid:3)(cid:81)(cid:72)(cid:89)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:92)(cid:72)(cid:87)(cid:3)(cid:73)(cid:82)(cid:88)(cid:81)(cid:71)(cid:15)(cid:180)(cid:3)(cid:44)(cid:3)(cid:191)(cid:81)(cid:76)(cid:86)(cid:75)(cid:3)(cid:73)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:3)(cid:75)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:17)(cid:3) Made up False If you believe old Dubin says Caitlin Why would she lie about that I ask I don’t know says Caitlin She’s a crank You know she hates our bungee jump idea Yeah She doesn’t want history disturbed I say And I kind of get that I don’t know why I’m defending the old librarian 7
