Monsterstreet #3, page 9
“We’ve already been over this, honey,” his mother replied. “I swear, you’re just like your father—always questioning things. That’s what made him a good scientist, I suppose.”
“But I’ve never even met these people. And now you want me to stay with them by myself for three days?”
“You’ve met them before. You just don’t remember,” she said. “In fact, we lived out here for a while when you were a baby. Before—”
She paused, and there was an awkward moment of silence. Max knew she was about to refer to his father’s accidental death, but it was something she rarely said aloud. He had asked her about it more times than he could count, but she always found a way to change the subject before he could get any real answers. In fact, he hardly knew anything about his father.
“Believe me, Max, this is the last place on earth I want to be,” his mother said, tapping the steering wheel. She had been acting strangely toward him the past few days. “If you want to know the truth, your gramps and grammy wrote me a letter on your birthday asking for you to come stay with them this weekend. They seemed rather urgent about it. Said they have some things of your father’s that they want to pass down to you. It was supposed to be a surprise.”
Max still wasn’t convinced.
“Why haven’t they ever come to our house? And why is this the first time we’ve gone to see them?”
His mother took a deep breath.
“You’re getting older now, and I think it’s important for you to spend some time with your father’s side of the family. After he died out here, I swore never to come back. But—”
“Wait,” Max interrupted. “Dad’s accident happened here? At the place you’re taking me?”
His mother nodded.
Max sat back in his seat and gazed forward. It was the only clue she had ever given him about his father’s death.
“Mom?” he began.
“Yes, honey?”
“When are you going to tell me what really happened to Dad?”
The question was simple, but it ran deep and wide inside of him, like a story with no ending.
Max had no memories of his father. When other kids’ dads visited them at school, he pretended not to care that his own dad could never come. When other kids played catch with their dads at the park or in the yard, he turned his head so that he wouldn’t have to feel the pain of missing his own father. And yet, he had never known why his dad wasn’t there. The only thing he possessed that had once belonged to his father was the faded red hoodie he was wearing now—the hoodie his grandparents had sent to him a few days before on his twelfth birthday.
Max played with the zipper as he watched the shadows of trees creep over his mom’s face. She glanced over at him and opened her mouth to speak. Max was sure that he was finally about to get some answers. But her eyes dimmed. Her lips sealed. And her gaze turned forward.
“I’ve already told you. Your father died in a hunting accident when you were a baby,” she said.
But Max sensed there was more she wasn’t telling him. And he wanted to know the truth.
About the Author
Courtesy J. H. Reynolds
J. H. REYNOLDS asked for a typewriter for his eleventh birthday and has been writing stories ever since. He spent his youth traveling the world and meeting lots of interesting people. After exploring all seven continents, he returned home to Texas to start a family and work through the files of his imagination. He now lives in a cottage by a creek with his wife and kids. You can visit him at www.jhreynolds.com.
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Copyright
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
MONSTERSTREET #3: CARNEVIL. Copyright © 2019 by J. H. Reynolds. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art © 2019 by Chris Fenoglio
Cover design by David Curtis
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019939495
ISBN 978-0-06-286941-8 (trade)
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-286942-5
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-286940-1 (pbk.)
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1920212223PC/BRR10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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J. H. Reynolds, Monsterstreet #3
