Chapter 1

Gilbert woke up with two fingers in his nose, fingers that were not his own. They smelled of marshmallows, dirt and spit. He gagged and pushed the sticky hand away.

He heard a soft giggle and the rustle of small feet on the tent floor. As he turned toward the sound, his head smacked into the large book his five-year-old sister held out to him.

“Will you read to me?” Krissy placed the book on Gilbert's chest. “Please?”

Gilbert groaned and rolled over in his sleeping bag. “That's a really rude way to wake a person up, you know.” He pulled at the zipper and tried to snuggle further into his warm pillow.  “Besides, you know I hate faery books, Krissy. Can't you ask someone else?”

His sister crawled around to where her book had fallen and traced a finger over the embossed cover. “Everyone’s busy,” she mumbled. “You're the only one who's not.”

Gilbert sat up slowly. The smell of bacon sizzling teased his nose as pale morning light filtered into the tent.

“What about Erica? She likes all that dumb faery stuff almost as much as you do.” Gilbert yawned and rubbed his eyes. A dark curl fell into his line of vision and he brushed it impatiently aside. “I'm sure Erica would love to read it to you.”

“Erica and Anita went out in the kayaks. Daddy and Mr. Bennett went fishing. Mommy and Mrs. Bennett are making breakfast and you're the only one who can read!” Krissy gulped in a deep breath and pushed the book toward him again.

Gilbert glanced at his watch as he took the book from her. “Four more hours and I won’t have to hear nonstop about faeries and princesses and dolls.”

Krissy snuggled up beside him then jabbed the book with her finger. “Read!”

Gilbert gave in and opened to the first page. “Undine!” he read aloud. “The fair and lovely sprite.”

Krissy clapped her hands and cheered.

Before he could say another word his mother poked her head in the tent. “You're awake? Great! I need you to run down to the camp store and get some of those mini marshmallows for the hot cocoa.”

Gilbert stood up and handed the book back to his sister. She pouted as she snatched it out of his hands. “Sorry, Kris. Undine will have to wait.”

He grabbed a piece of bacon from the frying pan and took the money his mother held out to him.

“Watch for cars!” she called as he pulled his bike up to the road.

Gilbert coasted between the tall redwood and sugar pine trees that separated the campsites, the cool morning air ruffling his hair. He glanced over at Shimmer Lake and saw his neighbor Erica with her sister gliding along in a yellow kayak.

He pedaled harder, hoping they didn’t see him. In just a few hours his cousins Frank and Peter would arrive with the jet skis and in three days they would celebrate Gilbert's 9th birthday. He couldn't think of a better way to spend the last few days of summer vacation. Although, if the girls weren’t around, that would be a big improvement. It was bad enough living next door to them at home. Did they have to spend a week together every summer at the lake, too?

When he got back to camp, Erica, Krissy and Anita were eating at the picnic table. His mother was on her cell phone. She took the marshmallows from him, then frowned as she stuck the phone in the back pocket of her jeans.

“What's wrong?” Gilbert munched on another piece of bacon and poured himself some hot chocolate.

“Aunt Kate got called in to the hospital so they won't be coming up this week,” she said.

Gilbert swallowed hard and turned to his mother. “Can we go get Frank and Peter?”

She shook her head. “If Kate had let us know yesterday we could have picked them up on the way here. But now…” His mother shrugged. “I'm not driving six hours each way to get them, and I doubt your father will either. I guess we just won't see them this summer.”

“Are you serious?” Gilbert wiped his mouth and backed away from the table. “You won’t go get them? They were supposed to be here for my birthday!” He could feel the food he ate turning to cold lumps in his stomach. The three girls stopped chewing. Their eyes darted between his flushed face and his mother’s rigid back in front of the cook stove. 

“I know you’re disappointed but there's nothing I can do, Gilbert.” His mother slapped fresh bacon into the frying pan and jabbed it with her fork. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

His shoulders slumped. “They were going to let me drive the jet skis. We were going to go off Jump Rock together.” 

“You’re too small to be going off Jump Rock or driving a jet ski anyway.” Her voice sounded tired. She snatched a bowl, dumped burned hash browns inside then slid it across the table to the wide-eyed girls.

Gilbert left the campsite and stomped down to the lake. It was bad enough that his cousins weren’t coming. But then to have his mom call him “too small” in front of the girls…did she have to embarrass him like that? He knew he was small and skinny for his age, but it wasn’t like he could do anything about it. He picked up a flat rock and tried to skip it the way Frank had taught him last summer. It quickly sank. He sighed and sat down on a boulder, watching the water lap the sand.

Erica walked past him in a pink life vest and started pushing her kayak back into the water. “Wanna go for a paddle?” she asked.

“With you?” He blurted it out before he could stop himself.

“Well, you don’t have to make it sound so terrible.”

Gilbert walked over and helped Erica shove the yellow kayak off the bank. She hooked her foot around the seat and pulled the kayak close to where she stood in the shallow water. “Are you coming? You can use that one.” Erica pointed to the red kayak on shore.

Gilbert hesitated. He had never paddled out by himself, but he didn’t want to say that to Erica. She obviously knew how to paddle on her own and he didn’t want to be shown up by a girl, even if she was bigger than him and a whole year older.

“My mom said we can go as far as the rocks on the other side where they can see us.” Erica pointed across the cove to some tall boulders surrounded by low bushes.

“You told your mom we were going kayaking together?”

“No! I told my mom I was going kayaking and your mom said you could go too, if you wanted to.” Erica gave him an impatient glare. “So do you want to?”

Gilbert bit his lip. “I guess so.”

Erica tossed him a life vest and he slowly strapped it on.

He walked over to the other kayak and pushed as hard as he could. It didn’t budge.

He glanced at Erica, who still had one leg in the lake, thinking she might come help him.

Suddenly she shrieked. “Ew! No!” She hopped on one foot near the shoreline, trying to throw her body into the kayak, but it floated further into the lake, pulling her along as she flailed wildly.

Between the pink life vest and the hopping on one leg, Gilbert thought she looked like a deranged flamingo. He didn’t understand girls. And here he was stuck with three of them for a whole week.

“What are you screaming about?”

“A fish bit my toe!”

Gilbert rolled his eyes and looked into the water. Erica’s thrashing sent small waves rippling across the surface as she struggled to regain her balance. Sunlight glinted off the water but he could see tiny rainbow trout darting through the shallows. Gilbert laughed out loud. “Those little fingerlings couldn’t hurt you. Seriously, Erica. They’re like the size of my thumb!”

Erica finally heaved herself into the kayak. She lay there breathing heavily while Gilbert bent over and tried to get his kayak off the beach. Bowing his head and pushing with his whole body he felt the kayak suddenly glide into the lake. Impressed with his own strength, Gilbert looked up and saw Erica’s dad smiling at him from the other end.

“There you go, bud. You looked like you could use a little help.”

“Thanks,” Gilbert mumbled. He felt his cheeks burn as Erica smirked.

“Don’t you kids go too far, now.”

“We won’t, Dad,” said Erica. “We’re just going straight across.”

“Okay. Have fun!” Mr. Bennett clapped Gilbert roughly on the shoulder.

Gilbert tumbled into the kayak and stuck his paddle into the water. “I can do this,” he whispered to himself. “If Erica can make it all the way across, then so can I.” 

Taking a deep breath, he began to paddle. Right side, left side, right side, left. Gilbert chanted in his head as he made his way across. Right side, left side, right side, left.

Gilbert bent his head and concentrated, focusing on a steady rhythm. His arms burned with the effort. Sweat glued his shirt to his chest. Gilbert looked back at the campsite. He could see Anita and Krissy playing on the beach, but the boulders in front of him were much closer. He dug in the paddles, showering himself with lake water as he rowed faster.

Suddenly the front of his kayak hit something. He looked up to see Erica scrambling out of the yellow kayak he had just run into. He had made it! He was on the other side of the lake! Gilbert was so proud of himself he wanted to shout, but Erica wouldn’t understand and he didn’t want her to laugh. He stood up to beach his kayak.

“Erica, where are you going?” he called.

“I have to pee!” she shouted.

Gilbert sat back down.

“I’m just going to go behind the boulders and then we can go back.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to jump in the lake?” he muttered.

“Not with the fish!”

Gilbert sighed. It was going to be a long week without Frank and Peter.

“Well, I’m not waiting here while you take a potty break.” Gilbert picked up his paddle to start back across the cove.

Just then a branch snapped.

Gilbert looked up quickly to see a shower of leaves above the boulders.

He heard Erica gasp and then the sound of footsteps running.

“Erica?” called Gilbert.

She gave a strangled yelp.

“Erica?” he said again.

This time, there was no answer.

Secret of Undine won 3rd Place!

SECRET OF UNDINE (pronounced oon DEEN) won 3rd Place in the 2009 Pikes Peak Writers Fiction Contest.

Judges called the book “Delightful!” and “Very enjoyable to read.” One judge wrote that Secret of Undine is  “a story filled with engaging characters, and an imaginative and adventurous story line that has the potential to impact an audience far beyond the Pikes Peak Writers panel of judges...I’d buy this book in a heartbeat!”

What the Judges Say...

"This story absolutely tells an emotional truth; Gilbert is very engaging as he struggles with the challenge of believing in both magic AND girls!"

"The plot is wonderful...rollicking fun, with cliff hangers and twists. Well done!" 

"What a wonderful story line! I love the imagination blended with realism. It makes for a very engaging read."

"The ease with which you choreograph scene changes and character movement is indicative of an intuitive gift for storytelling."