very expensive. He put them on, hooking the smooth gold-and-black half frame around his ears.
Blackness . . .
. . . then a speck of light as his eyes began to adjust to the dark lenses. But it was more than just his eyes adjusting. It was as if the lenses were lightening up for his eyes, bringing everything into focus. These weren't mere sunglasses—they seemed to fit Kevin's prescription as well. They were perfect. All right—they were a bit too big for his head, but otherwise they couldn't be beat.
Now the view before him stretched out in perfect focus. He could see lines of roads, little insect dots that must have been cars. The blur beyond the desert was very definitely a mountain range on the horizon. The solitary shadow of the Divine Watch painted a gray triangle across the sands, and the shadow's tip rested on a tiny sliver of rock that stood up like a hairline spike in the distant mountain range.
'I can see it!' screamed Kevin, only half believing.
'What?' asked Josh.
'The Devil's Chair! Just like Kirkpatrick said! Just like he said!'
'How can you see anything?' asked Hal. 'You're as blind as a bat!'
Josh's eyes cleared the top and he scanned the horizon.
'I don't see a thing!' said Josh. 'It's too hazy!'
Kevin tried to climb higher, daring to actually stand atop the Divine Watch, but it was not meant to be. He was in too much of a hurry; he moved too quickly and lost his balance.
Kevin fell onto Josh, who toppled onto Hal, who crashed into Bertram, and the foursome plunged down the rocky cliff, rolling over sharp rocks and over each other until they smashed against a hard plateau fifty feet below.
At ten a.m., Bertram came into camp with a long scrape on his arm and skinned knees. He was followed by Hal, who was limping, and Josh, who had a cut on his face and scratched-up hands, and Kevin, who, having landed on Bertram, was completely unharmed.
For the entire trip back, Kevin had been all smiles. He had seen the top of the Watch, survived the climb, and acquired a souvenir to boot—and Bertram, who was too tired to beat him up at this point, would not get his hands on
There was an uncanny, unpleasant sense that their experience on the mountain had somehow linked the four of them together like prisoners in a chain gang, but no one talked about it. No one talked much at all on the way back.
The boys marched into camp, looking like the sole survivors of a major plane crash, and they made their way to their tents. No one had noticed their disappearance, and no one noticed their return—what with so many kids running this way and that, throwing up Kirkpatrick's Chili-Eggs Scrambled with Garlic Over an Open Fire.
They wearily went to their tents to get a few minutes of sleep before they were dragged out for the day's festivities.
4
KEVIN FINDS ROCKS IN HIS HEAD
Rumors spread, as rumors do, at the speed of light squared, and the buzz around the campsite focused on a single question:
Could they have climbed the Divine Watch, and could Kevin Midas actually have gotten there first?
Bertram denied that it ever happened. He would rather lie than allow Kevin the smallest glimpse of glory.
'But what about Josh's cut and Hal's bruises? What about my glasses?' Kevin tried to reason with the doubters.
'I can explain all that,' said Nicole Patterson, who could always be counted on to explain all things. 'Hal's a clumsy ox,' she said. 'If he
Kevin knew he'd never change her mind, so instead he just pushed his glasses farther up on his nose and asked proudly, 'Do you like them?'
Nicole pondered them and shrugged. 'They'd look a lot better on a larger head,' she said.
And so until about three o'clock that afternoon, Kevin's life was pretty much unchanged.
At three, Bertram did some diving.
The assignment that afternoon was to do something that Native Americans might have done a thousand years ago. Most kids were spread out around a large, ice-cold pond near the campsite. Some hunted fish unsuccessfully with sharp sticks. Some ground berries into war paint, others were doing a sad-looking rain dance, and the rest watched with deep dread as Kirkpatrick cooked a snack of stir-fried forest-findings.
Kevin and Josh were lying on a boulder overlooking the pond.
'We're studying the clouds for a message from the sun-god,' they told Kirkpatrick, 'like Native Americans might have done.' Kirkpatrick bought it and let them spend the afternoon basking in the sun, resting their aching feet.
Kevin basked with his glasses on. Through the dark lenses, he could see Josh staring at him. Josh was examining the glasses the way he would stare at a brand-new sports car, letting his eyes move across the perfect surface.
'You know,' said Josh, 'they could have been mine if I got there first.'
Kevin shrugged. 'That's the breaks.'
'Your parents'll probably hate them,' said Josh.
Kevin wondered if they'd even notice them. His mother rarely seemed to notice anything Kevin did, and his father was still trying to figure Kevin out.
'They won't care,' said Kevin.
'You think Nicole likes your glasses?' he asked with a grin.
Kevin frowned. 'She thinks I have a pinhead.'
'You do,' said Josh. 'But that's okay, because you've also got a pin body.'
Kevin was searching for a comeback line when Bertram called to them from across the pond.
'Hey,' bellowed Bertram. 'Hey, Midas, I hope you know I'm not talking to you because of what you did!'
Kevin, with the safety of a small lake between them, bellowed back, 'Are you saying that you
'We admit nothing!' bellowed Hal, who stood firmly and strongly in Bertram's shadow.
'All's we admit,' said Bertram, 'is that you and Wilson are gonna have a short life expectancy unless you stay out of my way.'
'Ah, go jump in a lake,' said Kevin.
And sure enough, Bertram flung out his arms and did a commanding belly flop into the frigid water.
When he surfaced and scrambled for shore, both Kevin and Josh broke out in raucous laughter. It was echoed by everyone else in attendance.
Bertram climbed out of the water and onto the boulder he had been standing on, trying to figure out what had happened.
'Hey, Bertram,' yelled Kevin, pushing the glasses farther up on his face, 'that was pretty good—but can you do it again?'
Bertram slipped, spun his arms a few times, and flew into the lake once more.
Bertram blubbered his way to shore, only to find Hal laughing too.
