“Did I already ask where we are? And what’s taking Alana and Louie so long? You look like you need help with that thread.”
Shaking her head and sighing, Ren said, “Yes, you asked, and I really hope they get here soon, and no, I already told you that you can’t help with the thread.” She took a breath and added, “I thought you’d never get here! You took forever in the time tunnel, and you’re not going to believe—”
I held up my hand, feeling light-headed. “Did you say ‘time tunnel’?”
She nodded excitedly. “I should wait until you’re fully recovered to tell you, but it’s just too increíble.” She rambled on. “The time thread created the passage, and I guess everyone travels through time tunnels at different speeds. I’ve been here for like thirty minutes. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.”
“I saw starfish and a stingray,” I said, rubbing my head. “Those are sea creatures, not lake creatures. Right?”
“It’s not a lake—it’s part of the sea,” Ren said, looking at the ice tube suspended over the water. “I really wish Alana and Louie would hurry up.”
My mind was slow to accept whatever she told me, like it was on lag time. Okay…ghost boy, sea creatures in a lake, time thread…A second later, my brain revolted.
“Thirty minutes?!” I shouted. “I jumped in right after you.”
I glanced up at the time tunnel. The thing looked like it had grown out of the sky itself. Any second now, Louie and Alana would shoot out of t
he twenty-foot drop.
“Zane?”
Any second.
“Yeah?”
Ren took my hand in hers. I have something to tell you, and it can’t wait.
I switched my gaze to the water, searching for that ghost boy…you know, to make sure he didn’t try anything fishy when Alana and Louie showed up. Did the water make me see that ghost? I asked Ren.
That’s what I have to tell you.
Even telepathically Ren’s voice sounded weird. I turned to face her.
“The ghost is real,” she said. “They’re all real.”
“All?”
At that moment, the air near the tree line shimmered once…twice.
A group of boys materialized. Scratch that. A group of ghosts appeared.
And one really big giant.
When you’re slung down a twisty time tunnel and end up in a ghost sea/lake that messes with your head, you think your day can’t get any weirder. Ha! This day was definitely about to take a turn. A big turn.
Ren just stood there all calm and dry, clutching the thread like it was her lifeline.
The ghost boys ran around, hooting and tossing a football, slamming into each other. And the ten-foot-tall teen giant? Yes, teen! He had a couple of zits on his chin and looked like he hadn’t washed his shoulder-length dark hair for two weeks. But unlike any teenager I knew, the guy had boulder-size arms folded over his massive chest.
“Zane, this is Sipacna,” Ren said breathlessly. “Sipacna, this is Zane Obispo, son of Hurakan.”
“Everyone calls me Zip.” The giant reached out to shake my hand, but I backed away. My mind had returned in full force, enough for the realization of this guy’s identity to knock me over.
“Sipacna?!” I blurted. “The evil mountain giant who killed—” I swallowed the words before they had a chance to escape. I knew all about this dude. First, my giant friend Jazz hated the guy. Second, Sipacna had killed four hundred boys at once. AT ONCE! Just because they’d interrupted his nap or something.
But the tale, like all Maya stories, doesn’t end there. The “hero twins”—yeah, you know the ones—stuck their big noses where they didn’t belong and decided they should seek revenge for the boys. Using a giant crab as bait, the brothers lured Sipacna to a canyon, where they crushed him under a mountain.
Pretty tragic tale, but if it was true, then Sipacna should have been dead. So how did he get here?