Winter's Tide by Lisa Williams Kline Page B

use the key to start it and how to move the knob next to my knee to go forward or backward. She also showed me the gas and the brake.
    â€œDuh!” I said. Who doesn’t know where the gas and the brake are?
    â€œAll right then,” she said, walking around the cart to the passenger side. She poked me. “Slide over.”
    I climbed over Jelly into the driver’s seat, my heart speeding up. I was going to drive! I jammed the knob into the reverse position and pressed on the gas pedal. The cart leaped backward, beeping loudly.
    â€œWhoa! Too hard!” Mom said. I tried again, pressing my foot more softly, and the cart began to back up, still making beeping noises. Jelly leaned against Mom, hisears twitching as he felt us moving, and she cradled him with her left arm, rubbing his head.
    â€œOkay, watch for traffic before you back out,” Mom warned.
    As if I didn’t know that! Besides, there was hardly any traffic on Grammy’s street since it was a dead end.
    â€œI know, I know.” I came to a stop in the street, then moved the knob over to go forward.
    â€œOkay, head down the street, and let’s find the area where you can park the cart.” The front window of the cart protected us from the brunt of the winter wind, but the air still felt cold and damp. Light-gray one-story apartment buildings lined the street on either side, each with two apartments.
    I steered the cart down the street, going too fast at first, then hitting the squealing brakes, then going fast again, then hitting the brakes again.
    â€œWhiplash,” Mom said, grabbing the dashboard with a laugh as I sped up.
    â€œI have to get used to it,” I said. “Don’t laugh!” I tried turning the steering wheel to the right and then the left, veering into the left lane, to see how quickly the cart responded.
    â€œDiana! Stay in your lane!” Mom said. “Golf carts have to obey the rules of the road, just like cars.”
    â€œI know, I know. I’m just messing around.” Mom always worried!
    â€œYou don’t mess around when you’re driving a vehicle. Even a golf cart.”
    The street ended in a small parking area next to the beach. Jelly jumped down, barking, as I braked to a stop, and Mom gripped his leash. I asked Mom if I could walk him, and she gave the leash to me.
    In front of us, between two dunes dotted with clumps of sea grass, a white sand pathway wound to the beach. With excited little barks, Jelly pulled on the leash toward the pathway.
    Our shoes sank in the sugar-fine sand as we followed the path down to the beach. A fierce wind blew, tugging at my scarf. The tide was low, allowing a long walk across the dark stippled sand to the water. Meandering just above the waterline was a dark frilly line of seaweed. The ever-moving water was gunmetal-gray, choppy, and had a lacy froth on the waves. No one else was on the beach.
    About thirty yards away, splashing in a small inlet of water that was about three feet deep, was a huge, dark shape about the size of a Sunfish sailboat.
    Jelly began to bark and pull me toward the splashing creature.
    â€œMom, what do you think that is?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    We hurried closer. Jelly barked continuously as weapproached, and the fur stood up on the back of his neck. Fear pricked the back of my own neck, and my heart started to beat faster.
    When we were about ten feet away, Jelly suddenly stopped barking and didn’t want to go any farther. He planted his feet and began to actively sniff, holding his nose high in the air.
    Closer, I saw the creature was shaped like a large dolphin, but it was black rather than gray, and instead of the dolphin’s bottle-shaped snout, it had a shiny, rounded, bulbous head with a small beak-like mouth. Its mouth was slightly open, and I saw a neat row of small, sharp teeth. The creature rolled back and forth, and the two fins of its tail flopped frantically in the shallow