Dillon Hunt And The Desert Oasis Resort by Chad Stewart (smart ebook reader TXT) 📖

Dillon looked around the lobby trying to appear casual as he waited for Claire to show up. It was only five minutes past nine which was not unusual for his sister, especially due to the fact that she was probably still angry at him for coercing her into helping him get to town. Knowing her, she would probably stretch it out to the last minute. Dillon wasn’t too worried yet as the first shuttle bus didn’t leave for town until about twenty passed nine. He still had time.

As Dillon waited, his thoughts kept going to the meaning of the symbol on the wall. Perhaps maybe the only person who might be able to help him with this knowledge was Tom Tom, and Dillon didn’t even know if he was still alive. He thought about asking another tribe member—maybe the woman from the bike shop—but he really didn’t know who he could trust and didn’t want to risk it.

A moment later Claire surprised him by shambling out of the elevator and into the lobby. She had a whole eight minutes to spare! This was uncharacteristically like her. As she approached Dillon he could tell that she was still mad at the way he was able to get her to “volunteer” to go with him into town.

“Good morning Claire,” Dillon said in an innocent tone, trying to appear as meek as possible.

“Morning,” she grunted. The look on her face further confirmed that she wasn’t just mad, but potentially infuriated with her little brother.

Dillon didn’t know what to say as they both walked outside to the front of the resort in order to wait for the shuttle. The silence was deafening!

They got to the bus stop and stood there, neither saying a word. Dillon looked around, pretending to be interested in some birds that perched on a pole nearby. Claire looked down at her phone, tapping away at one of her games. Dillon cleared his throat a couple of times seeing if she would look up from her game. No response. The tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife! After a moment Claire finally turned to Dillon and spouted angrily, “How do you know about Jeff?”

Dillon wasn’t really surprised by the question as Claire had gone to great lengths to keep her taboo relationship a secret. “I overheard you talking to one of your friends about it when I was passing by your room,” he responded. “I also saw you and Jeff hanging out in the park after school a few times on my walk home.”

“Ya but that doesn’t mean anything,” Claire snapped. “Lot’s of girls and guys hang out!”

“Yes but normally the guys don’t give the girls a flower like I witnessed just before spring break of last year,” Dillon said with a wry smile. “Not to mention the notes you have neatly tucked into your binder, or the kiss you gave him after school. Do you want me to continue?”

Claire fumed! “How do you know about the notes?” she demanded.

“One of them fell out of your binder once and I found it.” He paused. “And it was a good thing that I found it and not Mom and Dad,” he asserted. “Anyway, I didn’t know what it was until I opened it and found that Jeff was swearing his undying love to you.”

Claire’s face went beet red at that last remark.

“So after discovering what it was I thought that the decent thing to do would be to put it back when you weren’t looking and pretend that nothing ever happened.”

She relaxed a little at Dillon’s display of discretion.

“Come on Claire,” Dillon continued. “I didn’t want you to get in trouble. That’s why I didn’t say anything before.”

“But what about now?” Claire asked, her anger starting to rise again with the thought of Dillon’s play on her that got her stuck going with him to town.

“Sorry about that,” Dillon replied. “But I really need to get to town and I knew that Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me go without someone else coming—someone older—and you seemed like the best choice.”

“Why do you need to go there so badly?” asked his sister, her curiosity starting to peak.

“Oh … it’s nothing important,” Dillon replied, trying hard to think of a good reason that would allow them to split up. “It’s just some boring stuff that I read in one of my books that I want to check out.” He pulled his backpack up onto his shoulder a little more as he saw the shuttle bus approaching the stop. “How about you head to the mall and I’ll meet you there after?”

“Oh no. You conned me into going with you to keep an eye on you and that’s just what I’m going to do! Mom and Dad expect us to stay together, remember?” Claire replied angrily.

Dillon took a step back. “You won’t have fun where I’m going,” he shot back.

“Does it matter? I didn’t even want to come in the first place!”

Dillon was dumbfounded. He didn’t see this coming. And he knew he couldn’t take Claire with him. He needed to think of something fast.

“Wouldn’t you have more fun at the mall?”

“Maybe. But it wouldn’t be as much fun as making your life miserable for a couple of hours,” she replied with a wicked grin.

“Fine. How about I give you my weeks worth of allowance?”

Claire stared at him. “And … you … can use ten of my minutes to call Jeff when we get back,” he said desperately.

Claire was silent. “Okay. That sounds reasonable,” she smiled as the bus pulled up.

Dillon shook his head in disbelief as he walked onto the bus behind his sister. He was thankful that it wasn’t Jordan he had to bribe as he was sure his brother would have been a little more suspicious about why he wanted to be alone. Fortunately, Claire wasn’t as deep of a thinker as he was.

Dillon, using the maps app on his phone, had no problem finding 1587 Palm Tree Crescent. It was about a fifteen minute walk from where the bus had dropped him and Claire off, and he planned it just about right with the pick up and drop off schedule for the bus when he looked at it the night before. In reality, the residential area of the Oasis Resort wasn’t really that big. It was mainly reserved for members of the tribe with a few really nice condos and houses for people like Janeen and that Aussie bellman from the hotel who came there to work.

The most striking thing about the residential area was how clean it was! All the lawns were cut neatly, the hedges trimmed, and the flowers that grew there looked well taken care of. It didn’t look as though there was even any wear-and-tear on the streets, sidewalks, fences, or signs! Dillon thought that it seemed kind of creepy. The only thing that made it halfway normal was the fact that there were kids out playing, moms strolling along the sidewalks with their baby strollers and little ones in tow, and a few others out walking their dogs. That kind of activity put Dillon at ease as it reminded him of the street that he lived on back home.

“In one hundred feet take the next right onto Palm Tree Crescent,” said the melodic woman’s voice of the GPS, which brought Dillon’s thoughts back to why he had come all this way. He immediately stopped gazing around and focused his attention to where he was going.

When he made it to Palm Tree Crescent the GPS sounded again. “Turn right onto Palm Tree Crescent,” she said. “Your destination is fifty feet on your left.”

Dillon double tapped his phone and swiped up to get rid of the mapping.

As he approached the house he noticed a man sitting in a car across from the address. He immediately recognized it as Derek. Derek, as soon as he saw the boy, got out of the car and came over to him. He smiled and nodded as he did. “Good to see you could make it. I knew you wouldn’t disappoint.”

“Look, I can help, but I’ve got to leave here by 10:45 at the latest. The next bus comes at 11:15 and I promised my parents we’d be back on that bus.”

Derek laughed and put his hands up, motioning for Dillon to slow down. “Don’t worry kid, we’ll be out of here in no time.”

Dillon breathed easier and nodded. “So, this is the place,” he said, trying to contain his nervousness which he knew he was