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over the falls, but I can’t recall much. The entire last week is fuzzy to me. Was I mad at Cole? Did we have a fight? I feel a strange anger toward him, something I can’t explain. Is that why he hasn’t visited me?
    There’s another knock on the door. I hope it’s not a nurse or a doctor but someone I actually want to see—someone who might finally fill me in on what’s been going on.
    The door opens before I get a word out. The person who enters is even more unexpected, and more frightening, than Coach Keller.
    It’s the sheriff of the Crystal County Police Department.

CHAPTER 4
    The big man doesn’t even bother introducing himself, he’s so certain that every teenager in Crystal Falls knows who the Law is around here. If not, the gold star on his chest gets the message across, and the bushy brown mustache underlines it.
    Lowering himself into one of the armchairs, the sheriff makes himself comfortable, something that looks to be impossible as the buttons on his beige shirt strain against his gut. What’s with sheriffs, anyway? Always with the big bellies and chicken legs. Still, one look at his forearms and I know the guy could have me in handcuffs and in the back of a cop car without even breaking a sweat.
    Even though I haven’t done anything, I can feel myself squirming under the sheets.
    “Good morning, son,” he says when he finally gets around to speaking. “So you’re back among the living, I see.”
    “Yeah,” I reply.
    “You sure gave people a pretty good scare,” he says, shaking his head disapprovingly.
    The remark sort of annoys me. People were scared? Well, imagine how I felt, going over the falls. I’m careful to keep the reaction off my face. I can already tell that the sheriff thinks I did something stupid or reckless, and that’s probably what he’s here to find out.
    The sheriff relays how fortunate it was that a woman taking a walk by the river happened to spot me on the rocks. Without her I would have probably frozen to death, he explains cheerfully. Her name is Olive Patterson, he adds, telling me I should make sure to thank her sometime.
    I’ve never heard the name before. Should I send her a gift or something? Flowers? Chocolates? I should probably mow her lawn for free until eternity, I guess.
    “So what’s the damage?” the sheriff asks, leaning over to examine me. “What did the doc say?”
    “I’m okay,” I answer. “A cut on the back of my head, bruises, scratches . . .”
    “Well, dang, if that ain’t a miracle, I don’t know what is.”
    “Me neither.”
    The sheriff stops speaking and peers at me instead. He sits back. “So what was it like?”
    “What was what like?”
    The sheriff laughs. “Going over Crystal Falls,” he says. “Landing in the river. You know, all that fun stuff.”
    “I don’t really remember,” I answer, suddenly wishing I had a better story to tell. Because I suppose I’ll be answering the question for the rest of my life.
    “Now that’s a shame,” the sheriff says, shaking his head. “Because of all the other people who’ve ever gone over them falls, you’re the first one I’ve had the opportunity to ask. . . .”
    “What? There were others?”
    “Sure. I’m surprised this is news to you.”
    Well, it is. Though the possibility had occurred to me before, I’d never heard of an actual instance.
    “How many?” I ask.
    “Well, three.” The sheriff starts fidgeting, feeling around in his pockets. He wants a smoke, I know—I remember seeing the same squirming with my chain-smoking late uncle Bud. “Since I’ve been in the department, at least.”
    “Three?”
    “Yup. The first was about a month after I joined on as deputy. Agnes Thompson, a nice young woman, I remember, and pretty. Reported missing after not turning up for her shift at the diner for a few days. We never found her body, but we found some tracks down by the river. Her parents out west got a suicide note in the mail a couple days later.”
    I