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Back The Copycat Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Chapter One
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Chapter Two
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Chapter Three
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Chapter Four
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Chapter Five
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Chapter Six
  26. Seventeen
  27. Eighteen
  28. Nineteen
  29. Chapter Seven
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Chapter Eight
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Twenty-Five
  37. Chapter Nine
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Chapter Ten
  41. Twenty-Eight
  42. Twenty-Nine
  43. Thirty
  44. Thirty-One
  45. Chapter Eleven
  46. Thirty-Two
  47. Thirty-Three
  48. Thirty-Four
  49. Thirty-Five
  50. Chapter Twelve
  51. Thirty-Six
  52. Thirty-Seven
  53. Thirty-Eight
  54. Chapter Thirteen
  55. Thirty-Nine
  56. Forty
  57. Forty-One
  58. Forty-Two
  59. Chapter Fourteen
  60. Forty-Three
  61. Forty-Four
  62. Forty-Five
  63. Forty-Six
  64. Forty-Seven
  65. Chapter Fifteen
  66. The Following Summer
  67. About the Author
  68. About the Publisher

Ali saved the day. “I can’t hang out; I’m going to Emily Arai’s house after school to work on our science project.”

Alfie furrowed his brow. “But aren’t you and Cassie working on a project?”

“It’s a different thing,” said Cassie. “I forgot you got stuck with Emily Arai. Poor you.”

“You don’t like Emily?” Ali asked, surprised. Everybody seemed to love Emily Arai.

Cassie snorted.

“She’s not that bad, Cass,” said Murray.

“Whatever,” Cassie said.

Murray didn’t know when to stop talking. “They used to be friends when they were younger, but they don’t get along anymore.”

Cassie snatched up her lunch box. “I’m leaving.”

“Well, that was awkward,” Alfie said as the three of them watched Cassie’s receding back. “Is there something in the air today? You guys are acting strange.”

Murray shrugged. “It’s the fog, man. It’s making everybody weird.”

Chapter Seven

Fog and Mental Health

My mother always put me in my place when I complained of the fog as a child. “The sun is up there, Percy, always. You must trust in that.” I have never forgotten her sage wisdom.

—PERCIVAL T. SLOANE,

A History of Fog in the Bay of Fundy (1932)

Twenty

“Murray’s mouse” was the number-one topic for the rest of the school day. Opinion was divided about whether Ms. Ryder was right or wrong when she’d made Murray put it outside. There was such a heated debate in science class as to what a mouse’s natural habitat actually was—Emily argued that Ms. Ryder had kicked the mouse out of its home—that Mr. Corby said he hoped more animals moved into Princess Elizabeth School. Ali pretended to ignore Murray’s and Cassie’s constant stares. If they weren’t careful, her secret wouldn’t survive the day.

Emily was still talking about the mouse on the bus ride to her house after school. “I’m so sorry you missed it. You would have loved it so much!”

Ali gave a half-hearted nod.

The Arais lived in a massive house overlooking the Bay of Fundy in uptown Saint John. Emily pointed to the bay, shrouded in thick fog. “We usually have an amazing view.”

“When I was little, I used to think you could walk on clouds,” said Ali, staring into the milky void. “Now it feels like we’re living in them.” She turned her attention to the house, which was stunning, with its beautiful brickwork, expansive sunroom, and third-floor tower topped with a spiky fence that made you think of a haunted house in a movie.

“It’s called a widow’s watch,” Emily said, like she was used to people admiring her house. “In the olden days, sailors’ wives would wait and watch for their husbands’ ships to return. A lot of them never did, which is when they started calling them widow’s watches.”