the Surfing Corpse by Paul Zindel
The Surfing Corpse, by Paul Zindel, tells the story about two young teenagers, a boy named P.C. and a girl named Mackenzie who witnesses the death of their friend Timmy. The shocking thing was that they thought that they may have a murder case on their hands. The moral to this story is “there’s more to this than meets the eye”. This mystery takes place in New York City, on a school trip with Westside School. The date is September twenty-ninth. The school is headed west to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in a tour bus. Once they arrive they unpack their things and get ready to have a picnic. Meanwhile, Timmy and his mother head up the trail that led to a huge 300-foot waterfall. The water was so loud nobody could hear them arguing. Although Ernie Zulia, P.C. and Mackenzie’s classmate, couldn’t help but hear the commotion they were making, he decided to take a walk up their and see what all the fuss was about. At maybe the last moment all everybody could hear were screams supposedly coming from Timmy’s mother, Mrs. Warner. Then all at once, everyone there saw Timmy Warner go over the falls. Some screamed in horror and some gasped with fear. They could not believe this was happening. They knew he was going to die because there was the Delaware Hydroelectric Plant just down below at the end of the falls. This was a tragic event that ruined their trip. The body was never recovered so therefore they had a memorial service with an open, empty casket. Mrs. Warner was there with her fancy clothes and jewelry. P.C. and Mackenzie thought this was unusually odd considering the fact that her son had just died and she was not even mourning for him as she was at the site of his death. She was going off in her limo (all of the parents as well as the students were practically rich and in some form of business such as acting, etc.) to live with her daughter Marina in L.A. who was also in the acting business. It so happens that P.C. and Mackenzie are off to L.A. as well because they think that Mrs. Warner is responsible for her own sons’ death. The hard part is going to be trying to find out why she did this. When they arrive in L.A.