The Door in the Lake

"The Door in the Lake" (1997) is a novel by Nancy Butts.

Plot summary

Joey Finney is a normal twelve year old boy. At least he was, but then it happened. While camping with his family and best friend, he goes to use the latrine late at night. When he gets there, he finds that the lake is glowing . . . and the next thing he knows, he's in a hospital after supposedly passing out in a convenience store. What he soon discovers is that interestingly enough, he'd been missing for two years. Therefore, he'd be fourteen, so he'd probably look fourteen, right? Wrong. Joey doesn't remember the two years in which he was missing, and he still takes on the physical appearance of a twelve-year-old. When he tries to get his life back on track, he decides to enroll in ninth grade, but there he is discriminated and written of as a freak by his classmates. Even his best friend turns on him! Not a big surprise, I guess. Key phrase: ninth grade. On top of all that, he often feels ill and frequently goes to the hospital.Everytime he undergoes a seizure, he remembers parts of what happens to him back at the lake. But there's still hope for Joey- college students looked in to his case and found a possible solution to the mystery of what really happened that fateful night at the lake. They believe that Joey was abducted by aliens. At first, Joey thinks they're psycho and shuns them. But then, as Joey begins to get sicker and sicker, he starts to consider their ideas, and he too begins to truly believe them. However, all is still not well. Joey becomes desperately ill. The doctor finds some sort of mass in his head- perhaps an alien tracking device- and tell Joey's worried parents that he'll have to undergo brain surgery, and that he has a very slight chance of survival. As Joey lies in agony at the hospital, he realizes he is dying. His college friends come to him, for they think if they can find the aliens fast enough, they might be able to transport him back to his former life, where he was perfectly healthy. But consider the circumstances; the only people that might be able to save him may be insane. Can two college students save the dying Joey Finney?