[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
She folded her hands tightly on the table and closed her eyes. Her voice was
barely louder than a whisper.
"Thank you, Lord, for this good food, this very good spaghetti.
Amen," she said.
Tears just leaped out of my eyes.
Chapter 59
MAX EASED BACK AND FORTH in the antique rocking chair on the porch, just like
any ordinary little girl on a beautiful summer morning.
She was wearing Kass earphones, listening to Meredith Brooks sing a little
rocker called "Bitch." She felt calm - calmer, anyway. She wanted to trust the
two of them, but she was still afraid, paranoid, a little nutso.
Afraid of your own shadow, aren't you, Maximum?
The tall, blond man named Kit was inside the house, talking to someone on a
telephone. She worried about who it was. He made really good spaghetti - the
best she'd ever tasted - but that didn't mean she could trust him with what
she knew, with her darkest, deepest secrets, with the whole truth and nothing
Page 91
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
but the truth about the School.
Frannie had gone for a walk. She said she'd be back in about ten minutes,
maybe sooner. She promised that she was bringing back a surprise.
We'd see about that. And what kind of surprise?
Max knew that not all surprises were good. Understatement of the Year!
Most of the surprises in her life sucked big time.
She wanted Frannie and Kit to help her, but she had to find out if they were
really good people, if they were worthy of her trust. She definitely liked the
fact that they seemed to trust her. That made it easier. Frannie told her that
it was okay to go in and out of the house as she pleased.
Frannie seemed real nice and easy to be around. And so did Kit, actually.
The outside door at the School was always locked, Max remembered.
She felt a shiver knife through her body. Bad memories flooded her brain.
She and Matthew had called it the Flight School. Two pretty good reasons.
Number one, because the two of them desperately wanted to fly the hell out of
there. Number two, because they were forbidden to fly at the School. So - the
Flight School. A protest!
She'd been absolutely forbidden to go outside at the School. Under pain of
being put to sleep.
But here she was. Awake. Alive. Listening to "Bitch."
the one time the guards had left a door open - the only time she remembered
them ever being sloppy - she and Matthew had bolted. Flew the coop, as Matthew
said, hollered and whooped, actually.
Max tucked her knees up under her chin. She admired how her legs looked in the
black stretch pants Frannie had given her. She also liked the big blue shirt
Kit was letting her wear. "FBI", was printed on it.
She had a suspicious thought. The blue shirt covered her wings so that she
couldn't fly.
But it was clean and smelled nice and she didn't want to fly, anyway.
Not right now. She wanted to sit in the creaky old rocking chair and listen to
rock and roll and eat chocolate-chip cookies until they came out of her nose.
God - unlimited cookies. What an idea.
The rock music played and she liked the rhythm. It kind of matched up with her
heartbeat. That was the trick of it, wasn't it?
She was thinking that if Frannie's "surprise" was good, maybe she'd tell her
one of the secrets about the School.
Just one secret, though.
Maybe about Matthew.
Or maybe she'd tell about Adam? Or start with poor Eve? The terrible, terrible
Page 92
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
night the two of them were put to sleep.
Maybe Kit and Frannie could help her find Matthew.
Her hands clenched automatically. This was very scary territory. One thing had
been drilled into her time and time again. She could get into terrible trouble
if she ever talked.
People could die, starting with her, and then anyone she talked to.
Chapter 60
PIP WAS PULLING ME through the woods as if he were the engine of a miniature
runaway train. Cicadas shrilled, close up and far away. Everything felt like a
dream, but it definitely wasn't one, was it.
"Hold on, fool," I yelled ahead, but Pip completely ignored me.
I was carrying all kinds of junk on my back: clothes for Max, a little black
bag, a 35men camera - and Pip was intent on being at the cabin now.
The lead finally jerked out of my hands and he was gone, scampering on ahead,
dragging rope and chain behind him, yapping his fool head off.
"Pip! You little snip!"
The girl never had a chance to hear him with those damned earphones on her
head. I dropped my pack and ran, but it was too late. He was all over her.
Dear God. Would she know Pip was just a small, overeager dog? That he was
nothing to be afraid of?
Then I could hear her laughing and the small, playful dog's yipping, and it
was just about the neatest sound in the world. It certainly would do for right
now.
Kit came flying out through the front door just as I got to the bottom steps
of the cabin. He looked concerned - until he correctly sized up the situation.
"Is this my surprise?" the girl asked. Meanwhile, the squirming hunk of dog
was slobbering all over her.
"Pip, manners," I said. "Yep, he's the surprise." The girl said, "We have dogs
at the School. Bandit and Gomer."
I glanced at Kit. We filed the tidbit away for later.
"This is Pip," I said. "He's a good little pup." The girl smiled. "Hello,
Pip," she said.
She picked up a stick and Pip went nuts; backing up, wagging his snippet of a
tail, and yapping like the little whirligig and madman that he is.
The girl looked thoughtful for a moment, then she spoke.
"I'm Max," she said, telling us her name for the first time. Then she threw
the stick. "Go fetch, Pip."
Chapter 61
I NEEDED TO EXAMINE Max for injuries and possible malnutrition. I couldn't
Page 93
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
wait to start. The suspense, the drama, was overwhelming. Most doctors would
kill for this opportunity, and perhaps someone had.
I stood outside the familiar and usually nonthreatening door to the spare room
of my house and I took one of the deepest breaths of my entire breathing
career. Kit and I had just been talking about bringing Max to the
"authorities," the local police, or maybe even to the University of Colorado
at Boulder.
"I am the police," Kit had argued. He was definitely against the move, "And
for the moment, I'm not certain who else we can trust. I'm working on that,
Frannie. Please give me another day or so to check out some things."
His reaction wasn't very reassuring, but I had my own misgivings about the
local authorities in Nederland, or even Boulder. I didn't feel they were quite
up to this. I hadn't from the beginning.
So Max was behind Door Number One, waiting for me to give her a full physical
exam. She had already told me it was no big deal to her she was used to them.
Well, it was a big deal for me.
I left Kit on the front deck, making calls around the country. He had a couple
of notebooks filled with information about the outlaw group of scientists who
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]