AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dane disturbs me, I vow to avoid him…
While already longing to drive back to his house…
I climb into my own bed instead, determined to catch eight hours’ sleep for the first time this week.
I’m tired enough that I’m out almost as soon as my head hits the pillow, but it’s no restful sleep. I fall into a dream like the flick of a light switch, one moment in my room, the next in our old house…
Jude issix years old but so much smaller. He’s picked on at school. They put him straight into the second grade because he tested so high, but all the other students are a foot taller.
“We should have held him back, if anything…” Dad says.
“You can’t hold him back, he’s already bored.” Mom’s proud of Jude, fiercely proud. But when he throws a tantrum, she turns him over to me.
He’s pitching a fit because he doesn’t want to be a newsie. Mom made him audition for the school play; she was in a shampoo commercial, once.
“I don’t like this hat!” Jude shouts. “I won’t wear it!”
I take him to my room to soothe.
He’s flushed from crying, furious at Mom, but only because he’s scared.
“You’re going to be amazing,” I promise him. “You know all your lines.”
“I only have two.”
“The best two in the show.”
He buries himself in my pillows, his hat flung on the floor.
I dig him out and smooth back his hair, teasing and tickling until he finally laughs.
“There—I knew you didn’t forget how to smile.”
He’s still adamant: “I won’t do it.”
“Come on,” I coax. “I want to see you on stage! And Dad will take us for ice cream afterward…”
Jude loves ice cream even though he always orders vanilla.
“Did he promise?”
“Pinky promised.”
“Fine,” Jude says, giving his quick, jerking nod that reminds me of a samurai warrior in an old martial arts movie.
He snuggles against me.
“I wishyouwere my mother…”
“I’m your other mother.” I wrap my arms around him, kissing him on the head. “Your backup mom. I’m always going to love you and take care of you…”
I promisedwith all my heart, with no idea it would actually come to pass.
The wind lashes the bedroom windows, no match for the storm inside my head…
I’min the cabin of theSeaDreamer, tossed like a crackerjack in a box. We’ve sailed through storms before but never one like this…
The next wave nearly throws me out of my bunk. Jude’s chilly little hand grabs my arm. His eyes are huge and terrified, he’s near hysterical:
