Page 9 (1/2)
"ROSIE!" Grandpa's bellow shook the foundation of the house
"Why me?" Rose wiped the dish-soap suds from her hands with a kitchen towel, swiped the crossbow from the hook, and stomped onto the porch
"Roooosie!"
She kicked the screen door open He towered in the yard, a huge, shaggy bear of a led beard caked with blood and quivering grayish shreds She leveled the crossbow at hiain
"What is it?"
"I want to go to the pub I want a pint" His voice slipped into a whine "Gimme some money!"
"No"
He hissed at her, swaying unsteadily on his feet "Rosie! This is your last chance to give me a dollar!"
She sighed and shot him The bolt bit between the eyes, and Grandpa toppled onto his back like a log His legs druround
Rose rested the butt of her crossbow on her hip "All right, come out"
The two boys slipped fro its branches over the yard Both were filthy with reddish ht-and a ten-year-old could find in the Wood A jagged scratch decorated Georgie's neck, and brown pine straw stuck out of his blond hair Red weltsat his hands His eyes got big, a yellow, and he hid his fists behind his back
"How many times do I have to say it: don't touch the ward stones Look at Grandpa Cletus! He's been eating dog brains again, and now he's drunk It will take me half an hour to hose him off"
"We ie said
She sighed "I ood to anybody drunk Coet the legs"
Together they dragged Grandpa's inert for and dumped him on his sawdust Rose uncoiled the metal chain from the corner, pulled it across the shed, locked the collar on Grandpa's neck, and peeled back his left eyelid to check the pupil No red yet Good shot - he would be out for hours
Rose put her foot on his chest, grasped the bolt, and pulled it out with a sharp tug She still remembered Grandpa Cletus as he was, a tall, dapper ht Scottish brogue Even as old as he was, he would still win against Dad one out of three ti She sighed It hurt to look at hiie lived, so did Grandpa Cletus
The boys brought the hose She turned it on, set the sprayer on jet, and leveled the streaone She had never quite figured out how "going down to the pub" equaled chasing stray dogs and eating their brains, but when Grandpa got out of his ward circle, nohiie raised things froive them life He made them almost indestructible
Rose stepped out of the shed, locked the door behind her, and dragged the hose back to the porch Her skin prickled as she crossed the invisible boundary: the kids rass There they were, a line of sly ordinary rocks, spaced three, four feet froether they created an enchanted barrier, strong enough to keep Grandpa in the shed if he broke the chain again
Rose waved the boys to the side and raised the hose "Your turn"
They flinched at the cold water She washed them off methodically, from top to bottom As the mud melted from Jack's feet, she sao-inch rip in his Skechers Rose dropped the hose
"Jack!"
He cringed
"Those are forty-five-dollar shoes!"
"I'm sorry," he whispered
"To?"
"He was cliie said
She glared "Georgie! Thirty-"
Georgie bit his lip
Rose stared at Jack "Is that true? You were chasing the leech birds?"
"I can't help it Their tails are so flittery"
She wanted to smack him It was true, he couldn't help it - it wasn't his fault he was born as a cat - but those were brand-new shoes she had bought hily tweaked their budget, scriie's old beat-up sneakers, so he could look just as nice as all the other second graders It just hurt
Jack's face pinched into a rigid white mask - he was about to cry
A s to resurrect the shoes They were never alive in the first place"
The spark died
An odd desperation clai into a sort of numbness Pressure built in her chest She was so sick of it, sick of counting every dollar, sick of rationing everything, sick to death of it all She had to go and get Jack a new pair of shoes Not for Jack's sake, but for the sake of her own sanity Rose had no clue how she would make up the ht now, or she would explode
"Jack, do you remember ill happen if a leech bird bites you?"
"I'll turn into one?"
"Yes You have to stop chasing the birds"
He hung his head "Am I punished?"
"Yes I'ht now We'll talk about it e get home Go brush your teeth, cooing to Wal-Mart"
THE old Ford truck bounced on the buie put his feet down to steady the asked
Rose sighed Here, in the Edge, she could protect thee into another world, and theirrifles on the floor would be their only defense Rose felt a pang of guilt If it wasn't for her, they wouldn't need the rifles God, she didn't want to be juain Not with her brothers in the car
They lived betorlds: on one side lay the Weird and the other the Broken Two dies of each other In the place where the di a narrow ribbon of land that belonged to both of thee it was a shallow trickle But in the Broken, no ic shielded them at all
Rose eyed the Wood hugging the road, itsthe narrow ribbon of packed dirt She drove this way every day to her job in the Broken, but today the shadows between the gnarled trunks filled her with anxiety
"Let's play the 'You Can't' gao first"
"He went first the last time!" Jack's eyes shone with amber