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"Here," I said
She sht red too "Good work, sweetie" And I realized that the reason she had taken me instead of my brothers was just that I was the smallest, but it didn’t bother me, because I also realized that I could be useful That I didn’t need to be a worker to be useful That I could be good at things, better than they were, even
That knowledge sang through my veins like adrenaline
Maybe I was seven I’m not sure It was before Lila
I never told anyone about the cat
I stack the photographs, with a few more of Grandad and Lila’s dad in Atlantic City in front of a bar They’re standing with an older man that I don’t know, arms draped over each others’ shoulders
I sweep layers of dust from under the couches and chairs until it billows up and chokes me
When I flop down to rest, I find a notebook shoved under one of the cushions, filled with Mo stuff "Oil tank ree, while the other side reads, "get carrots, chicken (whole), bleach, es later there are so a car dealership and talking them out of a rental car for a week There are a few more scripts for different sca despiteto run my own scam, so I better study up
In our family--maybe in every family--there’s this idea that the kids take after soeneration Like Philip is supposed to take after our granddad, h school to join up with the Zacharovs and got his keloid necklace a few years later He’s big on loyalty and stability, even if he pays his rent by busting kneecaps I picture hieneration of worker kids off his lawn
The fah he works luck and she works emotion Mom can make anyone her friend, can strike up a conversation anywhere because she genuinely believes that the con is a gale time
That leaves me to be like my luck worker dad, except that I’ether When he was alive, Moone that she started chasing around uy woke up at the end of a cruise a hundred grand lighter and head over heels in love, his lawyer called the cops
She can’t help it She loves the con
I tell myself I’m not like her, but I have to ad for I don’t knohat-- fah As I turn es, I find an envelope taped to a divider Written beside it are the words "Give this to Remember!" I rip it open and find a memory charm, silver, with the word "remember" stamped on it and an uncracked blue stone set off center It looks old, the silver tarnished black in the grooves and the whole piece heavy in my hand
Charms to throw off curse work, char around her neck, are as old as curses the stone--the onlythe blowback Then that stone is primed and will s up a curse of the same type So if a luck worker curses a piece of jade and wears it against her skin, and then someone tries to curse her with bad luck, the jade breaks and she’s not affected You have to get another charm each time you’re worked, and you have to have one for each type of ic, but you’re safe Only rock is effective, not silver or gold, leather or wood Certain people prefer one type to another; there are charranite If what I’ is a charrifted sos to her It’s kind of funny to think of forgetting athe living roos of bubble wrap, a sith rust staining the blade, three broken dolls I don’t re, an overturned chair that creeped me out as a kid because I swore it looked identical to one I’d seen on television the night before Barron and Philip dragged it home, a hockey stick, and a collection of medals for various different military accomplishments It’s almost noon by the time I finish, and my hands and the cuffs of my pants are black with filth I throay stacks of newspapers and catalogs, bills that probably went unpaid for years, plastic bags of hangers and wires, and the hockey stick
The sword I lean against the wall
The outside of the house is already piled with garbage bags fro to have to take a trip to the duhbors’ tidy houses with their htly painted doors, and then back atoff kilter on either side of a row of front-facing s, and one of the panes is broken The paint is so worn that the cedar shingles look gray The house is rotting fro the chair out to the side of the road when Grandad coles the keys in front of me
"Be back in ti the the chair where it is, I head out the driveway as if I really have an appointment to be late for
CHAPTER SIX
THE ADDRESS I GOT OFF the Internet for Dr Churchill’s office is on the corner of Vandeventer Avenue in the center of Princeton I park next to a fondue restaurant and checkood kid, reliable Even though I washed my hands three times in the bathroom of a convenience store when I stopped for coffee, I can still feel the oily grit of dirt on ainst my jeans as I walk into the reception area and up to the desk
The wo around her neck on a beaded chain I wonder if shewith friendliness She looks like she ht be in her fifties from the lines on her face and all the silver at her roots "Hi," I say "I have an appoint and taps the keyboard in front of her I know there’s not going to be anything on her screen about me, but that’s okay It’s part of my plan
"What’s your name?" she asks
"Cassel Sharpe" I try to stick to the truth as much as possible, in case there’s a need for elaboration or photo identification As she clicks around to figure out whowoht purple scrubs, and I think she ht be a nurse, since there’s only one doctor’s name--Dr Eric Churchill, MD--on the door The few files on top of the cabinets in the back are in dark green folders, and a note about the holiday hours is taped to the front of the desk On stationery I reach for it
"I don’t see anything here, Mr Sharpe," she says
"Oh," I say,the movement "Oh" I try to seem worried and hope that she’ll take pity on o ask someone
She doesn’t seem to notice my fake distress and seems, in fact, more irritated than sympathetic "Who ht be under her name?" The nurse in the scrubs takes out a file and sets it on the counter, close to where I’
"There’s no Sharpe here," the receptionist says, her gaze steady "Maybe your mother made atells Liars will touch their faces, obscuring themselves They’ll stiffen up They’ll do any of dozens of nonverbal things--breathe quickly, talk fast, blush--that could give theer Could you check?"
As she turns her face toward the screen, I slide the file off the counter and under er," she says, with profound annoyance "Would you like to call your mother, maybe?"
"Yeah, I better," I say contritely As I turn, I pull the stationery sign off the front of the desk I have no idea if she seeswith one arm crossed overthe sheet of paper into the file, everything perfectly natural