Read Online A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Free Book Online
Authors: Nina Kiriki Hoffman
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taken.”
I’m in the visitor’s lot at the top of the hill. Let’s get the bike and I’ll drive you down.”
” ‘Kay.”
Fog drifted across the nighttime campus from the nearby ocean, glowed under the orange lights. The air was cool and damp. I followed my
brother’s broad leather-jacketed back. A feeling of contentment settled over me. I felt like I was a kid again, with Jasper leading me into another adventure.
But that was ridiculous.
I moved up beside him. “Did you notice anybody hanging around the center?”
He glanced at me, then shook his head.
I stared at the ground as I walked. “Sorry.”
“Why?”
“I got you out here for no reason.”
He shook his head again. “Maybe I scared him away. Better safe, you know?”
“You had other plans for tonight, I’m sure.”
“Not until ten. I can still make it. Celtic Knot’s playing at the Bismarck. You want to come?”
He hadn’t invited me to listen to live music with him in a long time. He had this girl he was seeing, Trina, the latest in a string of girls he’d been seeing; he did lots of things with her, and left the family out of his plans these days. Mama said having a girlfriend was a natural step in his development, and we should quit bothering him about it.
Sometimes I was really conscious of how odd my family was. Most people our age moved out of the house, went away to college, got their own apartments. Opal lived in L.A. But Jasper still lived at home, and so did I, even though we were old enough to leave. Mama said not to worry about it. LaZelles didn’t have to live like anybody else; it was customary for us to cluster. She said it was okay with her if I never moved out.
I was heading for my twenty-first birthday in the spring. I didn’t know what to think about Mama’s offer. Sometimes I talked it over with Claire.
Claire had gone through a rebel-against-every thing-July-does phase where she utterly rejected her witch upbringing. She had moved to an apartment across town when she was eighteen. She got a job waitressing and took a year off from school, then went to college at UCST, where her mom was a cultural anthropology professor.
Since she had moved out, though, she’d been exploring the craft again. She could finally look at it as something separate from family, something she might want to use. After all, she knew all about it already. Now that she had a little distance, she could appreciate it.
Sometimes I went to Claire’s place to study. We went to movies together. Her apartment was tiny; you did almost everything in one big room except cook or go to the bathroom or shower. The kitchen was so small that you could stand in one place and open the refrigerator and the oven and every cupboard she had, plus you could wash dishes without doing anything but turn around. The bathroom was like that, too. A rug a foot square covered all the ground there was; you stood on it to brush your teeth, your feet rested on it when you used the toilet, and it was where you stepped when you got out of the shower.
It was very cute. Sometimes, though, when Claire really Wanted to, she came to our house and took a four-hour bath.
“Why should you move out?” Claire had asked. “You get along with your folks, you’ve got those cute brothers ^d Beryl, there’s a big old pool and a hot tub in your backyard, you can walk to the beach, you guys have a giant * v, and you’re not going to be able to afford an apartment w ith a kitchen like that. Besides, as long as you live at home, you don’t have to pay rent.”
‘Daddy says I should start paying rent if I’m still living at home when I’m thirty.”
See? Free ride for another ten years! No rent, no utilities, no phone or cable bills. Hey, can I move into your house?”
“Opal’s room is up for grabs.”
We had grinned at each other, then went back to eating microwave popcorn and watching Men in Black.
“What’s Celtic Knot?” I asked Jasper.
“It’s a
I’m in the visitor’s lot at the top of the hill. Let’s get the bike and I’ll drive you down.”
” ‘Kay.”
Fog drifted across the nighttime campus from the nearby ocean, glowed under the orange lights. The air was cool and damp. I followed my
brother’s broad leather-jacketed back. A feeling of contentment settled over me. I felt like I was a kid again, with Jasper leading me into another adventure.
But that was ridiculous.
I moved up beside him. “Did you notice anybody hanging around the center?”
He glanced at me, then shook his head.
I stared at the ground as I walked. “Sorry.”
“Why?”
“I got you out here for no reason.”
He shook his head again. “Maybe I scared him away. Better safe, you know?”
“You had other plans for tonight, I’m sure.”
“Not until ten. I can still make it. Celtic Knot’s playing at the Bismarck. You want to come?”
He hadn’t invited me to listen to live music with him in a long time. He had this girl he was seeing, Trina, the latest in a string of girls he’d been seeing; he did lots of things with her, and left the family out of his plans these days. Mama said having a girlfriend was a natural step in his development, and we should quit bothering him about it.
Sometimes I was really conscious of how odd my family was. Most people our age moved out of the house, went away to college, got their own apartments. Opal lived in L.A. But Jasper still lived at home, and so did I, even though we were old enough to leave. Mama said not to worry about it. LaZelles didn’t have to live like anybody else; it was customary for us to cluster. She said it was okay with her if I never moved out.
I was heading for my twenty-first birthday in the spring. I didn’t know what to think about Mama’s offer. Sometimes I talked it over with Claire.
Claire had gone through a rebel-against-every thing-July-does phase where she utterly rejected her witch upbringing. She had moved to an apartment across town when she was eighteen. She got a job waitressing and took a year off from school, then went to college at UCST, where her mom was a cultural anthropology professor.
Since she had moved out, though, she’d been exploring the craft again. She could finally look at it as something separate from family, something she might want to use. After all, she knew all about it already. Now that she had a little distance, she could appreciate it.
Sometimes I went to Claire’s place to study. We went to movies together. Her apartment was tiny; you did almost everything in one big room except cook or go to the bathroom or shower. The kitchen was so small that you could stand in one place and open the refrigerator and the oven and every cupboard she had, plus you could wash dishes without doing anything but turn around. The bathroom was like that, too. A rug a foot square covered all the ground there was; you stood on it to brush your teeth, your feet rested on it when you used the toilet, and it was where you stepped when you got out of the shower.
It was very cute. Sometimes, though, when Claire really Wanted to, she came to our house and took a four-hour bath.
“Why should you move out?” Claire had asked. “You get along with your folks, you’ve got those cute brothers ^d Beryl, there’s a big old pool and a hot tub in your backyard, you can walk to the beach, you guys have a giant * v, and you’re not going to be able to afford an apartment w ith a kitchen like that. Besides, as long as you live at home, you don’t have to pay rent.”
‘Daddy says I should start paying rent if I’m still living at home when I’m thirty.”
See? Free ride for another ten years! No rent, no utilities, no phone or cable bills. Hey, can I move into your house?”
“Opal’s room is up for grabs.”
We had grinned at each other, then went back to eating microwave popcorn and watching Men in Black.
“What’s Celtic Knot?” I asked Jasper.
“It’s a
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