Read Online Addison Addley and the Trick of the Eye by Melody McMillian - Free Book Online Page A

the iron, which she’d just unplugged.
    I felt stupid doing the trick for just one person, but I shrugged and started anyway. I guess Mom was hard up for entertainment.
    â€œSometimes things seem different, depending on how you look at them,” I said. “You probably see a plain piece of paper. I, however, see something else. Concentrate hard and letters will appear right before your very own eyes.”
    I ran the iron over the paper and waited for the words Optical Illusion to appear. I hoped I had spelled them right.
    The two words slowly came into view. They weren’t the words I was watching for, or even the words I was waiting for, but they sure were the words that I’d been wishing for all along.
    I rubbed my eyes to make sure they weren’t playing tricks on me and then I read the words out loud.
    â€œ Welcome home .”
    I looked up at Mom. “This isn’t my note,” I said. “What’s going on?”
    â€œYou’re not the only one who can write invisible notes, you know.” She laughed and looked out the window at the hockey-stick fence. “You’ve made quite a mess around here, but you got me thinking.”
    I guess some people would call it a mess. I called it a masterpiece. “I was just trying to make the house look better. I wanted you to look at it from a different angle,” I said.
    â€œThat’s just it,” she pointed out. “I did look at it from a different angle. From a different point of view. Yours.”
    I held my breath and stopped chewing my gum.
    â€œYou went to all of this effort,” she continued. “It’s obvious how much this place means to you. I never realized it until now, after seeing the place through your eyes. And now that the break-ins have been solved, the street feels safe again.”
    I started chewing.
    â€œI think we should just stay here,” she said as she dumped her organic rice into the pot.
    I started breathing.
    â€œBesides,” she added, “how could I possibly see the stars at night with all of the lights in the new development? And how could we fit all our outdoor things into that little townhouse? And it would cost more in gas for me to get to work. I’m going to be putting in some extra hours at the downtown office. And just think about all of those horrible stop lights.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
    Right, Mom. Hadn’t I told her all of that stuff before? I was so happy that I didn’t even point that out. I guess some people take a while to let things sink in, the way it takes a while for water to sink into a wormhole.
    I grabbed my hole digger from where I’d been storing it under the kitchen table and headed outside.
    â€œWatch out for that gate,” Mom called after me. “It doesn’t seem to close too well.”
    I couldn’t wait to plant those seeds. If Mom wanted a flower garden and a rock garden to make the place look better, I could do it easily. I was handy at stuff like that.
    I looked up at the trees and ran through the yard. It’s strange how sometimes you just feel like flying.
    Yep, this place had potential. I would keep a corner of the yard for my worm business. Maybe I could try an ant farm under the pine tree. Plus there were lots more treasures that I needed to bury, like the old brass button that had fallen off the dummy’s shirt when Trent fell into the hole in my yard.
    I started digging. I would make our place look like a mansion, heck, a castle. A big one. As big as I wanted. I’d get Sam to help me. I’d already proven that two sets of eyes are better than one.
    Ideas started dancing in front of me like a shimmering mirage. I could just see it now. Some people would soon call our house a mansion. Some people, like Tiffany, would call it a dump. Like I said before, it all depends on how you look at it. I didn’t really care what it was called. As long as it was still called home.