Read Online Ajar by Marianna Boncek - Free Book Online Page A

Please don’t call me Agustin.”
    “Lindy. I don’t really like Melinda.”
    “I’ve never seen you in school,” I continued
trying to make conversation.
    “I only went when I was a freshman.” She
looked away adding wanly, “I’ve been too sick.”
    I just nodded my head. She sure looked sick
to me. Whereas, beside some unseen tape on my ribs, I looked just
fine; my bruises had all faded and my teeth were back in.
    “I’m pretty good in math,” I said, “and I’m
OK with the Shakespeare stuff, but I do use the Cliff Notes
some.”
    “Well, I like science,” she said after
thinking a minute, “and I like writing essays on any subject.”
    “Looks like we’re a team,” I smiled
extending my hand.
    She looked at it a moment, then stuck out
hers. I shook her hand. It was small, bony and cold. We had struck
an agreement. We were on our own. Mrs. O’Reilly was not going to be
much help. Soon, she tottered back and Lindy and I started our
work.
    I can’t really explain it, but after meeting
Lindy, there was a feeling like I was waking after a very long
sleep. I felt things in my chest, arms, legs and head that were
new. Actually, I’m not sure if they were new but suddenly I felt
fully alive, fully awake. I slept better, I woke feeling more
refreshed. Aunt May commented on the fact I was eating more. I
couldn’t wait to get to the library each morning. I began to dread
the weekends where all I did was sit around the house and watch TV.
Uncle Elliot would not let me leave the house. He said it was for
my own safety. He had no idea of all the wandering I had already
done when we had been trapped at the motel.
    I can’t really tell you what it was about
Lindy. When we first met, she rarely spoke to me. We sat side by
side, Mrs. O’Reilly across from us, doing our schoolwork. I would
try to engage her in conversation or make a joke. She would giggle
or smile at me, always with her bony hand covering her mouth, but
she actually said very little. And she was so thin. I wondered if
she had cancer or something. She wore the same outfit pretty much
everyday: an oversized sweatshirt, sweatpants and white Nikes that
were scuffed and dirty. Her hair always hung down, straight. Her
teeth were very yellow and looked dirty. She had one black tooth in
the center of her bottom jaw. I was equally attracted to Lindy as I
was repulsed by her. I didn’t understand my own fascination with
her but I didn’t really care. When I was with Lindy, I felt fully
alive.
     

 
    Chapter
Thirteen
     
    Then one day, I arrived at the library and
Lindy was standing at the circulation desk rather than sitting at
our usual table. She was holding a slip of paper and Mrs. O’Reilly
was nowhere to be seen.
    “She’s not coming today,” Lindy said in her
soft voice. “She called the library and said she was sick.”
    Lindy held the note out to me. “Tutoring
canceled. Mrs. O’Reilly is sick. She will see you tomorrow.”
    I looked down at it for a few moments. Lindy
stood in front of me, her school books clutched to her chest.
    “Well, bye,” she said, walking past me.
    I let her walk a few steps, looking down at
the note before I turned and said, “Hey, wait.”
    Lindy turned back towards me. Her eyes
always looked as if she were daydreaming or seeing something that
only she could see, far off and distant.
    “Why don’t we hang out together?” I
asked.
    There was a long awkward pause.
    “I mean...” I started to stumble over my
words, “I don’t really want to go home, you know? I don’t have
anything else to do.” She still hadn’t responded. “We
could...uh...go down to the lighthouse or something. That would be
cool, right?”
    The Sawyer Lighthouse was located at the end
of the Esopus Creek where it flows into the Hudson River. It was
large and made of brick, built in the late 1800s to guide boats
into the channel. There was a narrow mile pathway that led to the
lighthouse, shrouded on either side with large rushes,