Read Online Ariel by Steven R. Boyett - Free Book Online Page B

here."
    "Okay." I stood. "Let's get a move on then." I tried to smile.
    "Hold on. I need to go to my room and get some socks and another pair of shoes." She started back into the house, but paused at the doorway. "Now that I think of it, I'd better bring some clothes and things, too. I doubt I'll be back before tomorrow at least."
    She came back in a few minutes with a small overnight bag in hand. "I left a note. Let's go."
    We left. She didn't look back.
    We took back roads toward my house. The farther we stayed from Krome Avenue and other main roads, the less paranoid I felt. If this thing continued people would panic, and I wanted no part of it.
    Once we saw a small group of people in the distance. They carried torches and their shouts reached us clearly through the quiet. It looked like a scene from one of the old Universal horror movies: angry villagers march on Frankenstein's castle. We stayed clear.
    About a mile from my house Grace saw something moving in the bushes. We stopped and I cocked my head to listen, but heard nothing except spooky wind through the trees. We resumed walking and then I heard it, too: a heavy sound, as if something that weighed an awful lot were stomping through the brush. Curiosity told me to wait and see what it was. Rationality told me to keep right on going. Rationality won.
    In a little while we reached my neighborhood. It was sparsely populated and a bit spread out; everybody had built their houses at random there in the boondocks. Grace and I crossed the bridge over the dark canal and headed down the street toward my house. We were tired and our feet dragged. It was quiet except for the wind and the frogs, but there was nothing unusual about that. No lights were on in any houses, though; no cars passed us along the way. I was used to blackouts where we lived; heavy storms often brought lines down. But the thing that made it all seem wrong was the absence of the pale orange city glow of Miami to the north.
    We stopped at the foot of the driveway. Wooden posts holding up a pitifully sagging fence framed the entranceway. A wooden sign, painted by my father years ago, read the gareys. As I'd expected, no lights were on, no candles burned in the living-room windows. Mom's car wasn't in the driveway, either.
    "What now?" Grace asked.
    "We wait. See if my brother makes it home. Or my mother. If not I'll leave a note, and tomorrow we'll go back to your house and see if anybody showed up there."
    "And after that?"
    Any reply I could have made was stopped by shattering glass. I jerked my head toward the house. A living-room window was now broken. As I watched, the window to the left of it smashed as a portable television—my brother's—hurtled through to crash onto the front porch.
    Grace started to say something but I motioned to her to stay quiet. The sound would carry far in the silence. I wanted to whisper to her but couldn't swallow the lump that had formed in my throat.
    We squatted low by the mailbox, our voices tight hisses.
    "Well?" demanded Grace. "Now what?"
    I shook my head, looking at the grass at Grace's feet. It needed mowing. "I don't know."
    "Could that be your brother in there? Could he be throwing things because he's mad, because he's afraid?"
    "Yeah. Get serious."
    "We need to find out. If it's him, we can't just leave him."
    I let out a short laugh. "Sure. But who bells the cat?" I looked up at her. "I find it extremely likely that it's not my brother."
    She blinked. "Well—there's one way to find out."
    "Yeah, I guess so." I pulled a clump of grass from the dirt and tossed it aside. Standing, I brushed my hands against my slacks. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I hope."
    "No way. I'm not standing here. I'd rather go with you than wait here." She glanced around to indicate the silent neighborhood.
    "Suit yourself. But we've got to be quiet. Understand?"
    "I know how to be quiet. Even girls can do it, under pressure."
    I raised an eyebrow at her, then turned toward the