Read Online Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker - Free Book Online Page A

it’s hard to be classy when you time baking a pizza by smoking a cigarette. We break when her daughter, Chrissy, arrives on a motorbike with the pizza in tow. If the grease weren’t enough to turn my stomach, the idea that it was christened in smoke and exhaust is, but I take a piece to keep Candy from grousing. Which she does anyway when I only manage a few bites.
    The rest of the evening passes as it should, with reviews and quizzing and the occasional discussion of how we can possibly get to New Orleans more than once this summer. By the time they leave, the night almost feels normal. But when I return from walking them to the door, there’s an unwelcome surprise in my room.
    Lenora May stands in front of the full-length mirror on my closet door. She holds a sundress in either hand, scrutinizing each in turn. One is a subtle, pale yellow thing. The other is dramatic—white with red petals cascading from one shoulder to pool around the hemline.
    â€œWhich do you like best for the senior graduation party?” she asks as though we’re sisters. “I think the red is striking, but I think the yellow is more me, don’t you?”
    I’m helpless against the assault of memory. I think of the dozens of times I’ve seen her wear the yellow dress; she always manages to make it look new by adding different accessories. The red, though, is stunning with her dark hair and hugs her curves in the best way. Once, she wore it to church and when we came home, Mama gently suggested she never do it again. We’d laughed quietly in her bedroom over Mama’s prudish sensibilities, and vowed to each wear bloodred lipstick next Sunday. We’d been grounded for the offense, but even that punishment had been worth the moment ofhorror on Mama’s face when we hopped in the car. Laughter, admiration, love. All for Lenora May.
    Every memory is a wound.
    â€œI don’t care,” I say, seeking a memory of Phin singing the wrong words to “You Are Mine” to make me laugh. “Get out.”
    â€œAll right. I’ll go as soon as you tell me what you’ve done with my car.”
    â€œI didn’t do anything with your car.” This, at least, is so satisfying I can barely keep the grin from my face.
    â€œOh, Sterling, what did I do to upset you?” she asks with a sigh, draping both dresses across her arm.
    I nearly choke on my answer. “Stop pretending! We both know you don’t belong here. You’re not my sister no matter what anyone says. I remember my brother and I’m not the only one.”
    I let the challenge lie between us. I’m not so afraid, so bewildered as I was last night. Maybe she’s an all-powerful swamp demon capable of changing hundreds of minds to suit her purposes. Maybe I’m just a small girl from a small town with no chance of saving my brother. Or maybe not.
    If I can remember Nathan, and Heath can remember Phin, then I’m convinced whatever has happened isn’t permanent. We can change things. We only have to figure out how.
    â€œI’m going to save him from whatever it is you’ve done and there’s nothing you can do to change that so stop pretending you and I are anything more than strangers.”
    There’s a shift in her then. She pulls her arms close to her belly and her mouth falls into a gentle frown. She looks smaller, surrounded by her dark curls.
    â€œOkay, Sterling,” she says, moving to the door. “I’ll stop.”
    She’s not my sister , I remind myself as the door whispers shut. Then, I hunt the floor for my pj’s and try to banish the false guilt swelling in my chest.
    She’s so convincing. No matter how I rationalize, there’s still a piece of me that wants to race after her and apologize, to tell her she should wear the red dress because it makes her look powerful and composed and because Mama would say yellow. Every time she speaks, my mind betrays me a