Read Online Breaking Point by Lesley Choyce - Free Book Online

We’ll meet your cousin. We could be there in a few days.” I was about to tell her a story—repeating her story about the two of us and the new life we would start in Montreal, but she cut me off.
    â€œThere is no cousin,” she said bluntly. “I made that up.”
    I was a little shocked and confused. Why had she lied to me? “We’ll find another way. We can do it.”
    But she shook her head. “I’ve tried before. Something always happens. I get sent back.” I had not seen this side of Brianna before. She had always been so feisty, so confident in herself, so strong. Now she seemed like a weak, hurt little girl. I held her in my arms again, but even though we were still together, alone on our island, I felt her slipping away.
    We sat in silence for a long time, just staring at the water and at the shore of the mainland to the north. And then I took her to the kayaks and showed her my makeshift paddle. She put on her life jacket, and I handed her the good paddle. We dragged the kayaks from the bushes and settled them into the water. I helped her in and gave a little push. “I’m okay now,” she said. “Whatever happens, we’ll always have this.”
    It was a slow trip across the water to the mainland. We were in no hurry. I tried to talk to her about what we could do once we got ashore—where we could go and how we could still make a life together.
    â€œI’m tired of running away,” she finally said.
    I wanted to find the right words to make her believe and to make me believe that it would all turn out all right. But I couldn’t do it.
    We came ashore near a gravel road at the tip of a headland. There was a single shack there, the home of an old fisherman who introduced himself as Jack Kaiser. He had been watching us approach through his binoculars and was there to greet us when we arrived.
    â€œHell of a storm,” he said by way of greeting. Even here on the mainland, hundreds of trees had been knocked down by the hurricane. “You lived through it out there?”
    I nodded. I told him who we were. I told him the whole story.
    â€œYou are two of the luckiest people I ever met,” was his response.
    Brianna smiled at me then, and I felt love and longing and loss at the same time. Nothing would ever be the same again in my life.
    â€œI got a truck, if you want me to take you somewhere. I’m not going to turn you in or anything. That’s not my style.”
    I knew he was telling the truth.
    We went inside Jack’s home, and he fed us and told us some stories about his life and how his wife had died and left him there to live alone.
    Later in the day, Brianna shocked me by asking Jack to drive us back to the camp. I tried talking her out of it, but she insisted.
    Chris looked as if he was seeing a pair of ghosts when we arrived. He gave me a hug, and he held on to Brianna’s hand. “We’d given up hope.”
    Everybody else had left before the hurricane came ashore, and Chris was the only one left to close down the place for the season. There were no harsh words, and he even let Brianna and me spend the night together. “Just don’t tell anyone I let you do this,” he said. We promised we wouldn’t.
    In the morning, Chris drove us to the city. “You’re both going to have to do some correctional time. I was hoping the camp thing would change all that, but your adventure made for some serious attention. But first I’m going to take you both to your homes. We’ll be back in touch tomorrow to talk about what happens next. Just don’t screw it up. You need to work with the system.”
    I’d heard those words before and always despised them. I knew we’d be sent to separate facilities, and I knew there would be a good chance Brianna, despite what she said, would run away again.
    When she got out of the car at her house, she just looked at me, and I couldn’t