Read Online Ceremony of Flies by Kate Jonez - Free Book Online

Harvey’s hand and start walking toward the buildings. His hand feels weird and tiny in my hand like I’m holding a bird with hollow bones. If I’m not careful, I might squeeze too hard and break them.
    The dog acts like he doesn’t want to go, but he follows us anyway. I guess he doesn’t want to be separated from Harvey.
    “Hey, Kitty, you think Linda’s going to be safe out here by herself?”
    Rex could use a shave and he’s got some shadows under his eyes from lack of sleep, but he still looks pretty good. I am probably a wreck. I don’t even want to know. I try to think of something witty to say, but the concepts just won’t coalesce. “She’ll be fine, Rex. She’ll be just fine.”
    What the hell. The guy loves his car.
    The dog whines as we walk. It annoys me more than it should. I fight the urge to grab a rock and throw it at him.
    The kid is dragging his feet. This is going to take forever. I hope I don’t have to carry him. I will, if I have to, but I hope I don’t.
    I hear a sound. It’s separate from the rolling, far-off thunder, the dog whining, and the scrunch of our feet in the dusty sand. A peep, peep sound. “Do you hear that?” I say out loud because of course they do. As soon as the words leave my mouth, we’re deluged with a choir of peeping.
    “ Ranas ,” Harvey says. He’s got a half-smile on his face, a smirk. Do little kids smirk?
    “ Ranas, ” Rex says with a nod.
    The sound is like a plastic imitation of an animal noise as if someone pulled a string on a giant toy. This is what the frog says.
    “Are those frogs?”
    “Yep, ranas is Spanish for frogs ,” Rex says with a superior tone.
    “Aren’t frogs aquatic?”
    Rex thinks for a moment. “Yep, I believe they are.”
    Rex strides down the path. His step grows bouncier the closer we get.
    I wait for him to make the connections. But he doesn’t. Good thing he’s attractive.
    Amphibians don’t live in the desert. But here we have irrefutable evidence of the existence of ranas —in the desert.
    Why?
    The peeping hits a crescendo and settles to a constant level.
    A panicky feeling starts creeping over me. I squeeze Harvey’s hand, but not too hard. “You like frogs, Harvey?”
    “No.” The boy jerks his hand away and turns to go back to the car.
    Fuck.
    I run after him and scoop him up.
    “I don’t want to go. It’s bad for me there.” He twines his arms around my neck and his legs around my waist. He smells kind of froggy, like maybe he had been eating ranas for a hundred years.
    “It’s going to be okay,” I say, which may be a lie. “It’s going to be okay.” I rush to catch up to Rex again.
    “You know, Kitty, couldn’t hurt you none to learn a little Spanish, what with you on your way to Mexico and all.”
    “Couldn’t hurt me any ,” I correct him.
    “That’s what I’m saying.” Rex flashes his brilliant grin. “I could teach you. Como se —”
    “No, you said none . The correct word is any . It wouldn’t hurt you any . Seems to me you should learn to speak one language before you start on a second.”
    Rex looks at me like I ate his last Oreo.
    I guess I was a little mean. I’m cranky. It’s hot holding this kid.
    A cloud passes in front of the sun. My heart flutters. For an instant it feels like night is falling. I look up. That is one hefty cloud over my head. Black and pregnant with moisture, it looms over me as if threatening to blot out the sun.
    As we draw closer, it’s obvious the buildings are a mission. The pocked adobe is crumbling in places. Vines weave in and out of a trellis that covers the front wall. The leaves, shaped like hearts, reach up and climb onto the tile roof. The mission even has a bell in a tower.
    Charming.
    Baldy the dog does not want to have anything to do with this place. He turns one way then the other and whines. Harvey squirms in my arms. If I let him go now, he’d run away and I’d never catch him. I’d like to put him down. But I don’t.
    A