Read Online Daniel by Kathi S. Barton - Free Book Online Page A

a person looked like when they
were full of something bad. His aunt didn’t look like that. She looked like she
hurt. And when she moved, she looked like it hurt her really bad. He tensed up when
he heard a car pull into the circle driveway.
    He recognized Mr. Hunter, but he didn’t
know the woman with him. She was old, and Benny wondered if it was his
girlfriend. Then Mr. Hunter called her “Mom” and told her to wait there while
he went to the house. Before he could get to the porch, Benny stepped out from
behind the garage.
    “You startled me.” He smiled at him, but
Benny wasn’t ready to trust just yet. “Your mom sent me to get you. They took
her to the hospital, and she’s going to be all right. But she didn’t want you
to be left here to worry.”
    “I wouldn’t. She will come home to me.” At
least he hoped she would. He loved her, but he still remembered what it was
like when his real mom would leave him for days, sometimes weeks at a time to
go to that man.
    Mr. Hunter nodded. “Well, come on. I’m
taking you to my house. And my mom is going to go with us. I don’t know a great
deal about kids, and I know your mom keeps you safe.”
    “No.” Benny wasn’t sure how this was
supposed to work, as he’d never had to use the code word before, but he knew
that he couldn’t ask him for it. That was something she’d drilled in his head
for hours one day. “I’ll be all right here.”
    The man took a step toward him, and
Benny clutched his pack back tighter to him. If the man wanted to, Benny knew
he could bring him down. He just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
    “I’m sorry. I forgot. Sierra. I’m
supposed to tell you sierra.” He put out his hands palms up and wide apart.
“Will you come with me now?”
    Benny felt the tension and terror roll
off him. He was nearly dizzy with relief. Before he could take a step toward
him, the woman came from behind Mr. Hunter. He looked at her, then back at Mr.
Hunter.
    “This is my mom. Annemarie Hunter. Mom,
this is Benton Harlequin, O’Reilly’s son.” He moved slowly toward him and
reached for the bag at his feet, not touching the one Benny had in his arms. “Come
on, Benny. I’ll take you to my house. Then we’ll see if we can get some
information on your mom.”
    He got into the little car. The back of
it was barely big enough for him to fit in with his backpack, but he sat
sideways and buckled. The man and the woman sat in the front, and both of them
buckled, too. Mr. Hunter turned around to back up and winked at him.
    “I don’t know how to cook kid stuff, so
we’ll either order out or see what I can throw together from the freezer,
okay?” Benny nodded.
    “I can cook. Mom said all men should
cook in case the woman they meet can’t. She can cook pretty good, but I make
better spaghetti sauce.” He didn’t know why he said that and looked away before
continuing. “And she don’t like to be called O’Reilly. It’s just Reilly.”
    “She doesn’t like to be called
O’Reilly. And I know. That’s why I do it.” He stopped at the end of the drive
and looked at Benny. “Will the gate lock up, or do I have to do something to
engage it?”
    “I set it on fry when we leave.” He
flushed. “The power is on. And she does that, too. Corrects me. Can’t a man
have any peace from learning something?”
    The older woman laughed, and Benny
thought it the nicest sound he’d ever heard. His aunt laughed with him all the
time, but this woman laughed without him making a joke. Not that Reilly did,
but the kids at school sometimes did when he got better grades than them. He
looked out the window and asked about his aunt.
    “Mr. Hunter, is she going to die?” He
didn’t look at the man until he was quiet for so long. He was looking at him in
the mirror in front of him. “Is she?”
    “No. She has a bad infection from the
burn on her back. Did you know she’d done that?” Benny nodded and waited for
him to yell at him, but he didn’t.