Read Online House Arrest by K.A. Holt - Free Book Online

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so I can see right into her brain.
Mrs. B, I might not know a lot of things
but I totally know when a lady
wants to hug me and pat my head.
You were saying things like,
Punching walls is unacceptable .
But your eyes,
your eyes,
they said,
Come here, Timothy, let me hug you and make everything better. Thank you for not hugging me, though.

    I’m not allowed to talk to Mary.
Not allowed to be anywhere near her.
Mom says it’s forbidden .
That seems like a really strong word.
I mean, the only things that are forbidden are, like, cursed artifacts
or the entrances to biohazardous facilities
or posting TV spoilers online.
Forbidden seems super fancy.
I don’t want anything having to do with Mary
to seem fancy.
Mary can be off-limits .
She can be excluded .
Or maybe prohibited .
But forbidden ?
No way is Mary in the same class
as a cursed artifact.
No way.

    I am an island
inside José’s crazy house.
Somehow all the chaos makes me calm.
I just let the noise and the movement
rush over me
until I can’t hear anything else,
I can’t feel anything else,
just José’s house.
And I stand still in the middle of it,
a rock taking a beating
from the waves just battering and hitting and
smashing
and loving every minute of it
if rocks can love things
which maybe they can’t.

    I checked in on the turtle car today
it is still old
and broken
and ugly.
José, though,
had a smile
and a wrench,
a grease smear across his face
in the shape of a
scimitar
like those scimitars
the dudes use
in that game
I forgot the name of,
the one where you vanquish the zombies
with a quick slash
and a yank,
with a plop
there goes the head
or a lop
there goes the arm
or a stab
there go the entrails.
A scimitar on his face
smiling across his cheek
vanquishing that turtle car
while his dad muttered from underneath the car,
Hand me the wrench.
No, not that one , dios mio , José.
The big one. And José just grinned
tossing random tools down to his dad
while I kicked the tires
and listened to that deep grouchy voice
echo off the walls.

    Mary called in sick.
Hooray!
And Mom had to go to work.
Hooray!
Today is just me and Levi.
I put the music up loud,
held him on my hip,
and we danced around the room
like idiots.
I put him in his wedge,
found a bottle,
and you know what he did?
He signed music .
For the very first time.
So you know what I did?
I put down that bottle,
picked up that kid,
put the music on extra loud
and we danced until we were laughing so hard
I thought he was going to have to resuscitate me .

    Seemed like a weird time for Isa
or medical supply delivery
or James.
Those are the only times anyone knocks.
Tap tap tap.
Bam bam bam.
Rat-a-tat-tat.
On the front door.
Right then I should have known.
I should have known something wasn’t right.
Her badge said:
Carla Ramirez
Child Protective Services
Her face said:
I Am a Lady Who Means Business
Even Though I Am Smiling
Her mouth said:
Davidson residence?
My name is Carla Ramirez.
I’m with Child Protective Services. Can you open the door, please?
That was when Levi barfed
and started choking
so I cracked open the door
tried to smile
tried not to look like my insides were melting
as I turned
ran to Levi
clicked on the jackhammer suction machine
and shouted over the noise,
DON’T WORRY.
THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

WEEK 2 9
    James.
James, I can’t even.
I just.
You should have seen her face.
She’d start a question
but
stop
talking
slowly
trailing
off
Levi’s alarms were too distracting,
his barfing and choking too volcanic,
the suction machine too loud.
I knocked over the hot water—
you know, from the warm mist?
The thing we put over the trach?
When Levi is on the wedge?
I knocked it on her leg
when I was going for the oxygen tubing
and she went
OooowooooOooo like a siren
and jumped
like a flying squirrel.
She kept yelling over the noise and barfs,
Is your mom here?
Can I speak with your mom?
And in the middle of it all
Mom walked