Read Online Lightning Rider by Jen Greyson - Free Book Online

learned every move I have from you. Staying down is a new one.”
    Metal strikes laminate like he just hurled the coffee can across the room. Almost there.
    “I have a job,” he yells, but I’m not sure if it’s at himself or at me. “And bills. I can’t go gallivanting through time!”
    “I’m not asking you to gallivant. And I have a job, too, you know!”
    “Well, you can’t go gallivanting through time either!”
    “Then I guess you’d better figure out how to look like you before you go back to work!”
    “I’ll handle it!”
    “Fine!” I spin around and punch through the door to my bedroom before stopping in the middle, shaking and heaving for breath. That could’ve gone better. He may look like a stranger, but he’s still Papi—gentle, kind, worried about my safety. He’s swayed by sweetness. I sigh. I’ve been working it all wrong. I take a breath and walk back to the kitchen.
    “Aren’t you even a little bit curious?” I say to his back, keeping my voice soft and earnest.
    He grunts.
    “Do you want to know where I went?”
    “I only care that you’re home safe.” He turns, but his face betrays nothing. I don’t know how to read him anymore.
    Obviously.
    “Where did you go?” I ask.
    “We’re not talking about this. I don’t want you getting all excited about something we’re never doing again.” Soda splashes from the can as he waves it around.
    “What if I read the book this time? And the little booklet thingies? Find the right way to do it? Then would you talk to me about it?” I trail my fingers along the countertop, stopping at the box. “Think, Papi. Who left this for you? If Abuelita Rosa stashed it all away, why? And if your father really was involved in something as crazy as time travel, did he put this box together, thinking he could share it with you when you got older?”
    “I can’t, Evy. Just stop. This isn’t as simple as you’d like it to be. When I was there, I was someone else.” He waves at his clothes. “I had mobster clothes on. I talked differently. I didn’t even remember here.”
    “How did you bring home money, but not clothes?”
    “Exactly. We know nothing about this. I have to figure things out.”
    “By yourself. Like always.” My spine stiffens. He hasn’t even asked about my trip, just assumes it was awful like his was. 
    “Look who’s talking,” he says, scolding me like I’m seven.
    I hold my tongue this time. We square off. 
    “You’re asking me for things I’m not capable of,” he says. “Not right now.”
    Truth spills from lips I don’t recognize. I soften again and turn so I’m not looking at this young fighter. I caress the box’s top edge, close my eyes, and speak to my other image of Papi, the one I never spend enough time with, the one I miss, the one who holds up my world. 
    “I thought . . . maybe it was something we could do together. Like old times.” I close the flaps on the box with finality, and my heart breaks in two as I accept what he’s telling me. “Guess not.”
    I turn and jog down the steps into the back family room and curl up on the sofa. I swipe the remote and aimlessly flip through channels. The television blurs a few times, but I blink the tears away and try to ignore Papi’s movements.
    Through the wide doorway, I catch his path. Ice cubes rattle against glass, and the freezer door thumps closed. He wanders back to the box and stares at it, his sculpted shoulders high and ready for an attack.
    I shift on the couch so I can’t see him.
    His phone rings, and he groans. I turn up the volume.
    Pain knifes through me, sears my guts, and blasts me off the couch. I scream. Focused on staying upright, I crash into the coffee table, bang against the armchair, and crumple against the sliding glass door. With my right shoulder against the cool glass, I dig into my belly, trying to dislodge the pain.
    The one I never wanted to feel again.

Chapter 6
     
    It’s happening again. I grind my teeth