Read Online Melody Burning by Whitley Strieber - Free Book Online Page B

him a long time, her eyes rich with questions, her soft lips alternately touched with a smile, then trembling at the edge of fear.
    “You know you’re wearing a woman’s blouse.”
    It was a shirt he got out of the trash in an apartment, so he was not sure what this meant.
    “Yes,” he said carefully.
    “Are you a TV?”
    He was confused. Wasn’t it obvious that he was a person?
    “Do I look like a TV?”
    “No, except the blouse.”
    He looked down at himself. “It’s not a TV.” He felt it. “It’s cloth.”
    Surprise washed her face, sparkles came into her eyes.
    “What is going on here?”
    “Shh! Shh!”
    She got out of bed, swept across the room, and locked the door. “Man, I need coffee. Can you make coffee appear, magic boy?”
    “Yeah, but we better go to a vacationer.”
    Suddenly there was light! Instinct made him go for the closet, then terror swept through him like a rush of fire, because his hatch was not in there.
    She stood by the door with her hand on the light switch. She was looking at him now with frank, wide eyes. She came toward him.
    “Turn around,” she said.
    He turned slowly.
    Now her head was down, her cheeks flushing a soft pink.
    “You’re beautiful,” she said.
    “You’re beautiful.”
    “You need to get out of here.”
    “I want to stay.”
    She smiled at him, which caused him to think again of the meaning of the word love. This was love. That was what he felt.
    “I want to stay because I love you.”
    She tossed her head and laughed a little in her throat, and the way that sounded made his body stir. He longed to hold her but knew from TV that if he did what he wanted, it would make her upset.
    He said, “Can we hold hands?”
    Silently, she came to him. She held out her hand. He took it. They stood face-to-face, hands clasped almost formally, and he thought there must be something else he should do, but he didn’t know what it was.
    “You kissed my cheek. That’s why I woke up. I dreamed you were a prince. Are you?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “A beautiful boy with magical powers who wakes the sleeping beauty.”
    She raised her face to his and brushed her lips against his cheek.
    It was fire that tickled. He shuddered.
    Then she looked up at him, her eyes shining, her lips just parted. She took his chin, drew it down, and brought his lips to hers. An instant passed that was like eternity for him. But then she turned away.
    “You have to go.”
    “I want to live here now.”
    “You haven’t met my mother.”
    He did not say how well he knew her mother. He did not say how well he knew her life.
    “If she found you, she would have you arrested.”
    He’d seen that on TV. “I didn’t commit a crime.”
    “I’m still jailbait, you know. How old are you?”
    “I’m as old as you are.”
    “You’re sixteen?”
    “Yeah, I think so.”
    She gave him a sideways glance. “Can you count to ten?”
    “I can count to a hundred. I can read some stuff.”
    “Where do you go to school?”
    “Uh . . . I don’t remember.”
    “You don’t. You really don’t.” She folded her arms and looked him up and down. “Do you live in an apartment? Where are your parents?”
    “Mom died. Luther killed Dad.”
    “Luther? Who is Luther?”
    “I don’t know. I just never forgot his name. He pushed Dad off the roof.”
    “My God. Did the cops come? Did they arrest this guy?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “This happened—when? Today?”
    He shook his head. It was so long ago now, it felt like it was at the bottom of a well. In the dark of the past. “I had to hide or Luther would get me, too. Luther would kill me.”
    “So you hid . . . where?”
    He dared not tell about his place, not even her.
    “In here.”
    “In my room? Luther killed your dad, and you hid here?”
    “Wait, wait, I’m trying to tell you. It happened when I was little.”
    “But— what ? Where do you come from, then, a foster home?”
    “I come from here.”
    “I think you’d better leave