Read Online M.I.N.D. by Elissa Harris - Free Book Online Page B

Sitting at my desk, Leanne is staring at me like I’m glowing neon. “So?” she asks the moment we’re alone.
    â€œYour mom is going through the change and I value your opinion.”
    â€œHoly crap, it really works. You can read minds.”
    â€œThere was no telepathy, Leeny. No leakage, no signals, not even an inkling. I heard what my mother said. I heard what she heard. Like I said, I jump into bodies. My software, their hardware. It’s like falling down the rabbit hole, except I become the white rabbit. I get to experience everything it does. But only physically.”
    â€œYou’re saying you’re a hacker.” She mulls this over. “You know, it kind of makes sense. We’re all basically computers. Biological computers. It’s like virtual reality, except it’s organic. And now we know it’s not random. You choose the rabbit—it doesn’t choose you.”
    I have to admit, it has possibilities. If I can jump from my bedroom to the laundry room, maybe I can do it long distance. Today my mother, tomorrow the world! “So who’s my next rabbit? How about the President? Just think, I get to fight with Congress and go to state dinners—all this without ever leaving my room.” Providing that the President is thinking of me, which could be problematic.
    â€œActually, I was thinking Brendan.”
    â€œPlease. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be less.” I look at her earnest face. “You’re serious. Why Brendan?”
    â€œBecause Amanda is presently out of commission.”
    â€œWell, that explains it. Not.”
    She picks at an imaginary thread on her jeans. “Brendan keeps asking about your memory leak. You don’t find that strange? At the hospital, he asked you what Amanda said to you on the bus. What if it’s something he doesn’t want anyone to know? What if he’s worried?”
    â€œIt’s like you said. They fought, he feels guilty. Why is that strange?”
    â€œBrendan wouldn’t feel guilty if he offed his own mother.”
    â€œFine. So he’s just being his annoying self. He thinks my brain is funny. What are you getting at?”
    She draws in a breath. “I’ve been thinking about that locket. You’re going to think this is crazy, but I think they had something to do with that hit-and-run. It was just two days before the bus accident. That’s why Amanda was so flipped out.”
    â€œYou’re right,” I say. “It’s crazy.”
    â€œThink about it, Cass. You said she was trying to tell you something. Then she goes ballistic. Next thing you know, you’re dreaming about a girl who’s around the same age as that kid who died. It’s like your subconscious is trying to make sense of what Amanda was babbling about. Then you find out that the dead girl’s name was Rose, and ta-da! There’s a picture of a rose in that locket Amanda was wearing on the bus. Don’t you see? The locket belongs to that dead kid’s mother.”
    â€œWhoa. Now there’s a reach. First of all, what makes you so sure Amanda was even wearing it? And how did she get it? Did she rip it off that poor woman’s neck? And how did it end up in my backpack? Please don’t tell me she gave it to me and I blanked it out—it makes no sense.” The giving part, obviously. Not the blanking out part.
    â€œShe sat down next to you, right? Later, when they were clearing stuff off the bus, someone saw it lying there and put it in your backpack. Some people are honest, you know.”
    â€œSince you’re so sure she was wearing it, why would you assume it’s not hers?”
    â€œIt would have a picture of Brendan, not a rose,” Leanne argues.
    â€œIf it belonged to that little girl’s mother, there’d be a picture of her daughter, not some dumb flower,” I argue right back.
    â€œCome on, Cass. It makes