Read Online Pucker by Melanie Gideon - Free Book Online

predators. Back in Isaura, when we depended on the Changed for our food, our clean linens, and our cobbled streets, those who recruited them were heroes.
    â€œYes. They’re many places in America. They pose as psychiatrists. You remember Dr. Caro at the rehabilitation center?” she says.
    Dr. Caro: I had always hated the guy, just on principle. He was loud and took up every speck of oxygen in the room and he was always after me to get evaluated. The last thing I wanted to do was tell some stranger I had been nicknamed Pucker.
    â€œBut won’t he know? Won’t he be able to tell I’m Isaurian?” I ask.
    â€œNo. Not if you’re careful. Recruiters aren’t Seers. He can’t read you. But the Maker is a Seer, and that’s a problem.”
    I stare at my mother, bewildered.
    â€œOnce you get to Isaura, you’ll be brought to the Maker. She’ll have to go back into your past,” she says.
    â€œBut if she sees my past, she’ll know I’m your son,” I say.
    â€œYes,” says my mother. “So you’ll have to be very careful about letting her in. You must shield your memory from her. You’ll need to give her details. But do not give her the big picture. Do not show her your father and me.”
    â€œHow am I supposed to do that?” I cry. Even now, so many years later, whenever I think of that day, all I can see is my father lying on the floor, dead, his Seerskin balled up on the counter.
    â€œJust focus on colors,” my mother says. “Smells. Textures. The curtains were yellow, remember? The kitchen smelled of cobbler. That’ll be enough for the Maker to work with.”
    â€œI can’t,” I whimper.
    â€œYou can,” says my mother sharply. “You must control your inner gaze. Just remember yourself sitting in the sink. Show her the curtains falling on top of you.”
    â€œThen what?”
    â€œThen she’ll make it so that the fire never happened. Your scars will disappear. Your face will be healed,” my mother says.
    My mouth drops open in shock. How had I never thought of this? My hands rise to my face, to the ribbons of scar tissue. I feel like I’ve just been told that it’s been in my power the whole time to reverse my destiny. That with one savage tug I could have just peeled off my fate.
    My mother takes my hands and places them back in my lap. “You’ll have the face you were meant to have had the fire not happened. But it’s only temporary, Thomas. Once you come back, the Maker’s magic will fall apart. Do you understand?” she asks.
    I don’t answer her.
    â€œDo you understand, Thomas?” my mother asks again, gently tilting my chin upward, forcing me to look at her.
    I nod dully.
    â€œTell me what I just said.”
    â€œWhen I come back, I’ll be Pucker again.”
    Her eyes bat involuntarily as if I’ve struck her, and I wrench my face out of her hand. Adrenaline surges through me. I have the sudden need to destroy something. I grab a figurine of a rabbit, a gift from one of her clients.
    â€œNot that!” my mother shrieks.
    â€œIt’s from the freaking Hallmark store!” But I obey her. I put it back on the bureau and grab a pillow. I ram my fist into it again and again.
    â€œI’m sorry. Thomas. Please, stop!”
    â€œDo you have any idea what you’re asking of me?” I scream.
    â€œI’d go myself if I could,” she moans. “I swear I would.”
    She erupts into another coughing fit. This one’s really bad, brought on by me, no doubt. She’s not faking it.
    â€œIt’s like somebody’s shredding my bones,” she sobs.
    â€œStop talking,” I tell her. “Just stop it. Conserve your strength. You’re making it worse.”
    After a bit, when the pain has subsided and she’s caught her breath, she touches my cheek softly. “It’s horribly unfair. It’s too