Read Online Savvy by Ingrid Law - Free Book Online Page B

offering it as a writing surface.
    Nervously, I took his hand in mine. The blue ink flowed out smooth and easy against Will Junior’s skin, and in a moment I’d drawn a smiling sun. The next moment, I jolted backward, tripping over a jutting porch plank and falling onto my tail end, as that smiling sun blinked its eyes and cleared its throat like it had just woken up.
    Like it had just woken up, and now it had something to say.

Chapter XII

    B efore the blue inked sun could utter a word, I picked myself up and ran away from Will Junior and the falling-down house. I ran past Lester Swan where he sat with his feet on the Astroturf, and past Bobbi and her gum bubble. Up the steps and into the bus, I ran straight past Fish, where he sat hunkered and grumpy in the front seat. I didn’t stop until I’d pressed myself underneath the cot in the back of the bus, pushing in next to Samson, who moved over without a question or a word as though he’d been expecting me. I plugged up my ears with my fingers. I squeezed my eyes shut and began to hum, hum, hum, hum, hum.
    It was no good. I could still hear them all. As Lester and Bobbi climbed back onto the bus wondering what was wrong with me, I could hear Carlene and Rhonda and the little angel with the pointed devil’s tail all there inside my head. But now I could hear a new voice too, the voice of the smiling blue sun, gaining volume like a deep-toned bell as Will Junior climbed up into the bus.
    “A secret for a secret for a secret … Will has a secret. Want to know the secret?”
    Not knowing what else to do, I shouted, “You have to wash your hand, Will Junior!” though it sounded stupid, even to me, as my voice echoed through the quiet bus over the din of voices in my head. I didn’t want to know Will’s secret. I didn’t want to know things I wasn’t supposed to know.
    “Mibs? Are you okay?” Will called out to me as he made his way down the aisle of the bus, the voice of that noisy blue sunshine growing louder and louder as he got closer.
    “Will’s got a secret …”
    “Don’t come near me!” I shouted back at him.
    Fish, seeing me upset and not bothering to find out what might have happened, closed in on Will Junior and spun him around, clocking him hard and fast in the eye with his fist. Will took the blow, stumbling backward along the aisle of the bus, and Bobbi joined the scuffle, climbing over the seats and throwing herself at Fish, scratching his cheek with her fingernails.
    Ignoring Bobbi and scrambling after Will Junior, Fish demanded, “What did you do to my sister? What did you do to her?”
    “Will’s got a secret … Want to know the secret?”
    “ WASH YOUR HAND , WILL JUNIOR!” I screamed again, raising my voice to be heard over the brawl and over the sound of breaking glass. As my brother’s pressure system grew, the windows closest to Fish began to fracture, spreading splintering cracks outward like spiderwebs zipping and pinging through the glass as Fish’s gusts and gales swelled in speed and strength. Bobbi screamed and Lester cried out as first one and then another window shattered outward. Ducking and dancing and wincing and flinching with every new explosion of glass, Lester grabbed both boys by their collars and pushed and pulled and dragged them off his bus with Bobbi following after.
    “… a secret for a secret for a secret …”
Quieter now, but still that ink doodle sun yammered in my brain. I scrambled from beneath the cot and peered out of the nearest broken window.
    “Please, Will, just go wash that ink off your hand!” I shouted, knowing he couldn’t understand. Now outside the bus, Fish’s wind blew out across the parking lot and through the trees around the church. A dark storm cloud was forming overhead and a smattering of rain began to pelt the ground. It was a good thing we weren’t too close to any large bodies of water, or that storm over Bee could have been one to rival Fish’s worst.
    Crunching on the