Read Online Talk Nerdy to Me by Vicki Lewis Thompson - Free Book Online Page B

The minute she hit the front door her tummy started to churn.
Denise was so neat, so together, so critical. She would take one look at the
clutter that was Eve's life and—
    My
door is unlocked. She had a moment of panic. She didn't have
anything valuable in the house except the hovercraft, but what if vandals had
come in?
    She
almost stumbled over the big box sitting in her entryway, and then remembered
that Eunice had taken delivery of the new engine while she was gone.
    Although
FedEx could have delivered packages to Eunice's house, Eve liked this
arrangement better. Then neither of them had to lug heavy boxes across the
yard.
    Okay,
so Eunice had forgotten to lock the door after her. That could happen. And it
wasn't like New York where a locked door was critical to life as she knew it.
The Middlesex police report might include a stolen bicycle and a speeder or
two. That was about it.
    And
her engine had arrived! Once she'd pried the box open and looked inside at that
gorgeous piece of equipment, she could barely make herself close the box. No
doubt about it, she was obsessed with making the hovercraft fly using veggie
fuel, and this engine was the key component. She resented every moment she had
to spend doing something else.
    Three months ago she'd
searched the Internet for a supplier who would give her what she wanted, an
engine small enough to fit into her hovercraft without adding excess weight
and large enough to power her invention. Then she'd blown it up. Here was the
replacement, and she wasn’t about to let history repeat itself.
    With
great reluctance she closed the flaps on the box. Now was not the time. Instead
she had to brainwash herself into full cleaning mode, "cleaning"
being a euphemism for shoving everything out of sight.
    But
first she'd drag the engine box out to the garage and take another look at her
beloved purple Slammer. After all, she hadn't seen it since Tuesday morning.
By the time she got the box through the kitchen door into the garage, she was
puffing. But her baby sat there in all its magnificence waiting for the new
engine. And thanks to some fuel research she'd done on the Internet while she
was in New York plus the book she'd read on the train, she had some ideas for
that, too.
    In
fact, she ought to make some notes before she lost track of what she'd read in
the hotel room last night. After turning on the space heater to warm up the
garage, she crossed to her workbench and looked for the pile of notes she'd
left there. For some reason they weren't under the Darth Vader mask paperweight
where she always kept them.
    That
was irritating. Her workbench wasn't the most orderly place in the world.
Nothing in this house was what anyone would call orderly, but she'd always been
able to find her notes. She checked everywhere else they might be, even inside
the cockpit of the hovercraft. Nothing.
    Feeling
more disoriented by the minute, she rummaged through the kitchen, looking in
drawers and cupboards. Still nothing. And time was running short. Charlie and
Rick would be here soon, and she'd hoped to get the house straightened before
they arrived. If she didn't, then it wouldn't get done. She knew once Charlie
was here she'd be completely absorbed in the hovercraft project.
    Maybe
she'd come across the notes while she was cleaning up. Now there was a good
thought. She'd search for the notes and tackle the mess at the same time.
    Her
closets were basically staffed already, but she managed to shift a few things
and push some unread fiction books inside, along with the videos she'd bought
and never watched and the collection of beads she'd accumulated back when
she'd thought it might be an okay hobby.
    For
years she'd tried to interest herself in a more peaceful pastime, one that
wouldn't cause explosions and alarm the neighbors, but all her efforts in that
direction had seemed wimpy and dull. Why make a necklace when you could create a
hovercraft? But she kept trying to be normal, which was why