A Fistful of Sky Read Online Free PDF Page B

asked.
    “I’m sorry, Claire. I can’t slow down.” Tears gushed out of my eyes. “I’ll let go if you want me to.”
    “What is it, Gyp? What’s wrong? You look sick.”
    “My mama—I—” Of course Mama would put a “protect secrets” component into the spell; she was thorough that way. No matter how much I wanted to tell Claire everything, I wouldn’t be able to.
    Claire and I had met three years earlier on the school bus, a couple weeks after she and her mom and little brother moved to our
    neighborhood. She was slender and pretty and a little punky. I was just starting to gain weight.
    We didn’t know why, but something pulled us together. By the end of the first day of school we had given each other friendship bracelets and were looking forward to spending eighth grade together.
    The weird thing was that Claire’s mom, July, was trying to teach herself how to be a witch. She wasn’t secretive about it. She wasn’t like any witch I’d ever met in our family, but she was a witch of sorts.
    I had never told Claire about my family.
    Now I physically couldn’t.
    “I can’t tell you,” I said.
    We marched up the block toward Hennings Park.
    “What do you want me to do?” she asked.
    I shook my head. I wanted her to save me. How could she save me? I wanted her to know what was happening, but I couldn’t tell her.
    “Gyp, you’re hurting my hand.”
    “I’m sorry.” I let go of her. “Claire… .”
    “Your mom did something to you?”
    My throat closed up. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to gasp air in, but there was no passage.
    I kept walking, and then the sky went dark.
    I woke up a little later flat on my back on the sidewalk, Claire’s face above me, her expression horrified and concerned. “Are you all right?” she asked.
    I could breathe again. My clothes, hair, forehead were wet with sweat. My throat hurt. Muscles in my legs jumped and jerked even though I was trying to lie still.
    “Don’t move. I’ll call an ambulance,” she said.
    “No.” I gasped. “Don’t.” I reached for her hand, and she took mine.
    “You don’t look well, Gyp. You just fainted. Stumbled and fell right onto the sidewalk before I could catch you. Your head hit the ground. You might have broken something. I better get help.”
    “I’ll be all right in a minute.” Now that she mentioned it, the back of my head did ache, and some other things stung and burned. But it was so nice to be lying down.
    I savored it for a couple more minutes, just lying there, the breeze cooling my sweaty face, Claire’s hand in mine, my breath easing in and out of me. Then I sat up. One of my elbows was scraped, and the back of my head was pounding now. Apart from that and the now-constant cry of despair from my stomach, I felt all right.
    I felt like I didn’t have to powerwalk anymore. At least not this minute.
    “I’m okay.” I squeezed Claire’s hand. “Thanks, Claire.”
    She shook her head. “You’re sick, Gyp. You look terrible.”
    “I’m having kind of a bad week, but I feel better now.”
    “You stay here. I’ll see if I can get Mom to come and drive you home.”
    I pulled myself to my feet. “It’s only three blocks,” I said. After all this powerwalking, three blocks seemed like nothing.
    Claire frowned at me.
    I took a couple of steps. My head pounded and my elbow burned, but the rest of me felt all right.
    “I’ll be okay,” I said. I started walking. I strolled, in feet, at a leisurely pace I hadn’t been able to use since Mama laid the spell on me. I felt happy just to be able to walk the way I wanted to.
    Claire walked beside me. “What did your mom do to you?”
    “Don’t ask.” What if I fainted again to prevent myself from answering a question?
    “Gyp—”
    “It’s nothing.”
    “It is not either nothing! Do you want me to call the child protection agency, or whatever it is?”
    “God, no!” I stared at her with wide eyes. “No! Absolutely not! It’s nothing like