Bone Gap Read Online Free PDF Page A

My father wouldn’t even let them in the house. He said it was because of the hair balls. But I was determined. I saved up all my pennies and bought my first Persian when I was eighteen. My father told me to choose between living in his house and keeping my cat. What do you think I chose?”
    This was not a trick or a question, it was a speech. Finn stayed quiet.
    â€œMy point is that you have to fight for what you believe in. So what do you believe in? You must believe in something. What do you want to do ?”
    It popped out before he had a chance to think about it, before he could remind himself not to. “I want to find Roza. I want to bring her back.”
    Mrs. Lonogan steadied herself by gripping the table, as if Finn had just declared his intention to train unicorns for the fairy circus. “I know it’s been difficult,” she said, pouring him a cup of lemonade with the concentration of a scientist measuring hydrochloric acid. “Sometimes, people are not who we think they are. We didn’t know anything about her.”
    â€œYes, we did. I mean, we do .”
    â€œNothing about her past,” said Mrs. Lonogan. “Nothing that might help us find her.”
    He gave up, tossed the rest of the brownie to the goat. “I know that.”
    â€œEverybody has a story,” Mrs. Lonogan said, her voice dreamy and distant. “Everybody has secrets.”
    Finn turned away from the refreshment table. He took a long pull of the lemonade, which, thankfully, contained sugar, when he saw the movement, or rather, the lack of movement. A peculiar pocket of stillness in the middle of all that color and bustle. And his gaze traveled upward from legs planted so firmly they might as well have been tree trunks to a torso carved of stone, immovable, ivory arms, up to a blanched face that—
    A hand clamped down on his shoulder. Finn dropped his lemonade, whirled.
    â€œDude!” Miguel Cordero said. “You were supposed to meet me by the sheep.”
    Finn turned back, searched for that pocket of stillness, but it was gone. “Did you see that?”
    â€œI see you spilled lemonade all over yourself,” said Miguel.
    â€œNo, over there.”
    â€œWhat? What am I looking at?”
    How could he describe it so he didn’t sound like a lunatic? “There was a guy. Just standing there. I think I’ve seen him somewhere. Did you see him?”
    â€œThere are lots of guys here,” Miguel said. “Way too many guys. Fewer chicks for us.”
    â€œOkay,” said Finn, using a wad of napkins to blot the lemonade on his jeans.
    â€œ Chicks , dude. Like that one. She’s checking you out.”
    Finn tried to scratch up some interest. “Who is?”
    â€œGirl in the green shirt. No, don’t stare! It’s weird when you stare.”
    â€œPeople tell me I shouldn’t look at them, and then they tell me I don’t look at them enough,” Finn said. “You need to make up your minds.”
    â€œI’m just saying that if you cooled it with the moony act, you’d get tons of play.” Miguel didn’t mention the cuts and bruises on Finn’s face, either because he was too good a friend or because he was getting used to seeing them there.
    â€œI don’t have an act,” said Finn.
    â€œYou know what Amber Hass told me?” Miguel said.
    â€œNo, what?”
    â€œThat you looked like that actor.”
    â€œWhich actor?”
    â€œWho cares, dude! Amber Hass says you look like an actor, you go find Amber Hass.”
    â€œAmber Hass chews on her own hair.”
    â€œSpeaking of chewing, what’s with the goat?”
    â€œHe started following me a while ago.”
    â€œHe’s wrecking your game. Doesn’t he belong to somebody?”
    Finn didn’t have an act, he didn’t have a game. “Probably.”
    â€œMeh!”
    They started walking toward the livestock tents. Miguel was