Determination Read Online Free PDF Page A

something unusual, like a letter where it doesn’t belong. She has no clue she needs to feed you.”
    Roxie remembered she had sticky notes on her bedroom desk. Suddenly she was standing before her desk in the darkness of her room. She looked around to make doubly sure of where she was, then fumbled around for the lamp near her monitor, and retrieved a pen from a coffee mug once she could see. On one bright yellow square she wrote:
    Please feed me.
    -Roxie
    For some reason, the act of writing was a monumental task. Her hand and wrist tired to the point where it felt like she was trying to use a frozen appendage. The “e” in “me” looked more like a backwards, lowercase “g.” All the letters slanted downhill, each of them getting progressively sloppier, but still legible. “Why was it so hard to write that?”
    “You have to use energy from the living world to affect the living world. It’s another reason why I’d recommend getting in touch with someone else. You’re only making this harder for yourself.”
    Roxie didn’t care how hard this was. She was with her family. Now all she had to do was--she found herself looking at the fridge, instead of her desk. The sudden shift in scenery made her jump. “This teleporting thing needs to stop. It’s really disorienting.”
    “You’re not teleporting, actually. You walked up the stairs and everything. I’m not sure how to explain it properly, but your mind is going to sleep during mundane moments, and waking back up when you need to act and grow as a person. Am I making any sense?”
    “I guess. This realm is just disorienting.” With leaden arms she slapped the sticky note to the fridge door at chest height. She turned to face her grandmother, who was nowhere in sight. “Where is she?” Roxie took off before waiting for an answer, heading back for her grandmother’s bedroom. Grandma exited her master bathroom and headed back to bed. Roxie knocked on her ajar door at thigh height, which got her grandmother’s attention once again. She guided her back to the fridge with methodical urgency.
    Grandma sighed impatiently when she found herself facing the fridge a second time but, mercifully, she opened the door. Gasping, she let go and retreated backwards, almost falling over when she stumbled against the counter. Roxie reached out to catch her but thought better of it. Not only did her own arms feel heavy, her touch would just scare her grandmother again. The door lazily swung closed and Grandma slowly straightened up, staring at the sticky note, mouth agape.
    “Please, Grandma,” Roxie whispered despite herself.
    Grandma reached for the yellow square, tentatively touching it, and then she plucked it off with an adhesive-resistant rip and stared at the sloppy handwriting. Roxie knocked on the fridge three times, which galvanized her grandmother into opening the fridge. She took out a carton of whole milk, filled a tall glass, and set it on the counter. She studied the glass a moment, then picked it up and set it on the table in front of the chair nearest the porch door, the chair Roxie habitually ate in.
    Roxie slipped around her grandmother and tried to pick up the glass, but it felt like it weighed ten tons. She tried dragging it to the edge of the table so she could just tip the glass and pour the milk into her mouth, but she managed maybe a tenth of an inch. The milk sloshed in a spiral without spilling over.
    Grandma gasped. “Oh, Roxie.” Her voice was thick with tears. “What happened to you? Where are you?” She groped towards the glass.
    Roxie found herself backing away. How could touching an invisible person be comforting? She let go of the milk and backed towards the couch. Hopefully her presence didn’t leave--
    “It’s so cold.” Grandma waved her hands through the spot Roxie had just been standing. Grandma stood there a moment, unmoving, then pulled out a chair and collapsed into it. She buried her face in her hands and began sobbing,