Don't Die Dragonfly Read Online Free PDF Page B

chickens.”
    “Never underestimate an animal. It’s a large egg, too.”
    “How do you know? You can’t possibly see a tiny egg through all those vines.”
    “A little bird told me.”
    “Yeah. Right.” I rolled my eyes but couldn’t resist a challenge. Cautiously, I pulled the vines aside and peered into the bushes. “Nothing there.”
    “It’s toward the left. Yeah, you should be touching it now.”
    As he said “now,” my hand closed around a smooth egg.
    Instead of being grateful, I wanted to slap the smug smirk off his face. Only when I looked up, ready to tell him off, I saw a woman hovering beside him.
    She was part sunshine and part fog. Short dark hair curled above her neck and smile lines crinkled around her shining black eyes. I knew without being told that Dominic had called this woman “Mom.”
    “What are you staring at?” Dominic demanded sharply.
    “Can’t you see?” I asked in a trembling whisper.
    “See what?”
    “Her.” The woman reached out to Dominic, surrounding him with love as sweet as a summer breeze.
    “There’s no one here except us. ” Dominic furrowed his brow, looking around with a puzzled expression.
    I shook my head, realizing too late that I was the only one weird enough to see ghosts. It hadn’t happened like this since moving in with Nona. Even the night shadows and the voices had quieted down. But I should have known it wouldn’t last. I was cursed, an unwilling messenger for spirits. Once again, the other world was bleeding into my own.
    My darling Nicky, I heard the woman say.
    “Who’s Nicky?” I asked.
    Dominic’s mouth fell open. “No one’s called me that since I was young. Since my mother—”
    “Died,” I finished.
    I left my son too soon. Couldn’t help when he needed me. She held out wispy arms in an imploring gesture. I felt her emotions: love, loss, and longing. Tell him ‘A nickel for your thoughts.’
    “A nickel for your thoughts?” I repeated in confusion. “Isn’t that saying supposed to be ‘A penny for your thoughts?’”
    The color had faded from Dominic’s face. He lunged forward, grabbing my arms. “What kind of game are you playing?”
    “Nothing.” I shook him off. “And don’t you ever grab me again!”
    His shoulders sagged. “Sorry. But my mother always said ‘nickel’ because of my name. No one else knew that. How did you?”
    I shook my head, overwhelmed with emotions as I watched a tear fall from his mother’s misty face. She lifted her hand to show a silver coin glittering in her palm. A nickel. Reaching out with filmy fingers, she tucked the nickel in Dominic’s pocket. Her body began to fade until all that was left were bright blue eyes. Then they rose high like ascending stars, blending blue into sky.
    And she was gone.
    Dominic looked at me with disbelief. “What are you seeing?”
    “Nothing,” I answered truthfully.
    “Then why did you say that stuff? Did someone tell you about my mom?”
    “No. I don’t know anything.” I hugged my basket to my chest, glancing down at the eggs. “I—I have to go.”
    He stepped in front of me. “Not until you explain what just happened.”
    “I can’t. I never can.” Then clutching the basket to my pounding chest, I pushed past him.
    The door to the house banged behind me as I entered the kitchen. Setting the basket on the tile counter, I bent over to catch my breath. What had just happened? Why had Dominic’s mother appeared to me? Had she been using me to visit her son one last time? Or had she come to warn of danger?
    I shuddered, remembering that fatal prom night. I’d known the boy was going to die, yet could do nothing to save him.
    As I placed the eggs in an egg carton, I wondered if I should go to Nona and confess everything. She’d know how to help. She often told me how we’d come from a long line of psychics. It had skipped a generation with my mother, but Nona was certain I’d inherited the family “gift,” that the black streak