Five Minutes in Heaven Read Online Free PDF Page A

licked his cheek. The stiff hairs prickled her tongue and the cinnamon lotion tasted disappointingly bitter, canceling out the sweetness of the caramel frosting.
    â€œDon’t, Jude,” he said, frowning and wiping his cheek with his hand. “That tickles.”
    Wrinkling her nose, Jude tried to scrub the terrible taste off her tongue with the back of her hand. Then Wild Child reared, hurling her off his back and into her father’s lap. Leaning her head against his chest, she shoved a thumb into her mouth and felt his heart thudding against her cheek like a frog’s throat.
    â€œBaby, don’t suck your thumb, please. It’ll push your front teeth out. You’ll look like Bugs Bunny.”
    Jude giggled.
    â€œDon’t you think you should wear a shirt?” he asked. “You’re getting to be a big girl now.” He patted her pale smooth belly.
    â€œI don’t want to be a girl.”
    â€œHow come?”
    â€œGirls are too boring.”
    â€œSo you want to be a boy?”
    â€œNo. Boys are too scary.”
    â€œWell, what do you want to be, then?”
    â€œI want to be in heaven with my momma.”
    He said nothing. When Jude looked up, his eyes were wet and red.
    â€œI have a friend,” offered Jude. “She lives in the new house next door. She’s named Molly. She’s going to be in the second grade. She doesn’t like shirts, either.”
    â€œThat’s good, baby. I’m glad there’s someone in the neighborhood now who’s closer to your own age. I don’t want you playing with Ace Kilgore and those other big boys. They’re too rough. Promise me you’ll stay away from them?”
    Jude said nothing for a long moment. She didn’t like to lie. But she wasn’t really lying, since she now meant to stay as far away from them as she could. “I promise,” she finally said. “Can I spend the night at Molly’s house sometime?” She twisted around in the chair until she was reclining in the crook of his arm.
    â€œSure. If it’s okay with her parents.” He was gazing at a photo on the end table—of Jude’s mother in a low-cut gown, standing inside a wine bottle.
    â€œWhy’s she inside that bottle?”
    â€œShe wasn’t really. It’s trick photography. It was an ad for a winery.”
    â€œShe was pretty, wasn’t she?”
    â€œShe was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” He was looking at the far corner of the ceiling, where Clementine’s dust mop had missed a spiderweb. “I was an intern in New York. I first saw her surrounded by photographers on a corner near Central Park. She was wearing this big old picture hat the wind kept trying to blow off. I just stood there staring at her until she got annoyed and asked them to make me leave.”
    Mr. Starnes had said Jude looked like her father. Did that mean she wasn’t beautiful like her mother? “Why did she have to die?”
    â€œWell, I came back home from the war in France, and we were very happy to be together again. So we decided to give you a baby brother. But your mother’s brain started bleeding. She became unconscious and the baby died in her stomach. And then she died.”
    â€œBut I didn’t even want a baby brother.”
    M OLLY’S MOTHER INSISTED THAT Molly say her prayers, even though Jude was there, so the three of them knelt by Molly’s bedside, beneath the pink dotted swiss canopy, as Molly recited her blessing list, which included her bicycle, Stormy, and her dog, Sidney. She concluded, “And God bless my new pal, Jude, and keep her safe from harm. Amen.”
    â€œDo you want to say your prayers now?” Mrs. Elkins asked Jude.
    â€œI don’t have any.”
    â€œBut you need prayers, Jude. It’s easy. Just try.”
    So Jude mumbled, “God bless my dad, and Clementine. And Grandma. And my momma in heaven. And Mrs.