Ghost Flower Read Online Free PDF Page B

that.”
    “A
solution
?” I echoed, curling my fingers into balls. “If you want me to burn the tips of my fingers off, it will cost extra.”
    Bridgette laughed. It was the first time I’d seen her laugh, and it seemed to surprise her almost as much as it surprised me. “We’re not thugs,” she said.
    “It’s simple,” Bain told me. “If someone wants to check your identity, they’re not going to look up your name; they’re going to run your prints against the police database. So if your prints are already in the computer as Aurora Silverton, that’s what will show as a match when the cops check. The fact that there’s another Aurora Silverton with completely different prints never comes up.”
    “Okay,” I nodded slowly. “How do you get my prints into the police database as Aurora’s?”
    Bridgette got up and started to clear the table as she spoke. “The Silverton Child Safety Project is sponsoring a tent at Old Phoenix Days next week where parents can bring their kids to have them fingerprinted and the prints stored in the police database. I’m running the event. It will be no problem for me to slip a card with your prints into the pile to be scanned.”
    Bain and I moved to help her clean up. As I rinsed the plates, I said, “You two have really thought of everything.”
    “I’m the big picture man, the brains of the operation,” Bain explained, taking a plate from me and putting it into the dishwasher. “Bridgette takes over the details.”
    “You have got to be kidding,” Bridgette said, throwing a handful of soap suds at him.
    “You can’t spell BRAINS without BAIN,” he told her solemnly.
    “You have been using that joke since junior high school.” She leaned toward me. “Sadly he is the only one who ever found it funny.”
    “At least I know how to load a dishwasher. If you put the pot in like that, it will block the water flow to the rest of the dishes.” He tapped his nose and said to me, “See? Big picture.”
    I rinsed, and they argued about putting knife points up or down, crystal yes or no, the right place for the spatula; making fun of one another. I found myself getting pulled into the easy rhythm of their back and forth, of their banter.
This is what it’s like to be part of a family,
I thought.
To belong to people who care about you
. As we laughed together, some part of me that had been inert suddenly flamed into life, filling me with the joy and wonder of a child reaching through a crowd for a favorite toy she thought was lost forever.
    I made myself let go of the dish I was washing, and it shattered in the sink, ending the banter. “Sorry,” I said, not even trying to sound like I meant it. “We don’t learn a lot about fine china on the streets.”
    That feeling of belonging was gorgeous, like a mirage, tantalizing, false, and dangerously out of reach. It wasn’t a good idea for me to get close to these two. I didn’t want them to like me, and I didn’t want to like them. We would all be safer if they stayed wary.
    Expendable,
I reminded myself.
This was an act, and you are expendable.
    “I’m exhausted,” I announced. “I want to go to bed.”
    Bridgette managed to look genuinely confused. She said, “ofcourse,” and showed me to my room, two flights up at the top of the tower. “Wear anything in the drawers. There should be pajamas and a robe.”
    “Great,” I said, my back to her, my palms cupping my elbows.
    The concern in her voice even sounded real. “If you need anything—”
    “I just need to go to sleep.”
    “Sure, okay.” I sensed her hesitating, maybe going to say something, but it was only, “Well, goodnight,” followed by the door clicking closed.
    I listened for her footsteps to retreat before I risked turning around. I was biting my lip, and my hands were shaking so it took me two tries to lock the door. I barely made it to the bed and covered my head with a pillow before I started to sob.

CHAPTER 8
    I ’m sitting at a wide