Gray's Domain: Purgatorium Series, Book Two Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Ready?”
    Daphne’s mother followed Roger into the dark cave. While they waited, she turned to study her father, who was scrolling through the digital images he’d captured on the back of his camera. He’d recently buzzed his hair again. Even though he had retired from the army years ago, he always buzzed his gray hair in the summertime, and if it weren’t for the pot belly hanging over his belt and the worry lines around his eyes and forehead, he’d still look like a jarhead.
    He took a few sideways steps closer to her and said, “Take a look at this one. You can see them really good.”
    Two birds nested in a shelf of rock. One looked directly at the camera.
    “I thought Roger said no pics,” Daphne said.
    “I turned off the flash. I didn’t think the birds would show up, but the dim light of the flashlight worked.”
    Daphne nodded.
    Unexpectedly, her father put an arm around her shoulders. “How’s my little girl doing?”
    Little girl? Her stomach clenched, and she wanted to burst into tears. He hadn’t called her his little girl in forever. “Okay.” She suddenly felt like burying her face in his chest, but she fought the urge.
    “I’m glad you talked us into staying. This has been fun today.”
    Before Daphne could reply, Sharon and Roger emerged from the cave, Sharon smiling from ear to ear.
    When they were a safe distance from the opening, Sharon said, “They really are pretty.”
    Daphne was beginning to suspect with growing disappointment that there was no game today when she noticed a dozen or more bugs crawling from her mother’s shorts’ pocket. They were brownish gray, about an inch in length, with at least ten tiny feet. They had two long antennae and backs that looked like armor. They made her think of tiny armadillos, but with pinchers trailing behind. Sharon seemed oblivious to them until they reached her pale pink blouse.
    Sharon flinched back and screamed, swatting the bugs as she jumped from one foot to the other. “Get ‘ em off! Get ‘em off!”
    Joe tried to help her, but Sharon ran around, flailing her arms. “Oh, God! Get ‘em off!”
    “Hold still and let me help you,” Joe said, exasperated.
    Roger said, “They aren’t harmful. Calm down. Don’t scare the birds.”
    “Get ‘ em off me, Joe!”
    Daphne’s dad swatted the bugs to the ground, but a few landed on Sharon’s bare legs, making her scream and kick in a frenzied dance. She made Daphne think of a circus clown.
    “What are they?” Daphne asked, trying not to smile, as she helped her father scrape them away from her mother’s jerking body.
    “Rock lice,” Roger said. “They aren’t poisonous, and their bites don’t sting.”
    “They bite?” Sharon squealed. Her entire body flailed about. She scratched at her scalp and twitched her mouth as she clamped her eyes closed.
    “Almost got ‘ em all,” Joe said. “There.”
    Sharon couldn’t hold still. “Are you sure? All of ‘em?” She untucked her blouse and shook it.
    Daphne and Joe looked all over Sharon, but saw no more of the rock lice.
    “You’re good, Mama,” Daphne said.
    Sharon stopped flailing and gazed at Daphne, her jaw hanging open.
    Daphne felt the blood rush once again to her face. “What?”
    Tears pooled in Sharon’s eyes and spilled down her cheeks. At first, Daphne thought her mother was crying with relief, to have all the bugs off her body. But then her mother said, “You haven’t called me ‘Mama’ in two years. Did you know that?”
    Daphne did know that.  Since Kara’s death, since her mother had said those haunting words (“You mean you heard and did nothing?), Daphne hadn’t been able to call her mother the name she had called her all her life. The horrible guilt she had felt, the guilt she had seen reflected back at her in her mother’s eyes, had made her pull away and erect walls, and from that moment on it had been “Mother” and sometimes “Mom.” She hadn’t meant to call her “Mama,” just