I Will Breathe (Forbidden Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

explanations could be long drawn-out affairs, and they almost always had her doing something afterwards that she didn’t want to do.
    Boy handed her one of the two sticks. “I made us each a fishing pole.”
    “You did what?” She took the pole before the robot poked her eye out with it. She’d already backed up a couple of times trying to avoid such a calamity. The damn robot was going to be the death of her. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
    “Catch fish.” He blinked.
    “You want to go fishing?” She looked back and forth between the waves and the robot. “Are you waterproof?”
    “I don’t know.” He used the end of his fishing pole to draw in the sand.
    “Do you have any idea how we’re supposed to go about using these short poles in those large waves?” It was impossible to keep the skepticism out of her voice. Even though she knew how to swim, she had only done so in the calm waters of a lake or pond, never out in the rough waves of the ocean. It was beautiful to look at from above, but she was afraid of its vastness and power.
    “Please. I’ve always wanted to go fishing but Father never had the time.” Boy held up a small container in his other hand. “Waters caught bait for us to use.”
    Liberty eyed the raised rusted-out container. “What’s in it?”
    “Roaches.”
    Liberty backed up even farther. “I’m not touching a roach. They’re nasty.” She hated all variety of bugs. They made her itch and gag.
    Boy took Liberty’s fishing pole back. “I’ll bait the hooks and promise not to get in the water.”
    It was disconcerting to realize that all Boy had to do was stare with his big metallic eyes and she would do whatever he wanted. She had no idea, not since he’d come into her life, where that hard-ass woman she used to be had disappeared to. She tried to channel the old Liberty by squaring her shoulders and firmly stating, “I’m not taking the fish off the hook either.”
    Those words were barely out of her mouth before Boy took off walking toward the water’s edge. Not that he was listening, but Liberty called after him anyway, “Not too close. If you fall in, I’m not pulling you out.”
    Before following after the adorable but annoying robot, Liberty looked around for Mender and Waters. Both had disappeared after loading the dried fish onto Liberty and Mender’s airships earlier that morning. On the surface, the two men couldn’t have appeared more different. Mender was overly fastidious whereas Waters just smelled of fish and sweat, but for some odd reason, the two men had liked each other on sight. They were probably in Waters’ shack right now, chatting away over a loaf of wheat bread.
    Liberty giggled just thinking about the look on Waters’s face when he first tasted Mender’s wheat bread. His expression had been priceless. The old man couldn’t agree fast enough, trading a load of dried fish for several bags of wheat. They had spent the rest of the day and part of the night with Mender teaching Waters how to grind and bake bread. Mender’s proposition about trading in each other’s territories grew on her, especially if Polly, Golden and Billy had the same reaction to the wheat as Waters.
    Caught up in her own thoughts, Liberty didn’t notice how close to the water Boy had got. He had one pole standing in the sand and was baiting the other. The waves were rolling in, and every now and then, one would cover his feet. That was a little worrisome, but instead of telling him to move back, she laughed at his enthusiasm for trying new things. For nothing more than a collection of metal, wires and circuit boards, Boy had more joy for life in him than any human she knew. He wanted to know, see and experience everything. Of course, most of the time he wanted all these things at once, so she found it exhausting keeping up with his eagerness.
    It finally occurred to her that seawater might not be good for his metal, and so she called out, “Back up. The