Juniper Berry Read Online Free PDF

bridges were covered in a fine dust; the boulders were snowcapped mountains to conquer. No footprints, no disturbances, except for the snow angels they just made. The surrounding buildings vanished in a mist of white. The only guides through the buried paths were hazy lampposts, miniature lighthouses each.
    On-screen, Juniper, tongue out, twirled in the softly falling snow. “We’re still in New York? I don’t believe it!”
    Mrs. Berry laughed. She picked her daughter up and spun her around, the most beautiful of dances.
    Watching this, Juniper pulled her kaleidoscope from her pocket and peered through it. The single image became hundreds.
    â€œMy two girls,” Mr. Berry said. He zoomed in and focused affectionately on both their faces. He caught their eyes, then their smiles, then their whispers. “Hey, what are you guys talking about? No secrets.”
    Juniper nodded, both on-screen and off.
    Mrs. Berry placed her down and looked at her husband. “Okay, you want us to tell you?”
    â€œYes, whatever you’re thinking, throw it out there,” he said.
    â€œOkay,” Juniper squealed. “We’ll throw it out there!” And both she and her mother fell to their knees and gathered a snowball each and threw them at Mr. Berry.
    â€œHey! No fair!”
    The camera jerked and swayed, capturing the white of New York City and the pitch of its sky and the swollen ivory moon. Laughter consumed everything, filling the speakers of the home theater.
    Juniper took it all in. She looked at Kitty running up and down the aisles with her feline gait. She clapped her hands and seconds later her dog was by her side. “I don’t get it,” she said to Kitty. “I miss this. I miss them.”
    Kitty licked her hand.
    â€œI know. They’re right upstairs. But it doesn’t seem like them anymore. What if . . . what if it isn’t just their jobs? What if it’s something more like Giles said? Do you think that’s possible?”
    The conversation she had had with her new friend wouldn’t leave her head. It wasn’t just her parents, she knew that now, but that didn’t mean it was anything out of the ordinary. Giles seemed to insist that his parents were up to something strange, and Juniper had to admit roaming the woods in the middle of the night was peculiar. But that was about it. It didn’t prove anything more. And yet, what did the two friends expect to discover together? Surely, Giles’s parents didn’t just disappear like he said.
    Kitty turned on her back, exposing her belly to be rubbed. Juniper obliged, then answered her own question. “No, I suppose not. I suppose this is what happens when people have more important things to worry about than . . .” She trailed off.
    Just then the theater door swung open and her mother stood in the entrance, hands on hips. In the odd mixture of light and shadow, along with the flickering of the screen, she looked like a different woman. Juniper didn’t know if this was a good thing or not.
    â€œJuniper! Get out here right now! Your tutor is waiting for you!”
    Mrs. Maybelline—Juniper nearly forgot. “I was just watching this.” She pointed to the screen. “Remember this?”
    Mrs. Berry glanced at the screen for no more than a second. “Of course I do. New York.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œGet out there now! This woman follows me around and why? I’ll tell you why: because you’re not out there. Don’t you know I have far better things to do than run around looking for you? If I don’t nail this part, there are thousands of women waiting to pull me from my perch. It all can fall apart so easily. And what if that happens, Juniper? What then? Go back to years ago? Back to that little house, living those little lives?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    This set something off in her. Mrs. Berry charged at Juniper and yanked her