Manatee Blues Read Online Free PDF

INFECTION.
    Ten percent!
    My face flushes. It’s not the heat—it’s my temper. What would it take to get people to start paying attention? What would make them care? I wish I were older, old enough to move down here. I could start out volunteering, then Gretchen would give me a job. I’d find a way to tell people about the manatees—I know I would.
    I lie down on the floor and angle my camera up so it looks like Violet is swimming above me, with shafts of light streaking down from above her. She has stopped swimming and is resting, floating straight up and down. Her flippers are suspended by her sides. Her chewed tail hangsgracefully. The stark white bandage covering those awful gashes looks like a big warning sign—TAKE CARE OF THIS CREATURE.
    Click!
    There has to be something I can do.

Chapter Six

    W hen Gretchen and Dr. Mac finish talking about the bank meeting, we drive to our hotel in Bay City. While Dr. Mac checks us in at the hotel’s front desk, Maggie, Zoe, and I wander around the lobby.
    I’m stunned.
    “This place looks like a movie set!” I exclaim.
    The lobby stretches twenty floors up to a glass ceiling and is longer than a football field. It reminds me of an expensive mall. It has two restaurants, fountains, a piano player, a bunch of little shops, and a special computer station where people can check their e-mail. In the middle of it all, a huge column of glass-and-chrome elevators rises up to the guest rooms above. Everywhere I turn there are glass windows, or mirrors, or other shiny surfaces that reflect my sweaty face and gaping mouth. I’ve stumbled into the Land of Oz.
    “Do you believe this place?” I gush to Zoe and Maggie. “Your grandmother is nuts. It’s got to cost a thousand bucks a night!”
    “Relax,” Maggie says as she falls into a poufy chair near a marble fountain. “It doesn’t cost that much.”
    Zoe perches on the edge of the fountain. “I hope Gran lets us order room service,” she says.
    Something splashes behind her. “Look!” I say. “Fish!”
    Big, fat goldfish swim lazily under a lily pad in the water fountain.
    “Brenna, listen to me,” Zoe advises. “You don’t want to look like a hick. Act sophisticated. Look bored. Pretend that we jet all over the world. Compared to the Ritz in Paris, this place is a dump.”
    She rolls her eyes and pouts a little.
    “Yeah, right, like you’ve ever been to the Ritz,” says Maggie.
    “I have,” Zoe answers. “Mom and I flew to France for a fashion show last year. Now, this is how you have to act.” She puts her hand up to her hair. “Ve must get zem to do zomesing about zees sunlight,” she says in a fake French accent. “It’s going to fade my hair color.”
    A bright green lizard crawls out from the plants surrounding the fountain and scoots over Zoe’s lap. She shrieks. Maggie and I crack up.
    “Way to go, Zoe,” Maggie notes.
    “Totally zophisticated,” I add.

    We have two connecting rooms with balconies that face the ocean. Maggie leaps onto the bed and turns on the television.
    “Cool!” she shouts. “We have a million channels! We can watch three different baseball games.”
    Zoe is flipping through the room service menu. “We could have dinner either up here in the room or downstairs on the deck—the veranda, as they call it,” she says. “I like the way that sounds: ‘dinner on the veranda.’”
    I slide open the glass door and step out onto the balcony. From fifteen stories up, I can see the thin crescent of white beach, and beyond that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico stretching to the horizon. So much water! There are people bobbing and swimming close to the beach. Farther out, speedboats chase each other, and a few sailboats are pushed by the lazy breeze.
    Are there any manatees out there? I’ll have to ask Gretchen. I hope they stay away from the boats. I wish Violet had. It gives me the shivers to remember the way her back looked.
    The door of the balcony next to me opens, and