Never Too Rich Read Online Free PDF Page A

get
on my case now, right?”
    “ I worry about you, that’s all.
Darling, Ruby told me you were sick.”
    Hallelujah averted her gaze. “Well ... I didn’t feel too well. It was, like I was coming down with something? You
know?” She sneaked a sideways peek to test the waters.
    From her mother’s expression, they looked chilly.
Positively freezing.
    “ Indeed?” Edwina asked coldly. “And
would you care to elaborate on what you were coming down with,
young lady?”
    Hallelujah set her square chin firmly. “Oh . . . you
know . . .”
    “ Hal,” Edwina said carefully, the
only outward sign of her inner consternation being a vein she was
unable to keep from throbbing at her temple, “I thought we’d agreed
to come to decisions together.”
    “ Oh-oh.” Hallelujah went on full
alert. “This sounds like it has all the beginnings of a major
lecture coming on.”
    Edwina ignored her and arranged herself into a
stiffly formal posture. “First of all, about this room—I can’t say
that it doesn’t come as somewhat of a shock. You should have talked
it over with me before going ahead and ...” She was at a loss for
words. “... and, well, trashing it.”
    “ Ma,” Hallelujah said in a voice of
weary exasperation, “you never listen! I told you on the phone last
week that I wanted to redecorate, and you said, ‘That’s nice,
darling!’ So I naturally thought—”
    “ You mean, you conveniently thought. But you knew better. Well, what’s done is done.” Edwina
compressed her lips. “Now, about these clothes . . . and the
makeup.” She paused, frowning, and tilted her head questioningly.
“Has your father seen you like this?”
    “ Like what?” Hallelujah was
suddenly all innocence.
    “ Cut the bullshit,
kiddo.”
    “ Really, Ma! What’s gotten into
you? I mean, you’re really coming down strong on me, you
know?”
    “ That’s because you’ve taken steps
you knew would invite that. If you’re old enough to strike out on
certain paths, then you’ve got to face the music as
well.”
    “ You’re treating me like a
child.”
    “ If you want to be treated like a
grown-up, then you should act li—”
    Hallelujah suddenly spied something on the TV and
let out a screech. Lunging for her remote control, she turned the
sound all the way up. Edwina stared at the TV to see what had
electrified her daughter.
    On-screen, a blond-and-black-haired youth with the
same spiky hair as Hallelujah’s, the same makeup, and nearly the
same leather-and-tights outfit, launched into the very number she
had just switched off on the CD player.
    “ Brain Dead.”
    “ It’s Bad Billy!” Hallelujah
squealed excitedly, shouting to make herself heard above the
raucous noise.
    Edwina ground her teeth. So that was the inspiration
for Hallelujah’s hideous new outfit!
    Hallelujah waited until the song was completely over
before she switched the sound back off. She was positively
glowing.
    Edwina wasn’t. Her ears were ringing, and she tried
to blink away the nightmarish images of the video. Bikers,
vampires, vultures, mad doctors, and Bad Billy as a kind of punk
Frankenstein. She shuddered. It really did make you yearn for The Sound of Music or Bambi. Saccharine or not, she
would take Julie Andrews over Bad Billy any day.
    Hallelujah’s eyelashes fluttered. “Isn’t he just the
sexiest thing alive?” She sighed dreamily.
    Whoa! Edwina looked startled. Since when had Hal
begun using words like “sexy” to describe a man?
    She took a deep breath and strove to make her voice
sound neutral. “You’ve got to understand, darling. I’m just trying
to be a good mother. It isn’t an easy job, you know.”
    Hallelujah sighed. “Neither is being a kid.” She
blew a half-hearted bubble.
    “ No, I don’t suppose it is.” Edwina
knew her words sounded lame and trite, but they expressed what she
felt. She sighed to herself. If only Hallelujah knew that she
really did understand. Her own upbringing had been far