Out of the Ashes Read Online Free PDF Page A

accidental and that he had lost his mind with grief and started setting fires out of some twisted idea of revenge or guilt for not being able to save her.
    I knew one thing — the stories couldn’t possibly all be true. Whatever the truth was, it wasn’t going to surface in all the gossip.
    The one really significant thing was actually something that didn’t happen. I guess that sounds strange, but when people are expecting something to take place and it doesn’t, it can mean just as much as something that actually does happen, if you know what I mean.
    Anyway, the thing that didn’t happen was that Greg’s father didn’t get arrested. Oh, there were lots ofstories of how he’d been hauled into the police station for questioning. Some said in the dead of night, others were equally certain he’d been “grilled” for a full day. Most people covered this discrepancy by saying he’d been questioned on more than one occasion.
    People began insisting that he was guilty and that the police just couldn’t prove it.
    Greg would have needed to have his head buried in the sand to avoid hearing all the rumours. I was sure he knew what was being said, but there was no change in the way he acted or how he held himself walking around. Usually if someone is embarrassed they’ll keep their head down a bit or try not to look anyone in the eye.
    Not Greg. He went along just the same as before. I’d see him here and there, smiling and talking to the other kids as if everything was perfectly normal. I have to admit that I admired that a little, the way he refused to be cowed by the stories. I’d have wanted to crawl off somewhere and hide if I’d been in his position.
    You could see it in the faces around him too, puzzlement and something bordering on annoyance. It was as if they had been cheated out of the reaction they expected and didn’t quite know what to do about it. Really, there was nothing they could do. It wasn’t as if anyone could come right out and say anything to his face.
    In keeping with my plan to be nice to him, I made an effort to say hello whenever I passed him in the hall.He must not have known how difficult it was for me to do that with everyone around already talking about us as if there were some sort of romance brewing. In any case, he didn’t show any sign of appreciating it much. He’d just smile and answer as if he’d fully expected me to speak to him and would have been surprised if I hadn’t.
    It took some of the noble feeling out of it for me. After all, I was making a pretty large gesture of kindness by acknowledging him, and he was acting as if it were his due.
    Having said that, I have to admit that I didn’t exactly go overboard being nice to him. Even though I spoke to him, I did my best to avoid getting into any real conversations. He obviously caught on too, because after a week or two he answered me when I spoke to him but didn’t make any effort to take it any further.
    Betts was over her snit and we were eating together again. It’s comical the way Betts sprawls across the lunch table any time there’s big gossip. She starts out by leaning forward and ends up with her arms spread out over the table and her chin nearly stuck into her lunch.
    She’d finally accepted that there was nothing to the story about me and Greg, although I know this was a disappointment to her. That wasn’t because she necessarily wanted to see me dating him at that point, but I’m sure she must have figured I’d be in a good position to get information out of him if I were his girlfriend.
    In Betts’s mind, Malcolm Taylor had been tried and convicted, and all that remained was for it to be made official. I did my best to avoid talking about it with her, which was no small feat. As soon as she’d bring up the subject, I’d steer the conversation away by mentioning something about whichever guy was