Pink Smog Read Online Free PDF

to die. It was Los Angeles light.
    The gentle arguing escalated to screams of broken glass. We hadn’t been to the private beach in Malibu in a while. I heard Edie, the young wife in hand-painted silk chiffon, had left Irv, the producer. The boy in the song was probably dead.
    My dad was gone.
    You must not be afraid , the man in the Mercedes had said.
    But I always kind of was.

WINTERISH
    T he next day there was a green spiral notebook on my desk in Miss Spinner’s class. My heart started pounding so hard I thought it would slam through my chest. The notebook turned out to only be someone’s English journal, left behind from the last class, but after that, everywhere I looked I thought I saw that slam book following me around. I wondered what they were going to write about me. It made me sweat no matter how much antiperspirant I used. L.A. didn’t seem beautiful to me anymore. The air was always hot like the city was on fire.
    When I came home from school, three red dogs were sitting in front of our door. They were sitting so close together that they looked like one dog with three heads. I vaguely remembered a story my dad had told me about a three-headed dog that guarded the gates of hell. My mom was always getting mad at my dad for telling me scary stories but I liked them. And I wasn’t usually scared of dogs—I loved dogs. I walked the ones in the neighborhood to make extra money and I loved them all. The little, snippety ones and the shy, fat ones and the strong, proud ones. I begged my parents for a puppy all the time. But now I was afraid.
    The dogs growled at me and licked their chops. They had sharp ears and teeth and angry curling tails. I backed away. That was when I heard the cackling sound. It was the girl again. She was standing behind me with her arms crossed over her chest. She wore the same childish dress and shoes.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” she said in that voice like an angry bird’s. “Don’t you like my chow chows?” The dogs growled and she clicked her tongue at them.
    â€œYour dogs are in front of my door,” I said.
    â€œOh, really? Just like I was the other night. How funny.” She began to laugh.
    â€œPlease move them.”
    â€œSure!” She bent over and clapped her hands. “Come on, boys,” she said. “Go get her!”
    The dogs tensed, and sniffed the air, then leaped up and tore down the stairs toward me. I took my roller skates off my shoulder and stood ready to hurl them at the vicious red fur faces. I don’t remember anything more about that moment except the sound of a whistle behind me. The dogs stopped and put their heads down, began to whimper.
    The boy, the one from the pool, was standing there.
    â€œAnna,” he said. “What the hell are you doing? Get them out of here!”
    The girl stared at him and opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but he raised his hand—his pale blue eyes were a command. She called the dogs and huffed off daintily with her nose and butt in the air.
    I sat down on the bottom of my steps and rubbed the sides of my face. I was too freaked out to even be happy to see Angel Boy.
    â€œWhat was that?” I asked.
    He flipped his skateboard up with one toe and caught it. “Are you okay?”
    â€œWho are you? And why are you always here when I need you?”
    He shrugged. “You sure do need me a lot,” he said. Then he added: “He was right.”
    Before I could say anything else, he had skated away over the pavement, swiveling his hips slightly to steer the board. I didn’t even try to run after him, though I wanted to. Everything was just too weird.
    â€œMom,” I said out loud, but barely. “I need help. I need you.” I knew she couldn’t hear me and that she probably wouldn’t come even if she could. “Mom? Dad?”
    Who was the boy? He had rescued me two times. He knew the girl, and the dogs. He