Red Lightning Read Online Free PDF Page A

me.”
    â€œTess, Tess, Tess.” Ed has recovered and puts his hands in his hair and rubs his scalp. “We can’t have that sort of thing around here. We have a child , we have Amber —” He throws his hands in the air. “You never understand the gravity of anything! We can’t have someone who is involved in trafficking here. Comprende ?”
    â€œWell, so, that’s what I’m saying. I’m done with it. I just came for a short visit. And then I’ll leave.” I hear the shake in my voice, feel the tremor up my spine. I hear also what I am not saying, which is: I did that run for Amber. To leave her a bit of money. To leave a small evidence of my existence. But I couldn’t find the damned people, and I never got paid, and now I have to disappear for good without leaving her anything at all.
    Libby and Ed stare at me, and I stare at my feet, shift my weight. Finally, Libby says, “I have no idea what to do with this . . . and I gotta change Kay’s bag . . . and I gotta get to work. I just can’t—”
    Ed’s hands are still at his temples, rubbing. “I’ll do Kay’s medicine. You go.”
    The world is so heavy, my body so heavy, my eyelids so heavy. My feet hurt, my mouth hurts, my bones hurt, and the world is spinning, and my mind is retreating away from my body, moving into the sky. I feel my body sink down, lean over, sideways, feel the gravel under my cheek. I close my eyes.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  In the Beginning and Once Upon a Time,
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  there was baby girl born in the
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Kingdom of Colorado,
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  a sweet child named Tess.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Who grew up and each year got more messed up,
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  perhaps because of slaps and screams
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  or alcohol
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  or the boyfriend or two (boyfriends of the mother, that is) finding ways to open her up
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  or because she was not strong enough to keep her chin up in this life.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  This Tess became a pirate. A land pirate.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Then she sailed to a place and she saw something that killed her.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  And that’s when
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Tess one day found herself looking down at herself instead of inside herself.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  At the End, of this particular story,
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Tess had to go.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  She had gotten surrounded.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Had to surrender.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  But this girl, Tess, had already begat another girl named Amber.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  And Tess wanted to tell her goodbye.
    I dig my fingers into my arm in order to try to come back, but I keep my eyes closed. At first there is silence, and then murmurs that do not involve me. Go on in to work,