Saving Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

father, his chin already shadowed with a starter beard.
    Sky wiggled her fingers at the girl and she lit up, grinned, and scurried to hide behind her mother. Seconds later she was peeking out again. Sky would pretend to lose interest, looking away with her arms folded, then she’d turn suddenly and flash a smile. Each time the girl would let out a squeal and run to hide.
    â€œThat’s enough, Raya,” the woman finally said. “Calm down.”
    The man at the front of their line finally finished paying, and they all moved forward a few feet. One down, ten more carts, filled to the brim, still ahead of them. Glaciers moved faster than this.
    Mouse was draped over the front of the cart, her head resting on a sack of seeds.
    â€œWhen are we going to go ?” she whimpered.
    â€œI don’t know ,” Ana said, wrinkling her forehead with feigned confusion. “When are we going to go?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Mouse said. “I asked you first.”
    â€œI asked you second.”
    Sky went back to studying the crowd. She watched in morbid fascination as two people fought over an extensioncord. A man pushed past them, moving aggressively through the congested aisle, straight in their direction. He was very large and odd-looking—that was probably why he’d caught her eye. He had a shaved head, and a big gut, and very pale skin. Except for the long, rusty goat’s beard that hung from the tip of his chin, he looked like something made entirely of balloons: round, and pink, and shiny.
    But clownish though he was, with that bubble face and goaty beard, his expression wasn’t funny at all. He looked like—what? Like you’d better get out of his way.
    The man finally reached the cross aisle and turned to the left. There was a little blond kid, walking beside her father’s cart, holding on with one hand. She was clueless to the fact that she was taking up precious space. The man started nudging her with his cart. She stopped, turned around, and stared at him. The harried father plucked her out of the aisle and dropped her into his cart. Goat-Man moved into the breach.
    Then he spotted the foreign family, and something happened to his face.
    They’re like cartoon eyes, Sky remembered thinking—the ones with concentric circles that radiated outward, going boing, boing, boing! And the thought disarmed her so that she was unprepared when the crash came.

7
He’s Only a Boy
    G LARING ANGRILY AT THE FAMILY, Goat-Man slammed his shopping cart into theirs. The impact was so loud, and so sudden, Sky felt her stomach flip.
    The little girl had been mimicking Mouse, hanging on to the front of the cart. The blow sent her flying. She hurt her leg in the fall and began to cry. The mother, shooting a venomous glance at the goat-beard man, hurried to pick her up.
    â€œWhat’s the matter with you?” the husband asked. His accent was clipped, precise. “Why did you do that?”
    â€œBecause I don’t want you people here,” Goat-Man said, leaning closer, chin first, squinting with distaste. “Why don’t you go back to where you came from? Huh? Blow your own people up.”
    The girl was sobbing, “He pushed me off ! He pushed me off !”
    Ana reached out for Sky and Mouse, pulling them to the far side of the cart. Then she leaned down and whispered, “Stay here. I’m going to get help.”
    â€œWe have done nothing,” the father insisted. “We are American citizens. We have every right. So please move your cart and wait in line like everyone else.”
    â€œWhy don’t you take your blanking cart out of this blanking line before I blanking knock it over ?”
    Even the most harried shoppers stopped to stare.
    â€œNo, sir, I will not. We were here first. We’re American citizens.”
    â€œYeah, so you said,” Goat-Man snarled. “Only, see, I don’t really care.” He grabbed the