Shadow Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

slowly and clearly:
    “ We’re sorry, but the number you are calling is no longer in service .”
    I clicked the phone off. My hands were suddenly ice cold.
    No longer in service? That’s impossible.
    I realized I must have dialed the wrong number.
    I punched it in again, slowly and carefully this time.
    Again I heard the three shrill tones. And the same recording: “ We’re sorry, but the number you are calling is no longer in service .”
    I clicked off the phone again, squeezing it hard in my cold, wet hand. “It has to be a mistake,” I told myself.
    I had an idea. Aunt Rose. My dad’s sister. My aunt was away, but I knew she checked in with my mom every day.
    I’ll call and leave a message on her answering machine, I decided. She checks her machine all the time. I’ll tell Aunt Rose to call me here and let me know what’s happening with Mom.
    Music from the TV drifted up from downstairs. I heard Jada laugh about something she was watching.
    I raised the phone close to my face and pushed Aunt Rose’s number. I cleared my throat and rehearsed my message.
    The phone rang once. Twice.
    And then three shrill beeps rang in my ear. And the same recorded woman’s voice came on, speaking so slowly, so clearly:
    “ We’re sorry, but the number you are calling is no longer in service .”

13
    Maybe the phone is broken, I thought. That didn’t really make sense. But it was the only thing I could think of.
    Who else can I call? I asked myself, my mind spinning.
    I glanced at the clock. A little after seven. Mom was probably at work or on her way there. I’ll call her at the phone company.
    I had to get mom’s number from my wallet. I didn’t know it by heart, because I never call her at work.
    I dialed the number. The phone rang once. Then a taped message began. I groaned as the woman’s voice droned on and on…. “ If you are calling to add service or upgrade your present service, press three…. If you are calling about a repair, press four…. ”
    After a long while, the voice told me to stay on the line for a service representative. Then I listened to bouncy piano music for nearly ten minutes.
    Finally, a woman—a live woman—picked up andasked if she could help me.
    “I—I’d like to speak to my mom,” I stammered. “She works there. In the supervisor’s office.”
    “I’ll transfer you,” the woman said.
    I heard several clicks. A silence. Then five more minutes of piano music. “I’m going to go Craaaazy !” I exclaimed out loud.
    “Can I help you?” a man asked at the other end of the line.
    “I’m trying to reach my mother,” I replied shrilly. “Alice Miles. Has she come in?”
    Silence. Then, “Could you repeat the name, please?”
    “Yes. Alice Miles,” I said. I spelled Miles for him. “She works in the supervisor’s office,” I added.
    A longer silence. I could hear him typing on a keyboard. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t find an Alice Miles.”
    “Huh? But—she has worked there for over ten years!” I cried. “This is CitySouth Bell, right? Main office?”
    “Yes, it is,” he replied.
    “Then she has to be there! Alice Miles.”
    Another long silence. More keyboard clicking. “I’m sorry, miss,” he said finally. “But no one by that name works here.”

14
    I felt stunned. As if I’d had the breath knocked out of me.
    I gripped the edge of the desk and struggled to breathe.
    That man is wrong, I told myself. He made a mistake.
    Of course Mom works at the phone company.
    I decided to try again. I picked up the phone—but it rang in my hand. I was so startled, I dropped it onto the desk.
    Fumbling, I picked it up and answered. I hoped it was Mom. But it was Caitlin, a friend of Jada’s.
    I called downstairs to Jada to pick up the phone. I’ll try again as soon as she gets off, I decided.
    I waited. And waited. I could hear Jada jabbering on with her friend. She is never getting off! I realized.
    Sighing, I opened my math textbook. I had almost