She Speaks to Angels Read Online Free PDF Page B

later?” Jennifer waved goodbye and jumped into her sedan. I stood with Molly for a few minutes more in the driveway.
    “ Don’t do anything stupid...at least not without us.” The glint in her eyes told me that, despite her complaints, she loved trouble.
    “ I won’t. Promise.” With a warm hug Molly departed. I loosened my coat as I entered the house.
    “ Your friends gone?” Mom asked from the kitchen, where she was baking.
    “ Yeah, Mom.” I shouted in return.
    “ Sit with me then.” I followed the sound of her voice as she moved from the kitchen to the living room. I looked at her as she stood there. Both her head and her body were rather rounded, but her brunette hair was pulled into a tight bun on the top of her head, adding a couple of inches to her height. Her sky-blue eyes met mine, eyes that reminded me of myself.
    I plopped down in the rocking chair adjacent to the sofa where Mom sat and rested my hands on the wooden chair arms, curling my toes under, pushing myself back and forth.
    “ What did you want to talk about?” I asked. Mom had that look, the one that said this would be a long conversation.
    When her lean fingers extended to mine, I knew this would be a serious talk. “I just wanted to make sure you were OK. You know, since Tommy’s suicide. If there is anything you want to talk to me about, any feelings about this, I am here for you.”
    I took a breath and my focus went from Mom to the curtained window and back to Mom.
    “ I...I feel scared about it I guess. Confused.” Shrugging, I tried to examine my own feelings, emotions that I hadn’t quite figured out since Dameon asked me. “I...no one was expecting this. His death was such a surprise. I guess I’m more shocked than anything. I mean, a football player!”
    “ Samuel told me all about it. He was one of the first on the scene after the principal called.”
    I curled one leg underneath the other and bit my lip. Samuel. I wanted to make sure to talk to him before he left. Who knew when I’d see him again. I glanced at the clock on the wall; still early enough, 8:05AM. He wouldn’t leave until 9:00AM.
    Mom rubbed her fingers over my knuckles, then my wrist. “If anything like that ever happened to you...I would just...I don’t know how I would ever get through it.”
    “ You won’t have to, Mom. I’m fine.” I sensed the churning mix of worry and guilt inside her. She carried those heavy emotions everywhere, always questioning what she had done that horrible day my father died. Wondering if she had only done this or that differently if he would still be alive. She didn’t want to have to regret another death in the family.
    “ You would tell me if you felt depressed...or...”
    “ Mom, don’t worry.” I stood and leaned in for a hug. “I’m fine. I’m not Tommy. I’m not Daddy.” I arched my brows and used my most serious expression. “I’m not going anywhere.”
    “ Better not.” Mom ended our hug with a tickle to my ribs and a kiss to my cheek before she finally let me go.
    Out of the corner of my eye I saw Samuel, already in uniform, skip down the stairs to the living room and head into the kitchen. As I heard the sound of eggs being scraped out of the pan and onto a plate at the small dining table, I let go of Mom, too, but the warmth of her hug lingered with me.
    “ I want to talk to Samuel,” I whispered. Rushing away from Mom, I felt her eyes on me the whole way to the kitchen table.
    “ Hey, Sam.” I joined him.
    “ Hey, sis, what’s up?” Samuel’s big brown puppy-dog eyes looked out from under hairy brows.
    As he put a spoonful of eggs into his large mouth, I answered him. “I was just wondering how things went at my school...you know with Tommy’s accident.” I doubted Tommy had jumped. Pushed by Clark? Slipped from fear? But suicide didn’t make sense.
    “ Well, we’ve collected all the evidence we found on the ground and on the roof.”
    Damn, the roof. I forgot how thorough my