Summerlost Read Online Free PDF Page B

said.
    â€œWe can’t stay out late at night,” Leo went on, “so we’ll have to go early in the morning. Like
really
early, so we don’t get caught. And then I’ll sit by my phone every morning to make sure no one else answers it. It’ll be easy. That’s when my parents are at work and my brothers are at practice. I’ve thought it all through.”
    â€œI can tell,” I said. “So what made you decide that you want a partner?”
    â€œMeeting you,” he said.
    Was he flirting? Teasing? Asking me to do this because he felt sorry for me because of what happened to my family? He had to know. Everyone knew. And over the past year people did nice things for me mostly out of pity.
    â€œI’ll split the money with you,” Leo said. “We’ll meet at my house at six forty-five so we can walk over to the Everett Building together. That’s where the tour is going to start—where she was born.” Lisette stared at me from the flyer and from the portrait on the wall. “What do you think?”
    â€œI’ll do it,” I said.
    I wasn’t sure why. But if I had to guess, I would say it was because I liked talking to Leo. He always seemed to be thinking about something. His brain was very busy.
    I wanted to go along with him, tag along with his mind like a hitchhiker, so that I could keep my brain busy too.

14.
    Two days later, on the evening shift, Leo told me that he’d had three customers sign up for the tour the next day.
    We were on.
    When I got home, Mom wanted to know all about work and Miles wanted to play Life again and I really needed to make sure I knew where my black T-shirt and jeans were and if I’d even brought them from our other house but I couldn’t tell my mom and Miles that. So I played a game of Life with Miles (he won, again) and then I started to lie to my mom so that I could leave in the morning to meet Leo without her freaking out if she found me gone.
    I told her that I was going to go running in the morning sometimes. This was the story Leo and I had come up with.
    â€œAlone?” she asked.
    â€œWith my new friend, Leo,” I said. “The one from work. He wants to do the junior high cross-country team next year.”
    â€œYou’re spending a lot of time with him,” she said.
    â€œI know,” I told her. “I’m glad I found a friend so fast. It makes everything more fun.”
    She smiled. “What’s his last name?”
    â€œBishop,” I said.
    â€œHis mom brought us a lasagna a few days ago,” Mom said. “She seemed nice.”
    â€œWhere’s the lasagna?” Miles asked.
    â€œI put it in the freezer,” my mom said. “I’d already started dinner that night. We can eat it tomorrow.”
    â€œOr we could eat it now,” Miles said.
    We were getting away from the topic. “So you’ll let me do it?”
    â€œAll right,” she said. “It’s light outside by then, so you should be safe. But don’t go running by yourself. If Leo’s alarm doesn’t go off or something, come back home.”
    â€œThanks,” I told her.
    When I went upstairs to go to bed and turned on the light in my room, the diamond panes reflected back at me. I found my T-shirt and jeans. I opened the window and looked out. No bird.
    Then I saw something on the windowsill. A small screwdriver, the kind of thing Ben would have liked. He never really played with toys but he liked other random things, stuff that was pretty or had a certain weight to it or interested him in some way. A few of his favorites included a wire kitchen whisk, a bracelet with a round, smooth piece of turquoise in it that he’d taken from my mom’s jewelry box, and a folded-up pamphlet from the mountain resort where he did special-needs ski lessons in the winter.
    We called the random stuff he liked
fidgets
. He carried them around and flipped them back