Swimsuit Read Online Free PDF Page B

baptized, Kim.’ ”
    Now Levon took off his glasses, dried his eyes with the back of his hand. Barb passed him a tissue, saying, “I know, sweetie,
     I know.”
    This is how they wanted to find Kim now.
Fine.
Levon gave Barb a crooked smile, both of them thinking how the story in the
Chicago Trib
had called her “Miracle Girl,” and sometimes they still called her that.
    Miracle Girl who got onto the varsity basketball team as a freshman. Miracle Girl who was accepted into Columbia premed. Miracle
     Girl who’d been picked for the
Sporting Life
swimsuit shoot, the odds a million to one against her.
    Levon thought,
What kind of miracle was that?

Chapter 14
    BARB TWISTED a tissue into a knot, and she said to Levon, “I should never have made such a fuss about that modeling agency.”
    “She wanted to do it, Barb. It’s no one’s fault. She’s always been her own person.”
    Barb took Kimmy’s picture from her purse, a five-by-seven headshot of eighteen-year-old Kim, taken for that agency in Chicago.
     Levon looked at the picture of Kim wearing a low-cut black sweater, her blond hair falling below her shoulders, the kind of
     radiant beauty that gave men ideas.
    “No modeling after this,” Levon said now.
    “She’s twenty-one, Levon.”
    “She’s going to be a
doctor.
Barb, there’s no good reason for her to be modeling anymore. This is the end of it. I’ll make her understand.”
    The flight attendant announced that the plane would be landing momentarily.
    Barb raised the shade and Levon looked out at the clouds flowing under the window, the peaks of them looking like they’d been
     hit with pink spotlights.
    As the tiny houses and roads of Maui came into view, Levon turned to his wife, his best pal, his sweetheart.
    “How’re you doin’, hon? Okay?”
    “Never better,” Barb chirped, attempting a joke. “And you?”
    Levon smiled, brought Barb close, and pressed his cheek to hers, smelled the stuff she put in her hair.
What Barb smelled like.
He kissed her, squeezed her hand.
    “Hang on,” Levon said, as the airplane began its steep, sickening descent. And he sent out a thought to Kim.
We’re coming for you, honey. Mom and Dad are coming.

Chapter 15
    THE McDANIELSES STEPPED from the plane’s exit door to a wobbly staircase and from there down to the tarmac, the heat suffocating
     after the chilled air on the plane.
    Levon looked around at the volcanic landscape, an astounding difference from Michigan in the black of night, with the snow
     falling down the back of his shirt collar as he’d hugged his sons good-bye.
    He took off his jacket, patted the inside pocket to make sure that their return plane tickets were safe — including the ticket
     he’d bought for Kim.
    The terminal was full of people, the waiting room in the same open-air section as the baggage claim. He and Barb turned cards
     over to an official in blue, swearing they were not bringing in any fruit, and then they looked for taxi signs.
    Levon was walking fast, feeling a heightened need to get to the hotel and not watching his feet when he sidestepped a luggage
     trolley and just about stumbled over a young girl with yellow braids. She was clutching a fuzzy toy, standing in the middle
     of everything, just taking it all in. The child looked so self-assured that she reminded Levon again of Kim, and a wave of
     panic rose in him, making him feel dizzy and sick to his stomach.
    Levon swept blindly forward, asking himself if Kim had used up her quota of miracles. Was her borrowed time up? Had the whole
     family made a tremendous mistake buying into a headline written by a reporter in Chicago, giving all of them a belief that
     Kim was so miraculous that nothing could ever hurt her?
    Levon silently begged God again to please let Kim be safe at the hotel, make her be glad to see her parents, have her say,
I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry.
    With his arm around Barb, the two headed out of the terminal, but before they