The Dance Read Online Free PDF Page A

meaningless.”
    “I wonder,” Michael said.
    They said their good-byes, both sides promising to be in touch. It was four o’clock; the sun set early this time of year. Michael dialed a number that gave up-to-the-minute weather reports. The word was that it would be raining again in the desert. He decided to finish cleaning his telescope and put it away.
    The garage was somewhat stuffy. He pushed open the door, deeply breathing the crisp evening air. It was then he noticed the car parked up the street.
    Michael had never seen Jessica leave school in her car, but he remembered the silver-blue Celica in her driveway the evening of their date. This car appeared to be the identical make, and someone was sitting in the front seat. Because of the lighting, however, he couldn’t tell who it was, whether it was a male or female even. Well, he had just the thing to solve the mystery. He positioned his telescope in the driveway behind a bush. With a little maneuvering, he was able to see the person between the branches without being seen. A moment of focusing presented him with a clear view of every detail on Jessica Hart’s face.
    She was working on something and had a pencil in her mouth. He watched for a minute while she scratched her head, wrinkled her forehead, glanced at her watch, and grimaced. No matter what the expression, to him she was beautiful.
    Since he had returned to school, he had gone to great pains to avoid her, more than he had during the week following their one date. He’d asked and received another locker. He’d avoided the courtyard during both break and lunch. He’d obtained a list of her classes from the computer at school and mapped out in his head where she should be at any particular moment, planning his own routes accordingly.
    “ I loved Alice. I loved her more than the world. And what I said to the police, I didn’t say because I wanted to. It hurt me to say it, as much as it’s hurting me to stand here and have you accuse me… ”
    Naturally, despite his precautions, he had occasionally bumped into her, anyway. But they’d exchanged few words. Hello. How are you? Take care. Good-bye. But he’d seen enough of her to know his longing for her had not died with Alice, as he had thought it would. It had only grown stronger.
    She was parked in front of Julie Pickering’s house. He hadn’t realized they were friends. She was probably waiting for Julie to come home. From what he could see, he guessed she might be finishing up some homework before knocking on Julie’s door. She could disappear any second.
    He didn’t give himself a chance to think about it, to chicken out. He started up the street. He had decided that first night in the desert that he owed her an apology.
    Halfway to her car, he saw her notice him. He waved.
    “Hi. Jessie?”
    She rolled down her window, peeked her head outside, her long brown hair covering her shoulder. “Yeah, it’s me,” she said, her smile strained. “Hi, Michael. I guess you’re wondering what I’m doing here?”
    He nodded toward the Pickerings’ residence. “You know Julie, don’t you?”
    Jessica glanced at Julie’s house. “Ah, yeah, Julie. Yeah, I know her.”
    “Are you two going to study together?” He remembered Julie, like Jessica, was taking chemistry.
    “Yeah, that’s it. I mean, I didn’t know you and Julie lived on the same block?”
    He gestured vaguely back the way he had come. “I live over there.”
    “Oh.”
    He put his hands in his pockets, looked at the ground. That was the neat thing about the ground. It was always there to look at when you were talking to a pretty girl. He didn’t know how to begin.
    “I haven’t seen you around school much,” she said finally.
    “I’ve been around.”
    “Do you have a new locker?”
    “Yeah, they gave me one. Somebody transferred to another school.” He shrugged. “It was available.”
    “I bet you have a lot more room now?”
    “You never crowded me.”
    “Sure I did.