The Edge of the Shadows Read Online Free PDF

chasing balls. It was something to do, Seth figured, while he showed the kid the pond.
    Aidan, he saw, was not impressed. He stared at the pond with dull eyes and said, “Yeah. Cool.” That was the limit, a real conversation ender.
    Seth said, “You a boarder, huh?” in reference to the skateboard. “Snowboard, too?”
    â€œHell yeah,” Aidan said. “You board around here? Does anyone?” He asked the question like a kid who thought Whidbey Islanders were living in a period prior to the existence of skateboards. He didn’t seem to expect an answer, either. He dug deep in the pocket of his jeans and brought out a pack of Camels. He said, “You got a match?” which Seth didn’t. When Seth told him this, the other boy swore and shoved the cigarettes back where he’d found them. He set his skateboard on the ground and sat on it, staring moodily at the surface of the pond. He said, “Christ, what a pit. How d’you stand living here? She doesn’t even have
Internet
. You got Internet?”
    Seth joined him on the ground. Gus ran over with the ball in his mouth. Seth kept throwing it to keep the dog entertained. He said, “Here?” and gestured around the place. “Nope. Grand doesn’t believe in the Internet.”
    â€œSo how the hell d’you . . . I dunno . . . How do you talk to your friends?”
    â€œI don’t live here,” he said. “I got Internet where I live. They got it in the Commons, if you need it. South Whidbey Commons. In Langley. You been there? It’s where kids hang out.”
    Aidan scoffed. “She wants to handpick who I meet,” he said. “So if it’s kids in general and she don’t know them or at least know
about
them . . . ? No way. I might get in ‘trouble.’” He sketched quotation marks in the air. He snorted. “She makes me run to the beach and back twice a day,” he went on. “Isis goes, too, because she’s my frigging guard, you know? She rides a bike so I can’t ditch her.” He smiled to himself. “I ditch her anyway. Into the forest and what’s she gonna do? Ride after me? Not hardly. She might break a fingernail. She doesn’t want to tail me anyway. She hates it here as much as I do.”
    â€œWho’s Isis?” Seth asked, as there wasn’t much else Aidan was giving him to go on conversation-wise, aside from a general air of unpleasantness that Seth decided it was best to ignore.
    â€œSister,” he said. “Prison guard. Whatever.” He looked around, his expression indifferent. “What do people freaking
do
around here?”
    Seth thought about telling him that the island was pretty much like everywhere else. Whatever you wanted, you could find if you looked hard enough as long as it wasn’t a fast-food chain, of which there were none except a single Dairy Queen on the highway coming up from the ferry dock. But he figured Aidan would work things out for himself.
    A question gave Seth the information that the boy was enrolled at South Whidbey High School, so Seth knew that all Aidan had to do was ask around for what he wanted. The school was small, but it was like any other high school in the country: There were your dopers, your athletes, your heavy scholars, your techies, your various kinds of artists, your losers, your dweebs. There was booze aplenty. There were drugs of all kinds. There were also parties that featured both. Since the kid didn’t look like a narc and he didn’t act like one, he’d do okay if he lost the attitude.
    Seth said, “Kids do regular stuff, I guess,” to which Aidan replied with a guffaw, “I bet.”
    Seth felt himself bristle at this implied judgment of a place he’d lived all his life. He started to say something but Aidan interrupted.
    â€œSorry, man,” he said quickly as if he realized how he’d been