The Four Corners Of The Sky Read Online Free PDF Page B

Tilting his head, he smiled. “Jack’s always okay, right? Just when you think he’s done for?”
    She stared at the man squatting there beside her, wondering how he understood her father so well. As if he’d heard the question, he added, “Your dad and his sister Sam and I sort of grew up together. He was her little brother. Well, still is.” He took off his wet glasses, shaking the rain from them, cleaning them carefully on his shirtsleeve. “My name’s Clark Goode.” He held out his hand but Annie ignored it. “I live here with Sam. Your dad ever mention he had a big sister named Samantha, Samantha Anne?”
    “That’s my name backwards. Mine’s Anne Samantha.” She scooted a few inches from behind the wheel cover. “My dad showed me Sam’s picture. On their bikes. He said he brought me here before. When I was a baby?”
    “I believe he did.”
    Annie tightened her arms around her jeans, leaning over her knees just as the man was doing, his hands clasped on his long arms. She considered pretending she personally recalled that earlier visit to Pilgrim’s Rest but decided to admit, “I don’t remember coming here.”
    “I don’t remember when I was a baby either. I bet you’ll like Sam.”
    Annie stared at him glumly.
    “She’s nice,” he said.
    There was a loud crack of rumbling noise. Annie slid herself a little nearer the man. “Thunder on the hill,” he said calmly and finding a small stick, drew circles with it in the dirt. “So Jack hit the road? Gold prospector but it never pans out.” Seeing her confusion, he added, “That’s a pun. Pun’s when a word means two things at once. Like a pan you find gold in or ‘pan out’ like something works out or it doesn’t.”
    “I know,” she said, although she hadn’t heard of puns before.
    “Did your dad mention where he was going or when he’d be back?”
    She shook her head, dropping it with a sigh to her knees.
    They sat together awhile, neither speaking. The hail stopped clattering. The barn grew darker and Annie inched forward again, closer to the man. They were quiet a few minutes longer. Finally she said, “His license plate is MJ87143. I can remember any numbers I see.”
    “Amazing.”
    She felt compelled to admit, “I can only remember for a while if it’s a lot of numbers.”
    “Still.”
    “This airplane has a number.” She pointed at the Piper. “NC48563.”
    “Exactly right.”
    “My dad said this plane’s my birthday present. Probably not true.”
    The tall man stood up slowly, kicked the wheel. “Sure it’s true. Been sitting in the barn a long time waiting for you to get here.”
    Surprised and pleased by his easy agreement, Annie scooted back to show him her father’s dragon tail of letters curled beneath the plane’s wing, spelling
King of the Sky
.
    He admired the writing with her.
    “I bet it’s fast,” she said.
    “Probably. I’m kind of a slow-lane guy myself.” He suggested they leave the barn to look for Aunt Sam while there was still some light to see by. “Sam calls her movie store Now Voyager
.
What’s your favorite movie? We could watch one tonight and get some takeout. You like Chinese food?”
    Annie’s favorite movies were
Top Gun
and
Blazing Saddles
but she wasn’t about to tell the stranger that. “Do I have to stay here?”
    “You’re welcome to. Doc Clark is what my kids call me—I’m a kids’ doctor. Or just Clark’s fine.” Leaning down, he offered Annie his hand again but she still wouldn’t take it. “Fair enough,” he said. “Come on in when you feel like you want to. I’m not going anywhere. Neither is Sam. And well, Annie, this is a damn dumb thing Jack’s done but we’ll sort it all out.”
    She hugged her legs, the small lavender jeans dirty and wet. “My dad’s in trouble again.”
    Clark nodded at her, slow, unruffled. “But let’s look on the bright side. He enjoys it.”
    “Annie! Annie!”
    Suddenly the tall tanned woman she’d first seen on the