The Lottery Read Online Free PDF

sis wanted a go at it,” he shrugged. “I had to warm up the reed for her, so I must confess my lips did make body contact.”
    He returned to his sine wave pattern and Sal coasted along behind him, converting his tracks into a double helix. “Your sister thinking of following in your musical footsteps?”
    “Musical wheel tracks. I’m the footless wonder, remember?”
    Brydan said it casually, but Sal flushed. To cover, she leaned over and gently whacked the back of his head. “Lucky this isn’t one of your phantom limbs.”
    Brydan grinned. “Actually, it’s an apparition. There I was, car smashed to smithereens, me missing both my legs and my head. How was I supposed to become a world-class clarinetist, decapitario? So I did this deep-sixnew-age visualization thing where I tapped into cosmic consciousness, and presto — I visualized a new head! Lucky everyone else can see it too.”
    “Too bad you didn’t visualize one that worked,” said Sal. “And did you have to visualize a muffler sticking out of your forehead? All that blood gushing out the back?”
    Brydan was the only person she could joke with about car crashes. She hadn’t told him about her father, but there was an understanding between them, like shared air. Concentrating on the double helix she was creating, she matched Brydan curve for curve. It was hypnotic, made her brain go stupid. The bike wobbled, she took a sharp swerve and had to put on the brakes.
    “You wouldn’t get anywhere in Special Olympics,” Brydan smirked.
    She opened her mouth, about to make a quick comeback when a series of shrill short screams started up close by, as if someone was being turned on and off. Making a quick U-turn, Sal saw a small group of kids at the other end of the park, pushing and shoving somebody in their midst. Instinctively she looked toward Brydan, who’d already dumped his sine wave pattern and was making a beeline toward them. Sal put on a burst of speed to catch up, then braked as she recognized the circling toughs — five grade nine boys reputed to be collecting bonus points for their frequent trips through youth court. A girl stood hunched between them as one boy pulled her hair and another grabbed her diskman. In spite of the pushing shoving bodies, Sal knew the victim immediately — the girl from the washroom, the strange loner who’d seen her in the washroom with the first scroll.
    “Losers!” Brydan screamed, running his wheelchair full tilt into the back of the nearest boy. The domino effect took over, bodies falling everywhere, Brydan careening off his chair onto the top of the heap. Swerving to miss the group, Sal landed on her knees in the wet grass. The shock was jarring but she dragged herself to her feet, wanting to help Brydan off the heap before too many others got moving. He seemed all right, his glasses lopsided, his eyes fiercely bright.
    “You need a seat belt for this kind of thing, Bry.” As the groaning heap of bodies began to disentangle, she shoved the wheelchair toward him and extended an awkward hand. How was she supposed to get him from the ground into his wheelchair? What was the etiquette for this kind of situation?
    “I’ve got it,” Brydan muttered, grabbing the arms of the wheelchair and swinging himself easily into the seat. “My diskman fell off. It’s in that pile somewhere.”
    As the heap erupted, Sal braced herself for another attack, but the five boys took off, waving the two disk-mans and hooting loudly. Brydan stared after them grimly, hands jerking the wheels of his chair back and forth as he pounded after the thieves on phantom feet. Sal knew how tight his family’s finances were — they’d never be able to replace a stolen diskman. Heart in a dull thud, she reached for her bike, but Brydan’s voice stopped her.
    “Leave it. They’d take your face off.”
    Popping a wheelie, he let out a string of swear words. Unsure of his mood, Sal squatted and began picking up the books that had