The Next Full Moon Read Online Free PDF Page A

they’d stood there watching each other, only feet away, before the animal turned and bolted. Amazing.
    She leaned back again, feeling happy suddenly. She stretched out her arms and realized they were sort of beautiful, the feathers. Weird, yes. But sort of beautiful.
    In a weird way.
    The whole day spread out in front of her. She could watch Pretty in Pink maybe, if her dad had Tivo’d it, which he probably had, to be nice. Watching Molly Ringwald make that cool pink eighties dress always made her feel better about the world. She could lay out some more, but was there really a point now? She could play video games, or give Monique a new hairdo. Monique hadn’t really been looking so sharp lately.
    What she really wanted to do, she decided, was see her grandma. It had been at least a couple of weeks since she’d seen her, and you never knew with old people. Grandma Kay was always saying she had one foot in the grave, whichmade Ava imagine her with one foot in a big hole in the ground, her spindly legs stretching out like taffy. Ava loved her grandmother and her little house that always seemed to smell like gingerbread. Even if Grandma Kay was a little nutty sometimes, as Ava’s dad put it, she was the one person who could make everything seem normal again.
    When Ava stood, finally, there were white feathers all over the grass. From her or from the swan, she couldn’t be sure.
    â€œGreat.” she said out loud. Shouting after the swan like a crazy person. “That’s just great! Thank you!”
    It was slow going, trying to shower. Feathers kept clogging the drain and she had to scoop them out and throw them into the toilet so the shower wouldn’t overflow. Plus the whole feathers-in-the-drain thing might look sort of funny when her dad got home, she thought. Monique didn’t make it any easier, perched the whole time on the toilet, eyeing Ava suspiciously and occasionally voicing her discontent.
    It felt surprisingly good though, the water moving over her, and she couldn’t help but notice how clean and bright the feathers were after. Even cleaner and brighter than they had been before, which was sort of crazy.
    She dressed quickly, tearing through her closet to find the hoodie she’d worn all winter and throwing it on. It seemed to cover everything all right as long as she kept the sleeves down and the hood on her head. Which might look strange toanyone else, wearing long sleeves and a hood in the summer sun, but not as strange as it’d look to be covered in feathers. She could just pretend she was delicate and cold all the time, like Grandma Kay was. Though Grandma Kay was, like, a thousand years old.
    Luckily, Grandma Kay wouldn’t notice anything; that she could be sure of. Grandma Kay had started losing her sight some years before and by now was nearly blind. Grandma Kay might be her only friend from now on, come to think of it. Though maybe, Ava thought, it would be possible for her to meet other blind people who would accept her. Blind people! The thought was heartening.
    Ava felt like a spy as she cut through the woods and took back roads to Grandma Kay’s. She loved this route: the wildflowers growing along the sides of the roads, the sweet little houses with porches wrapping around them, the big swaying trees. It might have been a nowhere town, but it was awfully pretty. She loved the little park on her grandma’s side of town, with the treehouses and the merry-go-round covered with pictures of snails.
    Grandma Kay lived in a house that felt more like home than anywhere Ava had ever been. As she approached, she already started feeling like everything would be all right. But how could it be, really?
    â€œGrandma!” she called, pushing through the screen door in back, which was never locked.
    There was no answer.
    â€œGrandma!”
    â€œIs that you Ava?”
    â€œYes, where are you?”
    â€œIn here!”
    Ava followed her voice into