The People Next Door Read Online Free PDF

Briela raised the flag. Dad looked over his shoulder every three seconds. Mom watched him, murmuring prayers.
     The rope went taught. His body coiled into itself, hardening as the boat dragged him gently in a perfect line. His arms locked,
     the ski tip poking above the surface. Breathe, breathe. Don’t let go, he told himself, don’t let go.
    ‘Ready?’ Dad hollered.
    Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Now or never. Okay, now.
    ‘Hit it!’ In the split second before his dad rammed the throttle, Kyle lowered his face to the water, waiting for the evil
     suck. The deep roar filled his ears and the placid green glass before him became a white thundering waterfall. The strain
     was merciless, packing water into his sinuses like a punch to the forehead. The ski danced wildly, but he used his hip muscles
     to hold it true.
    One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand
…
    It was an endless avalanche, filling his throat, puffing his eyelids.
    Four one thousand
…
    The rubber handle was slipping from his palms, as ifsome demon were prying at his fingertips with a crowbar. But he realized this was
the
moment, the moment when he always caved in, and he decided no, evil suck, not today.
    Kyle tucked his knees to his chin, becoming more ball than man. Felt the ski rotating like a great lever, an invisible hand
     shoving him up onto a table. Gallons of water fell away and then he simply unbent his knees, blinking into sunshine. The boat
     reached its cruising speed of thirty-four and Kyle released a cry of victory. His entire family was standing in the boat,
     fists pounding the sky. He couldn’t remember making them so proud.
    Actual skiing had never been difficult for him, and he had gotten good at crossing the wake, managing the tension in the rope,
     rotating from edge to edge to make his turns. But he had never been up on the Connelly. This wasn’t like the clunky O’Brien
     family skis. This dense black stiletto was part of his body, reading his every intention without the slightest hesitation.
     He merely
thought
about exiting the wake, and the ski led him out in a gliding arc, hissing as he rotated to his inside edge, leveraging the
     boat’s horsepower to fire him back across the wake like a bullet.
    He expected a huge jolt, but the slalom cut the wake with only the briefest
bump-bump
, and then he was hooking once again, free, riding the water like a porpoise, a god. The Connelly threw a twenty-foot rooster
     tail and he looked back to see a handful of rainbows falling in the glittering wall. Kyle had never had sex, but he was pretty
     sure this was better. He
owned
.
    The swim beach raced by and he wondered if any of his friends from school were watching him now. He made six seamless cuts,
     side to side, falling into an effortless snaking rhythm.
Bump-bump-hiiisssssss, bump-bump-hiiisssssss
. To the inside, the orange docks flickered, the occasional fishing boat, and then they were coming up on the dam, a long
     wall of rocks to his outside right.
    Boom, slide, boom, slide … Another six cuts.
    Easing back into the wake with thighs burning, Kyle crooked the rubber handle inside his elbows. He shook out his cramped
     hands, exhausted but nowhere near ready to give up. He would make a full loop if it killed him.

6
    In the bow, flag snapping against her hip, Briela lost her brother in the sun’s white glare. She blinked and twisted her head
     side to side. She saw the dam flashing by, and something odd on the path atop it. There was a family standing together, watching
     her. They were very still, like a photograph, and there were four of them. Mother, father, daughter, and son. Holding hands,
     dressed in clean white clothes like people at a tennis match. Their faces were creamy smears, their eyes specks of dark fixed
     on her, and then she was blinded again. She put a hand over her eyes, but the top of the dam was empty from end to end.
    The other family was … gone.
    She felt sick in her tummy, everything