The Secret Hour Read Online Free PDF

from the stop sign; slowly, it approached the house.
      “One day won’t matter,” Teddy said unsurely, looking down at his sister.
      “You can trust me,” Kate said. “To take good care of her. That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You don’t want to leave her with me?”
      “I don’t know you,” Teddy said, meeting her eyes. The bus slowed down, gears grinding.
      “You’re a good brother,” Kate said. “You love your sister the way I love mine.”
      He nodded.
      “So go to school. Be strong—for her. No matter how hard it gets, show up. I promise you I’ll take care of her. You don’t have to worry about that.”
      The bus stopped outside. Teddy’s fingers twitched on his backpack. Maggie huddled with Brainer, face still hidden in his horrible messy fur.
      “Get your face out of there,” he said, yanking his sister’s shoulder. “You want to get a tick bite on your face? Or scratched with goddamned thorns?”
      “I don’t care if Brainer’s messy,” Maggie cried out. “So am I. We’re the same!”
      “That dog needs a bath,” Teddy said, his teeth gritted. “I swear, I’m skipping practice tonight to give him one. I’m gonna get rid of every tick, every goddamn tangle.”
      “Don’t do that, Teddy,” Kate said softly. “Take care of yourself. I’ll take care of Maggie and Brainer.”
      “Because you took care of your sister?”
      Kate nodded. “And her dog.”
      She stared at Teddy, and suddenly Teddy knew: They were the same. Kate was older, she was a woman and a stranger, but she and Teddy were exactly alike in the way that mattered.
      Teddy had no doubt that Kate was telling the truth: She loved her sister.
      And she would take care of Maggie—till Teddy got home from school, till their father came home from work. The bus driver blew his horn.
      “Okay,” Teddy said, making up his mind as the driver gunned the engine, starting to pull away.
      Kate threw open the door. “WAIT!” she called.
      The bus stopped. Teddy pulled on his jacket, hoisted his backpack. Maggie refused to look up. Words caught in Teddy’s throat. He touched his sister’s hair—nearly as grungy as Brainer’s—and backed away.
      “You’re my girl, Mag,” he said.
      She didn’t reply, didn’t raise her head. Kate held the door open, and Teddy ran down the steps. He tore across the yard, noticing the driver’s open mouth, curious expression—the kitchen window was jagged with broken glass. Jumping up the bus’s step, Teddy turned to look back at his house. Yellow leaves rained down from the trees in the yard.
      Kate stood in the door.
        Cold October sunlight struck her face, her brown hair. Her eyes glinted in the slightest of smiles as she petted Brainer. Teddy stared as he made his way to his seat, remembering all the times his mother had stood in the doorway, waving and smiling as the bus pulled away; Brainer had been silky and golden back then. Maggie chose that moment to peer around from behind Kate and wave.
      Kate didn’t wave. Neither did Teddy. They were both staring at each other, but he had the feeling they were thinking of other people. Other people they missed, who weren’t there anymore.
      The bus sped up, rounding the corner where the seawall dropped down to the rocky beach and breakwater, past the dirt road leading to the tall and lonely lighthouse, and Teddy’s big white house disappeared from sight.
     
      The ER was a hive of activity. If John O’Rourke were another type of lawyer, he could be drumming up business left and right. In Exam Room 1, an old woman who had slipped and fallen at All-Save was waiting to have her hip x-rayed; Exam Room 2 contained a child whose inhaler had failed, on oxygen and a heart monitor; Exam Room 4 held a drug addict, thrashing and moaning in withdrawal, waiting for a bed to become available in the detoxification unit. Pain equaled lawsuits.
      John, in Exam Room 3, heard everything.