The Vanishings Read Online Free PDF Page B

joyous uncle entertaining everyone. Lionel’s mother put her arm around him as she watched André. She pulled Lionel to herself and said, “Isn’t the Lord wonderful? Don’t we have a good God?”
    Lionel tried to ignore her, but she noticed. “Hm?” she said. “Aren’t you glad to serve a God who loves you so much?”
    â€œUm-hm,” Lionel lied. “Sure, Mama. ’Course I am.”
    He felt terrible. Like a hypocrite. Like the liar he was.

FOUR
Ryan—The Skeptic
    â€œYOUR real name’s Rayford?” Ryan Daley squealed at his best friend. “We’ve known each other how long, and I never knew that!”
    Raymie Steele smiled and shook his head. “Don’t make such a big deal about it. Otherwise I’ll tell everybody your middle name!”
    The boys had grown up on the same street, one living on each end. They had begun kindergarten together, and now they were both twelve and in the sixth grade. They were as close as brothers. Ryan was an only child, and Raymie may as well have been. His only sister, Chloe, was eight years older and had been away at college two years already.
    Ryan and Raymie had a lot in common. Each had a father who was too busy for him. These guys needed each other. Ryan was a little shorter and thicker than Raymie, who wasslender and tall and dark like his father. Ryan was a blond and the better athlete of the two.
    Like any close friends, they squabbled a lot. Once in a while they even said nasty things to each other and vowed never to talk to each other again. The next day one would call the other or just go to his house, and they would start in where they had left off, best friends. No apologies, no mention of the argument. Just friends again.
    They had always gotten a kick out of how close their first names were. That was what had started the discussion of their real full names. Ryan said he had been named after three famous Chicagoans. “My first name comes from Dan Ryan. I don’t even know who he was, but there’s an expressway named after him. And my middle name, promise you’ll never tell a soul, comes from some old mayor from way back when who got assassinated.”
    â€œWhat’s his name?”
    â€œI don’t want to tell you. I don’t trust you.”
    â€œIf you can’t trust me —”
    â€œOK, I trust you. But you gotta promise.”
    â€œI promise.”
    â€œAnd you’ve got to tell me a secret you don’t want anybody to know.”
    â€œI will.”
    â€œAll right,” Ryan said. “The mayor’s name was Anton Cermak.”
    Raymie Steele had doubled over laughing. Ryan couldn’t resist laughing too. “So,” Raymie said when he caught his breath, “is your middle name Anton or Cermak?”
    â€œCermak,” Ryan mumbled.
    â€œNo!”
    â€œYes! Isn’t that awful? And my last name’s the same as a former Chicago mayor too.”
    â€œI know. How’d your middle-name guy get assassinated?”
    â€œMy mom made me look it up. For some reason he was in a parade in Florida with President Roosevelt when some guy tried to shoot the president, missed, and hit Cermak.”
    â€œWhich Roosevelt?”
    â€œI don’t know. Was there more than one?”
    â€œâ€™Course,” Raymie said. “Teddy and Franklin.”
    â€œProbably Teddy, I guess.”
    â€œWhen was this?”
    â€œIn the 1930s, I think.”
    â€œThen it had to be Franklin.”
    â€œWhatever, Raymie. How do you know all that stuff?”
    â€œI don’t know. I just like to study, and I remember a lot of it.”
    â€œSo it’s your turn to tell me something you don’t want anybody else to know.”
    â€œAll right, Ryan, as long as we’re talking about names, I’m actually a ‘junior.’”
    â€œYour name is the same as your dad’s?”
    â€œYup.”
    â€œSo his name