The Visitor Read Online Free PDF Page A

were dead.
    â€œI’m … I’m fine,” I said. “I could use the exercise.”
    â€œNonsense, young lady,” Chapman said, sounding like his usual assistant-principal self. “It’s beginning to rain. Get in.”
    What was I supposed to do? I forced a smile. It wasn’t easy. “Thanks,” I said.
    Melissa was in the front with her father. I sat in the back. I tried not to shiver. I tried not to stare at the back of Chapman’s head. That’s how it is when you’re around a Controller. You know that evil slug is right there in the Controller’s head, attached to all his nerve endings. Controlling the human brain. Dominating it.
    It’s hard not to stare when you think of what is squeezed inside that skull.
    â€œWhen we were stuck back at the red light it looked like some guy was bothering you,” Melissa said. “Then he ran off. Was he bothering you?”
    â€œUm … no,” I lied. “He was … he was just picking up something he dropped by the side of the road.”
    Pathetic! I was such a lame liar.
    I saw Chapman’s eyes watching me in therearview mirror. He looked like normal old Chapman. That’s the problem with Controllers. There is no outward clue. They look so normal.
    â€œHe went running off like the hounds of Hades were after him,” Chapman said.
    â€œDid he?” I said in a squeaky voice. “I wasn’t looking. I guess it was the rain. That’s probably why he was running. There. You can turn left there.”
    â€œI know where you live,” Chapman said.
    I almost swallowed my tongue. Was that a threat? Did he suspect? Did he guess? Was he looking at me strangely?
    Or was I just being paranoid?
    He pulled up in front of my house. My heart was hammering, but I was determined to act casual. “Thanks for the ride, Mr. Chapman,” I said. “Hey, Melissa, I was totally serious about us getting together, okay?”
    She nodded. “Sure, Rachel. Absolutely.”
    I closed the car door behind me. I had escaped. I was alive. I’d probably just been imagining things.
    Then I heard Melissa call out to me. “Hey. What happened to your shoes?”
    I looked down. My shoes were in tatters, the result of my feet growing from a size six to a size three hundred in about five seconds flat.
    â€œSee?” I said, as lightly as I could. “I told you I needed to go shopping.”
    Melissa just looked puzzled. Her father stared at me with an expression I could not read.
    I was shaking like a leaf when I walked into my house. I headed upstairs to my room and stuffed my ripped shoes into the trash. Only then did I go back downstairs and say hi to my mom. She was at the kitchen table, half hidden by a pile of buff-colored books. My mother’s a lawyer, and she brings work home a lot so she can be around me and my two little sisters. She and my dad are divorced. I only get to see my dad a few days a month, so Mom feels guilty when she isn’t there for us.
    â€œHi, honey,” she said. Then she got her “suspicious mother” look. “How did you get home? You didn’t walk, did you? You were supposed to call me.”
    â€œMelissa and her dad gave me a ride,” I said. Well, it was the truth. Sort of.
    She relaxed and made a point of closing her book. “Sorry. You know I worry about you.”
    â€œWhere are Jordan and Sara?”
    â€œThey’re in the family room watching another one of those scary shows. Of course, tonight Jordan will be sleeping with her night-light on and Sara will end up in my bed, no doubt. I don’t know why they like things that frighten them. You were never that way.”
    It almost made me laugh. I felt like saying, well, Mom, I don’t have to watch things that are scary; I am scary. Should have seen me a little while ago with tusks sticking out of my mouth and a three-foot-long nose.
    What I really said was, “So,