Vanished Read Online Free PDF Page B

sell a veena like that,” Mr. Krishnan said. “It’s too lovely. It’s the kind of veena you hand down in the family.”
    â€œShe has four other veenas!”
    â€œBut this one has the loveliest sound. You’ve heard my mother play on it. Maybe it’s the wood, or the way it was carved. There’s something special about that veena.”
    â€œThere’s something special, all right,” Mrs. Krishnan said. “It’s cursed .”
    Neela stood stock-still. Did she hear right? Did her mother say “cursed”?
    â€œNow you’re sounding like my mother,” Mr. Krishnan said.
    â€œWell, the veena did disappear. Isn’t that what the curse says?”
    Neela’s heart started beating. She strained harder to hear them.
    â€œThere has to be some other explanation,” Mr. Krishnan said.
    â€œEven so,” Mrs. Krishnan said. “Maybe it’s better the veena is gone.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œJust think. Do you really want Neela playing on a veena with a history like that?” she asked. “It’s…bad luck. Maybe we shouldn’t look for the veena anymore.”
    Neela panicked. What kind of history? Would her parents stop looking for the veena because of this curse? She almost opened the door on them, but then she heard her father.
    â€œLakshmi, you can’t mean that. Think how much Neela loves the instrument, too.”
    Her mother was silent. “All right,” she said at last. “We’ll search the church tomorrow. After that…I can’t promise anything.”
    As Neela heard her parents turn off their lights to sleep, she tiptoed quietly back to bed. Her ears were ringing with what she had just heard. The veena had a curse. And that’s why it was gone. Neela remembered the looks her parents exchanged over dinner, the conversation between them when her father first found out: She shouldn’t have done it ... She didn’t have a choice .
    They weren’t talking about her! They were talking about Lalitha Patti, about whether she should have sent the veena or not. All of a sudden, everything that had happened in the past twelve hours took on a new meaning. Was it Hal, or was it a mysterious curse that had made her grandmother’s veena disappear from the church? Either way, would Neela ever find the veena again? She lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling. So many things to figure out, so many things to remember. It would be harder than ever to get to sleep.

The next morning , Neela slept through her alarm and woke up groggy. And late.
    Of course, this was nothing new. She was always late. Time was something mysterious and unstoppable in the Krishnan household. It was as if her whole family were in a crazy race, all of them trying to catch up, but always just missing the finish line.
    â€œRemember, I’m picking you up after school so we can go to the church,” Mrs. Krishnan called out from the car window as Neela raced inside the school yard. Neela was running so fast, all she could do was nod.
    In class, she slid into her seat exactly three minutes late, her hair still tangled at the ends of her ponytail. Everyone else was already at their desks, except for Matt. He was always late, too, usually later than she was, though sometimes they both pulled up to the curb at the same time in their respective minivans.
    Ms. Reese, who kept track of late minutes, raised an eyebrow at Neela. It was her teacher’s rule that anyone whose late minutes added up to thirty had to stay after school to make up the “lost” minutes. By Neela’s count, she was already up to twenty-five.
    As their teacher handed back yesterday’s spelling quizzes, Neela thought again about her parents’ conversation from last night. She glanced back at Penny, who sat behind her, and wondered if she should tell her friend about it. But Neela wasn’t yet sure what she thought of the