Vivian Apple Needs a Miracle Read Online Free PDF

Mrs. Apple was a real see-you-next-Tuesday to me, and then—”
    â€œWe fought. She wouldn’t let Harp in.” I’m amazed at how cold and controlled my own voice sounds. “I wasn’t going to stay there if she wouldn’t let Harp in.”
    The laughter drains from Winnie’s face. “I wondered why you were out on the street. Why you weren’t inside. I didn’t realize—Viv. That sucks. I’m really sorry.”
    She reaches to touch my hand. But her skin is cold from the wind, and I struggle to feel comforted by it. I know it’s like she’s throwing me a rope; she’s attempting to pull me onto safe, dry land. Maybe she really wants to be my sister. And I want to accept the gesture, to let her in. That would be the nice thing to do, the right thing to do. All I have to do is speak, or smile, and we’ll be on track. But I just can’t. I think of the hard look in my mother’s eyes the moment before I ran. I’ll work alongside Winnie; I’ll be as friendly as I can be. But I never want anyone who claims to love me to look at me like that again.
    After a long moment, Diego clears his throat. “So . . . a million dollars, huh? That’s hardly standard practice. What exactly did you do?”
    â€œThey found the compound Mara mentioned this morning,” Winnie replies when I don’t answer. “North of here; they’re not sure where. They broke in and the Church chased them out.”
    Diego’s eyebrows rise. “And?”
    Winnie looks at me. I can tell she still suspects me to have more information than I’m letting on, but she doesn’t seem to want Diego to know it. He gives me an appraising look, then turns it on Harp, who I see bristle. “And
what?”
she snaps.
    â€œThe Church has about ten dozen secret compounds,” Diego explains, “so why would they be so public about wanting to find a couple of girls who stumbled over one?”
    â€œWho knows?” Harp sounds breezy—she is, I note gratefully, a better liar than I am, even if she doesn’t understand why I lied in the first place. “They also worship a text that claims Jesus can travel through space and time in a powder-blue convertible, so I’ve personally stopped looking for logic in their actions.”
    Diego’s expression gets stony. Like Winnie, he’s unconvinced. “You do realize how weak the Church of America looks, hunting you down like this? How fallible? They’re willing to let every Believer know that the weakest possible entities—children,
female
children—pose a threat to them. If it means finding you, they’re willing to look destructible. They wouldn’t take the risk if the only thing they’re looking to hide is a compound.”
    Harp looks at me, and though her expression stays blank, I know the mere fact of her looking has tipped our hand. I continue to keep my mouth shut. Diego moves toward me, taking my right forearm into his hand—when I try to pull away, he holds on tight.
    â€œWhat happened here, Vivian?”
    I look down. The pain hasn’t subsided since the man on the street grabbed my hand, but in the excitement it’s somehow become just another fact about my otherwise hunted, threatened, dangerous body. I notice how swollen my hand has become. I look up at Diego and see something I didn’t notice before—an undercurrent of danger. A silent, reluctant message that he’s someone I do not want to cross.
    â€œYou know something.” He keeps his voice low. “You can tell me what you know or not, but I don’t like lies, Vivian. If you’re going to lie, I’m going to have my people fix up your hand and then I’m going to send you on your way. I’ll think of you fondly—I’ll worry about you—but I won’t be lied to.”
    I shiver. I don’t like how quickly Diego has shifted from