Broken Read Online Free Page B

forehead.
    “Call me tomorrow,” he whispered.
    My breath caught for a second, but I recovered my poise.
    “Sure.”
    He turned and walked down the hall towards the elevators. I
actually stood there, watching him go. I rolled my eyes at my own
foolishness.
    What was I doing?
    When I stopped being such a girl and picked my dignity off the
floor, I closed the door.
    Fortunately, little green dude wasn’t there.
    I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
    Since I’d slept most of the day, I wasn’t overly
tired. I now had three choices because I couldn’t sit here
pining for Chris — comb through the papers that Joan had left
me, examine the extra earring and see if I could dig up a number
for Aunt Marigold, or take a shower.
    I opted for the shower — piping hot.
    I stood in the water for a good ten minutes, just letting the
heat soak in before I did anything. I tried not to think, but that
wasn’t so easily accomplished.
    I had just learned I was adopted; my mother had revealed to me
the purpose of my being in her family; my brother didn’t
believe any of it was true; a hot friend of mine was giving me
vibes I shouldn’t be getting; I’d found another earring
to match something I’d received years ago; and the little
green man may not have been a figment of my imagination after
all.
    Thinking was all I did in there.
    When I finally managed to extract myself from the shower, I
decided that the next order of business was to review those journal
entries. It was a little odd I should have had the same
hallucinations that my grandfather did. Or maybe it wasn’t
hallucinations after all, which was the most confusing part
of this. And if that was true, then what about this
curse
, as Chris
called it? That part niggled at the back of my head, and sent a
shiver wriggling down my spine.
    I threw myself on the futon. The frame moaned again.
    I grabbed the leather-bound package and started with that first
page once more.
     
    Today, the little green man appeared again. I haven’t seen
him in months.
     
    That was it.
    The next page was similar.
     
    The green man intrigues me. I try to talk to him. He
doesn’t say anything. He just looks at me. If I try to touch
him, he disappears. I wish I knew what he was.
     
    I flipped through a few more and stopped.
     
    Aunt Marigold was here today. She gave me a green cufflink for
my birthday.
     
    I had to re-read that one again.
    Aunt Marigold? A green cufflink?
    Panic was starting to settle in. My hands shook.
    I took a moment to think. Aunt Marigold wasn’t my real aunt, I knew that. From what I could recall my father had been an only child. So, I had always assumed she was my father’s aunt, but it looked like she might have been my grandfather’s aunt?
    How old
was
Aunt Marigold?
    I put the pages down to fetch the earrings.
    Sure enough it wasn’t a figment of my imagination. There
were two there. And they were identical.
    I wondered if Aunt Marigold had given me more than one, but I
knew that couldn’t have been the case. The summer she gave it
to me was one I’d never forget. There had only been one
earring. I was sure of it.
    I walked back into the living room. Despite my better judgment,
I cast a glance at the ficus. I almost cried out.
    The little man was standing there, waving.
    My first instinct was to run for the kitchen and grab the meds,
along with thoughts of tossing that goddamned plant off the
balcony.
    Since there were no meds, a calmer head was forced to prevail. I
took a deep breath.
    Maybe I needed to take a different approach. Since the little, green
man was now leaving me gifts, I thought perhaps I should engage
him.
    I took the earrings with me and sat down on the floor next to
the ficus. Chris’s scent was still here. I actually
inhaled.
    The little man inched back, hiding behind the plant. His
wave got more diminutive.
    I sat there, looking at him for a while before I finally
gathered up enough insanity to try speaking to him.
    “Hello,” I