County Line Road Read Online Free Page A

Allison said. She heard a different tone in her mother’s voice, not typical aggravation, but a cry that caught in her throat.
    “I wish they’d stop sending these,” she said and tossed the letter in the trash can. “If they’re going to follow us here, at least get it right. I told them already.”
    Her mother stormed out of the kitchen.
    Allison picked out the letter and read it. It started, “Dear Michelle, …”
    Allison skimmed rest of the letter. The Special Olympics was inviting her sister, Michelle, to participate in the track and field events again this year.
    They still hadn’t updated their records since Michelle died a year ago.
    Allison folded the letter carefully and tried to put it back in the envelope her mother had torn. The letter wouldn’t fit. Allison ripped the envelope and letter in half and then again. Then she tore the return address label into shreds until she couldn’t read the Special Olympics name or logo. She threw the pieces in the trash.
    Allison opened the fridge and grabbed one of her dad’s beers. She stared at it a minute, feeling it cold in her hand. She put it back.
    She went to her room and looked out the window. A Blue Jay sat on a nearby branch, looking right at her. Allison didn’t know why, but the bird surprised her. The way it was looking at her, it seemed like it had something to tell her.
    Allison pulled herself together, thinking it was absurd that a bird would talk. “I gotta’ get out more,” she said and shut the window blinds.

CHAPTER 5
    No one was home when Jimmy got back from the beach. No cars in the driveway, no TV sound when he walked in the door. He stood for a second to listen, and then announced he was home loudly. Nothing. He felt relief, but then a pinpoint of tension began to rise in his stomach as he started on his mission – looking for the baseball. He searched the hall closets and the kitchen cabinets above the refrigerator, even though he figured it probably wasn’t there. He was working up the courage to go where he knew he needed to look.
    He stopped in front of the closed door to his father’s and Linda’s bedroom.
    As a kid, he never went in his parent’s room. The one time he’d taken coins from his father’s dresser for the ice cream truck, his father caught him and yelled at Jimmy so badly, he almost peed his pants.
    He was only 6 years old then. Jimmy remembered the feeling of fear now as he stood in front of the bedroom door. Then he remembered this was not his parents’ room; it’s only his father’s and Linda’s. And she was trying to ruin his life.
    He took a deep breath and tried the doorknob.
    It turned.
    He opened the door and paused to listen. He couldn’t help feeling like a scared kid again, so he told himself to get a grip. He left the door open behind him and went in.
    The room was dark, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. The blinds were closed, allowing only an amber haze to permeate the edges of the window.
    The bed was perfectly made. He stooped and lifted the bed skirt to look under the bed.
    Nothing.
    He zeroed in on the closet as if following a radar scan, feeling like one of those machines from the Terminator movies. When he flipped on the light inside the walk-in closet, he stopped. The two sides of the closet ran in straight lines to the back, rows of clothes hanging neatly, one side his and one side hers, and on the top shelves, boxes piled to the ceiling.
    He started with the boxes above Linda’s clothes and took down box after box of shoes. She had sandals, high heels, sneakers, everything.
    “What the hell is she always bitching about money for?” Jimmy said as he opened the third box of sneakers; these were pink. “I’ve only got one pair – and I race – she does nothing but exercise her mouth.”
    He sifted through vases and glass pictures frames, an empty jewelry box, and stacks of sweaters until he got to the end. On his father’s side was an old travel case