God Project Read Online Free Page B

Billy.
    “Come on!” he’d yelled. “It’s easy.” When Billy still hesitated, Randy had begun taunting him, and finally, just as Billy made up his mind, Mrs. Semple had come out to the backyard to see what was going on. She’d appeared just in time to see her son hurtle down from the roof and break his right leg. Furious, she’d ordered Randy out of the yard, and later that afternoon she’d called Randy’s mother to tell her that Randy was no longer welcome in her home.
    Enough, she’d said, was enough. She’d hoped that it wouldn’t come to this, but after today she had to join the rest of the mothers in the neighborhood, and forbid her son to play with Randy Corliss anymore.
    The fact that it had been an accident had made no difference. Randy was a daredevil, a bad influence.
    And so the summer had dragged on. Randy, getting lonelier every day, had begun going off by himself, roaming in the woods, prowling around the town, wishing he knew what had gone wrong.
    Then he had met Jason Montgomery, and even though Jason was a year younger than he was, he’d liked Jason right away. Jason, he’d decided, wasn’t like the rest of the kids. The rest of them were all cowards, but not Jason. They’d become best friends the day after they met, and all this year Randy had stopped by Jason’s house every day on his way to school.
    Today he arrived at the Montgomerys’ house, and went around to the back, as he always did.
    “Jason! Jaaaason!” he called. The back door opened, and he recognized Jason’s grandmother. “Isn’t Jason here?” he asked.
    “He’s not going to school today,” Jason’s grandmother told him. She was starting to close the door, when Jasonsuddenly appeared, scooting out from behind his grandmother and slipping through the door.
    “Hi,” Jason said.
    Randy stared at his friend curiously. “You sick?” he asked.
    “Naw,” Jason replied. Then he looked directly at Randy. “My little sister died last night, so I don’t have to go to school today.”
    Randy absorbed the information and wondered what he was supposed to say. He’d only seen Jason’s baby sister once, and to him she hadn’t seemed like anything special. All she’d done was cry, and Jason had told him she peed all the time. “What happened to her?” he asked at last.
    Jason hesitated, then frowned. “I dunno. Dad says she just died. Anyway, I get to stay home from school.”
    “That’s neat,” Randy said. Then he frowned at Jason. “Did you do something to her?”
    “Why would I do that?” Jason countered.
    Randy shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know. I just—I just wondered. Billy Semple’s mother thought—” He broke off, unsure how to say what he was thinking. Billy Semple’s mother had thought he was trying to hurt Billy, even though she never said it out loud.
    “Did you push Billy off the roof?” Jason asked.
    “No.”
    “And I didn’t do anything to Julie,” Jason said. “At least, I don’t think I did.”
    Then, before Jason could say anything else, his grandmother opened the back door and told him to come back into the house. Randy watched as his friend disappeared inside, then started once more on his way to school.
    He didn’t really want to go today. Without Jason there, it wouldn’t be any fun at all. It would be like it had been last summer, before he had met Jason, while he was waiting for his friends to come back.
    Waiting, though, is much easier for an adult than for a nine-year-old, and while he was waiting, Randy had begun entertaining himself by getting into mischief.He’d started swiping things from the dime store. Nothing big, just a few little things.
    Then one day Mr. Higgins, who owned the dime store, had caught him.
    Randy would never forget that day. He’d almost been out of the store when he’d felt a hand on his arm and turned to see Mr. Higgins glowering down at him, demanding that he empty his pockets.
    The yo-yo didn’t have a price tag on it, but Randy