GRAVEWORM Read Online Free Page A

smart. But also very cunning as teenage girls could be.
    Seventeen-year olds aren’t kids, she reminded herself.
    Maybe not, but that’s the way Tara thought of her. There was a difference of almost eleven years between them. Lisa had been a little accident on her mother’s part, long after she thought her child-rearing days were over. By the time Lisa was old enough to really appreciate having an older sister, Tara had moved out. First to Western to get her marketing degree, then off to Denver. To Lisa, Tara was just the older sister who stopped by on Christmas… not truly a sibling.
    Then their parents had found death on a cold stretch of highway. A pulp truck running without lights on a foggy night with a full load of logs had strayed over the white line. Its driver had a full load as well. And the ironic thing about it all was that not two months before, Tara had been home for a visit and her mom had sat her down and had what turned out to be the most serious chat of their lives.
    Tara, if anything were to happen to your dad and I—
    Oh, Mom, c’mon.
    No, Tara, really. If something were to happen to us I’d want you to take care of Lisa. I know I always call her My Little Accident and all that, but I worry about her. I worry about her ending up alone. It… it keeps me awake at night. I just need to know that she’ll be taken care of.
    Of course I’d take care of her.
    Don’t say that without thinking about it, honey. A child is a big responsibility. I want you to think very seriously about what I’m saying. If something ever were to happen, at her tender age, well… she’d need guidance.
    I think she’s stronger and tougher than you give her credit for.
    The tougher they act, the stronger they act… the more you have to worry. Things like that are just barriers teenagers put up to hide the insecurity and anxiety just beneath the skin.
    Now you’re an analyst.
    Every mother is.
    But she’s got it together, mom.
    You thought you did too, but there were plenty of times you needed guidance, you needed sympathy, you needed somebody to steer you in the right direction and I’m not going to go into detail and embarrass us both, but there were plenty of times when your judgment left a little something to be considered. Enough said. And Lisa is no different. She needs someone to guide her. So if anything were to happen…
    If anything were to happen I would take care of her.
    Promise me.
    And Tara had, some weird nagging suspicion in the back of her head informing her that she had just entered into some kind of binding agreement, that she had just taken a blood oath.
    Two months later she came back for the funeral… and never left. Lisa needed someone and Tara wasn’t about to let her own sister be dumped off with relatives in Indiana or Milwaukee. This was how the six-figure a year job in Denver was traded in for typing and slinging drinks and how Tara was introduced to the wonderful world of parenthood. Oh, she could have dragged Lisa out to Denver, but that would mean disrupting her life and losing her friends and Lisa had lost enough by that point.
    And that had been five years ago.
    Since then, Tara had become some weird hybrid of mother, father, and sister to Lisa. And Lisa was a good kid, but she was also a teenager. Along with good grades came a contempt for authority, probably provoked by the death of Mom and Dad. Lisa dated the wrong guys. Hung around with the wrong posse. Experimented with drugs. Alcohol. Had even run away twice by last count. She was smart, very smart, but not terribly practical and far too rebellious for her own good.
    You were the same, though, Tara told herself. Lisa is a carbon copy of you and you damn well know it. You smoked your share of pot and went to beer parties and don’t forget losing your virginity in the backseat of Brad Holliman’s Camaro in the tenth grade… at the drive-in, no less. Mom knew. She always knew. That’s why she wanted your promise. Somehow, some