Happy Birthday to You (Birthday Trilogy, Book 3) Read Online Free

hit this particular woman yet. “It’s a strange, bizarre phenomenon that
seems to be hitting cities all over the world. That’s right, I will state
again. Babies are starting to age at a rapid rate. There were reports as early
as yesterday morning, but now there are at least five hundred cases, all around
the world, of one-year-old babies growing rapidly, already looking as if they
are as old as three or four. And this morning we’ve had preliminary reports of
older children, as old as eight and nine, looking like, they too, are a year or
two older than they should be. We will be sticking with this story for the
remainder of the day and will be updating you as more details come in…”
    “Kimber, can you
please turn this off?” I asked.
    “Are you insane?
No way!”
    My sister
brought her hands up to her chin, mesmerized, as if she was taking in an
escapist summer blockbuster. I hadn’t noticed it at all yesterday, but I could
sure tell this morning. Kimber, fourteen on Friday night ,
was now sixteen years old. She didn’t know, of course. Thankfully her breasts
hadn’t doubled in size or anything. I could just tell in her face that there
was a little more maturity.
    “Leese…” I said,
turning my attention to my wife.
    She sighed and
bit down on her bottom lip. “Cam… we have to get back.”
    “What time’s our
flight?”
    “In four hours.”
    “Good.” I darted
my eyes toward the bathroom. “ Where’s Mom and Dad?”
    “They went for a
jog,” Liesel said. “They should be back any minute.”
    “A jog?” I
shouted. “There’s no time for a jog!”
    Kimber didn’t
seem to notice the tension in the room. She just shouted, “Shhh!” and kept her
focus on the TV program.
    I turned back to
the TV, where the same reporter was now talking to a doctor.
    “We’re looking
into many theories,” the doctor said. “Because this is happening both in and
outside the United States, any kind of bacterial strain in food has been ruled
out.”
    “Yes,” the
reporter said. “We just got a report that there are young children growing at a
rapid rate as far away as Russia and Australia. What do you think is the most
likely factor contributing to this worldwide phenomenon?”
    “I’d like to
tell you that it’s just a coincidence,” the doctor continued, “but that would
be possible if we just had a few dozen cases like this around the world.
Because the volume of these cases being reported is so high, though, we have to
look at environmental factors. Is something in the air? Has something entered
our atmosphere that is disturbing our way of life? There’s a lot to take in at
the moment, but we’re going to need a few more days to really see just what’s
happening to our children.”
    “Do you have any
kids, doctor?”
    “I have five
kids. The youngest is three, and I can already see that he’s not only shot up a
few inches, but that his hair has grown longer and that he’s gained some
weight, too.”
    “All right,
thank you for your time, Doctor—”
    Before the
reporter could finish her sentence, I grabbed the remote control from Kimber’s
bed and turned off the TV.
    “Hey!” Kimber
shouted. “I was watching that!”
    “We’ve gotta get going,” I said. “Kimber, you need to get in the
shower. We have a long flight ahead of us.”
    “We don’t have
to leave for another hour, Cam,” Kimber said and turned the TV back on. It was
the same talking blonde head.
    “Whatever,
fine,” I said and rushed out of the room, across the hall, all the way into my bathroom.
I closed the door and locked it. I needed some alone time.
    Don’t freak out, I thought. Let’s get back to Reno. And then we can figure all this out. Don’t
freak out, Cam. Not until tonight. Not until I’m back home.
    I turned on the
shower a minute later, so that Kimber and Liesel didn’t think I was just
standing in the bathroom talking to myself. I took off my clothes, jumped into
the shower, almost tripping in the