Night of the Purple Moon Read Online Free

if…” Her brother lowered his head.
    Just then tires squealed outside. Jordan reached the window first. By the time Abby looked out, the car had sped by the house.
    “It was green,” Jordan stammered. “I couldn’t see the driver. It was going really fast.”
    Abby felt her spirit lifting. If someone else was alive, it meant than her mom was probably okay, too.
    “The mailman drives a green car,” Kevin said.
    “His is dark green,” Kevin said. “This was light green.”
    “Who else drives a green car?” Abby said.
    They all paused, thinking. They hardly knew anyone on the island. Dad, who’d grown up here, always said, “It takes a long time to get to know a local, but once you do, you have a friend for life.” Since moving here Jordan had so far made one friend, Eddie Egan. Abby had zero friends, and she was sure that Kevin and Emily didn’t have any friends, either.
    “Whoever it was, I bet they’re going to meet the ferry,” Abby said.
    The five-thirty ferry never arrived.
    * * *
    Jordan gazed out the window at the evening sky. It was an ugly mash-up of reds and different shades of purple. Earth, he imagined, was still hurtling through the comet’s tail.
    Where were the gulls? Normally birds filled the sky at sunset. He wondered if they were allergic to space dust, too.
    Several street lights turned on. He didn’t react. He knew they came on automatically at dusk.
    The street remained deserted. The green car had not passed by the house again. He and Abby and Kevin had taken shifts at the window, keeping a lookout. The driver, speeding to the point of losing control, must have been in a great hurry. Was he or she going somewhere, or running from something?
    Jordan pictured his father on the porch. His mind jumped around like that, thinking about the green car one second, his dad the next, then some other random thought. But the image of his dad kept reoccurring. When he’d heard Abby scream in the breezeway he knew that something was terribly wrong.
    Jordan felt tears streaming down his cheeks. He was glad that he was alone in the room. He hated for people to see him cry. Kevin was in Abby’s room changing out of his pajamas, and Abby had taken Toucan and Emily to the bathroom to shower and use the toilet.
    Everything was so strange and sad and that included Emily Patel being here in his house. He had thought she was really cute the first time he had set eyes on her, three months ago in Ms. Gifford’s class. Emily sat two rows over, and to glimpse at her long brown hair, he’d pretend to look at the wall clock. Once she had caught him staring at her and she stared back with her huge dark eyes.
    Now those huge brown eyes had stared into space for the past eight hours.
    The colors of the sky blurred from more tears as Jordan’s thoughts turned to his mother. Was she still at home in Cambridge? Or had she made it as far as the ferry terminal in Portland?
    He recalled their last phone conversation two days ago. She had called to let them know what ferry she was planning to take. When the phone passed to him, she told him the surprising news. She was going to look for a job in Portland. “Happy?” she asked. He let out a whoop. Leaving her job in Boston and working in Portland meant two very big things: the family would once again be together, and they would continue to live on Castine Island. Jordan could think of no better place to live.
    Growing up, he and Abby had stayed with Gram and Grandpa on the island for several weeks every summer. He loved to sail and fish and wanted to join the Coast Guard or Navy when he grew up. After both grandparents died, the island house remained vacant. Then last September Dad, who worked at the Cambridge Public Library, half-jokingly applied for a job at the Castine Island Library. Tired of the city, he’d always talked about moving here someday. To Dad’s surprise, they offered him the job of running the small library.
    “Let’s move on a trial basis,” Dad