Revealed Read Online Free

voice creaked and cracked and came out an octave higher than it should have. How could even his own voice betray him at a time like this?
    He got to the breakfast nook area of the kitchen, where Mom had laid out sunflower place mats and perfectly spaced silverware and cereal boxes and cartons of juice and milk. The cell phone Mom had taken from Katherine was lying on the table too, as if that was supposed to be a reward for coming to breakfast. Jonah picked up the phone and slipped it into his pocket, but kept going.
    â€œMom?” he called again. This time his voice sank to a bass register, but he might as well have been a terrified baby wailing, Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!
    No one was sitting in any of the kitchen chairs, not at the table and not at the desk across the room, either. No one was standing over the stove or near the refrigerator or beside the kitchen counters.
    Jonah whirled around the corner and farther into the kitchen anyhow. He started waving his arms again—even though that hadn’t worked in the living room, maybe it would work here. This time he hit his hand on a granite countertop. He doubled over in pain, leaning across the top of the island in the center of the kitchen. Just before he squeezed his eyes shut from the pain, he caught a glimpse of blond hair on the other side of the island, below the level of the counter.
    His eyes popped back open.
    â€œKatherine?” he cried.
    It made no sense for Katherine to have disappeared from the living room in Charles Lindbergh’s arms a few moments ago only to reappear here and now, crouched beside the kitchen island. But Jonah was willing to believe that that had actually happened, if it meant that Katherine was back.
    If it meant he hadn’t lost his entire family.
    Jonah spun around the corner of the island, simultaneously crouching lower and lower himself. If Katherine had just gotten back from traveling through time while Jonah was experiencing a couple moments of panic, there was no telling what she’d suffered through; there was no telling how long she thought she’d been gone or how many lies they’d have to tell Mom and Dad to get them to believe that nothing had happened at all.
    â€œLet me help,” Jonah said, reaching out to her.
    The blond hair moved. Jonah noticed that Katherine had evidently lost her ponytail rubber band during whatever trip she’d just returned from: her hair was hanging down loose now, spread across her shoulders and hiding her face. Really, the hair was all Jonah could see. But Katherine was painstakingly starting to tilt her head back to look up toward Jonah. The hair was sliding out of the way.
    â€œDon’t worry about the timesickness,” Jonah said, patting Katherine’s arm. “Take it slow. I’m watching out for you. You’re not in any danger.”
    He hoped that that was true.
    Katherine lifted her hand to brush the hair out of her face. Her mouth appeared. Her nose. Her eyes.
    Jonah started blinking frantically, trying to make the girl crouched in front of him look like she was supposed to—to make her look like the sister he’d seen vanish only moments ago. But something was off. It was like this was some almost-Katherine, some slightly changed version that seemed familiar but not quite right.
    â€œKatherine?” he said doubtfully, bending closer.
    The girl squinted at him.
    â€œI’m Linda Katherine,” she said, as if correcting him. Then she moaned. “Ooohh. I feel so . . . weird. Everything’s so strange.”
    Jonah rocked back on his heels. His feet slipped out from under him, and his tailbone slammed against the hard tile floor. He barely noticed. All he could do was stare at the girl. He knew who she was now. Not Katherine—she’d never been Katherine. This was the same person who’d been standing in the kitchen a few moments ago, when Charles Lindbergh had disappeared from the living room with