The Ghost Sonata Read Online Free Page B

because I’m Wendy’s official page-turner for the sight-reading competition,” Gilda explained.
    â€œClearly you deserve half the prize money.”
    â€œWhy does Wendy get her own page-turner?” Gary asked.
    â€œShe has special needs,” Gilda blurted before Wendy could reply.
    â€œWendy’s learning disabled?”
    Wendy snorted at this comment, and Ming Fong burst into surprisingly manic laughter. “Learning disabled!”
    â€œIt’s not funny,” said Gilda, feeling, for some reason, that Ming Fong was laughing way too hard. “‘Special needs children’ is actually what they call learning-disabled kids in England.”
    Ming Fong and Gary were suddenly confused, unsure whether Wendy did, in fact, have “special needs.”
    â€œAnyway,” Gilda continued, “I’m kind of like Wendy’s personal trainer as well as her page-turner, right, Wendy?”
    â€œCompletely wrong.”
    â€œThat’s why Mrs. Mendelovich asked me to come with her to England.” Gilda eyed Mrs. Mendelovich, who was now gesturing even more broadly as she wandered farther away from her students.
    â€œGilda wanted a cheap trip to England,” said Wendy. “That’s why she’s here.”
    â€œDon’t forget getting out of school for a week.” With a twinge of dread, Gilda remembered that her suitcase included a stack of books and homework assignments her teachers had piled on “so you keep up while you’re away.” Her English teacher, Mrs. Rawson, had been particularly grumpy about Gilda’s request for a week away from school in the middle of February and had given Gilda the extra assignment of keeping a detailed travel diary. Because her teacher had obviously expected a horrified response to this work, Gilda had done her best to cringe and look nauseated. Secretly, she thought it was the first interesting homework Mrs. Rawson had ever assigned.
    Gary looked at his watch. “Aren’t we supposed to be on the plane by now? The flight must be delayed.”
    As if on cue, a flight attendant’s voice blasted over the loudspeaker. “Passengers on British Airways flight number nine, please note we have a delay due to a mechanical problem. Our mechanics are working to resolve it. We expect a delay of at least fifteen minutes.”
    Throughout the room, passengers shot each other looks of exasperation and trepidation. “Mechanical problem? That doesn’t sound good,” they joked ruefully.
    Wendy felt an unpleasant, light-headed sensation. Everything around her seemed slightly blurry, paler than normal. She felt queasy as she noticed a red-haired girl and her mother staring at her from across the room with a little too much interest.
    â€œI’m surprised they actually told us it was a mechanical problem,” said Gary. “Everyone’s first thought is, ‘Oh no! This plane is going to crash!’”
    â€œIt isn’t going to crash,” said Gilda confidently. “I would have gotten a psychic vibration if it was.”
    â€œReally?” Gary looked interested. “You mean, you always know when a plane is going to crash?”
    â€œJust the planes I’m on.” Secretly, Gilda felt a rush of anxiety. Gilda wasn’t at all sure she would know if the plane was going to crash. She simply felt certain that it would be far too mean a cosmic joke if, on her very first trip to England, her plane actually took a nosedive.
    Gilda noticed that Wendy’s face had taken on a greenish hue. “Hey—what’s wrong?”
    â€œI have a bad feeling about this.”
    â€œWendy, we both know that flying is probably safer than driving around in Detroit.”
    â€œIt’s just—last night I had this horrible dream.” Wendy hesitated. She twirled a lock of hair around her finger, then examined the ends of her hair for split ends. She still felt that talking