The Infinity Tattoo Read Online Free Page A

freckles sprinkled liberally across her pale cheeks. When she saw her mom with Meg, she came over and pushed the dog off the couch so that she could look at the yearbook with them.
    But soon Nicky closed the book and rose from the couch. “Time to get supper on,” she said.
    Meg put her wine glass on the coffee table and started to rise. “Let me help you.”
    “Nothing doing. You’re our guest. Besides, it’s already done. I just need to get it out of the oven. She rose and patted one of the TV-watching children on the head. “Come on Annie, your turn to set the table.”
    “Ah, Mom,” said the pre-teen. “I’m watching this.”
    “Don’t you ‘ah Mom’ me. It’s your turn. And set an extra plate for Meg.”
    Meg hesitated on the couch. She would have happily set the table. But before she could say anything, Emma said to her, “Don’t even think about it. It’s Annie’s turn. Besides I wanted to ask you about being an international journalist.”
    “Oh? What would you like to know?”
    “Well, like, how did you get started?”
    “I started by going to college. Well, no, actually I started a lot sooner than that. Because to be a journalist, you have to know how to write. Do you ever write anything?”
    “Yeah, some,” she said shyly.
    “Like what?” Meg saw a blush spread slowly across Emma’s cheeks.
    “Oh, just stuff, you know,” said Emma.
    “So . . . do you keep a journal?”
    “Yeah. I write in it all the time.”
    “That’s good. That’s really good. I kept a journal for years.”
    “Really?”
    “Mh-hm.”
    “What kind of stuff did you write in it?” Emma asked.
    “Oh, you name it, I wrote about it. Besides boys, I wrote about all the places I planned to visit. I read a lot, too, which gave me plenty of ideas about the adventures I planned to go on.”
    “Really? Like where did you want to go?”
    “I really wanted to go to Africa, to see the wild game there.”
    “Cool.”
    “And you know what? One day I did. Have you ever heard of the Serengeti?” asked Meg.
    “Isn’t it in Kenya?”
    “Well, it’s in Tanzania and Kenya. But the part in Kenya is called the Maasai Mara. Anyway it’s chock-full of game. They say that every year over a million wildebeests migrate in this huge herd. They trample on everything, over hills and through streams. Can you imagine that?”
    “Did you get to see it?”
    “Unfortunately not. But I did see plenty of game—giraffes and lions and cheetahs.”
    “I want to go there,” said Emma, her eyes wide with wonder.
    “There’s no reason why you can’t when you’re older, whether as a journalist or just on a trip.”
    Nicky’s husband came in from the kitchen a few minutes later. “I see we have a guest,” he said to Nicky.
    She rose on tiptoe to give him a peck on the cheek. Then she turned to Meg and Emma. “Okay, you two,” she said, “time for dinner.”
    It was a noisy affair with kids reaching over and around each other for bowls and plates of food. They chattered and argued about school, sports events, television shows, and friends. Meg found herself diving right into the melee as she made a stab for the last piece of roast beef or gave her opinion on whatever they were arguing about.
    After dinner and dessert, Nicky drove Meg home. At the same time, a man was beginning the last leg of his nocturnal journey to her house.

CHAPTER THREE
    Jack put one foot in front of the other, like he had been doing for the past twelve hours, all the while damning the cursed vegetation of the inhospitable landscape. If he never saw another cactus, spiny succulent, or any other prickly plant as long as he lived, it would be too soon.
    Even with his boots, some of those spines had managed to penetrate the soles and he knew his feet were bloody inside his socks. And then there were the bushes with vicious thorns on their branches that grabbed at his shirt, or, worse yet, his skin and wouldn’t let go. The only way to get free of them was to