The Skirt Read Online Free

told Ana. “It won’t be long.”
    They spread the skirt on the ground. The two of them sat on it, hugging their knees. The two friends had a history of experiencing similar trouble. They had both locked themselves out of their houses. They had both climbed trees and couldn’t get down. They had both played withmatches and burned their fingers. And they hadn’t told anyone but each other.
    But hiding from grown-ups in a parking lot was something new. They were both ready to cry, when they heard a slurping sound behind them.
    They looked up through moist eyes. At the fence was Rodolfo. He was sipping a Coke through a straw. His hair was combed, his cheeks red as cinnamon red hots. He was on his bike and clinging to the fence.
    “What are you guys doing?” he asked calmly. His slurping was nearly as loud as the welding. He let out a polite burp.
    Miata and Ana were shocked to see him. “We’re hiding,” Miata whispered. “Be quiet.”
    “How come?” he asked. “You guys playing a game? Can I play?”
    “No, we’re not playing a game,” Miata whispered angrily.
    “We’re in trouble because of you!” Ana snapped. “If you had left Miata alone, she wouldn’t have forgotten her skirt on the bus.”
    “That’s why you’re hiding?” he asked. Rodolfo thought for a moment, then he suggested, “Why don’t you crawl out here?” He pointed to a hole in the fence partially hidden by yellowish weeds.
    Miata and Ana looked at each other. Their eyes were big with hope. They got to their feet.
    Miata peeked over at her father and the man in the checkered shirt, who was unloading a heavy toolbox from the truck.
    “You first,” Miata said, turning to Ana. “I’ll take your library books, and you take the skirt.”
    “I’m scared,” Ana said.
    “Don’t be,” Rodolfo said. “I’ll give you some of my soda if you do it.”
    “I don’t want any of your soda,” Ana said. She sneered at Rodolfo. “I have plenty at home.”
    Ana breathed in deeply three times. Then she dashed for the hole, leaping over a stack of lumber. Miata followed closely, library books tucked under her arm like a football.
    They heard someone shout, “Hey.” It was the man in the checkered shirt. He dropped the toolbox and scattered the tools. The man cursed under his breath. He had dropped a heavy wrench on his big toe.
    “Stop, you kids,” he hollered.
    But Miata and Ana didn’t stop. They scrambled through the hole and didn’t look back. They raced up the street alongside the shadow of Rodolfo’s bike.

M iata and Ana ran to the library, where they tossed themselves on the lawn.
    “That was close,” Miata said after she caught her breath. Her cheeks were red, and her hair had come loose.
    “Yes, that
was
close,” Ana breathed. She was exhausted but relieved to get away.
    They lay on their backs and stared at the blue sky, where high in the distance an airplane was a black speck against a white puff of cloud. They felt their heartbeats slow to a gallop and their breathing return to normal.
    Rodolfo did figure eights while they rested. He was showing off by riding with his eyes closed. He hit the curb and sailed over the handlebars with his arms stretched out. He looked like Superman. But unlike Superman, he crashed with an “Ouch.”
    Miata and Ana sat up and asked, “Are you all right?”
    “It didn’t hurt,” he said as he got up and dusted off his pants. A bump began to rise immediately on his forehead.
    “Are you sure?” Miata asked.
    “Yeah,” he said. He walked his bicycle over and sat on the grass with them. Thebump was pink and shiny and hot when Miata touched it. Ana made a face. She touched the bump too, but pulled her fingers away quickly.
    “Isn’t that your mom?” Rodolfo asked.
    Miata and Ana followed Rodolfo’s gaze. The woman leaving the library with an armful of books
was
Miata’s mother. She was walking with a friend.
    The three kids were sitting on the lawn in plain view. There was no