The Vanishings Read Online Free Page A

me.”
    Vicki regretted it as soon as she’d said it. Who was she to be dumping on her little sister? Maybe church would be good for Jeanni, too, as long as they didn’t make Vicki go. Jeanni’s response proved she had not been bothered by what Vicki said.
    â€œNot me,” she said brightly. “I’m going to heaven with Jesus!”
    Good for you, Vicki thought. Just leave me out of it.

THREE
Lionel—The Liar
    L IONEL Washington’s parents had moved him out of the inner city of Chicago when he was six years old. His mother, Lucinda, had been a reporter for the Chicago office of Global Weekly magazine. When she was promoted to bureau chief, the family could afford to move to the suburbs. They were among the first blacks to live in their Mount Prospect neighborhood.
    Now, seven years later, thirteen-year-old Lionel was having trouble deciding where he fit. When he visited his relatives in Chicago, or when his other relatives visited him from the South, his cousins criticized him for “losing your blackness. It’s like you’re white now.”
    It was nice to live in a neighborhood where he didn’t have to be afraid to ride hisbike anywhere or run with his friends, even after dark. And Lionel enjoyed having more things than he was used to having when he was smaller. His cousins, probably to cover their jealousy of his nicer clothes and shoes and the fact that his parents had two cars, called him “rich boy” and “whitey” and said he might as well not even be black.
    Lucinda Washington was a no-nonsense woman. She had become a well-paid executive with the leading newsmagazine in the country, despite her being black and a woman. She laughed when her nieces and nephews teased Lionel. “He’s as black as you are and always will be,” she said. “Now you just go on and leave him alone.”
    Still, Lionel didn’t like it. No way did he want to give up what he thought was a better and safer life than he had known. But neither did he want to be different from his relatives. There were few other black kids in his junior high, and none of them went to his church. His older sister, Clarice, went to Prospect High School, and his younger brother and sister, Ronnie and Talia, were still in elementary school.
    That made him feel all the more alone at his school. He grew quieter there and at home, and he could tell his mother was worried about him. Lionel didn’t like thechanges in his body and his mind as he became a teenager. It was too strange. He found himself thinking more. He thought about everything.
    Mostly, he thought about his Uncle André. André was the bad apple of the family. He was a drunk and had been known to use and abuse drugs. He’d been in and out of jail for years and once even served a short term at Stateville Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois.
    The thing about Uncle André was that he was a charming guy. When he was sober and out of trouble and working, everybody loved him. He was fun and funny and great to be around. When he was “sick,” which was the family term for when he was doing drugs or drinking or running with the wrong crowd, they all worried about him and prayed for him and tried to get him to come back to church.
    Uncle André was a great storyteller. He loved to regale the family with exaggerated tales that made them all laugh. He told the stories in a high-pitched whine, making up new things as he went along, and each story grew funnier each time he told it. He would throw his head back and grab his belly and laugh until he could barely catch his breath. Tears would stream down his face until everyone else laughed right along.
    That was puzzling to Lionel. How could Uncle André be everyone’s favorite half the time and everyone’s worry the other half? Lionel’s mother told him it was all about understanding and forgiveness. “I don’t excuse what he does when he’s