The Visitor Read Online Free Page A

same.
    Melissa Chapman was in the locker room changing into her leotard when I came in. She’s the exception to the rule in our class. She
does
look like a gymnast. She’s small and thin, even though she doesn’t starve herself like some fools who want to get into gymnastics. She has pale gray eyes and pale blond hair and pale skin. She looks like one of those solemn elves in a Tolkien book. At first glance she looks delicate, but when you look a little closer, you see strength there, too.
    Melissa gave me the kind of not-very-warm smileshe always gives me lately. Like she was distracted, or thinking about something more important.
    â€œHey, Melissa,” I said. “How’s it going?”
    â€œFine. How about you?”
    â€œOh, pretty much the same old thing.” That was a lie, of course. But what was I going to say? Yeah, Melissa, same old same old. Been turning into animals and fighting aliens. You know, the usual.
    Melissa didn’t say anything else. She just adjusted her leotard and started to do a few little stretches. That’s the way it was. We said hi, but not much more. It used to be we were very close. She was my second best friend, after Cassie.
    â€œMelissa, I was thinking … maybe you’d like to walk over to the mall with me after class? I have to buy a new pair of sneakers.”
    â€œThe mall?” She stammered a little, and then started blushing. “You mean, go shopping?”
    â€œYeah. You know—walk around and look at stuff and check out the cute guys and make fun of the snotty women at the perfume counters.”
    I tried to sound casual, like it was no big deal. In the old days, it would have been totally nothing. But now Melissa looked like a trapped animal.
    When had Melissa and I gotten to be such strangers?
    â€œI’m, um, kind of busy,” Melissa said.
    â€œOh. That’s cool. I understand.”
    But I didn’t understand. Not at all. She started to walk away. I was going to let it go, but then I remembered: This wasn’t just about a friend who had drifted away. This was about her father, one of the leaders of the Controllers. One of our most dangerous enemies.
    I grabbed her arm. “Melissa, look … I feel like we’ve kind of gone in different ways, you know? And I miss you.”
    She shrugged. “Okay, well, maybe we could get together sometime.”
    â€œNot
sometime,
Melissa, that’s just you blowing me off. What’s going on with you?”
    â€œWhat’s going on with me?” she echoed. For a moment a look of extraordinary sadness darkened her eyes and tugged downward at the corners of her mouth. “Nothing is going on with me,” she said. “We’d better get out there or Coach Ellway will have a fit.”
    She pulled her arm away.
    I just watched her go. I felt like a complete and total jerk. Something had happened to Melissa. And I hadn’t even noticed. She was my friend and something had changed in her, and I hadn’t seen it. I’d just gone my own way.
    And now I was only
acting
like a concerned friend.The truth was, I was only paying attention for my own reasons.
    I wasn’t able to concentrate on the lesson. Not concentrating when you’re doing gymnastics can be painful. I slipped on the balance beam and banged my knee so badly I cried.
    Melissa was the first one to rush over. And for about ten seconds she was the old Melissa. But by the time I’d gotten back up, she was off across the room in her own little world again.
    It was right then that the terrible suspicion started.
    Melissa had been acting very strangely. Her father was a Controller.
    I looked at her from across the room and felt a chill.
    Was she one, too? Was my old friend Melissa a Controller?
    I didn’t go shopping after my lesson. I didn’t really feel like it. Melissa’s eyes, the way she had looked at me, kind of killed my urge to shop.
    I was supposed to head