The Visitor Read Online Free Page B

over to the mall, then call my mom when I was done to come pick me up. That was the plan. But since I didn’t feel like mall-crawling I just headed home. Alone. With the sky growing dark as rain clouds moved in.
    It was stupid and careless of me. But I guess Iwas preoccupied with other things. Although at least I had the sense to stay out of the construction site.
    I was walking down the sidewalk that runs along the boulevard when suddenly I realized that a car had pulled up just a little way down the sidewalk from me. A guy got out. He looked like he was in high school or even college. He also looked like trouble.
    I should have turned around and run back toward the mall. But sometimes I don’t always do the sensible thing. Sometimes I regret not doing the sensible thing. This was one of those times.
    â€œHey, baby,” he said. “Want to go for a little ride?”
    I shook my head and clutched my gym bag close. What an idiot I was to be so careless!
    â€œNow, don’t be stuck-up, sweet thing,” he said. “I think you’d better get in the car.”
    The way he said it didn’t sound like an invitation. It sounded like an order. Now I was really afraid.
    I clutched my gym bag close as I passed him.
    â€œDon’t ignore me,” he hissed.
    He reached for me and missed. I walked faster. He was behind me.
    I broke into a run.
    He ran after me.
    â€œHey. Hey, there! Come back here.”
    I had been stupid going out alone. But fortunately, unlike most people, I wasn’t helpless.
    As I ran, I focused on something completely different. I concentrated on an image in my mind.
    Then I felt the change begin. My legs grew thick. My arms grew big, bigger. I could feel myself growing large. Large and solid. I felt the squirmy sensation of my ears becoming thin and leathery.
    But it wasn’t enough to just look creepy. This guy had made me mad. I wanted to scare him half to death.
    My nose suddenly began to sprout. Then, from my mouth, like two huge spears, the tusks began to appear.
    I figured that was about enough. I broke my concentration, which stopped the morph.
    I stopped suddenly. The creep barreled right into me.
    He was not going to like what he was about to see.

I wanted to tell the jerk to back off. What I wanted to say to him was, “So, you still want to go for that ride?”
    What I really said was
“HhhohhHEEEEERRR!”
    The guy stopped dead. He just stared.
    What he saw was me, halfway through morphing into an African elephant. I had about a third of a trunk and most of my huge, fanlike elephant ears. My legs were like stumps. My arms looked like a body builder’s, only gray. And my tusks stuck about a foot out of my mouth. Just to make things extra weird, I still had my normal hair and my normal eyes.
    Suddenly the guy wasn’t interested in hassling me.
    â€œAAAAAHHHH!”
    He turned. He ran. For a minute he forgot he even had a car. Then he turned around and jumped in through an open window.
    He started the car and took off.
    He was definitely breaking the speed limit as he tore out of there.
    I concentrated again and began to reverse the morphing process, going back to human shape. I had been wearing a loose sweater and leggings, which was good. They had both stretched. But my shoes had been split open by the sudden growth of my elephant feet.
    It had started raining, so the trip home was going to be very unpleasant. “Oh, great!” I muttered. “I have got to remember to kick off my shoes before I morph into an elephant.”
    Just then, a second car pulled up and came to a stop. The window rolled down.
    â€œHey, Rachel.” It was Melissa. I recognized the voice. “Do you want a ride home?” She didn’t sound very excited by the idea. I looked through the car window, past her.
    Chapman was behind the wheel.
    A wave of sick fear swept over me. Had he seen what I’d just done? If he had, then I was dead. My friends