The Witchfinder Wars Read Online Free Page A

Or maybe they
forgot stuff all the time, only Grand followed behind them to
correct their errors, like she did mine.
    I peeked back out the bathroom door. Grand
was standing at one of the tall windows, the one with the blind
she'd raised. From the tilt of her head she was gazing down, and
her shoulders were a little slumped.
    "Grand, are you okay?"
    I heard her sigh as she turned. She smiled
at me. "Just a little tired, Tommy. All this moving is making me
feel my years."
    "Hey, now."
    I walked over and put my arm around her
shoulders, gave her a quick hug. She looked as Grand always looked:
a dress, today pale blue, pearls, and her grey hair in a braid
wrapped around her head like a crown. She felt a little thinner
than the last time I'd hugged her and it gave me a funny feeling.
After all, I hugged her every day. Didn't I? Well, maybe I'd
skipped a day or two lately, what with the move and all. You'd
think we'd get used to it, moving as much as we did, but I sure
never had.
    "We're here for a while, at least, so let's
make the most of it. Hey, maybe I can go out for football at
school! Will you come to my games to cheer me on? Oh, and by the
way; where are we again?"
    Anybody else would have laughed, but not
Grand. She knew I was as serious as a heart attack. "North
Carolina, as you ought to know quite well, young man; a little town
called Manning. Almost back home, at least for me. I was born near
here, and I met your grandfather in Raleigh, the capital, when we
were both in college."
    She reached up and patted my cheek, then
gave me one of those grins which meant 'I'm onto you, so watch
out'.
    "Now get in the shower, you hear me? I hear
your sisters arguing."
    My twin sisters, Jos and Jax, are
eleven-going-on-twenty-five; both blonde and blue-eyed like me. In
the distance I could hear loud shouts and louder complaints.
Something to do with whose blouse was whose and what someone was
going to do to someone else about stealing it.
    I headed for the shower as Grand headed for
the ruckus down the hall. Inside, the bathroom was steamy from the
shower I'd left running. I wiped a space clear on the big mirror
over the sink and made a face at myself, then stuck out my tongue.
My hair stuck up all over my head, like it always does. Bed head
could have been invented with my head in mind.
    For a minute, it looked like someone was
standing behind me and off to my right side, a figure barely
visible in the steamy glass. A vague outline, a shape: shorter than
me by a good bit, but then I'm pretty tall.
    A weird feeling went through me.
    How could I see the image of somebody
standing behind me when I was alone?
    I turned. No one there of course.
    I shook off the weird feeling. Just tired,
or jet lag or something.
    I jumped in the shower.
    ***
    Grand didn't stick to her threat about
making me ride in the limo with my sisters. We all shared a rushed
but really good breakfast, dished out by Brent, while Grand gave us
directions to our new schools. Gave me directions, at least; Jos
and Jax were going in the limo after all.
    "Why can't Tommy drop us off?" Jax demanded
through a mouthful of eggs. She had her blonde hair in a shaggy
ponytail and was wearing a purple t-shirt and jeans.
    "Because Tommy's car is a two-seater, and
his high school is across town from your grammar school, that's
why." Grand calmly buttered a biscuit.
    "I didn't know Brent could make biscuits," I
said as I grabbed my third.
    "It's North Carolina. He doesn't have a
choice." Grand looked smug.
    "After today, can we ride the bus?" Jos
asked. She had a green blouse that looked nice with her corn silk
hair hanging down to her shoulders. She sipped her grapefruit
juice, trying to be as ladylike as Grand kept trying to make them
both. Jax joggled her elbow and a drop spilled onto her blouse.
    "Hey! Now I'll have to change!" Jos glared
at her twin.
    "Serves you right, blouse stealer!"
    "Nobody is doing anything but heading out
the door. Girls, the limo is waiting for you out