A Trick of the Light Read Online Free

sighs. “Could you call my four o’clock for me? I’m not going to make it.”
    Mike sighs too.
    Mom: “Did you pick up the Feline Fine?”
    Mike remembers the cat food he was supposed to buy.
    Mike: “Ahh, no. I totally forgot.”
    Mom: “You’ll have to go out again.”
    Mike: “I know.”
    Mom: “Where’d you put the laundry? I looked on the shelf—”
    Mike: “It’s on top of the machine, already folded. I didn’t put it away yet.”
    Mom: “Oh, and Mighty Joe Young threw up near the couch.”
    The cat throws up a lot. It’s disgusting, the way Mighty Joe Young walks backward while he’s doing it. Tamio once said, “He looks like a movie of a cat eating, on rewind.” Mike laughed, but there’s nothing amusing about the fact that he has to clean up cat vomit all the time.
    Mike: “Mom, I already cleaned up after him twice today.”
    Mom: “But . . . could you, again? I can’t.”
    Mike: “Fine.”
    Look at yourself—running errands, doing laundry, cleaning up cat vomit. Is this the person you are meant to be?
    Mike thinks the voice in his head must hate him. But I don’t. I’m the best thing that ever happened to him.

CHAPTER 6
    JUST AS IT’S ALL COMING TOGETHER, LIKE A PAINTING that looks like random dots until you step back and see the whole glorious scene, the worst possible thing happens.
    Mike falls in love.
    It’s not love, of course—it’s idiotic teenage infatuation and will lead only to rejection and heartbreak—but Mike is convinced it’s the real thing and he won’t listen to reason.
    It’s the first day of tenth grade, homeroom. Mr. Clayton, his homeroom and physics teacher, is standing at the front of the room with a girl taller than he is.
    Mr. Clayton: “This is Valerie Braylock.”
    Mike instantly adores everything about Valerie Braylock, including the fact that she’s a giant. She’s African American with dark-gray eyes much too big for her face, but Mike thinks they’re beautiful, the color of smoke. Dark, curly hair spills over her shoulders and Mike is gone, absolutely gone.
    Mr. Clayton: “She’s new.”
    Valerie: “Well. I’m new to Belle Heights, and new to Belle Heights High School, but I’m not new to myself.”
    What is that supposed to mean?
    Even some of the girls exchange looks. Melissa Sacks, who is the first-ever sophomore to be named yearbook editor, rolls her eyes at the Rubys. Ruby Lobenhoffer and Ruby Cutler, known as Ruby L and Ruby C, are inseparable best friends and Melissa Sacks devotees. Mike notices this and thinks they’re jealous of Valerie’s stunning beauty.
    Mr. Clayton: “Valerie just moved here from Spruce Hills.”
    Spruce Hills is a Q22 bus ride away from Belle Heights, a neighborhood with a new shopping mall that includes a Target and a Home Depot. When Mike and Tamio went to see it, Tamio said, “Welcome to the world of tomorrow!” I don’t know why Mike finds Tamio funny; his jokes don’t make any sense. Anyway, Mike never thought much of Spruce Hills until this moment, when Spruce Hills became the birthplace of Valerie Braylock.
    Mr. Clayton: “I hope you’ll all try to make her feel welcome.”
    Mike is more than ready to take on the job of welcoming committee. Do I need to mention that Mike has never had a girlfriend? As soon as homeroom is over, he rushes to her like the proverbial moth to the flame. She towers over him, and Mike is immediately caught in her sweet, flowery fragrance.
    Mike (drunkenly): “Hi, my name is Mike Welles and I just want to say, you know, hi.”
    Valerie: “What?”
    Mike (slowly and carefully): “My name is Mike Welles. Hi.”
    Valerie: “Hi.”
    Mike: “What’s your schedule? Maybe we have some classes together. That way if you have any questions I can, you know, help you out.”
    They compare schedules. Or, rather, Valerie looks at Mike’s schedule while Mike looks at Valerie. Close up he notices her smooth skin, and a tiny scar below her left cheek.
    Valerie: “We have