Forest of Shadows Read Online Free Page B

a tiny girl. When she was a baby and he had to take her for her doctor visits, she was consistently in the lower percentiles for height and weight. Now at age six, she was still the smallest kid in her class. When she was two, he started to call her squeak-pip, saying she wasn’t big enough to be a pipsqueak yet. It still held true, and in his heart, probably always would. 
    She gave him an exasperated sigh. “I know, Dad. I already did. I’m not some little kid.”
    John did his best not to chuckle. That would only provoke her. 
    She continued on with her story. Five blocks into it with still no real understanding of just what exactly had transpired in the lunch room, John interjected, “Hey, did you miss me? I missed you.”
    “I missed you mucho much,” she shot back before embarking on her tale yet again. 
    Six-years-old and already she could out-filibuster any politician in Washington. After a day of being by himself, Jessica’s voice was music to his ears. It was hot, she was beautiful, so they stopped for ice cream on the way home and it wasn’t until an hour later that John was able to put all the pieces of her story together. Sure enough, it was about farting. 

Chapter Four
    Eve Powers came to the house at six bearing a heaping bag of Chinese food. She was no more than three paces in the door before Jessica came bounding down the stairs. 
    “Aunt Eve!” Jessica yelled as she wrapped herself around Eve’s waist, almost toppling her over.
    “It’s nice to see someone’s glad to see me.”
    “What did you bring for dinner?”
    “Dinner? Your dad didn’t tell me to bring dinner. This is just a bag of laundry,” Eve said with a smile.
    Jessica sniffed the air. “Your laundry smells a lot like Chinese food.”
    “You know what? You’re right!” Eve grabbed her and started to tickle underneath her neck. Jessica squealed with laughter and darted towards the living room. Eve gave chase and caught up with her behind the couch where she proceeded to tickle her until she was almost out of breath from giggling. Eve helped her up and carried her into the dining room where she plopped her into a chair.
    “Where’s Daddy?” she asked as she emptied the little white containers from the bag onto the table. 
    “Upstairs, reading.”
    Eve brought some plates and utensils from the kitchen, mindful to take out Jessica’s favorite Rugrats plate, cup and a straw. She dished out some fried rice and chicken and broccoli and poured her a cup of water. 
    “There, you’re all set.”
    Jessica needed no further encouragement. She started to dig in immediately, devouring the broccoli first. Eve never ceased to marvel at the girl’s penchant for veggies.
    “I’ll be back in a minute. I’m going to get Daddy.”
    “Okay,” Jessica replied with a mouthful of green-specked teeth. 
    Eve went upstairs to the spare bedroom, better known as John’s study, picking up Jessica’s discarded shoes, socks and assorted toys on the way. Near the top step, she even had to grab John’s sneakers. It was a wonder they didn’t kill themselves. 
    The door to the study was open. She could see him lying on the loveseat, headphones firmly in place and a large book in his hands. The music was so loud she could make out every word of the song, even though she was still in the hallway. 
    She walked into the room and quickly pulled the headphones off. John barely moved a muscle as he said, “Good evening, Eve my dear,” in a pretty good imitation of Bela Lugosi. 
    “How did you know it was me?”
    “The only person who would be in this house and rude enough to disturb my peace by nearly ripping my ears off mid-chorus is you. Plus, I could smell your blood,” he said, baring his teeth. 
    She bopped him on the head with a throw pillow. “Okay, Count, your latest victim, I mean meal, is served in the downstairs parlor.”
    He stopped at the foot of the stairs. “Where’s Liam? I don’t hear any baby babble?” 
    “I