The Invaders Read Online Free Page B

“Didn’t your mother give you the message? We aren’t going away after all.”
    I sometimes played doubles opposite his mother. He was handsome with deep-set eyes and thick dark hair. I lingered too long looking at his muscular arms and broad shoulders and he kept his eyes on me long enough for it to be noticeable. I blushed at the attention. He was a child, really, even if he didn’t look it.
    â€œThat sucks.” He looked at me, momentarily embarrassed, then said, “Sorry.” He smiled and asked: “How are you doing, Mrs. Willard?”
    â€œFine. Fine. Are you working this summer?” I asked.
    â€œNah. Taking the summer off. Hey, you take any pictures of those sunrises you watch?”
    â€œNo,” I said, startled that he knew I was pacing the streets each dawn.
    â€œToo bad. I bet you’d get some great ones.” He said good-bye and walked away.
    Lori gave me a look. “What was that about?” she asked.
    â€œSometimes I get up early and take a walk. I didn’t think anyone was paying attention,” I said, watching him go. I’d never seen him on the street before and I wondered when he’d seen me. Who else watched me pacing the streets under the lamplights?
    â€œDon’t hire him to do anything because he’ll rob you blind,” Lori said. “He ate all the cookies in my pantry. Crackers, too. I bet he had a party.”
    â€œThey all do,” I said.
    â€œSome are worse than others. And he’s one you have to watch out for.Do you know they had to pull him out of school? For good this time.”
    â€œCollege is hard, Lori. I didn’t have an easy time of it, either.”
    â€œApparently, he was having ‘issues.’ I wonder how Fran’s going to whitewash this episode.”
    Steven’s mother, Fran, had become increasingly protective of him. He used to wander at low tide for hours looking for oysters to sell around the neighborhood, smart and entrepreneurial from the get-go. He was the kind of son you wanted to have because he was going to be someone special. Except something had happened and he stopped getting things right. His deviancy was overlooked at first, but it had been snowballing lately. He had locked two seagulls in his mother’s bathroom last summer, and when she came home, they attacked her—squawking and shitting everywhere. She ran out of the house screaming and the birds followed her out the front door. I chuckled thinking about it—Fran’s own starring role in The Birds .
    â€œThe school saw him as a threat,” Lori whispered. I asked her to whom, but she had no answer. I knew she had heard it thirdhand.
    â€œHe also went through my closets.”
    â€œMaybe he just wanted to see how he looked in your tennis skirts. I’m sure he has nice legs.”
    â€œAs if you need more men in your life when you’ve got Jeffrey.”
    I was always hearing these indictments from women around here, but they had no idea. I had resigned myself to nodding politely and pretending I was ravaged nightly or at least weekly. Once I even heard someone say, I wouldn’t mind having his slippers under my bed. I wanted to shout at them all, tell them the truth, but what could I say? There was no need to embarrass myself in front of them. They wouldn’t show me any kindness about it; it would just become drunken dinner-party conversation to make themselves feel better. It would start with, Can you believe after all that they don’t even screw? How sad , they would say in unison . How sad is she? I didn’t need their pity, so I kept itto myself. Except sometimes, looking around, I wanted to tell someone and not hear This was your choice.
    â€œI’m not saying I’m going to do anything with him, Lori. I’m saying he’s handsome.”
    â€œYou’re terrible,” she said, laughing.
    She watched him disappear around the bend and I knew what she