But not for long. “Cam?” Leah thumps on my door.
“Buzz off.”
“Cameron!”
“Okay, okay. Come in if you must.”
In the morning my sister always looks much younger than seven. She is fresh and clean, and her tantrums from the day before have washed away.
I sometimes wish I could get away with her hissy fits. I’d love to dump my cereal bowl on the floor just because we’re out of Shreddies.
Mom keeps threatening to take Leah to a psychologist. I don’t get to freak out. Too many people telling me, “Your mother and sister depend on you. You’re the man of the house now.”
Real men don’t throw cereal bowls.
“Can I come in?” Leah stands in the doorway in her purple jammies.
“You’re in, aren’t you?”
“I’m hungry.” She walks to my bed and shoves her face into mine. She runs her finger across my top lip. “You’re getting a mustache!”
I leap out of bed and peer into my mirror. I tip my head one way, then the other. There is a glimmer of hair above my lip. If I wasn’t so fair, I’d have been shaving months ago, like my best friend DJ.
“You could have Dad’s razor,” says Leah. “If Mom hadn’t thrown it out.”
When she starts to snivel, I do the only thing that can stop her. “Snap out if it!” I yell. “Or you’ll make me cry too.”
“You’re mean. It’s okay to cry.” She rolls her bottom lip up over her top lip and sticks out her tongue to lick the snot creeping toward her mouth.
“Don’t do that. It’s disgusting. And you don’t have to cry every time someone mentions him.”
“What’s that noise?” Leah asks. She climbs on my bed and pushes the curtain aside. “It’s snowing!” she screeches. She bounces back down. “Let’s get dressed so we can go out in it.”
“We’ve got school. Anyway, it won’t last.”
“I want to stay home and play in the snow.” Leah’s already headed to her bedroom. “If we’re out there when Mom gets home, she can’t stop us.”
Wanna bet? When Mom gets back from her night shift at the hospital, she expects to find us dressed and eating breakfast, with our lunches packed. Some days she’s so tired, she can hardly say hello before she heads to her room, still in her coat.
I look outside. Then I lean closer. So close I can feel the cool air on the other side of the window. It can’t have been snowing that long. There’s hardly enough to shovel.
But someone is out there already. And the driveway being shoveled is ours.
The shoveler is wearing a green parka with the hood pulled up. It’s not Mr. Lyon from next door. He has emphysema. Our neighbors on the other side are in Disneyland with their four kids.
I pull on a sweatshirt and drag yesterday’s pants over yesterday’s underwear. I hop across the room, first on one leg, then on the other, as I pull on yesterday’s socks.
Leah is sitting in the middle of the hallway struggling into her snowsuit. “Hurry up,” she says. She frowns down at her zipper. “I wanna make a snowman.”
“Idiot. There’s not enough snow. Anyway, you’ve grown out of that.” As I push past her, I hear the muffler on Mom’s car. It’s been growling for six months. I can hear it from a block away. “Mom will be here in a minute. Quick. Get to the table.”
Leah trails after me into the kitchen with the top half of her snowsuit dragging behind her. “Can we have French toast?” she asks.
“It’s not Sunday.”
“If Dad was here, he’d make me French toast if I asked.”
Oh, sure he would! I think. Just like he’d help you do your homework or fix your bike.
“I don’t want French toast really,” says Leah. “You make it all sloppy.”
“Quit jabbering on about it, would you!” I say. Can it be possible that she’s a bigger pest now than ever?
“I want Mommy,” she whines. She struggles out of the snowsuit and drops it in a pink puddle by her chair.
“Stuff it, will you.” I set out a box of cereal and a jug of milk in front of my whiny sister.
“You’re mean,” she wails. “You’re the worstest brother in the world.”
“It’s worst. Not worstest. Eat your breakfast.” I go into the living room and pull back the curtains.
Outside, Mom is standing on the driveway. There’s some snow on the ground, but hardly enough to stop traffic—or to need clearing yet.
She’s yelling at a man who is leaning on a shovel. She’s probably mad because the shovel is making a great gouge in her daffodil bed. As she waves her arms, her purse swings to and fro. When it hits the man’s leg, he moves aside. Then he leans toward Mom, talking right into her face.
He holds up one hand. He’s keeping Mom back, or calming her down. I can’t tell from here.
I can only make out a bit of what she’s saying. “You have no business…!” she yells. “I’ll report you. If I catch you…”
The man steps closer, as if he’s begging.
Let him go, I think. They’re only flowers, for Pete’s sake.
Mom turns her back on him and heads for the house. As she flings open the front door and rushes inside, a gust of cold air swirls into the room. The door slams behind her.
Her face is very pale. Her eyelashes glisten with tears. She’s breathing hard.
“What was that about?” I ask. “Who is that?
She takes a deep breath in, then lets it shudder out of her as she stares through me. She opens her mouth, but no words come out. Tears wash down her face.
She takes another ragged breath. “That…” She waves toward the front door and gulps. “That’s the man who killed your father.”
I rush back to the window. “What? What do you mean?”
All I see are exhaust fumes as a blue pickup disappears from sight—and a snow shovel sticking out of my mother’s favorite flower bed.
Titles in the Series
121 Express
Monique Polak
Ace’s Basement
Ted Staunton
Agent Angus
K.L. Denman
Alibi
Kristin Butcher
Bad Business
Diane Dakers
Bear Market
Michele Martin Bossley
Benched
Cristy Watson
Beyond Repair
Lois Peterson
The Big Apple Effect
Christy Goerzen
The Big Dip
Melanie Jackson
Bio-pirate
Michele Martin Bossley
Blob
Frieda Wishinsky
Bones
John Wilson
Branded
Eric Walters
Bullies Rule
Monique Polak
Bungee Jump
Pam Withers
Cabin Girl
Kristin Butcher
Caching In
Kristin Butcher
Camp Disaster
Frieda Wishinsky
Camped Out
Daphne Greer
Camp Wild
Pam Withers
Caught in the Act
Deb Loughead
Chat Room
Kristin Butcher
Cheat
Kristin Butcher
Chick: Lister
Alex Van Tol
Cracked
Michele Martin Bossley
Crossbow
Dayle Campbell Gaetz
Daredevil Club
Pam Withers
Death by Airship
Arthur Slade
Death Drop
Melanie Jackson
Destination Human
K.L. Denman
Disconnect
Lois Peterson
Dog Walker
Karen Spafford-Fitz
Embrace the Chicken
Mahtab Narsimhan
Explore
Christy Goerzen
Eyesor
e
Melanie Jackson
FaceSpace
Adrian Chamberlain
Farmed Out
Christy Goerzen
Fast Slide
Melanie Jackson
Finding Elmo
Monique Polak
Flower Power
Ann Walsh
Food Freak
Alex Van Tol
Fraud Squad
Michele Martin Bossley
Gold
John Wilson
Hate Mail
Monique Polak
High Wire
Melanie Jackson
Hold the Pickles
Vicki Grant
Horse Power
Ann Walsh
Hypnotized
Don Trembath
In a Flash
Eric Walters
In the Buff
Vicki Grant
Jungle Jitters
Lisa Dalrymple
Junkyard Dog
Monique Polak
Laggan Lard Butts
Eric Walters
Leggings Revolt
Monique Polak
Living Rough
Cristy Watson
Lost
John Wilson
Manga Touch
Jacqueline Pearce
Marked
Norah McClintock
Maxed Out
Daphne Greer
Medusa’s Scream
Melanie Jackson
Mirror Image
K.L. Denman
Nine Doors
Vicki Grant
On Cue
Cristy Watson
Oracle
Alex Van Tol
Out of Season
Kari Jones
Payback
Deb Loughead
Perfect Revenge
K.L. Denman
Pigboy
Vicki Grant
Power Chord
Ted Staunton
Pyro
Monique Polak
Queen of the Toilet
Bowl
Frieda Wishinsky
Quiz Queens
K.L. Denman
Rebel’s Tag
K.L. Denman
Reckless
Lesley Choyce
Rise of the Zombie
Scarecrows
Deb Loughead
Room 555
Cristy Watson
Running Behind
Sylvia Taekema
See No Evil
Diane Young
Sewer Rats
Sigmund Brouwer
The Shade
K.L. Denman
Shadow
Mere Joyce
Shatterproof
Jocelyn Shipley
Siege
Jacqueline Pearce
Skate Freak
Lesley Choyce
Slick
Sara Cassidy
The Snowball Effect
Deb Loughead
Special Edward
Eric Walters
Splat!
Eric Walters
Spoiled Rotten
Dayle Campbell Gaetz
Stolen
John Wilson
Storm Tide
Kari Jones
Struck
Deb Loughead
Stuff We All Get
K.L. Denman
Sudden Impact
Lesley Choyce
Swiped
Michele Martin Bossley
Tampered
Michele Martin Bossley
Taz’s Recipe
Diane Tullson
Tick Tock Terror
Melanie Jackson
Three Good Things
Lois Peterson
Unity Club
Karen Spafford-Fitz
Vanish
Karen Spafford-Fitz
Watch Me
Norah McClintock
Wildfire
Deb Loughead
Windfall
Sara Cassidy
Winter Road
Kristen Butcher
Wired
Sigmund Brouwer
For more information on all the books in the Orca Currents series, please visit
orcabook.com.
Embrace the Chicken Page 6