Cheating for the Chicken Man by Priscilla Cummings Read Free Book Online

animal sanctuary in North Carolina where they could actually hold a baby tiger on their laps. They would ride down next summer and stay with Kate’s grandparents so there wouldn’t be travel expenses. On sleepovers, the girls also started compiling a list of wildlife rehab centers they could apply to for volunteer work when they were older. So far, they’d found a koala refuge in Australia and an elephant foundation in Thailand that captivated them with an online video of a young woman giving a baby elephant a sudsy bath in the river.
    Grandma had chosen to stay on over the summer, and despite what J.T. had said about her other life, Kate was grateful. Her grandmother had taken over the cooking and braiding Kerry’s long hair. She was even carpooling with Jess’s mom to the middle school for the girls’ field hockey camp one week, and the next, into town for a pottery class. It was during this week that Kate’s mother surprised everyone by offering to feed the baby bunny while Kate was away.
    â€œThis is how I hold him,” Kate said, adjusting the fuzzy sock. Her fingers touched her mother’s as she handed over the tiny rabbit.
    â€œI think I’ve got it,” her mother said. “Oh, my. So tiny. Sohungry!” Her mouth turned up at the corners, and when their eyes met, Kate smiled back.
    Occasionally, there were trips to the Tastee-Freez for soft ice cream and on really hot days—if there weren’t many jellyfish—swimming in the river. Since his ankle bracelet was waterproof and the river was practically in their backyard, even J.T. joined the girls for a swim one afternoon.
    â€œCannonball!” he shouted before jumping in off a fallen locust tree that jutted over the water and making a huge splash.
    The girls got soaked, their screams turning to laughter as they got their hands ready to spray J.T. when he surfaced.
    But he didn’t come up.
    Slowly, the smile melted off Kate’s face. Treading water, she turned to Jess.
    â€œOh, my God,” Jess said.
    Suddenly, J.T. emerged from the dark, cool water, relieving both girls, but then startling them, too, with the stricken look on his face. He wiped the water out of his eyes and hauled out of the river fast, slipping once on the slick, grassy bank before grabbing his towel and heading back up the path.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Kate called after him.
    Jess slapped the water and hollered, “J.T., come back!”
    When he didn’t even turn around, Kate guessed that maybe J.T. had been thinking about a little boy who died from exposure in the same river just over a year ago. Judging from her rueful expression, Jess may have thought the same thing, too. But the girls didn’t talk about it. Despite their friendship, a lot of things went unspoken between them. They never talked about how Kate’s mother had changed or the stigma from J.T.’scrime that hung over the Tyler family, or how embarrassing it was for Kate to go food shopping with Jess’s mom. Kate was never sure why they didn’t talk about these things, although she did worry she’d lose Jess if there were too many problems. In life, she was learning, there were some things you just didn’t talk about.
    The rest of summer slid by quickly. While the girls had their fun, it seemed that all J.T. did was work. He weeded and watered the gardens, mowed the yard, painted the shed roofs, and took care of the chickens, which was huge because every day he had to remove the dead ones and then do the culling. To Kate, this was the absolute worst job in the entire world. Culling meant picking out the weakened chicks, or the ones not growing as fast, and getting rid of them. It seemed like culling was playing God, deciding who would live and who would die, and she didn’t want any part of it.
    Maybe, Kate thought, hard work was J.T.’s way of trying to redeem himself and make up for what he’d done. He