Evolution by L.L. Bartlett Read Free Book Online Page A

does—you let me know. Okay?” He said the words to me, but his gaze had shifted to Helen. Good. At least he realized there was a co-conspirator in our midst.
    “Sure.” I cut off another piece of pie. “You’re working again tonight.”
    “It seems like I work every night,” he said, and grabbed the glass of milk before him.
    “Is that what you’re going to do the rest of your life? Work night and day?”
    “Not if I can help it. I’m looking forward to the day when I can work regular office hours … at something. I’ll be done with my residency a week after you graduate. Freedom for both of us, huh?”
    He didn’t know the half of it.
    Richard polished off the last of his sandwich and stood. “Remember what we talked about last night?”
    “I haven’t forgotten,” I said, avoiding eye contact, but then he stood there so long, towering over me, I was kind of forced to look up. He was smiling. Then he reached out and roughed up my hair and headed for the butler’s pantry. “See you tomorrow—maybe.”
    “Yeah. See ya.”
    Half a minute later, he was out the door and heading for the garage. Curtis had sure been taking his time about coming into the house. He stood, leaning against his car, and Richard stopped to speak with him.
    I turned my attention to the last bite of pie and looked out the window again. Richard and Curtis were laughing. Did either of them have a clue that I might be up to something? It didn’t matter. I’d made up my mind, and nothing was going to stop me.
    “If you’ve finished, you can clear the table,” Helen barked at me.
    Too bad my plan didn’t include her. Well, maybe after tonight she wouldn’t give me any more trouble, either.
    I rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher, and then headed up to my room to put on some dry socks. And wait. I had almost five hours to wait. And then after that, Mrs. Alpert’s time of tyranny would finally be over.
    The thought made me smile.
    #
    “Damn, I wish I could stay and watch the show,” Robbie Baldwin said and opened the trunk of his father’s Ford. “I gotta be home in fifteen minutes or I’ll be grounded—again.”
    “Just leave it on the sidewalk, and I’ll truck it around to the back of the house,” I said as we started pulling out boxes and bags of stuff. The biggest thing of all was the plastic pumpkin. “What did you bring that for?”
    “It’s part of the costume,” he said. “Hey, this stuff has to be back in the Drama Club locker by seven-thirty tomorrow morning or I’ll be in trouble, and I ain’t taking detention alone—I’ll rat you out in a second.”
    “Don’t worry. You just show up here by six tomorrow and pick me up. I’ll help you carry it all back into the school. Nobody has to know a thing.”
    He shoved the trunk shut. “Six tomorrow,” he said, got in the car, started it, and drove off, not turning on his lights until he was down half a block.
    Thirty minutes before, I’d crept down the stairs and let myself out the front door—not wanting to disturb Curtis, whose room was closest to the butler’s pantry and the back door. It had taken me longer to sneak the extension ladder out of the garage and get it ready. The stupid thing didn’t want to go beyond about twelve feet, and I worried that Curtis would hear me bashing it with a hammer, but eventually it did stretch out to its full height and I took it out back and laid it down in the grass to wait.
    The sky had cleared, bringing with it a cold wind and a gleaming half-moon. Good. When the time came, I wanted to be completely visible.
    It was damn cold in that dank garage, so I tried on the costume. The sleeves were a long longer on my arms than the guy who’d worn it in the play. I didn’t need the pants anyway, and struggled into the rest of the outfit, shoved up the sleeves and found that my arms were restricted. How the hell was I going to climb a ladder when I could barely move my arms? It looked like I’d wasted twenty