Fair Coin by E. C. Myers Read Free Book Online

life to take an interest. Ephraim picked up a bacon strip and crunched it. It crumbled then melted in his mouth. Delicious.
    “You're quiet all of a sudden. Penny for your thoughts,” she said.
    A penny…The coin. His wish! He slapped his fork down on the table and sat straight up.
    “Now what's wrong?” A note of impatience slipped into her voice. She shook a cigarette out of a pack then picked up her lighter. “I'm trying, Eph. I really am.”
    He had used the coin to make two wishes, and they each seemed to come true. That was more than coincidence. More than a hallucination, unless he had completely lost hold of reality.
    It was magic. He had a magic coin.
    He smiled. “Everything's perfect, Mom. Thanks for the breakfast.”
    She lit the cigarette. She took a drag and blew the smoke away from the table. “You sure there isn't anything you'd like to tell me?” she said.
    He swallowed. “I…love you, Mom.”
    “That's just your stomach talking.” She stood and untied her apron, cigarette dangling from her mouth. She brushed off her sleeve and patted her hair to make sure it was all in place. “I better get going. I don't know how much of this you're actually going to eat, but it made me feel better to do something. I know I've been at work a lot lately and I want to make it up to you.”
    She slung her apron over the back of her chair. “Any plans for your first day of freedom?”
    “I'm just going to hang out with Nathan,” he said around a mouthful of toast. “At the library.”
    She smiled. “Give the girl some space, huh?”
    Ephraim coughed.
    “And clean up before you go. Just pop everything in the dishwasher.”
    Ephraim looked up. “We have a dishwasher too?”
    His mother shook her head. “What's gotten into you? I hoped you were going to skip this whole phase, whatever it is.”
    As soon as his mother had gone, Ephraim raced back to his room. He took his coin collection and shook the jar out onto his unmade bed. He sifted through the jingling coins frantically. What if it had disappeared like everything else?
    Ephraim's mother had changed so much since last night, but she had been that way once, when his father was around. Before things got bad. He couldn't believe he had her back.
    There it was! He plucked the magic coin from the rest. The metal hummed gently against his skin as he turned it over and over.
    He didn't know what his next wish would be, but he would have to plan it carefully. He didn't want to rush it—for all he knew, the third wish could be his last. They always came in threes, didn't they?
    The summer was looking a lot more promising.
    Ephraim locked his bicycle to the rack in front of the Summerside Public Library. He paused before the stone lions flanking the entrance. They were half-scale replicas of the lions at the main branch of the New York City Public Library—a bit ostentatious for a Westchester suburb like Summerside, but they had always impressed Ephraim. He'd named them Bert and Ernie when he was a little kid. Bert, the one on the left, was his favorite, even though they were mirror images of each other.
    Ephraim patted Bert's left paw on his way up the stairs. He passed the book return box and pushed his way through the turnstile, headed for the circulation desk.
    He used to come here every Saturday afternoon with his father. Ephraim had never really enjoyed reading much more than comics, but he liked spending time with his father so he'd always looked forward to those trips. He would gather an armful of books to take home, for his father to read with him at bedtime through the week.
    Some things never changed, Ephraim thought. He was still using the library as an excuse to get closer to someone. He pulled The Lord of the Rings out of his backpack, lightening the load significantly, and approached the circulation desk.
    Jena sat behind the counter, her face bent over an open book, of course. Her short hair curtained down on either side of her face. He was