Falling From the Sky by Nikki Godwin Read Free Book Online Page A

finals, but I’ve never actually helped start the fire.
    “Watch and learn,” Pax says, as if he’s a pro at building a bonfire. He disappears around the house again, in the same direction from which he came.
    Micah laughs and looks to me. “Don’t take anything he says to heart. He goofs off a lot.”
    “How old is he?” I ask.
    “Fifteen. But he acts twelve sometimes,” Micah replies. He points to the stack of wood. “Want to help me with those?”
    I grab as many two-by-fours as I can carry and follow Micah into an open clearing between two houses. A dark, shallow pit has hollowed out the ground. Gray stones outline the pit. Pax rounds the corner with an armload of brush and sticks. I’m not as helpful as I wish I could be, but I keep a steady stream of planks coming in their direction while they fill the pit with brush and wood.
    “Hey Ridge? Come hold this,” Micah hollers out to me.
    I walk around the two-by-fours and hold the last one in position. Micah doesn’t let go until I have a good grasp on it. He unravels a thick piece of twine and wraps it repeatedly around the planks.
    “Have to be on the safe side,” he says. “If this thing collapses, it’ll light up the whole res before we can stop it.”
    Pax tosses a match onto it and looks back at Micah with an accomplished smile.
    “You know,” Pax says. “He’s a lot more helpful than Tay…other friends you’ve brought around here.”
    It’s as if I’m not even standing here.
    “Go help them with the fish,” Micah says to Pax, ignoring the other remark.
    Micah doesn’t wait for a response. He walks past Pax and the blazing fire. I wonder for a second if it’s safe to leave it burning like that, but I don’t volunteer to stay.
     
    Zoey’s spaghetti sauce is better than I expected. We decided to eat inside because Jade is already complaining about a mosquito bite, and Zoey is worried about bugs getting in her food. We sit in a circle on the living room floor. The smell of fried fish isn’t nearly as strong inside. Or maybe I’ve just gotten used to it.
    “Uncle Mike, did you play the new zombie game in Time Out?” Abby asks with a mouth full of fish.
    “Manners,” Zoey says. “Close your mouth when you chew, Ab.”
    Abby closes her mouth and swallows dramatically, nodding her head forward so her mom will see the gesture.
    Then Abby asks again. “Uncle Mike, did you play it?”
    Micah nods. “Ridge and I did the other day,” he says.
    “And you didn’t get us anything?” Jade pipes in. She drops her fork onto her plate and stares at him, demanding a response.
    “Well, I didn’t have enough tickets to get both of you something, and Ridge needed some good luck,” he explains. “So I gave him the rabbit’s foot. But he really needs it to win his basketball games this summer.”
    I convince myself that he’s only saying that to give Abby and Jade a simple “little kid” explanation. But deep down, I wonder if I really suck so badly that I need a damn lucky rabbit’s foot to help me. He wouldn’t know. He hasn’t seen me play…unless my penny jump shot was really that awful.
    “I love them,” Abby says in all seriousness. “I have a whole buncha them that Uncle Mike gave me.”
    “He had to kill a lot of rabbits then, huh?” I ask her.
    I smile so she’ll hopefully know I’m kidding with her. My version of funny and a five-year-old’s version obviously differ because her eyes widen, and widespread panic absorbs her face.
    “Uncle Mike said they all died of old age and went to animal heaven,” she says.
    “They did,” I quickly agree. “I was just kidding. They actually go through a salon too, and they tell them what color fur they want. Then they send their old feet back to earth as good luck charms because they get new feet in animal heaven that make them run faster.”
    That’s probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever said. Even the bullshit stories I tell Jordan aren’t that bad. I jab my fork back