In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis Read Free Book Online Page A

all day erupting again, along with her frustration. “If you think I’m infected too, what does it matter?”
    “Sweetheart”—Vera’s hand rested on her arm, her touch as light as always—“I don’t think it’s you. But I can’t back that up in any way other than the feeling in my heart.”
    “Lynn said the same thing.”
    “She’s got a mother’s instincts without ever having borne a child, and for once she and I agree on something. You’re not the carrier, little one. But like Stebbs said, Monica isn’t stupid, she’s figured out it could be you just as well as Carter, and we can’t very well exile one of you and not the other.”
    “Then I’ll leave with him,” Lucy said, the words tumbling out of her as the idea occurred. “Lynn won’t have to leave her pond and he won’t have to be alone.”
    “And that leaves Lynn behind to deal with Abigail gunning for her with all the bitterness in her heart. And more than likely you’ll be dead from Carter’s love in less than a week,” Vera said sternly.
    Lucy was about to say that was fine, but the words were stuck.
    Vera watched her closely. “That’s not what you’re meant for. Life’s got more in store for you than dying to prove a point. This conversation is one I’ve been meaning to have with you, but I never thought it’d take the deaths of so many for me to talk to you about life.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean maybe this is your chance to break free, to get out and see the world beyond this little place. I know there’s good out there; I’ve seen it. It’s not all hardship and strangers the way Lynn thinks. There’s more to life than a water source, and I’ve prayed you’d get to see that before you settled here.”
    “A water source is pretty damn important,” Lucy said.
    “It is,” Vera conceded, “but it’s not the only thing there is. Take this chance for what it is, Lucy. Get out of here. Don’t live Lynn’s way, or Stebbs’ way, or even my way. Live, and go find something new.”
    Underneath the weight of fear in her stomach, Lucy felt a quiver of excitement, something that had long lain dormant. It reminded her of days in Entargo, her tiny fingers pulling back the curtains even as Neva protested, so that she could see the streets below, teeming with people she had yet to meet and the endless possibilities of what could happen that day.
    “So you promise me you’ll keep your distance from Carter when you’re talking, and you keep that promise,” Vera said, bringing Lucy back into the present.
    “I promise,” Lucy said, her voice stronger than she felt.
    Vera disappeared into the trees and Lucy stood alone in the dark, her shoulders trembling. A stick snapped and she jerked at the sound, her pulse racing.
    “Lucy?” Carter’s voice sounded thin and unsure. “You there?”
    “Carter?” she called out, and heard the rustle of dead leaves underfoot as he came near. “Over here.”
    He emerged out of the dark, so changed from the boy she knew that she had to resist the urge to run to him. His eyes were sunken and red-rimmed, his shoulders slumped, and his hands shook as he leaned against a tree for support.
    “Your grandma said I can’t come closer than this maple,” he said.
    “I’ve got a line in the dirt over here telling me what to do,” she answered, and he smiled a little.
    “That’s just like you, to have a line.”
    She laughed. “We really did it this time, didn’t we?”
    “And here I always thought Devon was teasing when he said I’d be the end of him.”
    Her face fell. “It’s not your fault, Carter. You didn’t know.”
    Carter slid to the ground by the maple, his feet dangling over the bank. “What’s Lynn always say? It is what it is?”
    “It is what it is,” Lucy agreed. “And it sucks.”
    “That’s two different ways of saying the same thing,” Carter said, and a silence fell between the two of them while they both waited for the other to say the