Marked by Norah McClintock Read Free Book Online

thought flashed in my mind: Cops.
    â€œHey, kid,” a voice said.
    I was sweating as I turned around.
    But it wasn’t cops. It was a man in a regular car.
    â€œIs this woodside Crescent?” he said.
    I nodded.
    â€œJeez, Would it kill them to put in a street sign?” the man said.
    I turned and pointed to a sign that was half hidden by the leaves of an elm tree. The man just shook his head.
    â€œHide it, why don’t they?” he said. “Same with the house numbers around here. Would it kill these people to put them where a person on the street could actually see them?” He shook his head again. “I don’t suppose you know where number one-two-four is?”
    I glanced at the closest house. It was number one-zero-five, which meant that one-zero-six was right across the street.
    â€œSure,” I said. “It’s on the north side of the street, nine houses down,” I said, counting them off in my head as I scanned the street. “Right there,” I said, pointing at the house. Wouldn’t you know it? It was the same house that had been broken into my second day on the job.
    The man thanked me and drove away. I watched him turn into the driveway.
    I finished up and went to my next stop. I didn’t think about him or the house until I was sitting in the park a few hours later, eating my lunch.

chapter ten
    Alyssa was there, with all five dogs. Cody, the German shepherd, was nosing into her backpack looking for treats. She scolded him and pushed him away. So far she hadn’t noticed me. I decided to find someplace else to eat. Then I thought, why should
I
leave? I hadn’t done anything.
    I sat on the bench farthest away from her, with my back to her. I took out my sketchbook and a pencil, and I sketched the houses across the street while I ate.
    Something jumped up onto the bench beside me and lunged at my sandwich.
    Buster, trailing his leash again.
    Then I heard barking—a lot of it.
    I turned. Alyssa was standing there, straining to keep a grip on four leashes while she bent down to grab the leash Buster was trailing. I ducked down and retrieved it for her. She didn’t say a word when I handed it to her.
    â€œYou’re welcome,” I said sarcastically.
    Her cheeks turned pink.
    Buster leaped up onto the bench again. This time he got hold of my sandwich. I was so surprised that I dropped my sketchbook.
    â€œBuster!” Alyssa said. But he had already gobbled up what was left of my lunch. Alyssa picked up my sketchbook and started to hand it to me. Suddenly she smiled. “This looks like Buster,” she said, looking at the picture I had drawn the night before.
    â€œIt is.”
    â€œDid you draw it?”
    I nodded.
    â€œIt’s really good,” she said.
    â€œThanks.”
    She handed the sketchbook to me. But she didn’t walk away. Instead she stood there, looking at me.
    â€œYou could be an artist or something if you wanted to,” she said.
    It was my turn to get red in the face.
    â€œMy art teacher said I might want to think about art school,” I said.
    She frowned. “So Why are you doing this?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œCleaning off all those marks. why are you doing it?”
    She sure asked strange questions.
    â€œIt’s a job,” I said. “For the summer. The utility companies are only paying minimum wage, but it’s better than nothing.”
    She shook her head impatiently. “What I mean is, why take chances?”
    Take chances? Then I remembered what Stike had told me about the kid who got beaten up.
    â€œDid you see something?” I said, tryingnot to look as nervous as I felt. “Do you think the guys who did the graffiti are going to beat me up for erasing it?”
    She looked at me like she thought I was crazy.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” she said.
    â€œWhat are
you
talking about?”
    We stared at each other for a moment. Then