Memories from a Different Future: Jump When Ready, Book 2 by David Pandolfe Read Free Book Online Page A

friends I was ripping you a new one for throwing the book. Tell them I’m so stupid that
I didn’t figure it out until later when you picked it up off the floor. Got me
so far?”
    Emilio nodded, not sure what to say.
    “Good. When was the last time you talked to your guidance
counselor?”
    “Why?” The fact was, Emilio had never talked to his
guidance counselor. What would be the point?
    “Listen, Emilio. It’s not like we don’t notice how hard
you work not to get better grades.”
    Emilio’s self-defense mechanisms kicked in. “What the
hell are you—”
    “Knock it off.” Mr. Posten’s voice dropped even lower.
“You’re getting Cs just by phoning the whole deal in. Not just in my class. I
know that. Which tells me you want something better. That you get it but just
keep telling yourself it’s not yours to have. That you have to go down with the
rest of your home boys. You don’t.”
    Emilio felt his blood start to boil. “How the hell would
you know?”
    Mr. Posten unbuttoned his cuff and rolled a sleeve back,
showing ink Emilio never would have imagined being on Mr. Posten’s arms.
Crudely cut gang tattoos. “You want to know how I the hell I’d know? I grew up
in the CD, that’s how I know. I just smartened my ass up and didn’t go down
with my home boys.”
    The second bell rang, signaling that Emilio was already
late for his next class. Not that he was supposed to care. Emilio turned and
started walking toward the door.
    “Wait,” Mr. Posten said.
    Emilio turned and gave him a surly look, more an
automatic response than anything intended. The truth was, he wanted to know how
Mr. Posten got out. How he’d managed to create a half-way decent future.
    Mr. Posten opened his desk drawer and withdrew a hall
pass. He scratched the time and his signature down. “Don’t worry, you’re
covered,” he said. “Think about what I said, okay?”
    Emilio just barely met his eyes. “Okay,” he said. Then he
slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked out the door.

 
6
    Ghost of the
Living
     
    They each had secret places of their own and for Nikki that
place was her garden. Okay, maybe Henry was the only one among them who’d
shared everything—after all, she and Jamie had been to his pond. Technically,
though, that first time she’d found him there had been an invitation even
though Henry hadn’t known at the time. After witnessing Bethany’s abduction,
his traumatized state created a psychic distress call Nikki had picked up on.
No, she couldn’t read people here like she could those in the other realm, but
certain signals still came through. At the same time, Nikki suspected Henry had
created a new place of his own. One day, he’d mentioned something about a
sunrise and seagulls, not even thinking about it. Nikki and Jamie had exchanged
knowing glances. Totally fine, just the way it went. In this realm, just like
the other, everyone needed some privacy every so often. Kind of like Simon’s
library. None of her business.
    So, for now she tended to her garden. Okay, sure,
everything remained in full bloom, her roses, zinnias and lilies perfect. Nikki
understood that they were, to a degree, unnaturally perfect, but that didn’t
bother her since there was watering and pruning to be done along with weeds to
be pulled. Somehow, even in the afterlife, weeds kept creeping in and trying to
take over. There was also the bright, blue sky above and the sun warming her
shoulders.
    Nikki carried a seedling from her greenhouse toward the
hole she’d dug for it. She knelt in the dirt and widened the hole a little more
with her trowel, then placed the roots against the ground. Did it matter that
this plant would still be healthy if she ignored if for a year or that the dirt
she knelt in had been created from her imagination? Not really. This was
Nikki’s own spot of ground, hers for as long as she chose to keep it.
    Nikki rose to her feet to get the watering can from where
she’d left it resting