Red Rain: A Novel by R. L. Stine Read Free Book Online

she had shown up on his doorstep nearly a year ago with the one-year-old kid in tow and nowhere to go.
    Talk about bad luck with men. Only it wasn’t bad luck. It was poor choices. You didn’t need a psychologist to see Roz had a problem in that area.
    Mark could see the black eye she had tried to cover up with makeup. And the nervous tic with her eyes . . . that was something new.
    “I’m giving up men,” she had said as he and Lea helped carry her bags into the house. “Maybe I’ll try women.”
    “What does that mean?” Ira had asked.
    “She’s making a joke,” Mark told him.
    Her son, Axl, with the bush of curly brown hair and the pudgy cheeks and freckles, started to cry.
    “Naming your son Axl is looking for trouble.” Yes, Mark had really said that to her over the phone the day after Axl was born.
    Of course, Roz had laughed. She always laughed at Mark when he was too earnest. “If Axl has problems, I’ll send him to you, Doc,” she said.
    They had a strange relationship, he thought. She was the older sister but in many ways he played the older brother. Not the older, wiser brother. Her razor-sharp sense of humor would never allow him to be that. She always cut him down to size even when he was helping her.
    It worked. They had always been close. Their parents had been so absent, they had to cling together from the time they were little, and that habit stuck. Now here she was with the black eye and the trembling chin, holding back her tears with all her strength.
    Her boyfriend, Axl’s father, had left and taken her car and her savings.
    Lea said, “The guesthouse in back is empty. Why don’t you live there for a while, Roz, while you’re getting yourself together? Ira and Elena will love having Axl around.”
    “Only if I can do something to earn my rent.” From Roz. “You know. If I can help out somehow?”
    Which is how she got to be the nanny. And damned good timing, too, since Lea and Mark were traveling so much lately. The kids didn’t take long at all to adjust to little cousin Axl. Now age two, he was so cute and so preposterously curious. How could anyone resist him?
    “What that mean?”
    “Why?”
    “What you doing? Why you doing that?”
    It was so interesting to see the little guy’s brain churning away. Ira and Elena didn’t question much. They seemed to accept everything as it was. They had always seemed too into themselves to be explorers.
    Roz seemed happy in the little guesthouse with its single bedroom and bath. In fact, Mark had never seen her so consistently cheerful. She had her straight black hair cut short and bought some young-looking clothes.
    She found a part-time job doing office work for some real estate lawyers in Sag Harbor. And she proved to be an efficient and loving nanny. The kids quickly learned to laugh at her sarcasm and sharp insults. They ate all their meals together at the long wooden table in the kitchen. One big happy family.
    Of course, Mark was wary. He always began to feel wary whenever things began to go right for his sister. He knew that a new boyfriend on the scene could change it all.
    He wanted Roz to have a real life of her own. Actually, he felt the house was a little crowded with the two of them always there, and it was harder to spend quiet time with Lea or with Ira and Elena. He didn’t want to keep her there forever as a kind of indentured servant. But he knew Roz needed time to heal before heading off to the next chapter of her life.
    All these thoughts while sailing his small BMW through thedark waves of Route 114, squinting through the rain-washed windshield. The rapid smack-smack-smack of the wipers the only sound except for the splash of rain waves off the sides of the car.
    No phone. No phone ringing.
    Lea, where are you?
    And then a sharp turn through the opening in the low brick wall. The crunch of the gravel driveway beneath the tires. Mark eased the car to the side door. Cut the lights. Turned off the engine. Watched the