The Before by Emily McKay Read Free Book Online Page A

going off on my own to some facility until the government could get the Tick virus under control, I couldn’t shake the sick twist in my belly that told me this was all going to go horribly wrong.
    And I just wanted the simple comfort of knowing Mom was here fighting for us and that soon we would all be together again. That together, we could get through anything.
    Except when I pulled myself out of Mom’s arms, Mel was gone.

Chapter Nine
     
    Mel
     
    We are all barreling toward the edge of a cliff and my Road Runner brain sees no way to stop us. All the meep meeping in the world isn’t getting through to Mom and Lily. I hum and hum, everything from Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” to Darth Vader’s theme. But nothing can convey the crushing doom I see ahead.
    It’s not myself I fear, it’s them. When Road Runner dashes off the cliff, she’s fast enough to make it to the other side, it’s the other characters who plummet. My whole life is a Looney Tunes cast of characters I don’t want to lose. But maybe life is loss anyway and maybe living is really just coping.
    But coping has never been my strong suit. I shut down. Or I run. I retreat to my world of music, where the sweet rhythm of rhyming words calms my senses. Music has always made so much more sense to me than people. I can predict the crescendo of a symphony in a way I’ve never predicted human behavior.
    Those suitcases Mom is packing are proof of that. I never would have seen that coming.  And now we must be going. Lily and I adrift on our own. Without Mom. Without Safety. Without consent.
    There is no music in the world that will make this make sense. Without my music to retreat to, panic drives me. I do what I’ve done before. I run.

Chapter Ten
     
    Lily
     
    Mom and I both panicked. We ran through the house calling for her. Checking every bedroom. Every closet. Every nook. Even though we had no immediate reason to think she’d bolted, we just both knew.
    When Mel got upset, she ran away.
    When Dad left, she wandered off during one of Dallas’s rare ice storms. We found her five miles away, halfway between our house and Dad’s old office, with no coat on. She had to spend the night in the hospital for observation because they thought she might have hypothermia.
    When Nanna died, she did it again. That time in Nebraska. Luckily a neighbor found her and called us that time.
    This time, who knew what could happen. Was the cop still there? Would he harass her? How would she react? There was no scenario in which this would end well.
    Mom and I met back up by the front door, both of us breathing hard, our voices already hoarse from the screaming.
    We stood there panting for a second. Mom looked as freaked out as I felt.
    “What do we do?” I asked.
    “Did you see any sign of her?”
    I shook my head.
    Mom frowned, sucking in her lower lip to gnaw on it. “We’ll have to call the police. Ask them to look for her.”
    “Are you kidding? They can’t look for her! That will freak her out for sure! She’ll bolt or scream or something. Then she’ll be in serious trouble.”
    Or dead. But I couldn’t say that aloud. Mom didn’t need to hear that and I . . . I just couldn’t even . . .
    “Where do you think she went?” Mom asked.
    “I don’t know. Anywhere. She just freaked. She bolted. She—”
    But I cut myself off. I couldn’t afford to think that way. If she’d just bolted, she could be anywhere. There was no way I’d find her before the police. Not when they were out there patrolling the streets to enforce curfew.
    No. I had to assume she was heading somewhere specific. I had to assume she had something in mind.
    I blew out a breath. “Okay, where would she have gone? Do you have any ideas?”
    “I don’t know. You’ve spent more time with her this summer than I have. You know her better than I do.” Mom looked like admitting this made her feel sick. “When Nanna died she was just wandering.”
    “As far as we know. We