The Clockwork Fairy Kingdom by Leah Cutter Read Free Book Online Page A

points. Swirling lines filled the background. Finally Dale saw the
outline of a woman. The top point formed an eye in the center of her forehead,
and the other two lay in the centers of her open palms.
    As they finished, Dale pointed out, “You know, the tide’s
going to wash this away.”
    “I know. Cool, huh? Like those sand paintings Buddhist monks
do.”
    “Demented,” Dale told her, shoving her shoulder.
    Nora pushed him back. “Spiritual,” she said in a high,
mincing voice, imitating Mrs. Chakmus , their social
studies teacher. Dale grinned. He looked at the piece. Primitive, but it was
kind of neat. “So—what now?”
    “ Wanna stay and watch it get
destroyed?” Nora asked as she walked to a nearby log and sat down.
    “You really are insane,” Dale told her. He looked at her,
then back out at the ocean. Despite the sunshine that afternoon, it still felt
cold and gray. “ Naw . I’m going back to the house.
Just don’t get yourself trapped by the tide or Mom’s going to kill you.”
    “I’ll be fine,” Nora assured him.
    Dale snorted. “Yeah. Finely insane.” He ducked as she threw
a handful of sand at him, then turned and plodded back to the trail. At the
top, just before it turned and lost sight of the ocean, Dale looked back. Nora
walked around her “painting,” drizzling sand over the outline. Was she
destroying it herself, or trying to bury it and protect it?
    He looked beyond her to the ocean. If he was honest, the
water frightened him. It spread from shore to horizon, too big to be tamed, all
chaotic waves and unknowable creatures. With a final shiver he turned and
continued walking back to the house, relieved to be out of the constant wind.
    The faded red pickup truck of Mr. Patterson, their landlord,
sat in front of their house. Dale didn’t see their landlord, though, until he
got close. Mr. Patterson stood on a ladder on the far side of the garage,
pounding nails into a black metal piece that now framed the corner of the roof.
He wore his usual gray shirt and too-big jeans. Dale had wondered if he’d been
sick; all his clothes hung on him, making him look extra scrawny.
    “Hey there,” Mr. Patterson called to Dale as he came down
the ladder. “Just adding a bit more protection. Uhm .
From the rain.”
    Dale knew Mr. Patterson was lying. Corners didn’t need any
special reinforcement. Still, Dale asked, “Like window flashing?” He’d helped Grandpa
Lewis repair his cousin’s home one summer when they’d been visiting.
    “Sort of,” Mr. Patterson said, tilting his head to the side
like a bird.
    Dale picked up one of the cast-iron brackets laying on the
driveway. The metal felt cold to the touch and was hinged at the center. It
took him a moment to pry the two pieces apart. “They’re magnetized.”
    “Exactly!” Mr. Patterson said, picking up another one and
pulling it apart. “They’re like lightning rods, to draw away the electricity.”
    “That doesn’t make sense,” Dale said, shaking his head and
handing the metal piece back to Mr. Patterson.
    “Ah, you’ll learn,” Mr. Patterson assured Dale.
    “Okay,” Dale said, backing toward the house. “I, ah, gotta get going.”
    “You have a fine evening. Let me know if the power stays on
all night tonight, okay?”
    “Sure,” Dale said, making his escape into the house. He was
surrounded by crazy people.
    “Mom?” Dale called. No answer. The whiteboard next to the
door had a scrawled note— Groceries —below
Nora’s scrawled note: Beach . They’d
negotiated this system of always letting each other know where they were once
they’d discovered that cell phones weren’t reliable. If Dale and Nora swore to
keep the board always up-to-date, their mom promised not to freak out and ask
where they were twenty-four hours a day. Dale added a note, Just Nora , to let his mom know he’d come
home.
    Dale stood in the kitchen listening to the clock for a
moment. The house smelled of the hamburgers Mom had cooked