The Elephant of Surprise (The Russel Middlebrook Series Book 4) by Brent Hartinger Read Free Book Online Page A

what brings you out here?" But I immediately felt stupid. What did I think brought her out there? She was probably looking for dinner.
    "Oh, we live around here," Venus said.
    Yes! I thought. Needless to say, I really, really wanted to see where they lived—and Wade.
    "Oh?" I said, determined to sound casual. "Where's that?"
    But before she could answer, Min said to Leah and Em, "Venus is a freegan."
    "Vegan?" Em said.
    "No, freegan ," Min said. I was a little afraid that Venus was going to say that we couldn't tell them what a freegan is—that we could only show them—and I was in no mood to spend an hour walking to the garbage dump and the homeless camp, not with Wade so tantalizingly close by. But Min quickly ran through their world-view—how they'd taken the slogan "reduce, reuse, recycle" to its absolute extreme.
    "Wow," Em said. "Interesting."
    I focused on Venus again. "So you live around here, huh?"
    "Sure do," Venus said. "Wanna see?"
    "Sure," I said, still forcing my voice to sound as nonchalant as possible. I turned to the others. "That okay with you guys?"
    I don't know what I would've done if someone had said no, but fortunately, everyone else looked almost as curious as I was.
     
    *   *   *
     
    The house was four blocks from the main drag of McKenzie Street, and it looked just like any other house in the neighborhood: an older two-story with a white brick façade and no garage.
    Actually, if anything, it looked a little nicer than the other houses on the street. It had been painted recently, and the yard was perfectly maintained—the grass neatly trimmed, the flower beds all weeded.
    Venus led us inside where it was a completely different story. The furniture was ratty, the walls were bare, and the carpets were dirty (one of the stains was red, but I was pretty sure it was wine, not blood). There was a dog-eared copy of Curious George on the floor and some papers with a cartoon elf on them. It smelled like candle wax and stale sweat.
    The house was loud with voices. Six people played cards around a coffee table: four guys and two girls. They basically ignored us, but I noticed that except for one guy in his forties, they were all college-age-ish. They were also all pretty scruffy (and the guys all had beards), but they didn't seem unhealthy—except for one girl, who looked sort of anemic, pale and frail. Unlike Wade, their clothes were all pretty tattered and dirty. The anemic-looking girl had sewn together a rip in her pants with what looked like dental floss.
    Gunnar, of course, took photos of it all for his online profile.
    "Hey, I know you guys!" said a voice from the kitchen. Wade stepped into sight. "Min! And Gunnar? And Russel." I couldn't help but notice that he'd acknowledged me last, and he didn't hug us the way Venus had. Then again, maybe he didn't want to come across as too forward.
    Wait. Ignore all that. These contradictory thoughts of mine will drive you crazy if you let them. God knows, they drive me crazy.
    I will say this: Wade's white t-shirt was spotless again. I know I was totally relying on stereotypes, but at this point it was all I had. That t-shirt was also tight , which means I had a better look at his body. It was a mountain I definitely wanted to climb.
    "So," I said, still determined to sound casual. "This is your house."
    "Well, it's not 'our' house," Wade said. "We don't really believe in personal possessions. But it's the house where we live."
    "How exactly do you manage that?" Min said. To her credit, there was still no judgment in her voice.
    "It started out as a foreclosure," Wade said. "It hadn't been occupied for at least a year. When we first moved in, the neighbors were really happy to see us. They thought someone had finally bought the house. That's the thing about property. Who's to say who really owns what? How do I know you didn't rip off that jacket? We all just sort of take each other's word.
    "Then word got out that we didn't own the house and weren't