Winter Shadows by Margaret Buffie Read Free Book Online Page A

smile in his voice.
    “Yeah, well, if we
do
end up working together, you’d better.”
    The bus stopped and a bunch of kids got off, freeing up seats. Martin stayed where he was.
    “Or else, huh?” he asked, grinning.
“Ooh
, scared.”
    The girl was darting interested glances at him now. I decided he was okay-looking – a bit taller than me, with straight black hair, dark eyes, and an angular face. His teeth had a space between the two front ones, and there was a small black mole on his upper lip. He always looked like he was ready to laugh. He was in my homeroom, but we’d never really talked before.
    My throat burned too much to talk anymore, so he chatted to the girl beside me. She told him her name – Tricia – and he told her his. She’d just moved into a new development, not far from where I lived. He suggested she drop by Pelly’s, and he’d give her a free order of fries.
Aah, young love
. She left her seat, laughing at one of his lame jokes.
    Afterwards, I could feel him looking down at me as the bus trundled along the road, but I just looked steadily out at the snow. Finally Gus shouted at him to sit down, which he did, right in front of me. I noticed how thick and shiny his hair was.
    Soon the bus swung a hard right, into Pelly’s parkinglot. The restaurant stood above the locks, and you could hear the sound of rushing water as the bus rolled up in front. A huge wooden cutout of a pelican, its beak full of giant fries, decorated the front entrance of the long low building, along with cutouts of mustard-smeared hot dogs, hamburgers, and plates of pale onion rings.
    Martin hoisted his pack onto his shoulder. “Okay, tough girl. See ya in class.” He and about ten other kids got off the bus and headed into the restaurant.
    The bus’s brakes let out a hiss and we were off again. There were fewer than a dozen kids left. Daisy scuttled to an empty seat behind me and began to kick the back of mine. “Cassandra’s got a boyfriend. Cassandra’s got a boyfriend,” she sang.
    A group of girls across the aisle giggled and whispered, eyes glinting knowingly at me.
    “Who’d wanna hook up with her?” one said. “She never talks to anyone, and I heard …”
    I tuned her out and gave Daisy my most evil
I’ll-take-you- down
look. She stopped singing, but kept up the boot work. My head was pounding along with it. I stared down the aisle and out the front window of the bus, anxious to get home and crash on my bed. Suddenly a horse and sleigh appeared on the road, just around the curve before the old stone church.
    As it approached, Gus Thompson kept up the same speed. He was a good driver, but what if he spooked the horse? I lunged sideways to look out my window. The sleigh’s single passenger looked up at me, andeverything went into slow motion. It was the strange girl from math class, covered in furs. Snow blew everywhere. I held up a mittened hand. I saw her eyes widen, and then she was gone. I ran to the back of the bus, frantic to see if she was okay. But there was no sign of her or the horse and sleigh.
    “Oh, no! Where are they? Stop! Stop!” I shouted.
    Gus slammed on the brakes, and I lurched backward, falling onto an empty seat. We must have hit an icy patch because the bus spun halfway around. A back wheel went deep into a snowbank.
    “What the devil!” Gus shouted, throwing the bus into gear and charging down the aisle. “Is everyone okay?” All hands went up.
    I jumped to my feet. “Didn’t you see that horse and sleigh?” I cried. “What’s the matter with you!”
    He ran to the front of the bus, and the door wheezed open. A few kids followed him off. When he came back, his chubby face was red. “What horse? What sleigh?”
    I ran outside, the rest of the kids crowding behind me. There were no tracks in the new snow. It was obvious there’d been no horse. No sleigh. No girl.
    “I – I –”
    Gus looked at me closely, his face softening. “Fell asleep, maybe?” He felt my