A Shade of Dragon Read Free Page B

stupid eagle, Penelope!” Sage cried. I was impressed that he actually knew my full name. “I’m not trying to make some classic UFO claim. It’s just what I saw, and it was not a bird. It had a cockpit!”
    “Did that cockpit resemble in any way the head of an animal?”
    “Stop being such a bitch!”
    “Sage!” Zada’s eyes bulged. Her wine glass had emptied itself. These two were drinking their dinners. “We do not use derogatory, goddess-hating language! All women are mothers, daughters, and sisters.”
    “Goddess-hating?” I couldn’t help but ask.
    “So, Nell, are you excited to see all your old friends again?” Dad downed the last of his wine glass in one gulp, though he had yet to touch his tabouli. “Michelle and that boy?”
    Michelle and that boy. Huh. I wondered what the next glimpse at my phone would bring.
    “Sure,” I lied. “I’ll probably call her as soon as dinner ends and see if she wants to hang out while I’m in town.” Also untrue. The thought of seeing Michelle…
    I mean, she knew I liked Andrew. Although we had agreed that it wasn’t anything serious, she hadn’t even asked me. There’s a certain order to things, you know, Michelle. You can’t just do whatever you want, whenever you want! How could you? How could you, when you knew that I would be in town in a few days, and when you ALREADY TOLD ME THAT THE DATE TO THE STUPID BLUE CHRISTMAS BALL WAS JUST AS FRIENDS!
    “… reminds me so much of Patricia,” Dad murmured off to my left. I jumped, realizing that I’d been staring at my glass of water, my fork still hovering over the tabouli slop.
    “What?” I asked, my hackles already rising. After what Dad had done to her, even so many years ago and even though the marriage had already been destroyed, I was always ready to rise to Mom’s defense.
    “Patty was always such a sourpuss,” Dad went on, oblivious to my glare as he refilled his glass. Mom hated being called Patty. “She’d stare off into space, grimace, purse her lips, shrug her shoulders, sigh… Augh, it was just awful. I’ve never met a more unhappy person. Anyway, you were almost her spitting image just then, staring at your water.”
    I bristled, but Dad wasn’t looking at me anymore and couldn’t see the fire in my eyes. Instead, Dad addressed Zada.
    “You know, I have no idea how the marriage lasted as long as it did.”
    My eyes bulged. Even Zada, the same woman who would put the word ‘science’ into air quotes, stiffened and shifted her gaze to me.
    “I’d ask her what was wrong, she’d say nothing, every time—”
    “Maybe that was because you never caredwhat was wrong! You just wanted her to either be perfect or get out!” I shrieked, shocking even myself. I shot to my feet. “All you ever cared about was yourself!” With that, I stormed through the dining room into the den, and, finding a door there, out into the cold, dark night.

Chapter 4: Nell
    T he beach at night was stark and exhilarating. The wind clawed at me, slicing through my clothes, and the scenery came out in monochrome. The sand was gray, bleeding into the darker gray of the roaring ocean and night sky beyond. Waves blossomed white at the shoreline, ribbons which marked the boundary between sand and sea. I wrapped my arms around myself and refused to turn back. I would let the foam of the sea and its biting mist clear my head. Then, after getting nice and numb, I’d find my way back inside. In the morning, I’d chew down Dad’s bloodshot apology.
    No one came to stop me from walking in these freezing temperatures. Even Zada, who was supposed to care so much, stayed inside. I strolled until the house faded out of view and another house was closer than my own. It was constructed of some rough-hewn wood, giving the architecture a hip, rustic edge. The windows were alight—it was probably sometime after nine—and colorful figures moved inside. The distance made them seem tiny.
    One of them, a woman with dirty blond