After Obsession Read Free Page B

Once I get everyone else working, I’ll get you caught up.”
    I go to the desk and sit behind a guy who needs a diet and in front of a redheaded girl who’s vigorously chewing gum. I settle into the desk and wait, forcing my hand to stay off the medicine pouch I wear under my shirt. Usually I wear it outside my shirt, but that’s back home. For now, the medicine pouch stays hidden.
    Back home I’d be in Coach Baldwin’s Street Law class right now. I suppress a sigh and try to pretend people aren’t staring at me instead of their books.
    I survive an awkward bus ride home and get off at the stop when Courtney does.
    “Sorry I didn’t sit with you,” Courtney says as we walk up the driveway. “Mom says I need to make you feel welcome.”
    “Don’t worry about it.” I look her over for the first time, really, since getting to Maine late Saturday evening. She’s short, maybe four feet ten inches tall, and very thin and pale. Her brown hair hangs straight and limp and she lets it fall mostly over her face. Behind her glasses, she wears too much eyeliner. She has on a black AFI hoodie and faded blue jeans. I guess she’s trying to be emo. I wonder if she cuts herself.
    “Did Mom give you a key to the house yet?” she asks. I shake my head. It’s a nice house. I have my own bedroom. “She will.”
    There are no vehicles in the driveway. I wonder if my mom is inside. She was supposed to have a job interview at the mill where Aunt Lisa works.
    “Mom says you’re going to live with us for a while,” Courtney says. I can’t tell if she thinks that’s good or bad, or if she even cares.
    “I guess so. You okay with that?”
    “Yeah. I don’t know,” she says. “It’s been really strange since Dad left. Mom was afraid she’d lose the house until Aunt Holly said you guys would come live with us and help out.” We step onto the porch and Courtney pulls a key from her pocket to unlock the door. “I’m glad we won’t lose it.”
    “Me, too,” I say. Sure, I’m probably losing my future as an Oklahoma Sooner running back, then going pro, but at least Aunt Lisa and Courtney will get to keep their house. “Why didn’t you guys just move to Oklahoma? Your mom grew up there.”
    Courtney gives me a look that says I must be the stupidest creature to ever stand on two legs. “My dad is lost, get it? Lost . He might be on some island waiting for help. He could get rescued and come home tomorrow. What if we weren’t here? What if he came home and we were gone?”
    I feel myself blink at her a couple of times as I try to comprehend that she really believes this. Could it be true?
    “Does that happen?” I ask. “Do people get lost in storms, then turn up later?”
    “It could happen,” Courtney says, her voice suddenly shrill. She spins away from me and runs through the living room to the stairs, leaving me holding the front door open.
    A sudden wind blows across the porch. It’s cold, but gone as fast as it came. I look at the old leaves it blows past me as they scatter off the edge of the porch. There’s a shadow racing with the wind. Strange. I hear a bedroom door slam upstairs.
    Above me, something seems to scratch in the space between the inside and outside walls of the house. I don’t bother to look up. Mice are mice, whether they live in the Great Plains or on the East Coast.
    I do my homework because there’s nothing else to do and Aunt Lisa only has basic cable. I’m just finishing up my science reading when Aunt Lisa’s car rumbles into the driveway.
    “I got the job,” Mom yells as she enters the house. There are yellowish wood shavings still clinging to her sandy-blond hair and her face is glowing as she pushes past her sister and comes to me for a hug.
    I hug her back, but not with a lot of enthusiasm.
    “You could have let us know,” I say in a teasing tone.
    “I left a message on the machine,” she says, pointing behind me to the telephone. A red light on the answering machine is