Blood & Flowers Read Free Page B

tucked Knobbe’s bag under my T-shirt, which was only marginally drier than my sweater, and ran.
    By the time I’d made it home, it was obvious that Nicholas and the mushrooms had arrived. The house smelled like a four-star Italian restaurant, and all the voices were coming from the kitchen.
    â€œWow. Are you wet,” Nicholas said when I walked in.
    â€œReally? What a lawyerly observation. Was it the sock prints?”
    Nicholas grinned.
    I shook myself, feeling like a large dog, gave Floss her thread, and checked my boards and paper. Satisfied that they were intact, I said, “I’m just going to go get rid of these sixteen extra pounds of water,” and headed for the bathroom and soft, dry towels. Behind me, Tonio yelled, “If you hurry there might still be some food left.”
    â€œThanks,” I yelled back, teeth chattering. I knew he was telling me this because of my usual long, hot water–draining showers. Tonio kept trying tricks to break me of this habit. Telling me the food could run out was a good one. I didn’t want to miss food, ever.
    Showered, I went into the dining room wearing threadbare jeans and a T-shirt that read “SpottedDog Records—for the mutt in you.” My hair was still wet and tousled because I’d combed it by simply running my fingers through while my head was upside down. Floss, who is always the picture of perfect, sighed at me and shook her head. I smiled back because we both had known from day one that we’d never come even close to an agreement on forms of dress.
    Nicholas passed me a beer (dark) and Lucia tossed me a napkin (blue with white elephants) and we all sat down at the stretchy table in Max’s dining room. We ate pizza, and we talked, and that was when the trouble started.
    Through a mouthful of pizza Lucia said, “While Persia and I were hanging the flyers, I read them.”
    â€œCongratulations,” said Floss, but she smiled when she said it, which made it seem like a compliment.
    Lucia took it just that way and smiled herself. “They should talk more about the wonders of the show,” she said. “Persia and I agree.”
    Tonio glanced at me and I said, “Maybe something that doesn’t scream magic. Stars and spangles.”
    â€œAnd flying fish, this time,” Lucia added.
    â€œI’ll keep that in mind,” Tonio said. To Max he added, “Do we even have a fish graphic?”
    Max shrugged and said, “We have everything.”
    â€œSo,” Lucia continued, “on the flyer, under ‘Place’ it says ‘You’ll know it when you find it.’”
    Tonio nodded because he knew exactly what it said. He and Max were the flyer makers, after all. They used funky fonts and old, old computer programs that gave their work a very distinctive look. I could recognize an Outlaw flyer from a block away.
    â€œAnd really…I think that’s not so good,” Lucia finished in a rush.
    Floss’s voice was gentle and even when she asked, “And what exactly should it say, then?”
    â€œThe place. The actual name or the address or something.”
    Nicholas glugged his beer. “Kind of defeats a certain purpose, doesn’t it?”
    â€œObscurity?” Lucia asked, and I laughed.
    Tonio looked at me again with those beautiful eyes of his, and I shrugged. “Sorry. It was funny.”
    â€œIt was,” he agreed. “But you know why we use those words.”
    â€œPeople find us,” Max pointed out as he reached across the table for another piece of broccoli walnut pizza. “Word of mouth and all that.”
    Lucia, like Nicholas and like me, knew some parts of Tonio and Max’s history. By default this also meant we knew parts of the Outlaws’ history. Mostly we knew that we kept a low profile because of “past events.” I think each of us knew different bits of those past events, but I wasn’t positive