Blood Red Road Read Free

jest … ends. Hardly seems worth the trouble.
    Well, that’s the way it is, he says.
    You … hey Lugh, you wouldn’t ever leave without me, would you?
    Of course not, he says. But even if I did, you’d only follow me.
    I will follow you … everywhere you go! When I say it, I make crazy eyes an a crazy face because it creeps him out when I do that. To the bottom of the lake, I says, … to the ends of the earth … to the moon … to the stars …!
    Shut up! He leaps to his feet. Bet you don’t follow me to skip rocks, he says an runs off.
    Hey! I yell. Wait fer me!

    We run a fair ways out onto the dry lakebed before we find water enough to skip stones. We pass the skiff that Pa helped me an Lugh build when we was little kids. Now it lies high an dry where the shoreline used to be.
    We walk till we’re outta sight of the shanty, outta sight of Pa an Emmi. The fierce noonday sun beats down an I wrap my sheema around my head so’s I don’t fry too much. I wish I took after Ma, like Lugh, but I favor Pa. It’s strange, but even with our dark hair, our skin burns if we don’t cover up.
    Lugh never wears a sheema. Says they make him feel trapped an anyways the sun don’t bother him none. Not like me. When I tell him it’ll deserve him right if he drops dead from sunstroke one day, he says, well if that happens you can say I told you so. I will, too.
    I find a pretty good stone right off. I rub my fingers over its flat smoothness. Feel its weight.
    I got a lucky one here, I says.
    Lugh hunts around to find one fer hisself. While he does it, I walk up an down on my hands. It’s about th’only thing I can do that he cain’t. He pretends he don’t care, but I know he does.
    You look funny upside down, I says.
    Lugh’s golden hair gleams in the sun. He wears it tied back in one long braid that reaches almost to his waist. I wear mine the same, only my hair’s black as Nero’s feathers.
    His necklace catches the light. I found the little ring of shiny green glass in the landfill an threaded it on a piece of leather. I gave it to him fer our eighteen year birthday an he ain’t took it off since.
    What did he give me? Nuthin. Like always.
    Okay I got a good one, he calls.
    I go runnin over to take a look. Not as good as mine, I says.
    I’m gonna skip eight today, he says. I feel it in my bones.
    In yer dreams, I says. I’m callin a seven.
    I whip my arm back an send the stone skimmin over the water. It skips once, twice, three times. Four, five, six …
    Seven! I says. Seven! Didya see that?
    I cain’t hardly believe it. I ain’t never done more’n five before.
    Sorry, Lugh says. I warn’t lookin. Guess you’ll hafta do it agin.
    What! My best ever an you didn’t … you rat! You did see! Yer jest sick with jealousy. I fold my arms over my chest. Go on. Let’s see you do eight. Betcha cain’t.
    He does seven. Then I do my usual five. He’s jest pullin his arm back fer another try when, outta nowhere, Nero comes swoopin down at us, cawin his head off.
    Damn bird, says Lugh, he made me drop my stone. He gits on his knees to look fer it.
    Go away! I says, flappin my hands at Nero. Shoo, you bad boy! Go find somebody else to—
    A dustcloud’s jest appeared on the horizon. A billowin orange mountain of dust. It’s so tall, it scrapes aginst the sun. It’s movin fast. Headed straight at us.
    Uh … Lugh, I says.
    There must be somethin in my voice. He looks up sharpish. Drops the stone in his hand. Gits slowly to his feet.
    Holy crap, he says.
    We jest stand there. Stand an stare. We git all kinda weather here. Hotwinds, firestorms, tornadoes, an once or twice we even had snow in high summer. So I seen plenty of dust storms. But never one like this.
    That’s one bastard of a cloud, I says.
    We better git outta here, says Lugh.
    We start to back away slow, still starin. Then, Run, Saba! Lugh yells.
    He grabs my hand, yankin at me till my feet move, an then we’re runnin. Runnin fer home,