Don't Forget Me! Read Free Page B

asked.
    â€œYou—you scared me to death!” I told her breathlessly. “There was a man—here.”
    â€œHuh?” She looked past me to the tree. “What man?”
    â€œI don’t know. He—he disappeared. But look—” I pointed to the ground. Deep shoe prints in the wet dirt behind the tree.
    â€œMaybe it was the mailman,” Addie said. She put an arm around my shoulders and led me back to the house. “You’ve been so tense ever since you moved here, Danielle.”
    I closed the door behind us and bolted it. Addie headed back into the living room. But I had a sudden urge to get out of the house.
    â€œLet’s get our bikes and ride up to Summerville Park,” I suggested.
    Addie shook her head. “No. We have to rehearse. We have to do this hypnotism thing.”
    I dropped down onto the couch. “Addie, why do we have to do this? Why do we have to be in the stupid talent show, anyway?”
    She sighed and set the book down on the coffee table. “Because of Zack and Mojo, of course!”
    My mouth dropped open. “Huh?”
    â€œDanielle, those guys came over here, and they went right to Peter’s room. They think a nine-year-old kid is more interesting than we are!”
    She tossed the book aside and plopped down beside me on the couch. “Look. We’ve been in high school two years, and hardly anyone knows we’re there. I want to be noticed. I want kids to say, ‘Hey, there goes Addie. She and Danielle are really cool.’”
    â€œBut, Addie—” I started.
    â€œDon’t you want Zack and Mojo to think we’re more interesting than Peter’s stupid computer games?” she asked.
    â€œWell, yeah. Sure.” Once Addie gets worked up like this, there’s no stopping her. “There’s also a two-hundred-dollar prize, right?”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œLet’s do it,” I said.
    â€œExcellent!” She picked up the hypnotism book. “This is going to be a great act. We’ll make it look so real that—”
    â€œJust one thing,” I said. “I’ll do this crazy act only if I can hypnotize you !”
    She stared at me. “ You want to be the hypnotist?”
    I nodded.
    She thought about it for a few seconds. “Okay. Deal.” She laughed. “I’ve got some awesome ideas about my previous lives!”
    So we set to work. First we flipped through the book, reading the parts about how to put someone in a trance. It was all pretty much the way I’d seen it on TV and in movies.
    â€œWe need a coin,” Addie said. “A big, shiny coin.”
    â€œI have a silver dollar on a chain,” I remembered. “It’ll be perfect.”
    I found the silver dollar in my jewelry box, and we started practicing with it. Addie sat on the couch, and I stood in front of her. I waved the silver dollar slowly back and forth in front of her and said in a soft, calm voice, “You’re getting sleepy … sleepy…. Your eyelids are beginning to feel heavy….”
    Addie let her head fall back against the couch and started snoring really loudly.
    â€œVery funny,” I groaned. “I thought you wanted to be serious about this.”
    She opened her eyes and sat up. “Yes. I do. You’re doing great, Danielle. That whole coin thing. The way you whispered everything. Terrific. I almost believed it myself.”
    â€œWell, let’s practice taking you back in time,” I said. “First you have to be a little girl, you know. Then a baby.”
    â€œGoo-goo,” Addie said in a tiny voice.
    I raised the coin and began swinging it slowly again. “Watch the coin,” I whispered. “Follow it closely.”
    â€œWhat are you doing?” a voice called from the doorway.
    The chain fell from my hand. The coin rattled onto the living room floor and slid toward the door.
    Peter darted into the room and