Exodus Read Free Page B

like paper, like nothing at all.
    “It seems like Aria somehow saw this coming,” her mom said quietly. “But how could she? She’s just a kid. When she told me her dream I honestly thought I had just put her to bed after letting her watch a movie that was too scary.”
    Aria’s dad shrugged and didn’t answer.
    Aria gazed unseeing at her watery reflection in the window. She didn’t want to disturb either of her parents as the car came to a stop at the end of the street, a few pieces of gravel popping and grinding under the tires. What about her dream predicted trouble with the church budget? There was the church, and Pastor Ted, but—.
    “If her dream really was a message from God, why did he tell her and not the rest of us?” Aria’s dad finally asked.
    A message from God? That’s really possible?
    The engine purred against her, but Aria found her hands shaking for a different reason. If her dream really had been from God, that would mean she had much bigger problems than a church family running out of money. She peeked into her sleeves again, and was greeted by her angry scars, many of them still healing.
    That would mean I didn’t cut myself, she thought. Wouldn’t it? She clasped her hands together to stop their trembling. But then what happened to me?
    “If something in church is rotten to the core, why warn a twelve-year-old and not the elders?”
    Aria’s vision of the pulverized oak tree falling in the church yard replayed before her eyes. What was he talking about? Was something really rotten at church?
    Someone believes my dream is a message from God, she thought. But why would God give me such a terrible dream? Why would he let me get hurt like this? Ms. Nancy said he wouldn’t.
    I thought you were good, God. When that revival preacher prayed for me, I thought what I saw was real.
    Her breath came shallowly as she waited to hear more from the front seat.
    Finally, her mom spoke. “I know,” she said. “I think she has a gift to see these things.”
    She paused.
    “But we absolutely can’t let her get involved,” she whispered.
    “What if she needs help, though?” Aria’s dad asked in a low voice, turning to look at her mom. “Shouldn’t we get her to talk to someone?”
    “I have vivid dreams, too,” her mom replied crisply, “and no one has ever accused me of needing ‘help’… not to my face, anyway.”
    “None of your dreams ever came true,” Aria’s dad said to the road ahead.
    Came true?
    Aria remembered the birds and shuddered. Her scars ached again, just remembering the blood. She hadn’t shown her parents, so how could they know?
    They turned into their neighborhood in silence, cruising past the tall maple trees and waving willows that had been saplings when Aria’s parents had moved there fifteen years prior. They passed Mrs. Coghill’s blue bungalow, and the Stauffins’ stucco home across the shady street.
    Aria loved walking through Mrs. Coghill’s garden. She grew hydrangeas and roses in front of the house, and she kept bubblegum on top of the fridge. Aria could still hear the water in Mrs. Coghill’s backyard pond slapping against the underside of the worn wooden dock—a perfectly relaxed memory of long summer afternoons.
    “It was a dream come true to move to this neighborhood with our friends and start our own church,” Aria’s mom said. They rolled down the quiet street, past Mr. Bob and Ms. Gail’s house. “But what if it’s going wrong? What if this dream is really a nightmare?”
    Aria sucked in her breath sharply and hoped they hadn’t heard.
    Her dad clenched his jaw and gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

 
     
    5
     
    ESCAPING THE DARKNESS
     
     
    “We never should have elected a treasurer with an emotionally unstable daughter!”
    Ms. Nancy’s accusation hit Aria like a kick in the gut.
                  “How dare you!” Aria heard her mom stand up. Her high heels clicked on the cold floor