Gatefather Read Free Page A

to her. But no, I’m telling it out of order. Just before the … transfer … it used her mouth to say to him , ‘You want me inside you.’”
    â€œAnd he said yes,” whispered Stone. His face looked like a portrait of despair.
    â€œYes,” said Pat. “Only she told me it made no sense, because she wasn’t inside him , it was the other way around. It only makes sense if you think of it as the Belgod asking Danny to let him in. To invite him.”
    â€œAnd he did,” said Stone.
    â€œSo this is true?” asked Hal. “Because I was thinking it was all just a lie Nicki told to explain being pregnant.”
    â€œIt might be exactly that,” said Stone, “but then she certainly knows a lot of details that she shouldn’t know.”
    â€œThat’s what I thought,” said Pat. “That’s why I thought this was important. Because ever since that night, Danny’s been different. Not himself.”
    â€œIn what way?” asked Stone. He was asking Pat, but looking at each of the other kids in turn, as if for confirmation.
    â€œHe came on to me,” said Pat. “Which would have been fine, only he was weird about it. Came up behind me and cupped my butt with his hand. Right by my locker, with people around.”
    â€œWho cares?” said Xena. “I thought you two were in love.”
    â€œWe are,” said Pat. “ Were , anyway. But he knows I don’t like people to just … touch me. Out of the blue. He knows that. And the way he talked. He called me ‘baby girl.’ Guys who talk like that make me sick.”
    â€œMe too,” said Wheeler.
    Stone was nodding, though. “Not Danny’s style.”
    â€œDanny knows better than to treat me like that, talk to me like that. He was crude. Like the only thing on his mind was sex. Like he thought he owned me. Like I see other guys act with girls, and they get all fluttery, but not me, and Danny knows that. Knew that.”
    â€œWhat did you do?” asked Stone.
    â€œPulled away from him,” said Pat. “And told him it wasn’t happening. He kept trying for a minute, and then he gives me a little shove and a tiny slap on the cheek and says, ‘Your loss, baby girl,’ and that was it. Walked away.”
    Laurette sighed. “You told him no? What else is he going to do?”
    â€œDanny wouldn’t have asked. Not that way. Not like he had the right . It wasn’t Danny, and you all know it.”
    â€œWhat’s your name?” Stone asked Pat. She told him.
    â€œPat,” he said, “you did right. Not to tell him what you were thinking.”
    â€œI didn’t know what the Belmage would do, if he was really in possession of Danny, and I told him I knew he was there.”
    â€œGood thinking,” said Stone. “What about the rest of you? Anybody else notice a change?”
    â€œYes,” said Hal. “He hardly talks to me and Wheeler anymore. Walks along the corridor at school smiling at people and saying hi to them.”
    â€œHe’s friendly,” said Laurette.
    â€œEspecially girls,” said Wheeler.
    â€œI didn’t notice that it was especially girls,” said Hal.
    â€œBut it was.”
    â€œI’m not arguing,” said Hal, “I’m just saying what I saw. It’s like we could hang around if we wanted, but Danny didn’t care, and maybe he was even a little annoyed to have us there.”
    â€œMaybe?” said Wheeler. “What about when he told us to get lost while he talked to Rosann?”
    â€œRosann?” asked Hal.
    â€œYou know, Rosann the queen of the universe—”
    â€œI know who Rosann is,” said Hal. “I just don’t remember Danny talking to her and—”
    â€œOh, right,” said Wheeler. “It was after lunch and you had already peeled off to go to—”
    Stone interrupted them. “Has