Goddess of the Night Read Free Page B

mustard ran
down her chin.
    The waiter came
back. "How's the hamburger?" he asked.
    "Great,"
Catty said and let a piece of tomato fall from her mouth.
    The waiter
laughed and picked up the tomato from the counter, then walked away.
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    "You are
so gross!"
    Catty punched
her playfully. "Vanessa, I'm just trying to get your mind off
last night. You probably had some dog running after you, or a
homeless person who likes to play games. Let's go back and see."
    "No."
    "Why not?"
Catty persisted, sipping her shake.
    "You know
why. I'm too afraid we'll go back some time and get stuck."
    "So what?
All you'd have to do is relive the time. It would be fun. We'd know
what was going to happen."
    "You don't
know if that's how it really works."
    "That's
because I've never gotten stuck," Catty pointed out.
    When Catty had
first tried time traveling, it had only been in short bursts. Then
she had learned that if she concentrated she could make hops in time
up to twenty-four hours into the past or the future. Catty figured if
she lost her power and couldn't return to the present, she
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    would just
relive a day or, if she had jumped time into the future, lose a day.
Vanessa wasn't so sure. There was also the tunnel, the hole in time
they had to go through. She was terrified of getting stuck there.
    "I don't
know why you worry so much," Catty said, taking another bite.
    "Forget
it. It was probably a homeless person, like you said," Vanessa
insisted. "I don't need to see."
    Catty spoke
with her mouth full. "We should check it out. To be sure."
    Vanessa plucked
a French fry from the globs of melted cheese and chili. She twirled
it in the raw onions and slipped it into her mouth.
    "You
remember the first time you took me traveling?" Vanessa said
with a smile.
    "Yeah,"
Catty giggled. "You about broke my eardrums in the tunnel."
    They had been
watching TV after Catty's ninth birthday party, waiting for Vanessa's
mother to pick her up. Catty wanted to show her something special.
Vanessa had thought it was another birthday present. Instead, Catty
had
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    grabbed her
hand, and a strange heaviness crackled through the air. The fine
hairs on her arm stood on end before the living room had flashed away
with a burst of white light. Suddenly, they were whirling downward
through a dark tunnel. The air inside felt thick enough to hold. She
could barely breathe. Her screams bounced back at her until the sound
became deafening. Just when it had grown unbearable, they fell with a
hard crash back into the living room. Only, the living room was
different now. Sunlight came through the windows. Wrapping paper and
ribbons were scattered over the gray-green rug. Then they had peeked
into the dining room, and Vanessa had seen herself, sitting at the
table eating cake and ice cream. She had been too shocked to scream
again. Catty stole into the kitchen, and returned with two pieces of
cake, and before Vanessa could ask her what was going on, they were
back in the hated tunnel with its thick, sucking air and bad smells.
Instead of landing in the living room, they had landed five blocks
away on someone's front porch.
    "I got in
so much trouble." Vanessa shook
    30
    her head. "My
mother thought I had wandered off." She couldn't tell her mother
what had really happened. Her mother would never have believed her,
anyway.
    "But the
cake was worth it," Catty said.
    "You ate
my slice." Vanessa smiled. "I was crying because the tunnel
scared me so much. Remember?"
    "It's not
like you didn't get even."
    "You
deserved it," Vanessa teased. "You were always getting me
in trouble." Vanessa had planned for weeks, practicing with her
teddy bear until she could make it invisible with her. Then one
Sunday while they were playing in Catty's backyard, she had hugged
Catty and scrunched her eyes in concentration until she felt her
molecules pinging. She had opened her eyes. Catty was becoming a
dusty cloud. The cloud swirled around, and Vanessa had seen a look of
utter astonishment on