Healing Stones Read Free Page B

see whether she rolled her eyes. Her face was already in the pantry, where she pawed at the cereal boxes. From the back, she was still a waif of a child, with little-girl-fine golden tresses and a penchant for long flowy skirts, an echo of the tiny days when she fancied herself a fairy princess. Her front was a different story, where late-blooming breasts and a well-rehearsed disdain proclaimed her as teenager .
    â€œSilly me,” I said.
    â€œUnless you want to take me to school,” she said into the cabinet.
    Her wistfulness slapped me in the face.
    â€œI can’t today, Jay,” I said. “I have an early meeting.”
    I’d made up half-truths so easily until now, but this lie stuck to my tongue like a frozen pole.
    â€œWhat happened to Rachel last night?” I said.
    â€œI don’t know. She ditched me, I guess.”
    â€œI’m sorry I didn’t get your message right away. I had—a meeting.”
    Jayne turned and looked at me over the top of the Rice Krispies. “Is that all you do—go to meetings?”
    â€œSounds like it, doesn’t it?”
    â€œWhatever.” She shook her hair back and turned the box upside down over a bowl. Two pieces of cereal bounced into it. She curled
her lip.
    â€œSo—how was rehearsal?” I asked.
    I tried to listen as I filled my coffee cup and twisted the lid on. If I didn’t get out of there, I wouldn’t get to talk to Zach before his eight o’clock.
    â€œI got a different part,” Jayne said.
    I fumbled for the appropriate reply. “I thought you were playing Mary Warren.”
    â€œMercy Lewis.” She gave a disgusted grunt.
    â€œOh, so—who are you now?”
    â€œAbigail Williams.”
    The sudden light in her always-serious brown eyes made me hunt through my faded memory of The Crucible.
    â€œIsn’t she a main character?”
    Jayne nodded. The shyness that had disappeared with her twelfth year glowed on her face. I felt my throat thicken.
    â€œJay, that’s amazing!” I said. “Congratulations!”
    â€œRachel didn’t learn her lines and she kept messing around during rehearsal, so Mrs. Dirks bumped her and gave the part to me.” She tilted her head like a small bird, spilling a panel of wavy hair across her thin cheek. “Maybe that’s why she left me last night.”
    â€œYa think?” I willed myself not to look at my watch. “Well, from now on, I’ll pick you up from rehearsals.”
    â€œWhat if you have a meeting?” she said, adolescence slipping cleanly back into place.
    â€œI’m not going to be having so many meetings from now on.” The thickness hardened in my throat. I couldn’t even say good-bye.
    I’d just turned off Raintree Place when my cell phone belted out its disco version of the “Hallelujah Chorus,” the ring tone one of my students chose for me. My heart sagged when the number on the screen wasn’t Zach’s. It was a college number though.
    â€œDr. Costanas, this is Gina Livorsi,” said the California-crisp voice on the line.
    Dr. Ethan Kaye’s assistant. As in president of Covenant Christian College. My boss and my friend. So was Gina. My stomach tightened. Since when was I “Dr. Costanas” to her?
    â€œWhy so formal?” I said.
    â€œFormal occasion.” She sounded guarded. “Dr. Kaye wants to see you in his office. Soon as you can make it.”
    It was already after seven. Zach liked to be in his classroom by seven forty-five—
    â€œI have a class at nine,” I said. “I can be there after that.”
    Gina paused—uncomfortably, I thought.
    â€œHe says to cancel your class and be here at eight if you can.”
    â€œDo I have a choice?”
    â€œUnh-uh.”
    â€œWhat’s this about, Gina?”
    â€œHe didn’t say.”
    â€œHe didn’t have to,” I said. “You always