Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evie Read Free Page A

world was on my mind when I hung it clear over there? ” Fernando nudged her ear. Lean ing into him, she stroked his shaggy wool. “So impatient, my dear.”
    She started for the bucket, when a board beneath her foot shifted. Startled, she paused. What on earth? Straw covered the planking, but as far as she could tell, the floor appeared as solid as ever.
    Deciding the shift must have been her imagination, she stepped forward. Behind her, Fernando let loose with a rapid, pulsing squeal—a llama warning.
    Evie spun toward the animal just as the floor beneath her feet gave way. It was as though the earth opened up to swallow her whole. She screamed and made a frantic grab with her hands for solid wood, but there was none.
    She plunged downward, into darkness. Her body slammed into something hard, knocking the air from her lungs. Pain ricocheted through her shoulders and hips, and her head fell back, hitting solid rock.
    Dazed, Evie lifted one hand to the back of her head and felt a thick stickiness. Groaning, she shifted position, but the incline was steep, the rocks slimy, and she began to slide. She flipped onto her stomach as she skidded several feet, slamming her jaw against the rock. The salty metal taste of blood filled her mouth. Clawing at the precipice, her nails bent and broke as she tried to get a handhold.
    Panic swelled her throat nearly closed. She tried to take a deep breath, but the air seemed to have disappeared. Beneath her body the rocks were slick, her grip weak. She lost her grasp, her footing. Her body tumbled out of control until she finally hit bottom, crashing hard into the uneven floor of the cavern.
    Cold water seeped into her clothes. She was panting, crying, her head ached, her muscles felt bruised and cramped. She caught the scent of muck and mold and blood. In the darkness, something skittered close by her head, and she forced herself to bite down on a scream.
    Around her loomed vague shapes, suggestions of things. Rocks, a wall maybe? What was this? A well? A cavern ? An old basement of some kind?
    Her teeth began to chatter. Her fingers, numb with cold, trembled as she tried to find a hold on the rock so she could sit up, maybe even stand.
    A noise high above brought her head up. There, in the hole through which she’d fallen, was the muted outline of a shaggy head, fuzzy banana ears, and two luminous eyes blinking serenely down into the darkness.
    “No!” she choked, her voice thin and reedy. “Get away, Fernando. G o. Go!” Tears stung as she envi sioned the llama plunging to his death right before her very eyes.
    “Fernando. ” Fear and worry tightened her throat, forcing her voice to a whisper. “Go, sweetie,” she begged. “Get away from there, please. ”
    She closed her eyes, praying the llamas would stay far away from the hole in the barn floor. When she looked up again, Fernando was gone, and she was alone in the dark.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 2
    Dear D iary:
    M ommy forgot my birthday. Mrs. B urke brought cupca k s to s chool for the whole class! She's my teacher. And she gav e me this really really cool diary. She says that somtimes it helps for people to rit e things down when they are sad or lonely or just want to rebember stuff. She says when i bec ome a g rown up, i can look back and see how i was when i was little, and maybe understand things better, i think she means my mom. i love Mrs. Burke. i think when i g row up that i’m gonna be a teacher just like her.
    E van g eline—a g e 9
    “ I can … do this,” Evie panted to the rocks, as though she expected the m to put up a fight. “Won’t… quit.”
    She’d emerged from the depths of unconsciousness to realize time had passed. How much, she couldn’t tell. She’d never fainted in her life, and the thought of lying in the muck, unaware of things going on around her, made her queasy. As it was, her head throbbed and her muscles ached like they’d been ripped from her bones. Her fingers were sticky from