Mistwalker Read Free Page B

above the tail.
    And then the volcano erupted, Darby thought. No wonder it took me a minute to remember.
    She couldn’t see the mare well enough to spot the bite. Besides, it had been weeks ago.
    The paint whisked her tail from side to side. Head lowered in friendliness, she strolled toward Hoku.
    Darby refused to let herself be hypnotized by the beautiful horse, but the closer she got, the more the mare smelled of a combination of grass and violets.
    Do it now, Darby ordered herself.
    Pretending she wasn’t recapturing Hoku, Darby raised her left arm the last inches she needed to grasp the lead rope.
    Hoku didn’t mind, but the black-and-white horse stopped with one hoof still raised.
    Friendly, but cautious.
    Tame, but wild.
    â€œWhere’d you come from?” Darby whispered.
    The paint reversed in midstep. She backed away, slowly at first, then whirled in the other direction and disappeared.
    Hoku neighed after the horse.
    â€œShh,” Darby hushed her filly, then scolded her. “Jonah’s pretty much had his fill of wild horses, so let’s just work on you being the best of your breed, okay?”
    Hoku blew a silvery blast of breath through her nostrils, and accompanied Darby back to the corral. She allowed herself to be slipped into her corral, and stood waiting for a few forkfuls of hay.
    â€œGood girl,” Darby whispered to her horse. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
    But when Darby glanced over her shoulder toward the fold and caught Hoku doing the same, she knew both of them were pretending they weren’t sorry to see the mysterious horse go.
    Â 
    Secrets were not Darby’s favorite thing. She wanted to burst into Sun House and ask Jonah, Cathy, and Megan about the black-and-white trespasser. But that might lead to a wild horse hunt, or a flurry of phone calls to neighbors, and someone else showing up for dinner. Since she already had those hidden hatboxes in her room and she was eager to discover their secrets, Darby sat on the entrance hall bench, tugged off her boots, and headed for the door at the end of the hall.
    Her snug room still smelled faintly of fresh paint.The mist outside didn’t blot out a sunbeam that slanted in her window, turning the leaves of her lucky bamboo plant spring green before falling onto a polished wood floor the color of peanut butter.
    For a minute, Darby couldn’t remember what her room at home in Pacific Pinnacles looked like. She could only picture that beautiful, mysterious mare.
    Horses were herd animals, she lectured herself. Why wouldn’t a lone mare be drawn to other horses? After all, Hoku was too. There was no mystery in that.
    She peeked under her bed. The boxes were still there.
    Pulling them out, Darby decided to open the boxes while sitting on the bed, instead of at her desk.
    Before she plopped on the bed, she closed her bedroom door. Hands on hips, she regarded it. The door didn’t have a lock.
    What if she wedged the back of her desk chair under the doorknob, so that no one could get in?
    â€œStop it,” she whispered to herself. “If you feel so guilty, is this something you should be doing?”
    She looked away from the door and studied the two round boxes.
    What was the worst thing that could happen if she looked inside them? This was modern-day America, not ancient Greece, or wherever the mythical Pandora’s box was opened to let pain and evil into the world.
    Megan had made the point that Jonah had packed Ellen’s things away, so it wasn’t like Darby would be the first to see them. Besides, if she could learn what had driven a wedge between her mother and grandfather, maybe she could try to mend it.
    That’s the important thing, Darby decided, and she sat down on her bed.
    Leaning back against her headboard, Darby opened the first box.
    Clippings from Lehua High School’s newspaper lay on top. Her mom had gone there, too. All but one of them were about people