Redemption Read Free Page B

walked, but now
he turned to look at her.  “I mean- I don’t um…know you from anywhere, do I?”
    Rebecca raised
her eyebrows as he studied her face.  “Well?”
    He shrugged
again and returned to studying the sand.  “I don’t know.  I can’t remember.”
    Rebecca
frowned.  She was rather forgettable.  “What do you mean, you don’t
know?”  She slanted a look at him.  “Do you know so many women that you can’t
keep them all straight?”  Highly likely.  The man was impossibly attractive.  
Rebecca silently praised her powers of imagination.
    He looked at
her, startled.  “No…I mean…well, I know a lot of people, okay?”  He seemed
angry.
    “Well, I’ve
never seen you. ”  She was sure.  No way could you forget a guy this
pretty.  Plus he had this kind of pull to him.  She would certainly
remember that.  Besides, she didn’t know a lot of people .
     “There’s got to
be a reason why we’re in this together,” she said after a moment.  “What do you
do for a living?”
    He gave her a
bland smile.  “I’m an artist.”
    Rebecca thought
about that for a minute.  “I don’t know anything about art.”
    He shrugged. 
“What do you do for a living?”
    Rebecca looked
at the cliffs.  “I work in food service.”  It sounded a lot better than the
truth, which was that she waited tables at a place that was half greasy diner,
half dive bar. 
    “Do you run a
restaurant or something?  I suppose we could have met there?”  His voice was
hopeful.
    She shrugged
neutrally.  “I suppose it’s possible, but so what?  That still doesn’t explain
why…”
    Isaac glanced at
her when she broke off.  “What?”
    “Your arm!”  She
grabbed his upper arm and spun him around.  “Both of them, look.”  His arms
were glowing, giving off an intense bluish light at the crook of each elbow. 
“What the heck is that?” 
    She grasped his
arm as she spoke and began pushing up the sleeve of his long-sleeved t-shirt to
get a better look.  His skin was very fair, that kind of complexion where you
can easily see the blue veins tracing beneath the skin.
    He pulled away
and crossed his arms, hiding the glow.  “I don’t know… but you have it too.” 
He gestured at her, and for one wild moment, she thought he was pointing at her
crotch.
    Looking down,
she saw a glow coming from her lower abdomen.  Her eyes met his and something
fluttered in her chest.  “I have a really bad feeling about this.”
    He nodded,
looking pale.  Rebecca took his arm and tugged it away from his chest, so that
she could get a better look.  He resisted at first, but grudgingly yielded and
extended the glowing appendage.  She pushed up his sleeve.  The glow was coming
from dozens of little dots that looked like puncture marks.  “What the heck? 
What happened to your arm?”
    He jerked away
and crossed his arms again.  The surf was getting bigger and they had to move
up the shore to avoid getting soaked by the giant breakers. 
    “It’s nothing. 
Old scars.”  He glanced at her face and away, then shrugged.  “I was really
sick.  I had to have a lot of injections- I.V.s, transfusions… it’s not a big
deal.”
    She looked at
him, feeling like an idiot for being so pushy.  “I’m sorry.  That must have
been horrible.”  Her stomach was beginning to burn.
    He shrugged
again, not looking at her.  “I’m fine.  But what about you- what’s wrong with
your stomach?”
    Rebecca seized
his story and ran with it.  “I had surgery,” she said lightly.  “It was a
congenital thing.  I’m fine now.”
    The glowing was
getting worse- and so was the pain.  She glanced at Isaac and saw a look of
utter horror on his face, completely disproportionate to what she had just said. 
He grabbed her arm and broke into a run.  She stumbled along behind him,
tripping over her own feet.  She managed a glance over her shoulder and her
eyes landed on the source of his