The Atheist's Daughter Read Free Page A

embracing progress and all of the promises it offered.  Besides its grand shopping Mecca, the city had a thriving Tech Center and a newly-constructed university. Its entire community was thriving, willingly surrendering its farmland to fresh business opportunities and ever-expanding housing developments.
    Ashfork was everything Winterhaven was not.
    “Mom doesn’t care,” Kristin told an empty storefront window.
    Becky Faraday rejected the very concept of progress. “We’ll shop local,” she said that morning, “until every last store in our town is closed.”
    ‘Shopping local’ meant higher prices, fewer selections and outdated styles. Everything was more expensive in their small town.
    No Dollar Stores for us. No Midnight Madness or Half-Price Sundays here, no two-for-one coupons.
    Live in Winterhaven, you pay full price for everything. You pay and you pay and the stores die, anyway. 
    “Penny for your thoughts.”
    Kristin jumped at the sound of her mother’s voice. Becky was beside her, the store’s electronic buzzer failing to give warning of her exit. Holding a shopping bag in her arms, she looked at her daughter quizzically.
    “Thinking about finals,” Kristin said. With her lie came the sound: Schhhct!
    A sharp, stabbing noise reverberated inside her head. From experience, she knew only she could hear it. Besides, it was never the sound that bothered her when she lied. It was the physical sensation accompanying it.
    The skin on her face started to burn. Her lips pulled together like warm rubber, squeezing against one another. A stab of pain went through her as the lower lip melted into its twin.
    The dark glass of an empty shop revealed her reflection. The lower half of her face had disappeared behind a sheath of skin. Smooth and featureless, this barrier of flesh locked her words inside of her.
    No one else saw this image. Unless she showed an outward sign of distress, even her mother remained unaware of the transformation. At thirteen, confused by the sudden change in her appearance, the sudden change in her life , she’d blurted out everything as it happened to her. Her mouth, the visions, all of it.
    Biiiig mistake , she realized now. First I got pubes, then I got breasts. How was I to know visions weren’t part of the package deal?
    “Comp 202 still giving you a headache?” Becky asked. “No, that was last semester, wasn’t it?”
    About to speak, Kristin caught herself. The movement pushed her mouth against the flap of skin. Her teeth rubbed the wet surface, scraping its virgin seal.
    A drop of blood fell onto her tongue. The dull, metallic taste always made her want to gag.
    “Semester before last,” she said. The words sounded faint to her, muffled behind their fold.
    Schhhct! In an instant, the sheath was gone.
    Her mouth was back. Cool air pushed in as if it had never left. Darting her tongue forward, she touched it briefly, reassuringly, over each of her lips. Except for the lingering taste of blood, it was as if nothing had happened.
    “I thought English Comp was going to be the death of you,” Becky said. “Thank goodness for Hawkins.”
    “My turn now. Poli-sci is Hawk’s kryptonite.”
    “Poor Hawkins.”
    “Poor Liz.”
    “Liz? Isn’t she going to the University?”
    “Only if she manages to graduate,” Kristin said. “She’s already signed up for summer school. Calculus.”
    “That’s Trevor Silva’s subject, isn’t it? The teacher who gives three hours of homework for every hour of class?”
    “That’s the one.”
    “Liz may never leave high school.” Shifting her shopping bag, Becky stepped off the sidewalk.
    Following her mother, Kristin stopped abruptly. “Mom?”
    Becky waited at the back of their sedan. “I could use some help here.”
    “Don’t you see?”
    “What?”
    “Piotrowski’s Café. The front door is open.”
    Becky pressed at the car’s key fob. “Damned trunk opener. I replaced this battery less than a week ago.”
    “Somebody