The Book of Sight Read Free Page B

carved façade on the old Stokes mansion, which she had always been fascinated with, suddenly had sculptures on it that she could not remember having seen before. And was that statue on the courthouse lawn actually smirking?
    Every night before bed, Alex found herself drawn to the book to read and reread the beautiful story. It continued to amaze and delight her. Each new reading evoked some new emotion. Sometimes she felt overwhelmed by sadness, other times a bubble of laughter came to her lips; at times she was bursting with pride and suppressed excitement, at others she felt a burning shame.
    On the fourth day, Alex woke up to find that her dad had retreated to his studio once more. She automatically picked up the book to begin reading again, but today it felt flat. Idly turning the pages, her eyes were drawn to the ending. She just had to close her eyes and she could see in her mind exactly what the trees looked like, hear the soft breeze in the branches, smell the pungent earthy scent. Suddenly her eyes flew open. She knew why that place felt so familiar. And she knew what she was going to do today.
    •   •   •   •   •
    The trees were exactly as Alex had remembered them. Just at the edge of town, behind the Super-Mart, was an empty field. And at the far side of that field eight slender aspen trees formed a perfect circle.
    Alex paused, surprised by a sudden rush of joy. These were the trees from the story.
    True, in some part of her mind, she knew that her brain had just supplied the image of these trees, which she had seen hundreds of times, when the book had mentioned a circle of trees. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that the story had been about
these
trees.
    And anyway, the book hadn’t said anything about a circle of trees. It had only said a bunch of nonsense words that made her think of a circle of trees. The whole thing made no sense, but Alex didn’t care. She was excited about her discovery.
    Alex walked across the field toward the circle with a prickly sense of anticipation. What was she going to find in the circle? She had felt, still felt, that she had to come here. That this was the next step. The next step of what, she had no idea.
    Arriving at the circle, Alex put a hand on the smooth white trunk of the nearest tree. She felt an almost electric shock at the sensation of life pulsing under her hand.
    She entered the circle.
    And there was just more grass. Crisp, vital, glowing grass, but nothing else, no strange sights, no funny clues. True, the trees stood straight and beautiful, reminding her strongly of a circle of guards, giving the whole circle of feeling of safety. But it wasn’t what she had expected.
    She walked around the circle, brushing each tree with her hand. And then she noticed it. Very small, carved into the base of the largest tree, a circle within a circle within a circle. Heart beating, Alex bent down to examine it more closely when a voice behind her made her jump.
    “So you read it, too?”

3
Cry of Recognition
    A lex whirled around.
    Standing there with a very curious look on his face was a boy about her age. He was just slightly shorter than she, with sandy hair and glasses. She’d never seen him before.
    “I’m Adam Cleary,” he said, sticking out his hand.
    “Um, Alex.”
    “I don’t think I’ve seen you around. Jefferson Middle School?” When she nodded, he said, “I go to Lewis. Or, went to, I guess. I’ll be in high school next year.”
    “Me too.”
    “Cool.” He could barely contain himself as he rushed on. “So did you? Read it, I mean?” Without waiting for an answer, he pulled out of his backpack a very familiar faded red book.
    Alex felt the tingle again. “You have the same book!”
    “I knew it!” Adam was triumphant. “And when you saw this place, you recognized it from the story?”
    “Yeah, sort of. I mean, I’ve seen it a thousand times, and when I read the story I thought of it.”
    “Crazy. I’d never been here