and really freaky under that purple hair, like he’s a crazy angel. He smiles, the bell rings, he walks away.
Next day Weltzer sort of apologizes to the whole Religion class for being a turd, except that’s not what he calls it, but Julian is not there. Julian is not in school the next day, either, or the next.
I haven’t seen him since.
I keep looking for him at malls and stuff, but I haven’t seen him. I don’t know what happened to him. Maybe his parents yanked him out of that school. Maybe he ran off. Maybe he’s training with the Olympic swim team. Maybe he went back to wherever he came from.
It’s been a couple years now, actually, and I’m still thinking about him.
Weird, huh? But the thing is, I really want to talk with him. Like, is his God a mother to him, or more like a sister, or kind of a girlfriend? How does he talk with Her? Like a buddy, like me ’n Brent used to talk? Or better than that?
I haven’t been to church since I was a little kid, but I’m kinda thinking about going back. I mean, if I can’t talk with Julian, could I maybe talk with God? Would God listen? Like Julian said, could it be God is alive and things might change? Could it be God doesn’t want me to be scared of Her?
Edgar Award–winning author Nancy Springer ,
well known for her science fiction, fantasy, and young adult novels,
has written a gripping psychological thriller—smart, chilling, and unrelenting…
DARK LIE
available in paperback and e-book in November 2012
from New American Library
Dorrie and Sam White are not the ordinary Midwestern couple they seem. For plain, hard-working Sam hides a deep passion for his wife. And Dorrie is secretly following the sixteen-year-old daughter, Juliet, she gave up for adoption long ago. Then one day at the mall, Dorrie watches horror-stricken as Juliet is forced into a van that drives away. Instinctively, Dorrie sends her own car speeding after it—an act of reckless courage that puts her on a collision course with a depraved killer…and draws Sam into a desperate search to save his wife. And as mother and daughter unite in a terrifying struggle to survive, Dorrie must confront her own dark, tormented past.
“A darkly riveting read...compelling.”
—Wendy Corsi Staub, national bestselling author of Nightwatcher and Sleepwalker
“ A fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will have you reading late into the night and cheering for the novel's unlikely but steadfast heroine.”
—Heather Gudenkauf, New York Tim es best-selling author of The Weight of Silence and These Things Hidden
Learn more about all of Nancy’s titles at her website, www.nancyspringer.com.