0062120085. (C) by Chris Rylander

Author:Chris Rylander [Rylander, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062120083
Amazon: 0062120085
Publisher: Walden Pond Press
Published: 2014-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25

I GOT BACK HOME AROUND NOON.

Everything felt different. Like the kitchen. The kitchen used to feel like the heart and soul of the house. But now it just felt like a plain old kitchen. It seemed emptier to me. I didn’t like the feeling at all.

I saw my brother watching TV in the living room. I said hi to him and then headed downstairs to my bedroom. Almost as soon as I opened my computer, I got an incoming Skype call from Dillon. That was another thing about Dillon—he pretty much only communicated via written notes, in person, or with Skype.

It wasn’t that he thought video chat was better or cooler than phone calls or text messages or anything. He just simply refused to use phones of any kind. He said all communications via telephone, including texts, were monitored and recorded by some massive database, and that your communication histories were used for all sorts of manipulative reasons. Or something.

Dillon didn’t really like Skype much either, but we had to communicate somehow. It’s not like we could send smoke signals to each other across town. Anyway, being friends with Dillon entailed accepting a lot of crazy stuff. Or at least I used to think it was all crazy. Given what had happened to me in the last forty-eight hours, Dillon’s theories didn’t seem all that outlandish anymore.

I clicked on the Answer button on my computer screen. Dillon’s face filled my monitor. He was wearing his tin foil gloves again. (Don’t ask.)

“Hey, Carson, what’s up? Where have you been all morning? I was convinced that the Candy People had gotten to you or something.”

I just stared at him. I tried to say something but didn’t. Or couldn’t. Why wasn’t I answering him? Likely because I had spent the morning inside a secret office belonging to a covert government secret agent instead of hanging out with Dillon and Danielle like usual.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “What are you up to?”

“Oh, nothing. It was just an interesting day,” I said.

“Why, what happened?”

I was being an idiot. That was the last thing you ever wanted to say to Dillon, even under normal circumstances. My first ten minutes of having an official secret agent mission and I was already close to blowing my cover. Maybe deep down I even wanted to blow my cover. At least on some level.

“Just a lot of weird stuff happened,” I finally answered him. “But it was all family stuff, so nothing you’d probably care about.”

“Oh,” he said, looking disappointed. “Well, do you want to go to the circus with Danielle and me later tonight? There’s also that new milk bar right next to the circus grounds that we still need to check out.”

“Milk bar?”

“Yeah, I guess it’s like a regular bar, but instead of serving beer, they serve, like, custom flavored milk. So kids can go, too.”

“That sounds pretty cool,” I admitted.

“Yeah, so you want to go today with us then?”

I had totally forgotten about the circus. Under normal circumstances, I would have gone for sure.

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