Beauty Returns by Sylvia McNicoll

Author:Sylvia McNicoll
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000, book
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Published: 2010-11-16T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Elizabeth and Magic

I tumble backwards, half on the pavement, half on the grass, and he lands on top of me.

My elbows smart, right through my jacket. My butt throbs. But none of that matters. It’s the weight of Kyle on top of me that burns into me.

“Are you okay?” I gasp.

“Oh, yeah.” He grabs my chin with his hand and smothers me with his kiss. He presses down on me even more, and I don’t want to get up. I can feel my own heart beat, a slow hard pump, or is that his? Everything feels so good.

“Kyle, are you okay?” I hear a little kid’s voice from a distance. “Your hand’s bleeding.”

Kyle lifts himself off me, and I see a boy about ten years old with pale skin and wide green eyes watching me suspiciously. He could be Kyle’s younger brother, apart from the eye colour.

“Donald?” Kyle says, his voice husky.

Donald’s dark hair sticks up a bit in the back and is badly in need of a cut. It gives him a neglected, forlorn look.

“I saw you fall. Does it hurt?” He points to Kyle’s hand.

“No, it’s nothing,” Kyle answers. “I just landed on this bottle cap.”

“But you’re really bleeding!” I reach into my pocket for a tissue and press it to the wound.

“Oh, stop it! I’ve been around enough nurses in my life.”

He shakes me loose and blood drips from his hand.

Donald looks on with eyes as wide as saucers.

“Kyle, keep the tissue on, please.”

“Fine,” he grumbles.

“You were kissing,” Donald accuses us now.

“So what? Listen, don’t you have kids your own age to hang with?”

Donald hangs his head and kicks at the ground but, of course, Kyle doesn’t see the effect his words have.

“Hey, do you want to see Beauty do an Elvis impersonation?” I ask him.

“Yeah, sure,” Donald answers.

“Okay, sing with me. ‘You ain’t nothing but a hound dog…’”

Kyle joins us, and he sounds just like Elvis. Beauty, on cue, waggles her butt and curls her lip over her incisor. Donald laughs and swivels his hips along with Beauty.

“She sure is a smart dog,” he says when we’re done.

“And Liz trained him; she owned him before me. Then she gave Beauty back to Canine Vision Canada, and they gave her to me.”

“You gave up a smart dog like this?” Donald looks at me as if I’m crazy.

“Yeah, but now I’m friends with Kyle, and it doesn’t feel like I’ve given her up at all.”

Donald shrugs his shoulders. “Does she do other tricks? Can I throw a stick into the water and will she fetch it?”

“No,” Kyle says sharply. “She’s my dog and she’s only supposed to do stuff for me.” Kyle sounds like a different person suddenly, snappish and angry.

“Kyle?” I touch his arm.

“It’s okay. I’m good. I’ve gotta get home now. I’ll see you on the bus, Donald.”

Kyle turns away from Donald who walks away, hands in his pocket.

“You kind of hurt his feelings,” I say. I look back at Donald, shuffling across the path over Little Stone Bridge, head down, hands in his pocket.

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