Nina Kiriki Hoffman by A Fistful of Sky

Author:A Fistful of Sky
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-05-27T12:50:28+00:00

Flint squirmed, woke me out of my trance. I glanced at him, realized I was hot hot hot, and tried to slow my thoughts down, but it was difficult.

At last he said, “Stop, Gyp. Stop it.”

I blinked out of a dream of popovers and looked at him.

There was bread everywhere. It covered the back lawn, stacked chest high in some places. We were cocooned in the aroma of fresh-baked bread. My mouth watered. I let go of Flint’s hands and grabbed a muffin, peeled it out of its paper petticoat, and ate it. Blueberry. Moist, crumbly, sweet, and satisfying. I grabbed a small loaf of banana bread and bit into that. Delicious, though heavy. Yes.

Flint blew on his hands. Tears tracked his face.

I dropped the little loaf and looked at my brother’s hands. They were angry red and blistered.

“God. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Flint.”

“I was going to figure out a system where this wouldn’t hurt me, but I didn’t have time,” he said. “What happened to you? You’re spilling way more energy. This is too much. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how long I can keep this up.”

“My curse bounced back on me.” I tested my shoulders. Still tense, but not very. “I have to go find out what happened with it. Without your help, things I curse turn into people who do things to me. Yesterday was interesting. Today was awful.”

“What did you curse?”

“Aunt Hermina’s computer.”

He glanced toward the guest house. I did too.

Even from here I felt curse heat against my face.

“We have to go check on it,” I said. I had left my aunt alone with that machine, left the machine primed to help anyone it could get its hands on, left it without a clear idea of what “help” meant.

And I had left Jasper and Mama and Tobias to stew about it while I had a bake attack.

Chapter Sixteen

“GYP,” said Mania. “What have you done this time?” I glanced up at the back porch. Everybody else was there, even Dad.

“Goodness,” he said. “Guess I won’t have to stop for pastry today.” He came down the steps, surveyed the piles of bread, and selected several fruit muffins.

“Where are you going to put all this?” Mama asked.

“We’ll take it to the shelters,” said Flint. He conjured ice and rubbed it across his palms, winced when he pressed down on blisters. “I’ve got a babysitting gig at the Toussaints’ tonight. I’ll take them a couple loaves. We can freeze some of it. Maybe we could take some to the neighbors. It’s that time of year.”

I stood up. “But first we have to go see what happened to Aunt Hermina. That thing took a lot of energy out of me. What did it use it for?”

The rest of them came down to the walk, where the chalk drawings from two nights ago were wearing away, and peered toward the guest house.

“Dad, you should stay out of this,” I said.

He stared at me.

A sudden gust of misery swept through me.

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