Others See Us by William Sleator

Author:William Sleator [Sleator, William]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781504019095
Publisher: Open Road Media Teen & Tween
Published: 2015-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

eleven

I was still in a state of shock when we reached Grandma’s house.

It was bad enough that the water had touched Annelise at all. But the grass had been so slick in the darkness, giving neither of us any firm footing, that she kept sliding back in. Annelise had been exposed to the water for several minutes at least—maybe even longer than Grandma.

At her hysterical insistence I was numbly carrying the foul poncho she had been wearing, as well as the heavy water jug. But it was only a partial relief when I was finally able to shove the poncho behind the shrubbery; the stench still clung to Annelise’s wet hair and clothes.

As upset as she was, Annelise was still thinking. “Don’t bring the jug inside!” she hissed, and I set it down just off the stoop.

The side door opened as we stepped up to it, and Grandma silently ushered us into the dimly lit kitchen, a cigarette hanging from her mouth. No one said a word until the door was locked behind us.

“My God!” Grandma rasped, clasping her hands in dismay. “That smell! Annelise. Don’t tell me. Oh, you poor child! You—you fell in?”

Annelise had regained her usual facade of sweetness. She nodded slowly. “I—I don’t understand,” she said, no rancor in her voice, only wounded virtue. “I kept trying to do my part. But Jared wouldn’t let me help. He kept pulling the jug away from me. That’s … why I fell in.”

Grandma dropped the cigarette into an overflowing ashtray and turned to me, confusion on her face. “But why, Jared? Why?”

An instant later she was reaching for a large roll of heavy-duty aluminum foil, obviously placed there on the kitchen table for our return. She knelt and spread a couple of sheets on the floor for Annelise to drip on. Foil would not absorb the stuff the way newspaper would; she could save the drippings. She had expected Annelise to fall in! She had planned on it all along. She was prepared.

And suddenly all the acting going on around me was just too much. How could the truth do any damage now? You know why, Grandma, I silently answered her, concentrating the message into a pencil-thin laser beam focused directly into her brain. I was getting the water myself to try to keep her from falling in. The last thing in the world I wanted was for her to be like us. But you arranged for her to be there, right on the edge. You wanted it to happen this way. I shook my head. You can go on denying it forever. It won’t change what I know.

Come on in again, Jared. Grandma welcomed me, with no inkling of surprise.

I hadn’t been able to hide my powers from her after all. She already knew I was a reader! She pounced into my brain as I tumbled into hers, expecting the cottage in the woods, the cozy firelit room.…

The air throbbed with ratcheting and clacketing, hammering at the eardrums.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.