The Silver Glove by Suzy McKee Charnas

Author:Suzy McKee Charnas [Charnas, Suzy McKee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Young Adult
ISBN: 9780613797542
Publisher: Borgo Press
Published: 1988-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

11

Dressed for Success

I CLOSED MY EYES AND TRIED TO THINK. Where had Ushah stashed The Claw? Not far away, I was sure. I couldn’t stay here forever, certainly not until Barb’s mom came. She wouldn’t know that she shouldn’t let Ushah in, that the Pink-wrapped Predator wasn’t just another customer. But how could I leave without being caught?

“Where is your mom?” I said.

Barb cut her eyes at me. “Taking care of things.”

Which probably meant Mrs. Wilson was off arguing with some authority or other about something Barb’s brother got caught doing, which happened a lot. If you wanted to stay friends with Barb, you learned not to push the envelope here.

“If she comes back and lets Ushah in, I’m a dead duck,” I said.

Barb said, “Why not just sock Ushah with this magic glove of yours?”

I could tell that Barb was dying to see the glove in action. Her idea had a certain amount of instant appeal, but only in the abstract. To tell the truth, I could not face the thought of getting within reach of Ushah again, glove or no glove.

Luckily I had a perfectly rational objection. “Barb, I have no idea what might happen—maybe a nuclear meltdown! I just don’t know enough to risk it. I mean, how would your mom like to come back here and find nothing but a scorched crater where the shop used to be?”

Barb gave up. “If you’re all that worried, there is a back door, remember? Opens into that hall by the hotel coffee shop.”

Ahah! Maybe.

I said, “Take a look out there first. Don’t let—don’t let anything in, okay? But tell me what you see.”

She stepped around the rack of clothes her mother kept in back for models to use. I heard the door to the hall open and then shut again, quietly. Barb came back looking thoughtful.

“There’s a bike out there,” she said. “Now, who would take the chance, leaving a bike like that alone in New York with no chain or anything?”

And we both said together, “Who but the Bride of Brightner?”

Barb went back to the possible powers of the silver glove, which had not made me invisible to Ushah when that was what I’d most dearly needed, nor turned into a magic carpet and flown me away. I found these failures disappointing when I thought about them. Barb found them provocative.

She wanted to try the glove on, of course, to see if it would do anything special for her. I think she still suspected that I was crazy, but as a devoted science fiction and fantasy reader she hoped for the best.

I wouldn’t let her try on the glove. Suppose it was tied to me alone by my Gran’s gift? Suppose the glove did funny things to my friend that I couldn’t fix afterward? I needed Barb in her present form, with all her wits about her, not Barb transformed into a light bulb or a bat.

I felt bad enough to have brought the awful Ushah to her door as it was.

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.