The Whisper (The Riverman Trilogy Book 2) by Aaron Starmer

Author:Aaron Starmer [Starmer, Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Childrens
ISBN: 0374363110
Google: SLGFBAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00N051UOC
Barnesnoble: B00N051UOC
Goodreads: 23014342
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2015-03-17T07:00:00+00:00

1988

A folded piece of loose-leaf had eight names written on it. There was a ritual to this, but Alistair didn’t really get it. It was girl stuff.

“Pick a number,” Keri said, her fingertips poised inside an origami fortune-teller, which she held to Alistair’s nose like a flower.

“Fine. Six,” Alistair grumbled.

“And a color.”

“Burnt umber.”

“Come on, a real color.”

“That is a real color. There’s a crayon that color.”

“I mean a standard color.”

“Okay, whatever. Green.”

Keri pursed her lips and tilted her head. “You sure?” she said.

“Just do the stupid thing,” Alistair said, turning to the backseat window.

Behind the faint reflection of Keri opening and closing the fortune-teller like the double-jointed jaw of a Venus flytrap, nature swept by in a damp and budding blur. On the stereo, a song heavy on banjos set the mood. They were heading to a campground, a yearly tradition for Memorial Day weekend.

“Crack a window back there, would you?” Alistair’s dad said. “We’re getting a lot of condensation on the glass.” One hand on the wheel and one hand buried in a sleeve, he reached forward to wipe the windshield as Alistair’s mom hit the defrost button on the dashboard.

Preferring the filminess, Alistair ignored the request, so Keri latched on to her window crank with the crook of her elbow and rolled it down without taking her fingers out of the fortune-teller. Cool air, oaky and sharp, filled the car.

Keri used the pointy edges of the fortune-teller to nip at Alistair’s ear.

“Quit it!” he snapped, and turned with a fist up.

Keri cocked her chin toward their parents in the front seat. Idle threats were nothing new to her. “Pick an animal,” she said, pushing the fortune-teller in Alistair’s face.

On folded flaps of paper were drawings of a cat, a dog, a fish, and a unicorn. Alistair knew the unicorn was a trick, a silly enticement that he was supposed to choose. The cat reminded him a bit too much of Charlie. And the dog? Dogs were great, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know which name would be associated with a dog.

He tapped the picture of the fish.

“Oooo, an underwater breather,” Keri said as she pulled one hand out and reached to peel back the flap and reveal the name underneath. “And the girl you shall marry is … drum roll please…”

“Not doing it,” Alistair said, his hands firmly planted on his thighs.

“Fine,” Keri said, tapping a few fingertips on the fabric of the seat.

“Just say it!” Alistair barked.

A gust of wind did the talking instead, howling through the car as it snatched the fortune-teller and sucked it out of Keri’s open window.

“Pixie farts!” Keri hollered as she went after it, fighting against her seat belt and thrusting a hand out into the spring air.

“Hey now!” Alistair’s mom yelped, spinning around to halt the commotion. In the process, her elbow struck a coffee cup resting on the center console, sending it into Alistair’s dad’s lap. Luckily, it was mostly empty and the scant liquid left inside was cool.

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