Messenger 93 by Barbara Radecki

Author:Barbara Radecki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Cormorant Books Inc.
Published: 2020-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

3

A FEW PEOPLE CAME out of the farmhouse and headed to the other tents. The campsites were lined up in a wide semi-circle around the yard. More fires sparked and roared up. I could hear the quiet murmur of voices. Charlie was setting up Lily and Walter’s tent near an unlit fire pit between my spot and the rest. I hadn’t seen Lily and Walter since they’d left me in the car. Still no sign of Gray.

I pulled out my new Infinity Girl storyboard and smoothed the crumpled newspaper ad against my knee. It was getting dark and I angled the page to the fire so I could see what I was doing.

Where was I? Infinity Girl is spying on Double Kross. Double Kross is planning her demise. Infinity Girl has to come up with a plan. But what?

I waited for inspiration. Waited some more. Dusk pressed over the sky. The fire got bigger. I was getting hot. Wishing for Gray to come. Infinity Girl was still hiding in the dark.

“What’s that?”

I looked over my shoulder. Vivvie and her crew were standing behind me. She was holding a mug of steaming-something in one hand and pointing at my scribbles with the other. “What is it?” she said again. The other four girls, even the silver husky, looked at me expectantly.

I checked with my drawings. A chaotic jumble of scrawl, stick figures and speech-bubbles barely recognizable. I could have said it was anything.

“It’s a storyboard.”

“What’s that?”

“Like a map for making a movie.”

“You’re making a movie?”

“Nah, I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

I checked on Infinity Girl. Hopelessly stuck in some improbable ductwork. “Because it sucks.”

“What’s happening?” she said, tapping her finger on the panel where Double Kross was raving at her minions.

“That’s the bad guy. She’s plotting to kill the hero.” I pointed at Infinity Girl. “And the hero is figuring out how to stop her.”

“But they don’t even know the hero is there. Why doesn’t she just zoom down and kill them?”

“Because she can’t destroy anyone.”

“No killing?”

“No killing.”

“Not even bad guys?”

“Not even bad guys.”

The oldest girl, the mothering one, whispered in her ear. Vivvie listened then said, “What’s her skill?”

I said, “She reflects back to people what they really are.”

“But what does she do?”

“That’s what she does.”

“No. That’s a power. She’s gotta have a skill. She’s gotta do something.”

My pen scratched aimlessly at a corner of the newspaper. That was always my problem. No idea what to do.

The girl with the shaved head whispered in Vivvie’s ear. Vivvie said, “They like it. They made a movie once. On their phone, with their friends. It was good. You could do that.”

“I don’t think so …”

Vivvie reached inside the lining of her white-sequined vest and pulled something out of a hidden pocket. “She could star in your movie.” It was a little folded paper person. Origami. She handed it to me. “But only if you give her a skill.”

I reached for it. It was the cutest thing. A small pink-paper figure with an angled head and pointy feet and arms.

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