Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (26 page)

BOOK: Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series)
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“You’ll do no such thing, young lady
.
You’re not to leave this house for the next three months except by school bus or with me as chaperone
.
I thought I made myself perfectly clear.”

Patrice
looked to the ground.

“My noggin’s fine,”
Glory
said, but nobody was listening
.

 

 

 

Chapter 9
 

 

 

Morning broke. In silent vigil,
Glory
watched the rise and fall of Brandon’s che
st. Isn’t he ever gonna wake up
?
Glory
wondered
.
Unable to wait a minute longer,
s
he grabbed his shoulder and
shook vigorously.

“Brandon, Brandon, do ya believe me now?”

Brandon pulled the blanket over his ears and flipped his back toward
Glory
.

“Leave me alone.”

Le
an
ing
over the bed,
she pleaded
, “Please, tell me ya remember.”

“Remember what?” Brandon yawned.

“You know, the
wrinkly guys in the fancy suits
, they were here last night, in this very room.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“C’mon, don’t do this to me
.
You opened your eyes and looked right at them
.
Then ya hollered
.
Then they hollered. It was a big ol’ holler-fest.

“Get away from me, you lunatic.”

“But
ya gotta remember something.”

“Scram or I’ll pound ya.”

Glory
gave a frustrated grunt
.
“Can’t count on you for nothing
.

S
he kicked the bedpost
.
“Yowch, stupid foot.

She
went downstairs.

Dad
was at the table sipping a cup of coffee
.

“Am I going to the doctor or what?”
she
snapped.

Dad
set down his coffee cup
.
“Depends. How
are
you feeling?”

“Tired
.
But not sick or anything.”

“And your head?”

Glory
knocked on h
er
temple
.
“Solid as a rock.”

“Let me have a look,”
Dad
ordered. “Turn around.”

Instead of checking out
Glory
’s
head, he raised the back of h
er
shirt
.

She pulled it back down
.
“Don’t do that.”

“I only want to see your back.”

Reluctantly
, she let him look
.
His
calloused fingers linger
ed
near h
er
shoulder blades, where the belt had left
two
wicked welt
s
.

“Ow,”
Glory
flinched when
Dad
applied pressure.

He
sucked in a deep breath and pulled
away.
“If I take you to the doctor they’ll probably want to check more than your head.

Glory
knew what that meant
.
The doctor would see the
whip marks.

“No headaches?”
Dad
asked
.
“No spots in your eyes
?
No nausea?”

“Nope.”

Quiet followed
.
After a minute,
Dad
said, “We’ll hold off on the doctor
.
Get ready for school. And don’t go flapping your jaw about bums coming through the walls
.
Have I made myself clear?”

Glory
nodded,
but was
chafed
at
Dad’s
selfishness
.
What if
s
he truly needed medical attention

would
Dad
just let h
er
suffer
in order to avoid uncomfortable questions
?

Glory
’s
stomach
rumbled
.

“Is
Nana
up yet?”
s
he asked
optimistically.

“Still sleeping.”
Dad
buried his head in the newspaper.

Dang it
.
Glory
loved it when
Nana
made big breakfasts, but
no such luck this morning.
She found
a leftover dinner roll
.
The fridge was full of condiments, but not much else
.
At least there was plenty of butter, which was difficult to spread without annihilating the roll
.
S
he cut four pats of butter and placed them on her roll like
ceramic
tiles.


Save some for the rest of the family
,”
Dad
complained
.
“You really need to lay off the rolls and butter,
Glory
.”

She
let h
er
father’s comment hang in the air, listen
ing
to
Randy
upstairs
banging on the bathroom door, yelling at
Patrice
to hurry up.


Rush hour has begun,”
Dad
said from behind the paper.

Glory
looked
toward the ceiling
,
glad not to be a part of the
chaos
.
Her older siblings thought they were
too cool for
the bus, so
they
managed to
find
rides
with
schoolmates
.
This
allowed h
er
to stay ahead of the
morning
bathroom fights
by a nose
.


Later
,
Dad
,

s
he said.

“Behave yourself,”
Dad
replied.

Glory
slung h
er
schoolbag over a shoulder and took an extra roll
for the road
.
The morning air smelled of snow
.
As
s
he waited at the end of the lane
,
the last bum’s words rang through h
er
mind
;
We’ll be back,
t
hief.
Glory
felt ill thinking about it
.
She
must prepare, but
how
?

 

 

Mrs. Spud was prompt as usual
.
She opened the
bus
doors and said good morning
.
Glory mumbled hello, avoiding
eye contact with
other passengers. She
squeezed down the aisle as the bus began to accelerate
, ignoring the w
hispers and rude snickers
.
She
plopp
ed
down in the seat next to
Clash
who was sucking on candy. The scent of hot cinnamon wafted on h
is
breath
.

“Got your Sliver?”
Glory
inquired.

“Yep.

H
e
took
it
out of h
is
bag and
flipped it opened.
“Wanna play
Space Raiders
?”

“Nah
.
Can you spare a couple of data center minutes?


Well


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