Crossroads Read Online Free Page B

2
     
     
     
    Roseanne drove a big, gray sedan with official Florida state plates, but this time Kira insisted on getting into the back after Jen. The interior smelled of cigarette smoke and some kind of industrial cleaner that only added to the toxic aroma. The plastic cover on the seat was hot as a griddle and sounded like popcorn when Kira slid her butt onto it. Roseanne made sure Kira was buckled, but Kira noticed when the look Jen gave Roseanne when the social worker glanced in her direction, and Roseanne said nothing about Jen's seatbelt. Jen had that effect on people.
    Roseanne looked both ways before pulling out of the station parking lot and turning left.
    "Where are you taking us?" asked Kira.
    Roseanne didn’t answer, stopping at a light. She fumbled in her jacket, and Kira could tell she was reaching for a pack of smokes, but then her hand slipped back onto the wheel.
    "You can light up if you want," said Kira. "I don’t mind."
    Roseanne smiled. "I need to quit, anyway. My husband says I smoke like a chimney."
    "Where?" Kira repeated.
    "There’s a nice old couple down at Coral Isles you can stay with for a few days until we get things straightened out and find you a real home. Do you have any family other... other than your mother and father?"
    Kira shook her head.
    "No cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents?"
    "No."
    Her father and mother rarely spoke of family. Whenever Kira had asked, she’d been told that the carnival was their family. Now all the carneys were gone.
    Roseanne nodded. "Don’t worry. You’re going to be okay."              
    Kira knew that Roseanne half believed that, but she knew better. She and Jen had no one to turn to, and some old couple in Coral Isles wasn’t going to be able to fill the void that tore at her heart. She had never felt so alone, and even Jen-pressed beside her in the seat-exuded no comfort. It wasn’t just her mother and father, either. Everyone in the carnival had been a friend, family in their way, and it wasn’t just the mountain of grief that weighed down upon her. With each passing minute she was more and more certain that the terror that had found the show was still following them. For one thing the face in the rear view mirror-which she couldn’t avoid looking at-wasn’t always Roseanne’s. Kira squeezed Jen’s leg to get her attention. Jen shrugged as if to say what did you expect?
    Roseanne reached up to adjust the mirror and her palm rested across it for a moment, and Kira almost screamed. When Roseanne’s fingers finally fell back across the wheel Kira breathed a sigh of relief, although she noticed that  Roseanne massaged that hand as though she’d gotten a sudden cramp.
    They passed quickly out of the city and onto open highway, headed north along the coast, and Kira frowned.
    "Where’s Coral Isles?"
    "About twenty miles north of here. It’s a little town right on the water. You’ll like it. You can swim in the ocean just a few blocks from the house."
    Kira wasn’t as impressed by that as she thought Roseanne expected her to be. Swimming pools were okay. On those very rare occasions when the show had been in a town with a public facility her mother had taken her and taught her how to swim, but Kira had always harbored an instinctual fear of water that moved, or water where you might not be able to see what was under your feet, or where there might be things other than human beings swimming in it.
    A few miles farther along she heard a huffing noise and turned to look at a big, square black locomotive pacing the car. The engineer leaned on his elbow with a blue cap pulled back on his head, and when he noticed Kira he smiled and waved. She waved back, taking in the long line of boxcars behind the engine. As they approached a town ahead the train pulled to a siding and was left behind. A few miles farther they bumped across the tracks and into a subdivision lined with tiny, box-shaped houses with orange, Mexican-tiled roofs. Stubby