Moonpenny Island Read Online Free Page B

her T-shirt down for the gazillionth time. “I bet Daddy bribed them. He probably said he’d make a big donation or something.”
    A few years ago, some summer people tried to prove that Pinch Paving and Stone was polluting the water supply. They had samples from a lab that proved it. But Mr. Pinch brought in his own certified crew of experts, who produced their own samples. The water quality was excellent, they said. Before you knew it, that was that. Mayor Pinch pretty much got his way in the world.
    At last Sylvie meets Flor’s eyes. “How could I tell you? Telling you would mean it’s really going to happen.”
    â€œIt’s not! It can’t!”
    Flor pulls Sylvie to her feet. They both windmill their arms around. The faded, ghostly horses on their matching shirts leap up and down.
    â€œYou’re not going! It’s not fair! It’s unjust! You have to tell them no. You refuse. No! You will not go. No!”
    â€œOh, Flor! You think I didn’t already try that?Like over and over?”
    But the way Sylvie says this gives Flor another knock. Right in the same place, where she already has a bruise from the first one. And when she tries to look her best friend in the eye again, Sylvie’s arms fall to her side. Her ponytail droops. She takes off her purple glasses and turns away, pretending to clean them with the hem of her too-small shirt.
    â€œIf you go, I’ll be the whole entire sixth grade,” says Flor.
    â€œI know. I’m sorry.”
    â€œI’ll be all alone with Joe Hawkins and Mary Long, who all she can ever talk about is her disgusting allergies.”
    â€œFlor. I can’t help it.”
    â€œI’ll be so alone, I might as well jump in the swim hole and drown myself right now.”
    Sylvie doesn’t speak. Flor reads her mind, right through the back of her blond head. This isn’t just about you, Flor O’Dell .
    That makes Flor feel rotten. Rotten to the core. She picks up the biggest rock in sight and hurls it into the water.
    â€œIt’s all your brother’s fault.” Another rock, another and another. She’s a rock-hurling machine. “If he wasn’t a stupid mess-up who crashed his stupid car because he’s so stupid, this never would have happened!”
    Even as Flor spits out the words, she knows they’re not really fair. But they feel good. She hurls another rock. Like the world is fair! Out of breath, she waits for Sylvie to stick up for her beloved brother. Flor is dying to argue, dying to yell her head right off her shoulders.
    Instead Sylvie just slips her glasses back on and crosses the road to her house. The house of the almighty, the royal Pinches, where all the curtains are pulled and nothing stirs. Head down, one purple high-top in front of the other, she climbs the steeply sloped, perfectly groomed lawn and opens the front door. Flor can feel in her own bruised chest the soft click that door makes as it closes.

Chapter Four
    U sually the Pinches travel to and from the mainland in their private plane. But not today. Their car on the two-o’clock ferry, that’s how Sylvie’s leaving for school.
    There’s so much stuff, she and Flor can’t both fit in the packed car. Mr. Pinch drives it to the ferry landing while the two of them follow on their bikes. Slowly. Glaciers would be like race cars next to them.
    Since they knew for positive Sylvie was going, they’ve had a million sleepovers at Flor’s, and two million picnics at their secret spot on the back shore,and three million bike rides on their valiant, spirited steeds, but so what. They still can’t believe it.
    The Patricia Irene plows the bay, looming bigger by the second. Mr. Pinch paces beside his brand-new car, replacement for the one Perry Junior wrecked. Sylvie’s father is the kind of man you feel you should salute. He wears hard, shiny shoes at all times, and his forehead is so immense, he