Shadow Girl Read Online Free Page A

around, but if he was, he let her stay up as long as she wanted on Friday and Saturday nights. If she’d been playing hard outside during the day, she usually got sleepy by eight o’clock.
    She wasn’t tired tonight, though. And she was still hungry. “Dad, can I have a brownie?”
    “Goddamn it! Are you going to eat everything?”
    “No! I won’t, I won’t. It’s just that I’m still kinda hungry.”
    “Hungry? After all I made for you? After all you ate? Goddamn it. Goddamn
you
!” He stormed into the kitchen.
    Jules thought about making a run for her room, but hiding wasn’t always the best thing to do when her dad wanted to yell at her. He’d get angry if she bolted, and he’d chase her, screaming and yelling outside her locked bedroom door, making her feel trapped. Sometimes if she just stayed put, shrinking herself down and pretending she wasn’t there, things would calm down.
    “Here!” He threw the cardboard package ofbrownies at her, hitting her on her cheek. “Eat them! Eat them all!” He thundered into the kitchen again and came back carrying the can of orange drink and the doughnuts. “Here, finish all this off, too!” He slammed the doughnuts and drink down on the floor in the middle of the living room and stomped back into the kitchen. “I work hard all day at a job I hate. Spend all my money on groceries, and she wants to eat everything in one night! All right! Okay! Then that’s what she’s gonna do. Here!” he roared as he brought out a bag of carrots, a package of bologna, a loaf of bread, eggs.
    He kept going back and forth from the kitchen to the living room, taking whatever he could find from the fridge and cupboards, and putting the food in the middle of the living room floor. “Go on. Eat it! Finish it all, like the goddamn pig you are! And when there’s nothing left, it ain’t gonna be my fault.”
    Jules bent her head down into her chest. Her dad never liked it if she looked straight at him when he was like this.
    He marched back to the kitchen. Jules knew what people meant when they said someone was larger than life. Her dad looked and acted like a giant, a giant on a rampage. He was banging the cupboard doors as he opened and closed them, screaming and grabbing more food.
    Time to escape
.
    Jules hadn’t seen him this crazy for a long time.
    What if he forces me to eat the food he’s piling up?
    That thought was terrifying. If she was fast enough, she could get upstairs before he noticed. If he followed her to her room, she could lock the door. She put the brownies on the sofa and ran.
    When she got to her room, Jules locked herself in and listened at the door. It was important to know what was going on, though, so she decided to open the door a few inches in order to hear him.
    When he realized she wasn’t there, the rampaging got worse. He threw dishes on the kitchen floor and against the walls. Smashing stuff was one of his favorite things to do when he got mad – or destroying something Jules cared about.
    “What does she expect? Goddamn kid! I’ve had it. I’m done!” Then she heard him dialing a number on the phone. His voice changed to the one he used for his friends. “Hey, Hank. Yeah, it’s me. Got anything going on tonight? Wanna go to the Izzy?”
    There was a silence as Hank answered.
    “Great! Get yourself over here and let’s do it. It’s Chrismus, for Chrissake. I wanna have some fun.”
    As her father listened to Hank, it felt as if the house itself were catching its breath.
    “Yeah? Perfect. I’m ready.” He slammed the receiver down.
    He’d once pulled the phone wire out of the wall and thrown the entire set across the living room. But then they couldn’t use the phone for a long time.
    “A goddamn leech, a bloody stinking leech, that’swhat she is!” His voice got louder, stronger, rising out of his chest like a lion’s roar. It could take over a room and squeeze out every other sound. “I’m stuck. Stuck in this stupid life! I