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

“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
.

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
…
”