Read Online Shadowmaker by Joan Lowery Nixon - Free Book Online

been cleared for a proposed mall that had never taken shape. The faded and torn billboard, erected near the road, still offered space for rent. Around it pickup trucks and cars were parked wherever they could squeeze in, and beyondthem crowds of people swarmed under the colored lights and balloons. I parked in the only spot I could find, way down the road, and Lana Jean and I walked back to the carnival.
    I should say,
I
walked. Lana Jean was so high on excitement that she was all over the place, like a little kid going to see Santa Claus.
    As we reached the fringes of the carnival, some kids from school spotted her and stared hard. One even waved, but Lana Jean didn’t notice. She was busy looking for Travis, and nothing else mattered.
    Floating over the din of raised voices and tinny music, came the spicy fragrances of hot dogs and pizza. My stomach growled, and I realized how hungry I was. “Let’s get something to eat,” I shouted.
    “Not yet,” Lana Jean yelled over her shoulder. “I have to find Travis first. Come on!” To make sure I’d stick with her, she grabbed my wrist and tugged me in her wake.
    In front of a ring-toss booth she stopped so abruptly I plowed into her, nearly losing my balance. She pulled my face close to hers and whispered, “There he is!”
    Ahead of us, at a shooting gallery, stood Travis, rifle in hand, a confident leader of the pack surrounded by his friends, including my least favorite person, B.J. Behind his cloud of cigarette smoke I recognized Duke Macon, a tall, hefty, dark-haired guy who was repeating history along with Delmar Johnson. Delmar was a quiet guy who sat in the back row, slumped so far down that he rested on the back of his neck, and never got an answer right when he was called on. The three of them were egging Travis on,daring him to beat their scores, stopping only when he raised the rifle and fired.
    Someone bumped into me, and I tried to edge out of the main path. “Okay, we’ve seen him,” I said. “Now what?”
    Lana Jean turned to look at me with wide eyes. “Well, now it’s time for
him
to see
me
,” she said. “He’ll be through shooting in a minute, and we’ll walk past him and say hi.”
    I had to think fast. I was not going to walk past that group of guys with B.J. and say
anything.
“It won’t work if I’m with you,” I said.
    “Why not?”
    “Then they’d have to talk to both of us. You want Travis to see only you.”
    “He’d see me,” she said, but there was a question in her voice, and I jumped to answer it.
    “But not as much, if he had to talk to me too.”
    Lana Jean took a long breath and let it out in a sigh. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll go alone, but where will you be?”
    “Right here,” I said. “I’ll wait for you.”
    “Promise?”
    “Promise.”
    “What’ll I say?”
    “What you told me you’d say. Say
hi
to him.”
    “That’s all?”
    “Unless he says something to you. Then you can stand there and talk for a few minutes.”
    Lana Jean straightened her shoulders and, as though there were only two people at this carnival, walked as gracefully as she could right through the crowd that elbowedand pushed around her, until she reached Travis’s cluster of friends.
    He was just handing the rifle to one of the other guys with him when Lana Jean stepped up and spoke.
    Travis looked down at her with a kind of puzzled look and said something. I hoped he was telling her she looked great, but I doubted it.
    “Hi, Katie,” someone said behind my back, and I whirled around. Tammy went on. “I saw you come in with Lana Jean. You made her look good. It was you, wasn’t it?”
    I just nodded.
    “I recognized your blue blouse.”
    “Where’s Julie?” I asked. “Wasn’t she coming with you?”
    Tammy smiled and said, “She’s here, and so are some other friends you haven’t met yet. Want to join us and get something to eat?”
    My stomach rumbled, and I giggled. “Sure,” I said, but then I remembered my