Weekend - By Christopher Pike Page 0,44

thumb where she had cracked her nail while hiking. When she had not returned an hour after sunset, he'd been worried. A minute more and he would have gone looking for her himself. The walk had been uneventful, she had said.

"She's been sleeping a while, now. She said that she was feeling a bit better."

"Good. Lena wanted me to tell you that dinner's ready."

His stomach groaned at the mention of food. "I'm not that hungry."

Shani pulled up a chair, and tucked in Robin's quilt. "Poor dear," she said softly. "I'm in no hurry to eat, myself."

"How are you feeling?"

She hesitated. "Not great. I guess I keep waiting for Bert to walk through the front door, laughing."

He felt the same way. "He won't be doing that."

"I know. I'm sorry about not being at Kerry's prayer reading. Maybe after dinner, we could read some more."

"If you want."

Shani sighed, glancing at the covered window. "It's raining hard. I usually like the rain."

"It's like a hurricane. Generally, they don't get any of those down here until late summer. Sol and I had to hustle to patch up the windows the blast kicked in. Of course, we had Lena prodding us with a whip."

Lightning flashed: one... two... three... Thunder bombed. Shani shivered, holding her right hand to her chest. "My finger hurts."

"Are you going to lose the nail?"

"I already did."

"Ouch. I'm glad Flynn went out looking for you."

"I didn't need his help."

"Do I note a trace of hostility? I thought you liked him."

"I don't know him."

He wondered what she would have thought if she knew Flynn carried a gun. "You knew him less before this weekend. And you liked him then."

"You're not my shrink."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know it was a touchy subject."

"Everything's touchy to me right now." She glanced over her shoulder, seemingly coming to a decision.

"Park, of all those in the house right now, who do you trust the least?"

"Myself."

"I'm serious."

"Are you referring to the party?"

"Yes."

"It was an accident."

"You don't believe that."

"I do. But then, I believe there are accidents, and there areaccidents ."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not quite sure. But the police looked for the guilty, and the innocent. Maybe the truth of the matter wasn't so black and white."

"Someone either put the insecticide in the glass intentionally or accidentally. Where's the in-between?"

"I remember a programme I saw on TV about Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome.

He drew a square on the chalkboard and asked the audience what they saw. Naturally, everyone said a square. But then he asked, "What about the space outside the square?" His point being, of course, that we are conditioned to automatically focus on the boundaries in life. So when you say Robin was either poisoned accidentally or intentionally, don't be so sure."

"Nice lecture, Professor. What do you see outside this square?"

The rest of the chalkboard, he thought, was a dark board thick with plots and fears, where all of them stumbled unknowingly against each other. "Nothing," he said. "Let's go and eat."

Shani stopped him. "Wait, I want to read the rest of Robin's story. It's in that desk."

"But she said there was no more." From having overheard her comment to the blackbird, he knew that wasn't entirely true.

"I want to see."

"Why? It may be private to her."

"Because I saw the old man while I was out." She checked to be sure Robin was still asleep. "He's not like us. Hedoes know things."

"What did he tell you?"

"Nothing. You know I don't speak Spanish."

"Then how do you know what he knows? Did he perform a miracle for you?"

"No. But I could sense his uniqueness. He's like a holy man. I don't think his story is frivolous."

He decided it couldn't hurt. "Okay, let's give it a look."

They moved to the desk. Shani found the manila envelope in the second drawer on the right. She pulled out three notebook pages, covered with Robin's neat printing. Park leaned over her shoulder as she flipped to the last page and began to read softly:

"Suddenly, Eagle appeared, landing between them. Eagle was very powerful and could easily kill Snake.

But when he went to try, Snake tightened his grip on Dove and said, 'If you come closer, I will bite Dove. Kill Raven for me, and leave her body, and I will give you Dove.'"

"Eagle turned to Raven, and Raven grew frightened. She said, 'Dove and I are friends. She would not wish for you to kill me.'"

"But Snake said, 'If Raven was Dove's friend, why did she bring her here for