Read Daylight Saving for Free Online Page B

bruise by her eye had got
darker
since yesterday. It had gone from greenish yellow to violet. Had someone hit her in
exactly
the same place? I looked down at the marks on her upper leg that I had taken for a rash; they were a deeper red now and shining, each dash longer. She pulled the hem of her hoodie down over the marks, and I looked up at her.
    “Lexi, your eye has got worse, and —”
    “Daniel. You have to be very careful when you talk to a girl about her appearance. You know, for the sake of politeness.”
    “Your watch. Why does it tick backward?”
    “It’s broken,” she said, piercing a fish with a carved wooden fork.
    “So why are you wearing it? Anyway, when a digital watch breaks, it doesn’t go bloody
backward.
”
    “Daniel,” she said, and paused. “It’s lonely out here. I like you. You’ve got good mindsight, and you’re a sensitive boy. But if we’re going to be friends, there are certain questions you’re going to have to swallow,” she said.
    “But —”
    “Don’t let your fish get cold.”
    She passed me one of her wooden forks, and I stuck it in. The fish was delicious. Smoky and tender. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. Lexi was pushing her food around the plate, mashing up the fish. “Aren’t you going to eat?” I asked.
    “I don’t need to eat, as it happens,” she said.
    Oh, she’s one of
those
types,
I thought. Although her legs and arms were powerful and athletic. But she picked up a big flake of fish and dropped it into her mouth.
    “I eat for pleasure,” she said. “And for comfort.”
    I smiled.
    “Do you know what the bravest thing you could do as a Crow warrior was?” she said.
    “Scalp someone?”
    “No. It was something called a coup. You had to walk up to your enemy, touch him on the shoulder with a stick, and then run away. Now, that’s brave. Not a deadly weapon in sight. Sheer audacity! I can’t see any of your PlayStation warriors doing
that.
”
    Neither could I.
    “You wore an eagle feather in your hair for each coup you did. If you were injured in the attempt, you had to paint the feather red, which wasn’t considered as good.”
    I nodded. “Well. They certainly cooked very tasty food,” I said.
    “Fish with corn on the cob is my favorite. My mum let me have it every year on my birthday, which might not sound like a big deal, but it is when you were born on Christmas Day.”
    “You were born on Christmas Day?”
    “Yep. We never had turkey in our house.”
    “Where is your house? Are your parents here at the park?”
    “Questions, questions. Let’s talk about you instead. Was that your dad getting smashed in the pancake place the other night?”
    “If you don’t have to answer questions, neither do I,” I said.
    “OK,” she said. Beads of water hung from the strands of her hair and shimmered in the light. It seemed that every time I looked at her face, I noticed another little scrape or bruise. A couple of bloody dots by her temple, a cut at the edge of her mouth.
    “Yes. It was my dad,” I said, suddenly desperate to talk. “My mum left in September, and since then he’s been a lunatic. It’s embarrassing. If he isn’t drinking, he’s kicking something. If he isn’t doing that, he’s weeping over his bloody tomato plant.”
    “Tomato plant, eh? A love substitute.”
    “Yeah. And now he thinks this stupid holiday is a good idea. He thinks ‘time away’ is going to help. But it’s not time away if we’re both here, is it? I’m
his
problem, and he’s
mine.
So we’re just moving our problems somewhere else. Somewhere with no Wi-Fi.”
    Lexi chewed her fish thoughtfully. “What sports are you good at?” she asked.
    “I can juggle,” I said.
    “Not really a sport, Daniel. What sports do you
like,
then?”
    “I don’t like any!” I said.
    “Wow. This is the
wrong
place for you, then, isn’t it?”
    “I know.”
    She smiled. “Come with me,” she said.
    She slipped into a denim skirt, and we walked