Read Dreams Underfoot: A Newford Collection for Free Online Page B

pulled free of him and looked towards the shore where the booger was struggling to its feet. The creature made rattling sounds deep in its throat as it started out for them again. It was hard, hard to do, but she let her hands fall free. The pain in her chest was a fire, the aching loss building to a crescendo. But she closed herself to it, closed her eyes, willed herself to stand relaxed.
    Instead of fighting, she remembered. Balloon Men spinning down the beach. Christy’s gnome, riding his pig along the pier. Bramley Dapple’s advice. Goon pinching Jilly Coppercorn’s leg. The thing that fed on eggs and eyeballs and, yes, Reece’s booger too. Uncle Dobbin and his parrots and Non Wert watching her magic fly free. And always the Balloon Men, tumbling end-over-end, across the beach, or down the alleyway behind her house ....
    And the pain eased. The ache loosened, faded.
    “Jesus,” she heard Reece say softly.
    She opened her eyes and looked to where he was looking. The booger had turned from the sea and was fleeing as a crowd of Balloon Men came bouncing down the shore, great round roly-poly shapes, turning end-over-end, laughing and giggling, a chorus of small deep voices. There was salt in her eyes and it wasn’t from the ocean’s brine. Her tears ran down her cheeks and she felt herself grinning like a fool.
    The Balloon Men chased Reece’s booger up one end of the beach and then back the other way until the creature finally made a stand.
    Howling, it waited for them to come, but before the first bouncing round shape reached it, the booger began to fade away.
    Ellen turned to Reece and knew he had tears in his own eyes, but the good feeling was too strong for him to do anything but grin right back at her. The booger had died with the last of his anger. She reached out a hand to him and he took it in one of his own. Joined so, they made their way to the shore where they were surrounded by riotous Balloon Men until the bouncing shapes finally faded and then there were just the two of them standing there.
    Ellen’s heart beat fast. When Reece let go her hand, she touched her chest and felt a stir of dark wings inside her, only they were settling in now, no longer striving to fly free. The wind came in from the ocean still, but it wasn’t the same wind that the Balloon Men rode.
    “I guess it’s not all bullshit,” Reece said softly.
    Ellen glanced at him.
    He smiled as he explained. “Helping each other—getting along instead of fighting. Feels kind of good, you know?”
    Ellen nodded. Her hand fell from her chest as the dark wings finally stilled.
    “Your friend’s story didn’t say anything about crows,” Reece said.
    “Maybe we’ve all got different birds inside—different magics.” She looked out across the waves to where the oil rigs lit the horizon.
    “There’s a flock of wild parrots up around Santa Ana,” Reece said.
    “I’ve heard there’s one up around San Pedro, too.”
    “Do you think ... ?” Reece began, but he let his words trail off. The waves came in and wet their feet.
    “I don’t know,” Ellen said. She looked over at her shredded clothes. “Come on. Let’s get back to my place and warm up.”
    Reece laid his jacket over her shoulders. He put on his T-shirt and jeans, then helped her gather up what was left of her belongings.
    “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he said, bundling up the torn blouse and skirt. He looked up to where she was standing over him. “But I couldn’t control the booger.”
    “Maybe we’re not supposed to.”
    “But something like the booger ...”
    She gave his Mohawk a friendly ruffle. “I think it just means that we’ve got to be careful about what kind of vibes we put out.”
    Reece grimaced at her use of the word, but he nodded.
    “It’s either that,” Ellen added, “or we let the magic fly free.”
    The same feathery stirring of wings that she felt moved in Reece. They both knew that that was something neither of them was