Read Gravity Brings Me Down for Free Online

Is he totally insane? The answer is a definite YES. Normal people don’t spend their Saturdays stalking people. I draw the blinds so he won’t have a show while I’m changing. I check my alarm clock. It’s 11:25. I can’t believe I slept that long. I’m supposed to meet Sharon for my photo shoot at the cemetery at 2:30.
    I’m about to undress when Peggy bursts into my room, demanding to know the whereabouts of her stupid lucky cheerleading T-shirt—
    “
You
know, the shirt I won at the Total Motion Summer Games last year … the pink one with the sparkly red stars on the front?”

    I just ignore her until she leaves in a huff, slamming the door. If her shirt were in my room it would glow like phosphorus and spontaneously combust because all I ever wear is black … and the occasional vintage purple nylon.
    I’m digging through my closet for something to wear when Miss Marple pops into my head again. A girl can’t get any peace around here. Throwing on Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” I crank the volume on my stereo until my bedroom walls vibrate and Dad bangs on the door, yelling.
    “Hey, Ozzy Osbourne! Keep it to a dull roar!”
    Clearly, he has no idea what it’s like to be tormented by lonely old women.
    I decide to wear my medieval frock with the long sleeves and my black peasant skirt. I get dressed, then grab a bowl of cereal and write in my journal until it’s time to go.
    It takes about twenty minutes to walk to the cemetery. Sharon’s waiting for me with her camera. She points to a decrepit tomb.
    “Lie on that slab there.”
    I lie down and she begins arranging my sleeves and skirt.
    “Turn your head more to the right.” She pulls out a single red rose and places it in my hands. “Okay, that’s good. Now look dead.”
    I try to clear my mind and get into the mood but it’s no use. Miss Marple won’t leave me alone. I’m starting to get seriously frustrated.
    Sharon sighs. “Stop scrunching up your face.”
    Okay, I’ll admit I feel guilty. Why, I don’t know. It’s not like Miss Marple’s my mother or anything. She’s got five kids of her own. Why don’t
they
go visit her? It’s sad that she has to recruit strangers on the street just to have someone to talk to. And here I am, worried she’s going to get hit by a car or die of loneliness while her own kids run around shopping at L.L. Bean.
    “That’s a wrap,” Sharon says.
    The word “wrap” makes me think of the chicken chunks at the Tip and suddenly I feel sick again. I’m so doomed. Sharon packs up her things.
    “Where do you want to print the pictures?”
    “My place.”
    We’re cutting through the square when I notice Miss Marple sitting by herself on a bench in front of the bank. How is it that I never noticed her before and now I’m seeing her everywhere? It suddenly dawns on me that she might be a ghost haunting me for past offences, but then Sharon notices her too.
    “Isn’t that the old lady who nearly got creamed on the road yesterday?”
    I walk faster, flitting from sidewalk tree to sidewalk tree, hoping Miss Marple won’t see me.
    Sharon gives me a look. “What’re you doing? You’re acting so weird.”
    “Oh, uh, nothing.”
    We manage to make it past, undetected. But while I may have outsmarted Miss Marple there’s no shaking Tod. He’s waiting on the corner of my street. I’ve told him a million times not to approach me in public. Despite this, he pulls a fast one, cruising up on his moped.
    “Hi, Sharon,” he says, as though we’re all good friends.
    Sharon sneers like she’s stepped in a fresh dog pile.
    “Hey, Sioux, do you want to go to the movies tonight?” he asks me.
    I walk away like I can’t hear him.
    He follows, forcing my hand.
    “What about tomorrow night?”
    I lower my voice to a whisper. “Look, get lost, okay?”
    “The night after.”
    “Never, Tod. Get it?”
    “Okay.”
    “Don’t follow me.”
    “All right.”
    If I had a ray gun, Tod would be a smouldering mound