Read More Than an Echo (Echo Branson Series) for Free Online Page A

made my way through the airport, I found a kid standing at the baggage claim with a sign that read Echo Branson. I nearly walked by, my name not seared into my life yet, but he caught my eye and stopped me in my tracks. I had a headache from the emotions from a plane full of people, so I wasn’t thinking clearly. Sleep was my savior and had been the only thing that kept me from hearing the feelings crashing against my brain.
    “Echo?” the boy asked.
    He was the blackest boy I had ever seen, and I had seen a lot . His skin was so dark, it had a purple tinge to it. He was wearing black shorts, black Nike high-tops and a red T-shirt that said something about Alligator Adventures. He looked all of twelve.
    “Oh. Yes. I’m sorry. That is me.”
    He grinned with teeth whiter than white. “I know. Come.”
    We got into a silver Towncar waiting for us at the curb. The air was hot and humid and felt like it clung to me.
    “I’m Jacob,” the boy said, extending his hand.
    I shook it. “Where’s Melika?”
    “Oh, she hardly ever comes to town.”
    “Town? Where does she live? Big George said she lives in New Orleans.”
    Jacob kept grinning. “She does. She lives down in the Bayou.”
    “The what?”
    Jacob groaned. “Ah, man. You don’t know what the Bayou is?”
    “No. Do you know what the Tenderloin is?”
    “Uh...no.”
    “Then we’re even.”
    Jacob sighed and shook his head. “George shoulda warned you. I mean...the Bayou is...well...it’s not like any place on earth. You’ll see.”
    We drove in silence through streets lined with homes that rivaled the Victorians in San Francisco. People of every description were everywhere on the streets and many of the areas reminded me of San Francisco, only older. I mean, this place was old . You could smell old heat in the air. It was if I had been transported back in time, and I was mesmerized by the vivid colors of everything from the homes to the clothes people wore. What a charming and wild little place this was. I loved it immediately.
    “Pretty cool, eh?”
    I nodded, looking out the window. People here were into things like voodoo and palm reading, not to mention food, food, and more food. I’d never seen so many restaurants. There was a restaurant every other building, and each was packed.
    “Melika wanted you to see it because she said it would be a long time before you’d see it again. You have a lot of work to do and the city distracts from all that work. In the Bayou, there aren’t nearly as many folks around to bother the process.”
    “The process?”
    “That’s what we call it.”
    “We?”
    “You’ll stay in the Bayou with Melika and the rest of us while she teaches you what you need to know.” He shook his head. “Man, Big George musta had to get you outta there fast. Normally people come with a better idea of what we’re about.”
    I nodded and leaned back. His somber tone reminded me this wasn’t a vacation. I was here to learn how to live. “How come I don’t feel any emotions from you? Ever since…well, for a while now, I’ve been picking up everything everyone around me is feeling.”
    “I’m blocking. It’s a wall I’ve constructed to keep you from reading me. Melika will show you how, too.”
    Sighing, I watched the landscape go by. This was my new life, my new beginning, and I was already realizing that I couldn’t have been more out of my element if I’d been on the moon.
    “Don’t worry if you’re feeling overwhelmed. We all felt that way when we first got here.”
    Watching a new world fly past, I thought about my last couple of days at the hospital. They had been pure torture, and I understood, all too clearly, why that poor drooling girl had cracked. I couldn’t get away from the emotional pounding of anyone who came near me. It was as if every one of them was screaming into my brain at the same time. As a result, I stayed in my room, seeing only Big George, and occasionally Celeste, but even then I could only