Three Quarters Dead

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Three Quarters Dead Page 12

by Richard Peck


  She breathed in. “Arpège? That’s a blast from the past,” she said, “and are those diamonds in your ears?”

  “What? Oh.” I reached up and took off the rhinestone earrings, which really didn’t go with anything. “No. They’re not real.”

  “You weren’t at your dad’s,” she said. But it wasn’t like she was accusing me.

  “No,” I said. “I was nowhere near him.”

  “He’s not that easy to get near,” she said with a small shrug. A coffee smell drifted out of our kitchen. Yes, she’d been up awhile.

  “Where were you an hour ago?” she said.

  An hour ago?

  Then I knew, to the very minute. That was when I was turning back from the lily pond, to . . . the hedge.

  “Why?” I said.

  “I was in bed,” my mom said. “I hadn’t slept, but an hour ago I knew I’d get you back.”

  “How?”

  She turned up her hands. “I’m your mother. Are you going to tell me about it?”

  “Yes,” I said, “when I’m an old woman and you’re a really old woman.”

  “I can wait.” She smiled a small smile. “We’ve got the time.”

  Then—right then, in my pocket—my phone rang. It rang and rang. I let it.

  About the Author

  Described by The Washington Post as “America’s best living author for young adults,” Richard Peck is the first children’s book writer ever to have been awarded a National Humanities Medal. His extensive list of honors includes the Newbery Medal (for A Year Down Yonder), a Newbery Honor (for A Long Way from Chicago), the Edgar Award (for Are You in the House Alone?), the Scott O’Dell Award (for The River Between Us), the Christopher Medal (for The Teacher’s Funeral), and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in young adult literature. He has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award. Mr. Peck lives in New York City.

  ALSO BY RICHARD PECK

  NOVELS FOR YOUNG ADULTS

  Amanda/Miranda

  Are You in the House Alone?

  Bel-Air Bambi and the Mall Rats

  Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death

  Close Enough to Touch

  Don’t Look and It Won’t Hurt

  The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp

  Dreamland Lake

  Fair Weather

  Father Figure

  The Ghost Belonged to Me

  Ghosts I Have Been

  The Great Interactive Dream Machine

  Here Lies the Librarian

  The Last Safe Place on Earth

  A Long Way from Chicago

  Lost in Cyberspace

  On the Wings of Heroes

  Princess Ashley

  Remembering the Good Times

  Representing Super Doll

  The River Between Us

  A Season of Gifts

  Secrets of the Shopping Mall

  Strays Like Us

  The Teacher’s Funeral

  Those Summer Girls I Never Met

  Through a Brief Darkness

  Unfinished Portrait of Jessica

  Voices After Midnight

  A Year Down Yonder

  NOVELS FOR ADULTS

  Amanda/Miranda

  London Holiday

  New York Time

  This Family of Women

  SHORT STORIES

  Past Perfect, Present Tense

  PICTURE BOOK

  Monster Night at Grandma’s House

  NONFICTION

  Anonymously Yours

  Invitations to the World

 

 

 


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