risk he was taking. Or else it might simply have been stubbornness. Everybody knew that Stormy Arigotti was major-league stubborn, so that probably was a big part of it. But then again, maybe it had something to do with—guts? With the fact that, along with being stubborn and reckless, Stormy Arigotti was also a pretty gutsy kid.
For some reason it was kind of an intriguing idea. So intriguing, in fact, that for a moment Dani actually thought about telling Stormy what she’d been thinking. But the more she thought about it, the harder it got to come up with the right words. In the end she didn’t tell him anything, but she did surprise herself by going in to ask Linda if Stormy could stay for dinner.
Linda said, “Certainly,” which wasn’t much of a surprise since she was always worrying about Stormy’s Beer Nuts and pretzel diet. And Stormy said, “Wow, would I!” which was no surprise at all.
Chapter 8
T HE NIGHT AFTER THE lemonade disaster Dani was awakened twice by horribly realistic nightmares. The first one was a lot like a dream she’d had before. A dream in which she was minding her own business when suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder and whirled her around to face a man wearing an oily denim jacket and a Gila monster’s head. The second dream started out just about the same but this time the strange creature had the body of a Gila monster—fat, scaly body, clawed hands and feet—and the head of Ronnie Grabler. It was a pretty awful combination.
What with the lemonade fiasco and the nightmares, Dani had completely forgotten about the possibility of getting an allowance when some very peculiar things started happening. The first strange event was when she looked out her front window just in time to see the geologists’ weird car heading into town on Silver Avenue. And the next day, there it was again, this time going out toward the ranch. And then on Monday, Linda came home from the bookstore with amazing news. The Smithsons had definitely decided to lease the ranch for six months if they could wire the house and hook it up to a generator. And they really were willing to pay seventy-five dollars a month.
Dani couldn’t believe it. She had been so sure that the whole thing had been just another one of Linda’s “happily ever after” pipe dreams. But now it looked as if it was really going to happen. By the middle of the next week Linda had signed a lease contract and picked up her first seventy-five-dollar check. It was great to get all that extra money but, as it turned out, Dani didn’t get any of it. There were, it seemed, too many overdue bills to be taken care of first. But her mother did say, “I really do think someone your age should have an allowance, if it’s at all possible. So we’ll see what we can do next month.”
Not till next month. Dani had stomped away angrily and later she told Stormy, “Next month will be too late. I’ve—We’ve got to get started a long time before that. Even if she’d let me have a huge allowance, like a couple of dollars a week, I won’t—I mean we won’t—have enough money for the bus tickets until way past the middle of summer.” At least not enough for two tickets, she added silently. Out loud she only said, “I wanted to get started right away, like before school gets out. I said I was going to leave right away, and I meant it.”
She had meant it, and she still did. That day in the graveyard when she’d yelled at the sky, she’d definitely meant to start off immediately. Like in a day or two. And at that moment she hadn’t felt frightened at all—only fiercely determined. But somehow putting it off had made the whole thing seem less like a real possibility, and also a lot more dangerous. As if, now that the desert had been warned, it would have time to think up ways to stop her. And the longer she had to wait the more time she spent thinking of things that might go wrong.
On the other hand, she had to admit that it might be
For some reason it was kind of an intriguing idea. So intriguing, in fact, that for a moment Dani actually thought about telling Stormy what she’d been thinking. But the more she thought about it, the harder it got to come up with the right words. In the end she didn’t tell him anything, but she did surprise herself by going in to ask Linda if Stormy could stay for dinner.
Linda said, “Certainly,” which wasn’t much of a surprise since she was always worrying about Stormy’s Beer Nuts and pretzel diet. And Stormy said, “Wow, would I!” which was no surprise at all.
Chapter 8
T HE NIGHT AFTER THE lemonade disaster Dani was awakened twice by horribly realistic nightmares. The first one was a lot like a dream she’d had before. A dream in which she was minding her own business when suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder and whirled her around to face a man wearing an oily denim jacket and a Gila monster’s head. The second dream started out just about the same but this time the strange creature had the body of a Gila monster—fat, scaly body, clawed hands and feet—and the head of Ronnie Grabler. It was a pretty awful combination.
What with the lemonade fiasco and the nightmares, Dani had completely forgotten about the possibility of getting an allowance when some very peculiar things started happening. The first strange event was when she looked out her front window just in time to see the geologists’ weird car heading into town on Silver Avenue. And the next day, there it was again, this time going out toward the ranch. And then on Monday, Linda came home from the bookstore with amazing news. The Smithsons had definitely decided to lease the ranch for six months if they could wire the house and hook it up to a generator. And they really were willing to pay seventy-five dollars a month.
Dani couldn’t believe it. She had been so sure that the whole thing had been just another one of Linda’s “happily ever after” pipe dreams. But now it looked as if it was really going to happen. By the middle of the next week Linda had signed a lease contract and picked up her first seventy-five-dollar check. It was great to get all that extra money but, as it turned out, Dani didn’t get any of it. There were, it seemed, too many overdue bills to be taken care of first. But her mother did say, “I really do think someone your age should have an allowance, if it’s at all possible. So we’ll see what we can do next month.”
Not till next month. Dani had stomped away angrily and later she told Stormy, “Next month will be too late. I’ve—We’ve got to get started a long time before that. Even if she’d let me have a huge allowance, like a couple of dollars a week, I won’t—I mean we won’t—have enough money for the bus tickets until way past the middle of summer.” At least not enough for two tickets, she added silently. Out loud she only said, “I wanted to get started right away, like before school gets out. I said I was going to leave right away, and I meant it.”
She had meant it, and she still did. That day in the graveyard when she’d yelled at the sky, she’d definitely meant to start off immediately. Like in a day or two. And at that moment she hadn’t felt frightened at all—only fiercely determined. But somehow putting it off had made the whole thing seem less like a real possibility, and also a lot more dangerous. As if, now that the desert had been warned, it would have time to think up ways to stop her. And the longer she had to wait the more time she spent thinking of things that might go wrong.
On the other hand, she had to admit that it might be
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