The Girl They Couldn’t See (Blind Spot #1) (Blind Spot Series) Read online

  The Girl They Couldn’t See

  (Blind Spot #1)

  By

  Laurence E Dahners

  Copyright 2016 Laurence E Dahners

  Kindle Edition

  Author’s Note

  This book is the first in the “Blind Spot” series

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue 1

  Prologue 2

  Prologue 3

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

  The End

  Author’s Afterword

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue 1

  Tansey finally shouted, “Roni! You get out here right now! Hide and seek is over.”

  The closet door creaked open and a blue eye peeked out.

  Tansey stared, “Where have you been?”

  “In the closet,” the little girl said uncertainly.

  “I looked in that closet! Twice!”

  “I was behind the coats,” Roni said in a small voice.

  How could that be? I moved the coats! Tansey thought. She sighed, “Well, you’re a good hider. But when we call out that the game’s over, you’ve got to come out right away. You scared us because we thought something might have happened to you.”

  Roni nodded, a finger caught between her lips.

  Prologue 2

  Hax walked fifty feet behind his older sister.

  He usually wished he could walk with Roni because… he wasn’t sure why he wanted to walk with her most days, but he did. Sometimes, when she’d made him mad, he didn’t even want to walk the same route, though that’d make Hax’s mother angry. She thought her children should walk home together.

  Hax did know why he wanted to walk with Roni today.

  He’d feel safer.

  Whatever he wanted though, he couldn’t actually walk with Roni; she didn’t want to be seen with a little kid. He’d asked her one day, when she wasn’t acting like she hated him, and she’d said he embarrassed her in front of her friends. He’d asked what he did that embarrassed her, thinking that he could stop doing whatever that was, but she’d just said boys his age were creepy. Then she’d messed his hair and said, “I love you, you little creep…” She looked away, then continued, “I just don’t want my friends to see us walking together.”

  Hax didn’t understand.

  But then there was a lot he didn’t understand.

  As Hax pondered this, his eyes unseeingly drifted back to the path in front of him. Suddenly someone stood directly in his way. His eyes jerked up.

  Vito!

  Vito smirked, “Forget you were supposed to meet me after school, creep?”

  Hax jerked back a step, then tried to stop himself from continuing to back away. He knew you shouldn’t let bullies know you were afraid. But, what if you were afraid? Putting up his hands Hax said, “I don’t want to fight Vito.”

  “Yeah? Well, you should have thought of that before you started smarting off, shouldn’t you?”

  “I… I just answered Ms. Ramos’ question.”

  “Yeah, booger. Like a suck up, you just answered her question… a sweet and nice little wise-ass answer.”

  Hax knew the real issue was that he’d answered the question when Vito couldn’t. Even though Hax usually didn’t recognize that something he’d said would make someone else angry, this time he’d understood what he’d done as soon as Vito’d turned to glare at him. But, by then it was too late to pretend he didn’t know the answer.

  Vito scowled, “And now you’re going to find out what happens to crapheads that try to show me up.” Vito’s hand lashed out. Hax tried to lift a hand to block the blow at the same time as he jerked back to avoid it, but he was far too slow. Vito’s fist connected with Hax’s cheek and nose.

  Stumbling clumsily backward, Hax fell with a cry. He put out a hand to catch himself, and his palm came down painfully on a sharp rock. Vito landed on his chest and Hax put up both hands to protect his face.

  A rain of blows started pounding down.

  Hax expected the beating to go on forever, but then, suddenly, Vito vanished.

  Looking up through tear-blurred eyes, Hax saw Roni bending over him, pale blue eyes filled with concern. Dimly aware that Vito was moaning off to the side, Hax heard Roni say, “You okay?”

  Thinking to himself that Roni had to know that he wasn’t okay, Hax nonetheless said, “Uh-huh.”

  Roni turned to Vito and said, “Hey, skizz, you leave my brother alone.” She tugged Hax’s hand to pull him up off the ground and started him back along the path with her. Hax gratefully walked beside her. Lowering her voice, she said, “You shouldn’t start fights. Especially with boys that are bigger than you.”

  “I didn’t…” Hax said.

  He wanted to explain what’d happened, but Roni strode ahead, saying, “Don’t get so far behind me this time.”

  And, with that, Hax found himself alone again. Embarrassed that his big sister had to save him. Grateful that she had. Wondering what was going to happen the next time he saw Vito.

  He didn’t think Vito would start their next fight when Roni was around. But he had little doubt there would be another run-in.

  When Hax got home he opened the door and stepped inside the family store. To his surprise, Roni was standing just inside waiting for him. She bent down and examined his face for a moment, reaching out to rub a finger gently along his cheekbone. “Mom and Dad are going to know you’ve been in a fight. Go wash your face with cold water and try to decide what you’re going to tell them.” She shook her head as she waved him toward the bathroom at the back of the store, “I think you’re going to have a black eye.”

  Hax had turned and started walking to the bathroom when Roni whispered after him, “Then try to sneak past Dad. I’ll bring some ice up to your room.”

  As Hax stepped into the bathroom he heard his dad, Ravinder, yelling at Roni for something, though he couldn’t make out what. Hax washed his face, using cold water like Roni had told him, even though he wasn’t quite sure why cold water would be better. In the mirror he could see the skin on his cheek was scraped. Hax’s eye, cheek, and nose were swollen, though he didn’t think it looked all that bad. He washed off the blood, the water stinging in the scrapes.

  His hand also stung as he washed. When Hax looked at it, he found a tear in the skin of his palm from the rock he’d landed on. He wondered if he could put a band-aid on it, but decided that asking for one would bring undue attention to his injuries. Maybe there’s a band-aid in the bathroom drawer upstairs?

  Hax made his way down the back aisle of the store, hoping to sneak into the stairwell without bumping into his father. He saw Roni’s eyes flick toward him; then she started toward the front of the store saying, “Poppa?”

  Hax didn’t stay to hear what she asked but had no doubt that she’d only asked it to turn their father’s eyes toward her and away from him. He sneaked around the corner and up into the stairwell without being seen, pondering the way that Roni could be mean one minute and sweet the next.

  Hax climbed the stairs, carefully stepping over the one that always squeaked but clumsily thumping onto the next one. He heard Ravinder start yelling at Roni again. Hax didn’t really understand why Ravinder almost always seemed to be angry at Roni but thought it had something to do with her blue eyes. Hax thought her startlingly blue eyes looked rea
lly cool against her dark skin, but they seemed to make Ravinder angry. While trying to figure out why Hax had googled the combination of dark skin and blue eyes. It was rare, but it did happen. In fact, apparently the early Europeans had had dark skin and blue eyes. Ravinder thought of himself as Indian, but Hax’s mother, Tansey, had said that he was partly European. Tansey was also a little bit European, but had African and Latino ancestors too. She liked to call their family “world-people.”

  Ravinder and Tansey, Hax’s mother, both had dark brown eyes even though their skin was lighter than Roni’s. Hax had tried to understand this weird dichotomy where his sister’s skin was darker than their parents, yet her eyes were much lighter. He didn’t understand why no one else in the family had blue eyes though.

  Hax found a band-aid in the drawer, but it didn’t stick very well to his palm and soon came off. He left it off, thinking that it would call unwanted attention to his injuries anyway.

  At dinner, when his parents asked what’d happened to his face, he claimed to have fallen down. This, after all, had the virtue of being true.

  His mother was sympathetic, but his father only shook his head, muttering, “So damned clumsy…” before turning back to the news.

  Hax knew he was clumsy. Hax’s poor showings in sports embarrassed his father. His mother always told Hax his awkwardness wasn’t his fault and that he’d grow out of it. After what Ravinder had said about Hax being clumsy, Tansey frowned for a moment, then eyed Hax, saying quietly, “I was clumsy when I was your age.”

  Hax had never thought of his mother as someone who might be particularly nimble or adept. She never did anything athletic and, if anyone had asked him, he would have said she never had. In response to her assertion he merely shrugged.

  With a grin, she said, “I’m pretty well coordinated now, though I suppose you’d have no reason to believe that.”

  Looking uncertainly at her, Hax shrugged again.

  There was a twinkle in her eye as she scooped up her flatware with her left hand. With three quick movements she launched her knife, fork, and spoon into the air and, to Hax’s complete disbelief, began to juggle them one-handed. She didn’t even seem to be watching them. Wide-eyed, Hax took a moment to confirm in his own mind that it really was her left hand and that he was certain she was right-handed. When his eyes drifted back to her face, he saw her grinning at his astonishment. She said, “Toss me your bowl.”

  “Huh?” Hax said, sounding stupefied even in his own ears. Surely she wouldn’t expect him to throw her a bowl while she was juggling?

  “Throw me your bowl,” she said, sounding mildly exasperated.

  “Um,” Hax picked up his empty bowl and held it out to her.

  She rolled her eyes, “Throw it!”

  “Um, I’m not a very good throw.”

  “Throw it.”

  Hax tossed the bowl, hoping to put it somewhere close to her right hand. As he’d feared, it flew too high and a little wide, but his mother’s hand shot up to grab it, somehow without disturbing the fountain of tableware leaping up from her left hand. With a flick of her wrist, she spun the bowl and caught it on the tip of a finger, still spinning.

  Hax’s eyes shot to his father, expecting to see astonishment on Ravinder’s face. Instead, Ravinder looked irritated. Seeing Hax looking at him, his father said dismissively, “Yes, your mother can perform party tricks.”

  Hax thought his father was jealous. His eyes went back to Tansey. She flipped the bowl, caught it, and held it out to him. Once he’d taken it, she caught her flatware and said with a shrug, “This ability runs in our family. Those of us who can do it are always clumsy when we’re young, so hopefully you’ve inherited it.” She lifted an eyebrow, “Now, it’s your turn to do the dishes.”

  As Hax stood to clear the table he thought that if that was going to happen to him, he surely wished it’d happen soon. Then he began wondering how his mother could have had this amazing ability, presumably all of his life, without his knowledge. He tried to recall any instance where she’d displayed some example of amazing dexterity and couldn’t. His mother didn’t play sports; she’d never juggled for a birthday party; she’d never fumbled anything and recovered with amazing grace.

  His thoughts came to an abrupt stop.

  She’d never fumbled anything…

  Try as he might he couldn’t remember her ever stumbling. She’d never dropped anything. She may not have displayed any amazing feats, but she never did anything awkwardly.

  In fact, she always did things… gracefully.

  That night, as Hax was brushing his teeth, Roni came in the bathroom and started braiding her hair. Thinking that he should thank her for saving him that afternoon, he pulled the toothbrush out of his mouth. Before he could say anything, Roni said, “Hurry up. I need the bathroom.”

  Hax put the toothbrush back in his mouth without saying anything, but inside he fumed. In a snit, he brushed his teeth much longer than he usually did. Eventually Roni glared at him and said, “You’re done!” Seeing the look in her eye, he quickly rinsed and danced out of the bathroom just ahead of the blow she’d aimed.

  As he tried to go to sleep, he thought to himself that he should have thanked her anyway. Then he resumed wondering anxiously what he was going to do the next time Vito came after him.

  Prologue 3

  Roni walked a little faster. She wished Hax was walking behind her like he used to. Now that she was in high school they didn’t walk the same path, but if he still walked home the same way he used to, their paths would converge in another block.

  Of course, the chances were small that he’d be walking home at the same time she was. And, even if he was, what would Hax be able to do?

  Roni glanced back over her shoulder. Nick was still there, walking along about twenty feet behind her.

  Grinning.

  He’d been twenty feet back when she’d sped up, but her increase in speed hadn’t resulted in any change in the distance between them.

  She regretted ever admiring Nick. He was two years ahead of her at the high school and… handsome. One day he’d noticed her looking at him and he’d come over to talk to her. Just talking to an upperclassman had made her chest tight. When he’d told her he thought she was pretty, she’d felt so good. He’d said he liked her combination of blue eyes and dark skin, the first time anyone had told her they looked good together.

  Roni’d hated her eye and skin color combination ever since she realized her father didn’t like them. At first she’d just thought he didn’t like blue eyes. As she’d taken more science recently, Roni’d wondered if her father just couldn’t overcome a deep-seated suspicion that Roni’s blue eyes might mean her mother’d been unfaithful.

  Roni glanced back again. Nick was still there. When she’d realized that Nick was Vito’s older brother, dismay had washed over her. Although she’d kept Vito from beating Hax that one time, Roni knew Vito’d thrashed Hax a lot of times after that fateful day. Never when Roni was around; Vito was too much of a weasel for that.

  Hax had never complained. Her little brother might be annoying, but whining about his lot in life had never been an issue. He made light of things instead, though Roni thought it was just his way of deflecting the pain. Roni had often wondered whether her intervention that one time had been the reason that Vito tortured her brother so much afterward.

  Now, with a sense of dread, she wondered whether Nick might simply be turning the feud between Vito and Hax into some kind of family vendetta. What if, all along, he’d been cruelly laughing at her infatuation rather than actually interested in her?

  At first Nick had been so nice, talking to her between classes and always saying something nice about how she looked. When she’d learned who his brother was, she’d initially felt surprised at how different they were.

  But then Nick had started asking her to go places with him after school.

  Even if her parents hadn’t expected her home to help in the store right after school, she sti
ll wouldn’t have wanted to go alone somewhere with an older boy. At first she’d thought Nick meant for them to go somewhere with a group of other kids, but when she’d asked he’d said, “No, just you and me.” He’d leaned close to whisper near her ear, “If we’re by ourselves we can get to know each other better.”

  Roni’d had a bad feeling about what he meant when he said “get to know.” She’d told him how she had to work in the store, but he hadn’t accepted her explanations. She’d made excuses time after time and eventually Nick had started acting angry. He’d started trying to kiss her in various little corners of the school even though she didn’t want him to, especially in public.

  Eventually she’d started dreading the next time she’d see him. She’d started avoiding places he frequented. But today, when she’d left the school, he’d been standing there as she walked by. She’d waved to him as if nothing was wrong, smiling and saying hello, but he’d said nothing in return. Then after she’d been walking for a while, she’d gotten a creepy, foreboding feeling.

  When she’d looked back, he’d been behind her.

  Twenty feet behind her, just like he was now.

  Roni felt an itch between her shoulder blades and resisted the impulse to run. She didn’t know why she thought she shouldn’t run. Not showing fear to a bully? Knowing that predators attack the weak?

  She thought about the route ahead. At present they were walking on a wide residential street. No one was visible, but you at least had the feeling that citizens’ eyes watched through the windows of the neighboring houses. It felt safer there.

  At the next corner she’d merge into the route she and Hax had followed on their way home from school before she’d moved up the high school. She thought, But the chance that Hax will come along at just this moment is slim, and he couldn’t help if he did. I’ve got to figure out how to deal with Nick myself.