When the Wind Blows - James Patterson [72]
Amazingly, the growling and barking trailed off and then stopped completely. Suspicious sniffs followed. Then happy woofing as the dogs seemed to recognize Max.
“Don’t worry,” she said to us. “They’re my friends. Their bark’s much worse than their bite,” she grinned.
“Can we get over this fence anywhere?” I asked Kit.
He started to answer when Max interrupted.
“Frannie!” she was pulling at my arm. “There’s something wrong with Bandit and Gomer. Something is really wrong with the dogs! Please, come look at them.”
I moved closer but I didn’t need to examine Bandit and Gomer to see what had happened to them. Their black coats were dull. Their rib cages were standing out sharply, the skin stretched taut over the bones.
“They’re pretty hungry,” I said to Max.
It was an understatement. The dogs were suffering from malnutrition. Some cruel bastard was starving them.
Kit returned from a trip down the fence. “I couldn’t find a break or access point in the wire,” he said. “Maybe around the other way.”
“I think I can fly you both over,” Max said. It was such an unexpected statement, I nearly laughed.
“I know I can do it. I’m stronger than I look,” she insisted. She was dead serious.
“No way,” Kit told her. He was right. There was no way an eighty-pound little girl could lift an adult twice her weight against the pull of gravity.
“Yes, I can.” Max was firm. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I know what I’m capable of.”
I listened to Max and reconsidered. I wasn’t figuring in the stress factor. Stress produces adrenaline. And also, who knew what kind of strength Max actually did have?
“Let me try you first,” she said to me.
“I don’t think it’s a great idea, Max.”
She shrugged. “Fine. Then I’ll fly over by myself.”
I grabbed on to the chain link. I climbed a few feet and clung there. Then Max gripped me around my midsection with her strong legs. She was definitely powerful. God, this was the strangest thing.
Holding me from behind, Max’s wings almost could have been mine. She flapped hard, then we took off. Suddenly we were suspended in the air. Then we started upward.
I could feel a breeze rushing around me. It was cold up in these hills, and getting chillier by the minute. For a moment I forgot everything, so focused was I on the sensation of being airborne in this unusual manner. For just the briefest instant I could imagine that I had wings myself.
We lifted. We hovered for a second or two. And then we flew.
Not very far, but, dear God in heaven, I was definitely flying.
Chapter 76
MAX SET ME DOWN inside the fenced perimeter. I stared up at the grotesque and depressing rows of concertina wire. I gripped the fence, clawed the wire with my fingers, and waited for my heart to slow. I glanced around and Max was gone.
She was already back on the other side of the fence. She was straining to lift Kit. Her legs just barely encircled him. Her breathing was a stuttering whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. It didn’t seem possible that she could get him airborne, but I hadn’t believed she could lift me either.
I had no idea what she could tolerate, even for a few seconds. Her wings were displacing air, but she couldn’t seem to budge Kit up and over.
“Max, please stop. He’s too heavy for you,” I called to her. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
“No, he isn’t too heavy. I’m superstrong. You have no idea how strong I am, Frannie. I was made that way.”
On my side of the fence, the two dogs were edging up to me. Actually, they were a little too close for comfort. The female was cutting half circles in the dust, wheeling and dancing her anxiety. The male had small, runny eyes and was rooted to the ground about three feet away from me.
A warning rattled in his throat. His lips were peeled away from his gums, showing a pristine rack of teeth.
“Oh stop,” I told him. “Get a life.” Dogs that showed their teeth and growled, I could handle.
My eyes darted back to Max and Kit, where they were still balanced on the perimeter fence. She finally pulled away, leaving him holding