The Boxer and the Spy Read online

Abby didn’t answer for a while. She watched the sailboats and felt the clean air from the ocean as she breathed.

  Then she said, “No, we’re not.”

  “So?” Terry said. “How come we’re not like everybody else?”

  Again Abby watched the ocean rolling out in front of her, out of the harbor, and across the Atlantic, and eventually lapping at the coast of Spain or someplace.

  Finally she said, “We have each other.”

  Terry felt for a moment as if he were short of breath. We have each other. He breathed in the salt air until he felt calmer.

  “We’re fifteen,” he said. “And we found each other already? Is that possible? Can you find somebody at fifteen?”

  “Yes.”

  “And spend your life with them?” Terry said.

  “Yes.”

  “And you know that, at fifteen?”

  “Don’t you?” Abby said.

  “Yes,” he said. “What about the boxing? You sounded like that was a problem.”

  “George made me understand,” Abby said.

  “By what he said about anger?”

  “A little bit,” Abby said. “But mostly by what he is.”

  “George boxed all his life,” Terry said. “Did you see him take out Old Man Bullard?”

  “And George is a good man,” Abby said.

  “Yes,” Terry said.

  “The best I ever met,” Abby said.

  “So if I grow up to be like George, we’ll be fine?”

  “Very fine,” Abby said.

  A herring gull swung down and landed near them on the rocks and looked for food. It found none. It looked at Terry and Abby. There was nothing there for it either. It turned and flew away.

  “So,” Terry said as they watched the bird fly off, “if we’re going to be together, do you think you might get a butterfly tattoo on your butt?”

  She smiled at him and put out her hand. He took it. They looked at each other.

  Then Abby said, “How do you know I don’t already?”

  Praise for Robert B. Parker’s EDENVILLE OWLS

  “The poignant, well-articulated coming-of-age moments deepen the heart-pounding suspense.... Exciting!”

  —Booklist

  “Compelling.”—Kirkus Reviews

  “A thought-provoking mystery.”—School Library Journal

  Robert B. Parker, recipient of the Grand Master Edgar Award, is a pillar of American detective fiction. He is the author of more than fifty books for adults, including the New York Times bestselling Spenser and Jesse Stone novels. The Boxer and the Spy is his second book for young readers.

  A lifelong resident of Massachusetts, he and his wife, Joan, currently live in Cambridge, where Mr. Parker has on more than one occasion stepped into the boxing ring—but just for the fun of it.