A Glimpse of the Dream Read Online Free Page A

brought life back into this old place.
    “Rebecca leaving took me completely by surprise, because she adored Kane. But she had been a rolling stone in her youth. She had dreams of leaving this town and making a name for herself. I’d thought she had moved past that, but clearly I was wrong. I didn’t know her as well as Mrs. Marks had, though I always had the sense that Rebecca’s decision to leave surprised even her.”
    I heard the anger and censure in his tone, and I had to agree. Leaving your child was wrong.
    “And now you’re here. I’m sorry for the circumstances that brought you to us, but I love watching as you and Kane take up where Mrs. Marks and I left off.”
    Touched, I couldn’t form any words in reply, so I offered a weak smile and took a sip of my tea.

    “Kane Doyle, that’s it, you creep. I am getting you back. That is the last toad you will be putting in my bed.” I heard him laughing, even though I didn’t know where he was hiding in the massive house. I had been living at Raven’s Peak for seven months and for four of those I had found toads in my bed, usually in the early evening when I liked to come to my room and read before dinner. I had named all of them—I was up to Kane 102.
    I really didn’t mind the toads, and I didn’t think Kane was a creep for doing it either. I didn’t know how I would have gotten through those months without him. He had the uncanny ability to know when I wasn’t happy, when a memory of my parents came out of nowhere. He was always there at my side. Most times he did no more than offer a shoulder, but he was always there.
    Even still, I had to get him back for the toads. In the four months since he started with his gross joke, I’d attempted to get even with him: spraying all his clothes with perfume and adding hot sauce to the ketchup, knowing how much he loved that on his fries, but my efforts didn’t deter him. It was time to kick it up. Running to the kitchen, I saw Mrs. T behind the stove creating something wonderful as usual. “Mrs. T, I was wondering if I could help you with making a special dinner for Kane tonight.”
    Her old gray eyes twinkled at me. She knew that Kane and I dedicated our lives to getting the better of each other. “How special, dear?”
    “Well, you know how he loves his potpie. I was thinking we could try a different kind of potpie with worms. Is there a way to do that without harming the worms?”
    Her cackle of laughter filled the kitchen. “That is really gross.”
    “I know. It’s awesome.”
    “Worms in my kitchen? You do ask a lot of me. You found another toad, I’m guessing.”
    “Yep.”
    “Very well, get me the worms, and I’ll whip them up into a pie of sorts. No harm will come to them.”
    “You’re the best.” And then I hurried off to do just that.
    At dinner, we all sat in the kitchen like we always did. Mrs. Marks preferred its coziness over the cavernous space—that’s what Kane called it—that was the dining room. The staff usually ate with us.
    “That smells delicious, Mrs. T. You seem to have outdone yourself,” Mrs. Marks said. And then she winked, so she knew about the joke we were playing on Kane. It was not surprising, because she knew everything. Mrs. T looked as if she had just sucked on a lemon, and Mr. Clancy was careful to keep his focus away from Kane.
    “God, I’m hungry.”
    “You’re always hungry, Kane. It’s amazing you’re not the size of a barn with the amount of food you eat,” I said.
    His eyes narrowed at me and I just knew he was plotting again. “Jealous.”
    I was, of course, since I didn’t eat like that and yet I was a little round. Didn’t seem fair. Instead of answering him, I just stuck out my tongue. I couldn’t wait to see his expression when he saw all those worms squirming around in his dinner.
    Mrs. T placed Kane’s pie in front of him. It was like a ritual, the way Kane ate a potpie. He always pulled the top crust off to eat the insides before