Boomtown Read Online Free Page B

backyard with a picket fence, a small garage, and a front porch bordered by flowers. There was a large bay window in the family room, a small kitchen, a pantry, one bathroom, and three bedrooms upstairs. There was an extra room downstairs where I could put a desk and my books for a study.
    I talked to Lars about a plan for unloading. Fortunately, he had clean overalls in his cab to replace the muddy ones he was still wearing. And I found a fresh pair of jeans and shirt in one of our suitcases. In the meantime, the kids were excitedly jumping up and down on the porch and chanting, “Let us in! Let us in!” Janice saved Sarah from having a heart attack by unlocking the front door. The kids ran from room to room, out the back, around the side, back inside, up the stairs, and began to fight for bedroom territory.
    â€œSarah and I will take this room at the end of the hall-way,” Ruth announced.
    Jonny answered, “You can have it! This one’s mine!”
    He wanted the bedroom with the window that opened into the branches of the backyard tree. He wasted no time climbing out the window—to the absolute terror of my wife and the delight of Sarah, who insisted on trying it immediately. (That particular tree was the same tree Jonny later used to sneak out of the house for his nocturnal raids—something that turned out for the best in the long run—but I didn’t know about it until much later. We’ll get to that soon enough.)
    After the brief exploration, Ruth released our cat, Effeneff, from his carrier. This was the cat Sarah had “greased” a few years before. It stretched its long gray body, shook out its fur, licked each of its paws carefully, then scampered across the lawn and began to patrol the perimeter of the front steps and porch, looking for mice and shrews. Sarah had given the cat its name; she insisted he was descended from the great lions of Egypt.
    â€œHe’s Fierce and Friendly,” Sarah had said.
    We soon shortened that to “F and F,” and the name stuck. After only a minute or two, Effeneff pounced and captured a shrew and went to find a shady spot where he could play with it in private.
    Janice said, “That’s a good sign. If a cat likes a house, then it’s probably a good place for people too.”
    With help from all of our neighbors, the job of unloading was finished quickly, leaving the more time-consuming job of unpacking and putting everything in its place. As the sun crawled higher in the sky, Edna Kreuger, the widow who lived next door, brought us a huge lunch of ham and cheese on wheat bread, homemade potato salad, bright red apples, and a delicious blackberry pie with vanilla ice cream. The lettuce, potatoes, apples, and berries had been grown in her very own garden, she proudly declared.
    â€œThere’s lots more where that came from!” she said. “You’ll never go hungry with Gramma Edna next door!”
    She turned out to be a faithful member of Boomtown Church, where I’d be preaching that Sunday. Sarah fell in love with her immediately and adopted her as her own grand-mother. We’ve called her “Gramma” ever since.
    Matthieu LaPierre volunteered to fix the front screen door while others went from room to room unpacking boxes, hanging pictures, setting up beds, and organizing the kitchen. The ladies from Gramma Edna’s sewing circle showed up with ironing boards and irons; they smoothed out the wrinkles from our clothes and linens while they got to know Janice better and helped her fill up the dressers and closets.
    Ed Gamelli, the mailman, stopped by at around three o’clock and added our names to his route list. Then at four o’clock we met Leona Peasley, hostess of the Boomtown Welcome Wagon and lead soprano at St. Bernard’s Lutheran Church. She presented us with a straw basket decorated with green and yellow ribbons and filled to the brim with apples, pears, peaches, and