Dancing Through the Snow Read Online Free

down on the chair right next to the door. She had been told that eavesdropping was bad, but how else could she know what was being said about her? Nothing good, she was sure. She wanted to be ready to defend herself if necessary.
    Even though she knew they must be discussing her, Min’s head jerked up like that of a startled deer when the first thing she heard was her own name.
    “I understand that Min needs a place to stay while you go out west to visit your sick mother, but I don’t understand why you seem unwilling to take her back when you return. You yourself admit she does not lie or steal or talk back or run away or wet the bed or refuse to help with chores. She sounds almost too perfect,” Mrs. Willis said in a sharp voice. “Those are the usual reasons I am given when a child is returned here.”
    “She’s
hard.
You can never tell what she’s thinking,” Enid Bangs whined. “And she’s sly. Ralph feels it too. We can’t get close to her whatever we do. I don’t know how to explain, but I do know we have done our best, and we cannot go on fostering that child.”
    “Keep your voice down, Enid. She’s just outside. You know we do not shift children without cause. You must be a little more specific. I’ll have to fill out a report.”
    There was a moment of tense silence. Min could hear her foster mother starting to huff and puff like the Big Bad Wolf. When she began to snuffle, Min’s lip curled. Turning on the tears was one of the ways Enid Bangs ruled her household.
    “Faker,” she breathed.
    At that exact moment, the outer door to the waiting room opened quietly and Dr. Hart came in. Without taking time to think, Min put her finger to her lips. Dr. Hart stared at her, her forehead creasing in a puzzled frown. Min pointed and both of them heard the raised voices. Dr. Hart started toward the door. She reached for the knob and then stopped with her hand frozen in mid-air as the two voices came clearly through the crack. “Heartless, I tell you,” Enid said.
    “That’s not true,” Sybil Willis replied.
    Jess Hart shot another glance at Min’s face. After a moment, she picked up the other straight chair and set it down silently right next to Min’s. She perched on its edge, clearly ready to move, but waiting for a few moments to check out what was happening. Without exchanging a word, the two of them sat side by side and listened.
    “It’s as if there’s nobody living inside the girl. She gives me the creeps and I can’t make it clearer than that. Even the little Keating boys weren’t drawn to her. Ralph agrees. We can’t keep fostering her any longer, neither one of us.”
    Min sat absolutely still, hoping that the women discussing her so brutally would not guess they were being overheard. She ducked her head lower, trying not to be noticed. When Dr. Hart’s warm, strong hand reached out and silently closed over her clenched fist, Min’s spirits rose a little and her face relaxed. Dr. Jess would not betray her or change sides and turn against her.
    “I assume you are unwilling to take another child right away,” Mrs. Willis said, her voice hot with unmistakable anger. “When my husband ran into Ralph at the supermarket yesterday, he told him you were planning to visit your mother. My husband asked if she was ill and Ralph said she was not. You must bring him up to date.”
    At that, Enid burst out, “I’m exhausted, I tell you. It isn’t just me, Sybil. Everyone knows the child was abandoned at the Ex when she was two or three. No one in her right mind would throw away a normal child in that fashion. She must have done something to bring it on.”
    “That is enough, Enid!” Mrs. Willis snapped in a voice that came straight from the Arctic waste. They heard the scrape of her chair being pushed back abruptly. “When are you leaving?”
    “After lunch tomorrow. I couldn’t let you know sooner. I tried to get in to see you last week, but they told me you were home with