Dancing Through the Snow Read Online Free Page A

flu.”
    “I was. Where’s Min’s stuff? I presume you brought her belongings with you if you are leaving so soon.”
    For five seconds there was no sound but Enid Bangs’s laboured breathing. Then she spat, her words thick with rage, “She brought her backpack in with her. I’ve got everything else that’s hers in the van outside. I’ll leave the suitcase at the front desk. In case you’ve forgotten, Ralph and I have fostered over a dozen children and nobody has ever spoken to me the way you did today. He will be very upset when I tell him how I’ve been treated. Now I am going.”
    “Go, by all means. I’ll find somewhere for Min to stay. You can use the other door. I’ll say goodbye to her for you. Usually we try to help children find closure, but it seems to me that you and Min have gone beyond any peaceful parting.”
    “It’s not just me, I tell you!” Enid shouted suddenly. “Natalie Snyder told me she couldn’t keep her — and they had her for three years. And there was someone before that. What do you suppose the child did to make someone abandon her?”
    “Stop it, Enid.”
    “I’m sorry, but I’m sure that girl did something to bring this on. It’s her own fault.”
    Her fault … Her fault …
    As the dark, heavy words struck Min, she froze. Her eyes stretched wide and her vision blurred. Her throat closed so she could not breathe or swallow. Unable to stir, she waited for the avalanche of hate looming above her to come thundering down.
    At the same moment Jess Hart sprang up and flung the office door wide. Enid Bangs, who was standing, glaring at the caseworker, stumbled back against her chair. She let out a shriek like a train whistle and went plum-coloured to the roots of her hair.
    “Not another word!” Jess Hart bellowed at her.
    Min dragged a gasping breath into her starved lungs. Then she stood up and took shelter behind the doctor, who seemed to have grown taller and be about to go into battle for her. Such a thing had never happened before.
    Jess Hart did not glance back at her. She was too busy raging at the dumbfounded women.
    “Do you realize that you didn’t even have the door shut properly?” she blazed. “The world and his wife could have been listening while you spouted all that poisonous rubbish. Min and I have been treated to a real earful. If she were an adult, she could sue you for slander, Enid.”
    Enid Bangs, looking frightened and furious at one and the same time, was edging toward the other door.
    “You don’t know what it’s like —” she began to bleat.
    “Oh yes I do. I was a foster child once and a foster parent too when I was first married.” The doctor’s answer startled Min. “It isn’t easy. But I’m not stopping to discuss it at this moment. Sybil, right now, this very minute, I am taking this child home with me.”
    “For … supper?” Mrs. Willis asked, her voice weak with a mixture of relief and uncertainty.
    Min, peering around the doctor, wished she could give Mrs. Willis some comfort, but she could not think how. She was too shaken herself.
    Jessica Hart’s towering rage abated slightly as she, too, caught the tremor in her friend’s voice. She grinned at the caseworker. “No. I’m kidnapping her. And I have a feeling I might not be returning her soon, even for a fat ransom, not unless she begs me to.”
    “But, Jess, there’s no need for that …” Mrs. Willis started to protest.
    Enid Bangs had reached the other door. It closed behind her with a defiant slam. Min could hear her half-running down the hall. But nobody sent a glance after her.
    “Save your breath, my friend. Min and I are out of here. You know I’m an experienced foster parent even if Enid doesn’t.”
    “But you haven’t taken a child since —”
    “Not since Laura reclaimed Toby, and Greg and I went overseas. You’re right. But mothering isn’t something a person forgets. It’s like riding a Harley Davidson. I’ll fill out whatever new forms