Dragonfly Secret Read Online Free

saying.
    I went back out and held the door open for Gramps. “The coast is clear,” I said softly. He nodded and led the way, followed by Jessie and me. I made sure the door closed without slamming.
    We shut the door of my room behind us and I got the lizard cage down from the top shelf in my closet. I had two chameleons in it last year, the quick, skinny lizards that change from brown to green to hide themselves. They got loose a couple of times, and finally Mother made me give them away.
    The cage was about a foot wide and two feet long, made of glass, with a screen top that came off. I set it on my desk. “Lizards need sand and water and a branch to climb,” I said. “What do we put in for a fairy?”
    â€œAbout what you’d put for a dragonfly, I reckon,” Gramps said. “Water to drink. Maybe some moss and a branch to climb or hide behind.”
    â€œI know!” Jessie ran off down the hall to her room. She was back a minute later with some things from her dollhouse: a bathtub full of water, some tiny dishes that were still huge compared to the fairy, and a miniature bed.
    â€œShe’ll like this,” Jessie said confidently as she arranged the tiny blankets on the bed. “The flowers Mother embroidered on the blankets will remind the fairy of the wildflowers at the farm.” I guess it was natural for her to think the fairy came from the spring, where we had seen the dragonflies.
    â€œWhat will she eat?” Jessie worried.
    â€œNo need to saddle the mule before you’ve got somewheres to go,” Gramps told her. He settled the unconscious little creature gently on the bed. “Right now she needs to rest and stretch out that wing.”
    I squeezed closer for a better look. The fairy had stopped moving, and her eyes were closed. Her body was a golden brown, covered with fine down that looked like velvet. Her upper body, where a person would wear a shirt or sweater, was shiny like a leather jacket. I couldn’t tell if it was clothes she was wearing or her natural skin like a dog’s fur or a lizard’s scales. She was still clutching something tightly between her arms.
    â€œI wonder what she’s hanging on to.”
    â€œIf she thinks like Jessie, maybe it’s something to eat,” Gramps scoffed.
    â€œOr a doll,” Jessie said softly. “I bet she’s scared.”
    â€œIt doesn’t look like a doll, Jessie,” I objected. “It looks more like a beetle, only smooth, with no legs that I can see.”
    â€œDolls can look different,” Jessie said, pouting. “Teddy bears don’t look much like people. How do you know what a fairy teddy bear would look like?”
    â€œI guess you’re right,” I admitted.
    I reached in and gently smoothed the crumpled wing between two fingers, being careful not to break or tear it. The main vein across the top edge was broken. “Will it heal?” I asked.
    â€œDon’t know,” Gramps allowed. “Never had to doctor a fairy before. Best just let her rest.”
    We heard the sound of the front door closing. “Now we can tell Mother!” Jessie cried, running out of the room.
    I put the cover on the lizard cage and followed her and Gramps into the front room. Jessie was bouncing with excitement, but Mother didn’t seem to notice.
    â€œSit down, all of you. We have to have a talk.”
    We looked at each other and sat down, Jessie and I on the sofa, Gramps in his old stuffed recliner with the worn spot on the arm. Mother paced back and forth three or four times. Then she pulled a chair out from the table and sat facing us, her eyebrows pinched together into a wrinkly line over her nose.
    â€œThis isn’t easy for me to say, so please don’t interrupt. You know Louise has been worried about whether Dad is all right living here with us. She thinks he’d be better off where there are doctors on call all the time and a