Dragonfly Secret Read Online Free Page B

think I’d tell them if you were doing things like that.”
    He sat there, staring at the floor, with his mouth so tight on his pipe I was afraid he’d break it.
    â€œMiss Ryderson just stopped over to make an appointment. She’s coming out tomorrow to talk to us. Please, Dad, try to be pleasant to her. We need her on our side.”
    He stood up and headed toward his room. “I’ll be on my best behavior.” Then, in a low grumble as if he didn’t want us to hear, he added, “Like a durned trained seal.”
    I looked at Mother and went after him. Jessie trailed along behind. Gramps went into my room instead of his. With his hands in the pockets of his old slacks, he gazed down at the broken-winged wonder in the lizard cage. He turned as we came in.
    â€œThis ain’t the best of times to tell your mother I’ve been seeing fairies.”
    Jessie and I nodded. It would be hard enough for Mother to get through the next few days without having to worry about accidentally saying something like, “I’ve got to go and check on the fairy who lives in Nathan’s room.” If she did that, we might all be sent away. A psychologist wouldn’t understand, not without seeing the fairy.
    â€œMaybe we should tell Mother and Miss Ryderson both about what we found,” I said. “If we show them, they’ll have to believe us.”
    Gramps held the bowl of his old pipe in his hand and pointed at me with the stem, the way you might shake a finger at someone. “We do that and they’ll have the critter in a cage permanent, same’s they’re trying to do with me. Ain’t right, a wild thing like that locked up. No, we got to keep still about this.”
    I knew he was right. The fewer people who found out about her the better. Otherwise, she could end up in a zoo, or worse, in some laboratory cage like a white rat. If she lived, she deserved to be free, back in the fresh green meadows where she’d started.
    â€œDon’t worry, Gramps. It’ll be our secret. We’ll all have to be careful the next few days.” I hoped he could remember that, too, and not do something to upset Miss Ryderson.

Chapter Five
    I woke up early the next morning and went over to the desk to check on the fairy. She had moved during the night, shifting so that her wings were folded behind her and along her back. The broken one jutted out sideways, as awkward as a square wheel on a bike. I wondered if it hurt. She wasn’t moving at all, just lying there like a dead grasshopper. She looked pitiful.
    Gramps and Jessie weren’t up yet. I went to the kitchen for breakfast in my pajamas like I always do, and Mother made me go back and get dressed before she let me eat. I decided right then, even before she arrived, that I wasn’t going to like Miss Ryderson. Our lives were going to be miserable while she was here.
    I thought of running away, but it wouldn’t do any good. Maybe, I thought, I’ll run away later, if they decide to make Gramps leave. Sort of a reverse kidnapping. I’d stay away until they had to let him come home.
    Miss Ryderson arrived at eight thirty. She had on a skirt and sweater this time, without the jacket, and she didn’t look so official. I decided she wasn’t even as old as Mother. I wondered what gave her the right to decide if old people should be put in nursing homes if they didn’t want to go. She had a nice smile, though. I knew I’d better try to be friendly for Gramps’s sake, so I smiled back.
    â€œCall me Carol,” she said when Mother introduced us. “I don’t want to be in the way, but I will have to ask you some questions.” Just like a policeman, I thought. As if we were criminals.
    After breakfast she sat in the living room asking Gramps a lot of questions. I could tell he wanted to be rude. He usually got up and left if somebody pestered him that way. But he just sat there and