Getting Back to Normal Read Online Free Page B

a carton on the floor. “Vanessa! That’s not very polite.”
    Aunt Mayda laughs. “I did ask, Roger. And I am your landlady of sorts.” She studies the fluorescent light flickering over us. “I’ll have Casey put in brighter bulbs tomorrow.”
    Daddy, definitely annoyed, asks me, “Did you unpack Robby’s things?”
    “Uh-huh. Nothing fits him anymore. He needs new clothes. So do I.”
    Daddy sighs. “We’ll get to that in good time.”
    Anger boils up inside me. I’m furious with him for not taking care of us, for sticking us in this dingy cottage when we’ve a perfectly good home of our own.
    “We need new clothes now,” I tell him. “Or do you want the kids in school making fun of us on top of everything else?”
    Daddy’s about to yell at me, when Aunt Mayda touches his arm. “I’d be happy to take them shopping, Roger.” She looks at me. “How about one evening next week?”
    “Sure,” I say, though I’m cringing inside. I don’t want Aunt Mayda to have anything to do with my clothes.
    She must be reading my mind because she laughs and says, “Of course I’ll leave all the choosing to you. I’ve no idea what kids are wearing these days.”
    “I can pick out my own clothes, too,” Robby says.
    He’s so cute and earnest, we all laugh.
    “What’s so funny?” Robby asks.
    “Nothing,” the three of us say at the same time, which makes Robby mad. But the tension in the air has faded away like smoke—or a ghost.
    Aunt Mayda looks at her watch. “Roger, can you drive me to the station now? I promised a friend I’d be back in the city in time to make a ten o’clock movie.”
    Is this friend a date? I wonder as she puts her dish in the sink. “Delicious, Vannie,” she tells me again. “You have your mother’s touch.”
    I feel sad and proud at the same time. Tears fill my eyes. Aunt Mayda hugs me close. Then she sets me free and is all sensible-practical once again.
    “When shall we go shopping? Tuesday evening? No, I’ve a meeting then. Wednesday?”
    Aunt Mayda runs through her weekly schedule and decides that Friday evening will be best, after all. She’ll stay overnight at Greystone.
    “We’ve the craft show here next weekend,” she explains. “And while I’ve no responsibilities, they like me to put in an appearance. I’ll do that Saturday morning, then be on my way.”
    Robby and I kiss Aunt Mayda good-bye. Daddy drives Aunt Mayda to the train station. When he comes back he’s whistling for the first time in months.

CHAPTER FOUR
    I read in bed to help me fall asleep, only I can’t relax. I turn out the light and lie in the dark, listening to the creaks and groans of the cottage. Is that a mouse? A ghost? I bolt upright each time a tree branch scratches against my window. When I’m about to drift off, I hear Robby crying for me. I take him into my bed. He falls asleep immediately, while I stay up half the night thinking.
    I think about how much I miss my room at home.
    I think about the snooty Petersons moving in tomorrow.
    I think about how relieved Daddy was that Aunt Mayda offered to take us shopping for new clothes.
    I’d put it all in my “It isn’t fair” notebook, only it’s written down there already.
    Then I think about Archie.
    I wonder when he lived and how he died. And why he’s haunting Merrymount Gardens.
    My pulse quickens as I remember Mayda saying her father used to make a spaghetti-cheese omelet when her mother didn’t feel like cooking. It speeds up to double time when I wonder if Archie is—was Mayda’s father. They both have long, skinny legs and a narrow face, though Archie is handsome and Mayda is—Mayda.
    I realize I know nothing about Aunt Mayda’s family, if she has brothers and sisters or where her parents live. But the fact that she remembers her father preparing meals means that Archie can’t be her father since he didn’t strike me as being a day older than twenty-four. Yay! I thrust my fist in the air, thrilled to have made