Gingersnap Read Online Free Page B

hand on it, in with rolled-up balls of string and can openers.
    I hurried upstairs again and took the picture to the windowsill. There it was, the name stretched out across the awning: GINGERSNAP .
    “A coincidence,” I said aloud.
    “No,” the voice said. “I don’t think so.”
    I sat back on my heels. The time was going. Celine would be waiting.
    Gingersnap!
    “You’re going to Brooklyn,” the voice said. “We’ll find that bakery, and a family for you.”
    “It may not even be there anymore,” I said.
    “Yes, it is.”
    I shook my head. “I can’t do that.”
    “I’ll be with you.”
    I kept shaking my head, but I didn’t want to go up the hill to Celine’s. I wanted to …
    “Go to Brooklyn,” the voice said. “I think it’s in Mexico, or Canada. People wear leis.”
    What nonsense
, Celine would have said. “It’s only a few hours away.”
    Did I see her smile? Was she teasing me? “Well, there we are,” she said. “Ready to go.”
    I went back to Celine’s. Of course, I wasn’t ready to go. I wasn’t ready to do anything. I let myself in the door and heard Celine talking on the phone.
    “I can’t come,” she was saying. “I have to be here for Jayna. It sounds like a wonderful trip.…” Her voice trailed off. “Someday I’ll have my life back.”
    Yes. That was what I wanted, too. I remembered Rob’s hands on my shoulders.
Jayna the strong; Jayna the brave
. And somehow, as impossible as it seemed, I was going to Brooklyn. Maybe I’d find the bakery with my name. I’d find the woman with her hair in braids.
    “Yes,” the voice said.

Chapter 7

    T he next day I went back to our house, to plan, to think, to decide. Could I really do this?
    I had money. Rob had left me piles of it to get through until he got home. So that was all right. But skipping school? That was a little scary, but so was all of it.
    I went into my closet and pulled out a few things. I packed them into my old suitcase.
    “Put the blue book in your pocket,” the voice said behind me.
    “There’s room in my suitcase.”
    “You’re going to lose that suitcase.”
    “I am not.” I was angry now, angry at everything. I put the book in a nest of socks in the case and heard the voice sigh.
    “You do a lot of sighing,” I said.
    “That’s what ghosts are supposed to do. I’ve been practicing.”
    I paid no attention; I stood there, turning slowly. What else did I need?
    “Theresa,” the voice said.
    Theresa! That was impossible.
    I looked over my shoulder to glimpse a pointed nose, a strand of hair across an apple-round cheek, teeth crowded together, almost like mine.
    Then nothing was there.
    I crossed my hands over my shoulders, chilled. I glanced out the window. How could I leave Theresa to dry up in that swampy pond?
    “You can’t,” she said.
    I went back down the hall to the spare room. I remembered seeing a carrying case, probably for a cat. But it would have to do.

    I went back to Celine’s house for one more night.
    Where was Rob?
    Was he just gone?
    Celine met me at the door. “Are you all right?” sheasked. Maybe she was still thinking about her phone call and wanting her life back.
    I nodded. Still she looked worried.
    “I’ll make soup,” I said.
    “Use the stove? Suppose you burn yourself? Suppose you spill …”
    “I told you,” the voice whispered. “We have to get out of here. We have to go to Brooklyn.”
    I walked into the kitchen and opened Celine’s icebox. It was packed with food, jams and jellies, carrots, and a wedge of cheese. I moved things around, pulling things out.
    Behind me Celine pattered around, sighing almost as the ghost had sighed, wondering, I guess, what she was ever going to do with me in her life.
    I wanted to say,
I’m leaving. I’m going to Brooklyn. I’m going to find a bakery
. Of course, I didn’t say that, but I felt a small thread of … almost happiness.
    “Yes,” I heard the ghost say. Was she humming that French nursery rhyme