Kyle's Island Read Online Free Page B

you. I didn’t know Dave had put a sign up. You shouldn’t have found out this way.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    SO IT WAS TRUE. I STARED at her, and she stared back. I went through the doorway, sat down on the footstool in front of her. “You’re selling the cottage?” I could hear my voice getting louder. “Gram’s cottage? Our cottage? The first year it’s all ours and you’re selling it?”
    â€œI am.” Mom’s voice trembled, but I’d heard that tone before. There was steel in it.
    â€œWhy?” I didn’t think I was shouting, but maybe I was, because Mom flinched.
    â€œWe can’t afford to keep it, Kyle. The taxes alone are eight hundred dollars a year. And there’s upkeep. When Mom was up here, she could keep an eye on things, hire someone to put the pier in and out, lime the outhouse, cut down weeds. … You can’t manage a property when you’re two hundred miles away.” I didn’t want to listen. I tried toanswer, but she didn’t give me a chance to say anything. She just plowed ahead. “Besides,” she said, “The money we’ll get from the sale can go into the college fund. That’s always been a worry, how we could afford to send all of you, and now that your dad—” she broke off, swallowed, began again. “Vicki’s already a sophomore, and when you and Andrea go, too …”
    â€œForget about college—I’m not going.”
    That stopped her. “Not going to college? Oh, Kyle, of course you are. These days …”
    â€œNot if we have to sell the cottage to get the money, I’m not. And I’ll bet Vicki and Andrea won’t go either. Where are they? Do they know?”
    â€œI told them just before you got back. Do you know what Andrea said? ‘Poor Kyle.’ She knew, we all knew how hard this would be for you. And I was planning how—darn Dave!”
    â€œWhat did Vicki say, and Josh?” I asked bitterly. “I’ll bet they’re glad. They didn’t want to come anyway.”
    â€œThey aren’t glad.” Mom pulled a cigarette out of the pack beside her on the table. “They’re sorry, too. We’re all sorry, Kyle.”
    â€œSorry doesn’t help. Why don’t you do something?” Istood up so fast my elbow knocked against the big flashlight we kept on the table for trips down the hill at night. It banged to the floor, but I didn’t bother to pick it up.
    â€œThere’s nothing I can do.” Mom said that so quietly I could hardly hear, and for some reason that made me angrier than ever.
    â€œThere’s gotta be something! You give up too easy.” I was shouting again.
    â€œKyle, if you’ll just look at this reasonably—”
    â€œThe hell with reason!” My voice bounced off the cottage walls. “First you can’t hold on to Dad, and now you want to take the cottage away from us. This stinks!”
    Mom didn’t answer. Her hand flew up to her cheek, like I’d hit her. For a moment I was sorry, then I wasn’t sorry at all. She wouldn’t fight for anything, not the cottage, not Dad. She’d just let Dad leave, let him have everything his way. I’d heard her tell him he could come back whenever he wanted. She’d be waiting, she said. But maybe he’d never want to, maybe he’d want a divorce instead. Had she thought of that?
    I had to get out of there. I was a time bomb ready to explode. She had no idea. I wanted to throw something, hit something or someone, run until I dropped. I moved back from her, stumbling a little. My foot bumped against theflashlight, and I kicked it, hard. It spun crazily across the room, hit the opposite wall. I had my hand on the door when Mom’s voice stopped me. “I couldn’t help what happened with your father, Kyle. And I can’t help this. Regardless of what you think.”
    I went out then. I let