The Luckiest Girl Read Online Free Page B

frostbitten.”
    â€œYou mean they heat up the outdoors ?” Shelley asked incredulously.
    Mavis laughed. “Enough to save the crop.”
    Then Shelley saw a startling billboard that announced in big red letters, Rain for Rent. Shelley could not believe what she read until a closer view revealed the words, Farm sprinkler systems for rent or sale. The next sign that attracted her attention was painted orange with black letters that proclaimed, Giant Orange 300 yards. Now I know exactly how Alice in Wonderland felt when she fell down the rabbit hole, thought Shelley, as she watched to see what a Giant Orange might be. It was a roadside stand shaped like an orange, which bore the sign, Fresh tree-ripened orange juice. Foot-long hot dogs.
    Shelley felt reassured as they entered the town of San Sebastian. She saw much that was familiar—a J.C. Penney store, Shell and Standard service stations just like those at home, a theater advertisinga movie she had seen only last week. It was the setting for the familiar that was strange to her—the dry heat, the palms, the orange trees, and, everywhere, dusty geraniums actually growing outdoors in the ground.
    After they passed through the business district, the orange trees became more numerous and the Spanish houses with tile roofs gave way to ranch houses. “Here we are,” said Mavis suddenly, turning into a driveway beside a high privet hedge.
    Here I am, Shelley’s thought echoed as she stepped out of the station wagon and through the opening in the hedge. To her surprise she found herself facing a very old two-story clapboard house. It was painted gray with green shutters and in the center of the front door, which was beneath a vine covered with magenta blossoms, was an old-fashioned doorbell such as Shelley had not seen since she had visited a great-aunt when she was a little girl. It was a doorbell with a handle to twirl instead of a button to push. And I thought everything in California was modern, Shelley marveled.
    â€œWelcome to our house,” said Mavis. “I know you want to change into something cooler. You must be dreadfully warm in a suit.” She led Shelleyinto the house and up a flight of creaky stairs. “And here is your room. The bathroom is at the end of the hall.” Mavis smiled and patted Shelley’s shoulder. “It’s all so strange the first time away from home, isn’t it? Come on down when you have freshened up. Supper will be ready in a little while and you can meet the rest of the family then.”
    Grateful for a moment alone, Shelley sat down on the bed, which was covered with an India print spread, and looked around the long, narrow room. Because of the low, sloping ceiling, the sills of the windows were only a few inches from the floor. The windows looked out on a tangle of vines and treetops. Between the windows was a desk, painted black, and on the desk a pair of old flatirons, gilded and obviously intended to be used for bookends. At the end of the room between two closets was an old-fashioned dresser waiting for her lipstick and bobby pins. On the wall over the bed were two unframed Japanese prints. Opposite the windows were two doors that led into the hall (that was odd—two doors into the hall) and between them was her trunk, waiting to be unpacked. Shelley, who all her life had slept in a square room with one door, framed pictures, andwindows a conventional distance from the floor, felt even more strongly that she had fallen down a rabbit hole into a new life.
    Quickly she slipped out of her suit and into a cotton dress that she had brought in her overnight bag in case her trunk had not arrived. She ran a comb through her hair before she walked down the hall to the bathroom, which was like no bathroom she had ever seen before. Because of its size, she guessed that it had once been a bedroom. The windows, curtained in red-and-yellow calico, looked out upon a row of eucalyptus trees and,