The Vineyard Read Online Free

checked the office a final time, then let herself out and locked the door. Natalie’s new batch of pictures would be the treat she gave herself that night when everything else was done.
    Savoring the anticipation, she half walked, half ran through narrow streets hemmed in by tightly packed houses, trees, and parked cars. The June air was stagnant and warm. She arrived at Tess’s school in a sweat, a full ten minutes late.
    Most of the children had gone. A few stragglers remained on the playground, but they were immersed in themselves. Tess stood alone at a corner of the school yard with a shoulder weighted down by her backpack, one foot turned in, her glasses halfway down her nose, and a desolate look on her face.

Two
 
    F IGHTING A SINKING HEART , Olivia kept her voice light. “Hi, sweetie.” She gave Tess a hug, which was barely returned, and smoothed aside a mass of unruly brown hair.
    â€œYou’re late,” Tess said.
    â€œI know. I’m sorry. I got hung up on something as I was walking out the door. How was your day?”
    Tess made a gesture that might have been a shrug, but it was lost when she started off down the street. Her legs weren’t long, but they moved fast. Olivia had to step to it to keep pace.
    â€œTess?” she coaxed.
    Still that defiant silence.
    â€œHard day?”
    â€œThe worst. I’m dumb. I’m just dumb.”
    â€œNo, you’re not.”
    â€œYes! I’m the dumbest one in the class.”
    â€œNo, you’re the
smartest
one in the class. Your IQ is out of sight. You’re dyslexic, that’s all.”
    â€œThat’s
all?
” Tess cried, stopping dead in her tracks. Her freckles were bright red against the pallor of her skin. Her wire-rimmed glasses magnified a pair of big, brown plaintive eyes that were suddenly filled with tears. “Mom, she made me stay in from recess again because my paper was a mess. My handwriting stinks. She can’t read it. And my spelling stinks. And even if it didn’t, I didn’t do what she told us to do. I didn’t hear her right, so my hearing stinks, too!”
    Olivia took her daughter’s face in both hands. “Your hearing does not stink! You hear every word I say, even when you’re not supposed to because it’s
adult language
.”
    Tess tore her chin free and resumed her march. Olivia was beside her by the time they turned the corner and strode along for several more blocks until Tess eased up. This time, when she put an arm around the child’s shoulder and drew her close, Tess didn’t resist. They turned right onto one street, then left onto another.
    â€œKind of like a maze,” Olivia remarked when they made another sharp turn. She was hoping for a smile.
    Instead, she got a glum, “Yeah, and we’re rats.”
    â€œSo, what’s the reward at the end?”
    Tess didn’t reply. And then they were home. They lived in an apartment attached to a small brick house that, in its heyday, had belonged to one of the would-be elite of Cambridge society. The fact that it was sandwiched more closely to its neighbors than a house belonging to the true elite would have been was hidden by a thick stand of trees. Those trees also prevented neighbors from seeing when the owners closed in the screen porch, added a small bedroom and bathroom, and put the space out for rent.
    Olivia wasn’t the first tenant by a long shot. The galley kitchen was vintage fifties, and the bathroom little better, but she had loved it on sight—loved the character, the quaintness, the charm. One look at walls of ivy-covered brick and a flagstone walk flanked by mountain laurel in bloom and, even before seeing the inside, she knew she had to live there.
    Only after they moved in did she realize how tiny the place was, not necessarily the best buy for the money. But it was done, and it did have character, quaintness, and charm. She set Tess up in the small