What Happened to Ivy Read Online Free Page A

hammock strung up between a pair of birch trees. Her long, athletic legs look even longer when she’s not standing or sitting. If she knew how I’ve started thinking of her, would she mind?
    Not far from the hammock, Dad’s raking twigs out of the beach sand while Mom is inside making the beds. I wander over to the hammock and set it swaying. “Do you want to go for a walk?”
    “Arf, arf!”
    “I didn’t mean it like that. There are some neat dunes not far along the shore I thought you might like to see.”
    Neat dunes . It sounds lame, even to me.
    Hannah fans herself with her magazine. “Maybe tomorrow, if it’s not as hot?”
    “There’s rain forecast tomorrow,” I tell her.
    Hannah shrugs. “I’ll take that chance. Is that okay?”
    Can she tell that showing her the dunes was just an excuse to get her alone somewhere?
    I head into the cottage for a drink. Dad puts away his rake and follows me inside. Hannah, close behind, sits down on the couch and picks up my Gameboy. I hand her a can of pop from the fridge.
    “Thanks.”
    After a while, a sound like a siren comes from Ivy’s room.
    “Stephen, can you go?” Mom’s hands are in the sink.
    Dad carries Ivy, rubbing her eyes, into the living room. A stunned expression flashes briefly across Hannah’s face. I can’t figure why at first. Then I realize. In the three weeks she’s known us, she’s only ever seen Ivy fully dressed. Looking at my sister through Hannah’s eyes, I see what I hardly think about anymore – the delicate white curve of Ivy’s back, her sorry little legs.
    And the diaper. Getting up from her nap on the hottest day of the summer, that’s all she’s wearing.
    “David, spread a blanket on the floor, would you?” Dad says. “Ivy’ll be cooler there than in her wheelchair.”
    Hannah jumps up to spread out Ivy’s blanket and sits back down beside me. She’s watching closely as Dad lays Ivy gently on the floor and kneels beside her.
    “Did you have a good sleep, sweetheart?” he says. “You missed the baseball game on the radio. The Blue Jays won it in the ninth inning.”
    “Eep eep? Fabel cow boo.”
    Hannah is still staring at them, so I nudge her elbow. “Are you going to play with that Gameboy, or what?”
    Without taking her eyes off them, she hands it to me. “The way your dad talks to Ivy and she makes those sing-songy sounds back at him? It’s so nice. Like they’re having a real conversation.”
    Ivy reaches up and pats Dad’s chin.
    “Want to get up, darling?” He cups the back of Ivy’s head and lifts her off the floor.
    Ivy pats his back. “Da-a da-a.”
    Hannah’s face goes all mushy and for a second I think she’s falling for my dad, which is really gross if you think about it, but then she says quietly to me, “I wonder if my dad ever held me like that. I’d remember, wouldn’t I?”
    Dad puts Ivy in her wheelchair and turns it so she can look out the window. “There you go, sweetheart.” When he leaves Ivy and goes into the kitchen, Hannah’s eyes follow him.
    After lunch we all get into our swimsuits and head outside. Hannah’s is a red two-piece. I quickly wade into the water up to my waist. Ivy pats her turquoise tummy as Dad carries her into the lake.
    “Bi-yee bay zoot.”
    “That’s right,” Mom says. “Your bathing suit is very pretty.”
    “ Ba-yee bi-yee!”
    From the shore, Hannah watches Dad swish Ivy back and forth in the water. When he pauses, Ivy shouts, “A-ghi!” and Hannah smiles.
    Mom laughs and calls across the water, “She wants more, Stephen.”
    “I know. But she’s heavy. She’s not a little girl anymore.” Half laughing, he flips Ivy onto her back. Her hair makes a swirling halo in the water around her head as she stares up at the sky, with Dad’s hands underneath her. I wade through the water toward them.
    “Here, Dad, let me.” I take Ivy and swirl her back and forth through the water. Her hands grip the backs of my arms and her face is one