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Back The Cloud Chamber Save as PDF
Chapters (35)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Author’s Note
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty

They stood there in the kitchen, Aunt Sal sponging off the counter, Poppa rinsing water over the plates.

“Please,” Nate said. “I need to know.”

This time it was Aunt Sal who spoke. “Listen, honey. You have to understand that what’s happened is real hard for all of us. But it’s a grown-up problem.” She untied her apron and hung it on the hook by the stove. “Your grandfather and I will stay over tonight, to sort things out. Don’t worry. Now go on and tend to your homework.”

How am I supposed to concentrate on a bunch of math problems when I don’t know what’s going on? he wanted to yell.

“Best thing you can do right now is look after yourself and your sister, Nathan,” Aunt Sal told him. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Four

JUNIE DIDN’T HAVE HER BATH THAT NIGHT. NATE LET her wear her summer baby-doll pj’s that their mother had told her were too lightweight for February.

Nate read her a story—Norton Hatches the Egg. “What do you think Horton does when he needs to go to the bathroom?” Junie asked. “Who sits on the egg then?”

“He can leave it for a minute,” Nate explained, wishing she would just go to sleep.

After he finished the book, she lay back on her pillow, holding on to her favorite horse, Midnight. “Natie,” she said in a low, husky whisper, “you think Dad’s going to be all right? You think they got the blood off him?”

“I hope so, Junie.”

“He’s coming back soon, right?”

“Soon. Probably.”

“On TV, when someone’s hurt bad, they can’t walk by themselves. They have to lie on a stretcher. It was a good sign, right? Him walking.”

“Probably so, J.”

She lay there braiding Midnight’s tail, though she didn’t ever get it right. “Remember that time Dad took us to the stampede? And that cowboy fell off the horse and there was blood all over him? Only it turned out he was okay in the end?”

“I remember.”

“Remember that time we built the igloo and carried out our sleeping bags and made a fire inside and roasted potatoes in aluminum foil?”

“And you got scared in the night and made Dad take you back to the house.”

“I wasn’t scared,” she said. “I just didn’t want Mom to be lonely, all by herself inside.”

“Oh.”

“You think Dad’s lonely without us tonight, Natie? You think he’s wondering why we don’t come see him?”

“We’ll go see him soon,” Nate told her. “Tomorrow, I bet.”