Chapters (38)
- Front Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Back Cover
“I’ll bring the car around while you lock up.” Lishta pulled her enormous, lumpy purse from a hook on the wall. She kissed Henri’s feathered head and threw a handful of seeds into his bowl. “Look after the place while we’re gone, Henri.”
“AU REVOIR, PETITE CROTTE DE NEZ,” said Henri.
Maren blew him a kiss and swung through the door into the typewriter shop, Lishta trailing close behind.
“Ahh!” A bearded, immaculately coiffed man leapt out of Maren’s tornado path. It was Alexei Aliyev, one of the hairdressers from Mr. Alfredo’s Splendid Salon.
“I’m sorry, we’re just about to close,” she said, her sneakers shuffle-dancing impatiently in the dust.
Alexei’s mouth drooped into his beard.
“Hello, dear,” said Lishta. “It’s only for a few hours and then we’ll be back. We’ve had a family…well, the opposite of an emergency. What do you suppose you’d call that? Antimergency?”
Alexei stuttered and mumbled and Maren just wanted to hurry him out of the store, but Lishta stopped to peer up at him. “Are you all right?”
“It’s nothing.” Alexei’s beard trembled.
Lishta laid her hand on his forearm. “Tell me.”
“For a week now, I’ve been having the most ghastly nightmare,” he said. “I was hoping you could give me something to get rid of it?”
“There, there.” Lishta said in a low and soothing voice. “Of course I can help. Why don’t you tell me about this dream of yours?”
Shuffle ball change shuffle stamp. Maren wanted to feel sorry for Alexei, but she wanted to see her sister’s wide-open blue eyes more than she wanted to feel sorry for him.
Lishta turned to her. “Sweetheart, why don’t you hop on the bus? I’ll meet you there in a little bit.”
Ordinarily, taking the bus instead of riding with Lishta would have annoyed Maren. Today, she couldn’t have cared less if she had to walk to the hospital. If she had to hop there on one foot. Barefoot.
“Hope you feel better soon!” Maren swung around Alexei, giving him a sympathetic but encouraging smile. “See you there, Gran-Gran.”
Eight
The bus arrived at the stop twenty seconds after Maren did. She bounded up the steps, paid her fare, and found a window seat all by itself. Luck sizzled in the air, making the edges of everything extra sharp.
Paradiddle paradiddle fah-lap heel heel toe heel went her shoes on the filthy floor.