Horrid by Katrina Leno

Author:Katrina Leno [LENO, KATRINA]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

She was predictably exhausted the next morning, moving through her routine sluggishly: shower, clothes, breakfast. Ruth was practically drowning herself in coffee when Jane reached the kitchen. There was a pot of oatmeal bubbling on the stove; she got herself a bowl and sprinkled brown sugar on top. It was something she had never had before moving to New England, oatmeal and brown sugar, but it had become a staple in their mornings now. She poured herself a cup of coffee and joined Ruth at the table. Ruth grunted a greeting.

“Ditto,” Jane said.

“How are we going to get through this week?” Ruth said, almost to herself, almost to Jane, then she pulled herself up a little straighter in her seat and saw the oatmeal. “Oh yeah. I forgot about that.”

Jane pushed the bowl over to her mother and got up to make herself another one.

“I made you lunch,” Ruth said.

“How long have you been up?”

“Since yesterday morning.”

“You didn’t sleep?” Jane asked, sitting back down.

“I gave it my best try. But nope. Instead I’ve been going through my dad’s old things, trying to clear out his study. Say what you want about my father, but that man was diligent in his record keeping. It’s really excellent stuff for someone who can’t sleep. I found a receipt from a root canal he had done twenty-five years ago.”

“I’m assuming you’re putting that in the ‘keep’ pile?”

“Oh, I’m keeping plenty. Dental records aren’t making the cut.” Ruth had a bite of oatmeal.

“You work today, right?”

“Just a few hours. I’m going to call it a half day. You?”

“Yup.”

“Are you working too much, Janie? How’s your schoolwork going? Not falling behind at all, right?”

“Not yet. Oh yeah—do you know Tim Barker? He said to say hi. How come everyone here calls you Ruthellen?”

“Tim Barker,” Ruth repeated. “Wow. I guess I underestimated how long I could fly under the radar here. Two weeks seems to be my limit.”

“Ruthellen?”

“Oh. God, I know. That was an Emilia thing. Ruthellen was a family name. A great-great-aunt or something. And Emilia could not abide nicknames. Practically clutched her pearls into dust when I told her I was naming you Jane.”

“She didn’t like my name?”

“Oh, honey. She had an opinion about everything. And her opinion about Jane was that it wasn’t a big enough name for a North. I said, ‘Well, she isn’t a North, Mama. She’s a North-Robinson.’” Ruth chuckled. “She didn’t like that answer very much.”

“Did she like Dad?”

Ruth sighed. “That’s a little complicated. I mean, everything is a little complicated with Emilia. But she didn’t like that I left Maine. She didn’t like that Greer lived in California. She didn’t like that I never visited. She always blamed him for that. Even though I told her, again and again, he had nothing to do with it. In the beginning, he was constantly suggesting we take a trip back east. He wanted to see where I grew up. But I kept saying no, and he finally stopped mentioning it.”

“You kept saying no because…”

Ruth smiled.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.