Just Another Girl by Melody Carlson

Author:Melody Carlson [Melody Carlson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441203618
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group

After Rose goes to work, I go through the regular Saturday chores and try to get Lily to help, which is frustrating both of us. Then I realize that I actually have no way to go see Dad. And for some reason I feel this is a conversation I need to have face-to-face with him. The phone won’t cut it. But I don’t have a way to get there, and it’s too far to ride my bike, which I couldn’t do anyway since there’s the Lily factor. The bus doesn’t go that far, and even if we rode it to the edge of town and hired a taxi, there’s no way I could afford it. I’m tempted to call Crystal, but after last night, she’s probably not speaking to me. I suppose I didn’t really think this through very well.

It’s close to noon now, and Lily has been grumbling about missing story hour at the library. Even though I point out that she’s partially to blame since she slept in too, she can’t accept it. I’m just beginning to lose patience with her when my cell phone rings, and I’m pleased to see that it’s Owen. Great escape. Although I know better than to leave Lily unattended for this conversation. Too risky.

“How’s it going?” he asks.

“Okay.” Then I briefly describe the chaos I came home to last night, trying not to go into too much detail since Lily is all ears. “But things settled down,” I say casually.

“My mom was asking me why you guys don’t hire someone to help with Lily.”

Man, he really does talk to his mom a lot. “I wish we could afford to do that,” I admit.

“She said there are state programs and studies and stuff.”

“Yeah, we’ve looked into some things, but it’s hard living in a small town, plus the state always seems to be cutting back the budget.”

Now, on one hand it’s sweet that Owen cares enough to bring this up, but on the other hand I find it a tiny bit aggravating that his mom thinks she knows more about this sort of thing than we do. I talk to Kellie at the rec center fairly regularly, and she’s a real expert on what’s available for kids like Lily. Unfortunately, it’s not much.

“It’s probably none of my business, huh?” Owen says.

“No . . . I mean, it’s nice that you care, but there don’t seem to be any magic fixes for this sort of thing.” Short of money, I think, but I don’t say this.

“I just think it’d be good for you to get more time for yourself, Aster. It’s like you’re missing out on, well, you know, all kinds of regular stuff.”

“Yeah, I do know.” Now I get an idea. “Hey, if you really want to help me, Owen, is there any way you could give Lily and me a ride over to my dad’s house today?”

“Where does he live?”

“Renton.”

“Really? For some reason I thought he lived far away.”

“No, just far enough to make it inconvenient to visit.

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.