Karen's Hurricane by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2016-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

Shadows on the Wall

The eye of the hurricane lasted two hours. It was eerily calm all that time. Right before dinner the wind and rain started up again as suddenly as they had stopped earlier. Even though there was more than an hour of daylight left, when the clouds moved in, it became as dark as night. And without electricity, we had to burn candles to see inside the house.

“I think this is romantic,” said Mommy cheerfully as we ate our dinner by candlelight.

“It is cozy,” I agreed, being the brave big sister again. “I can hardly hear the wind outside.”

“How can you not hear the wind?” Andrew sounded grumpy. “It sounds like the house is going to blow down.”

I took a bite of my sandwich. Mommy put some more chips on my plate. “Pretend it is the Big Bad Wolf,” I said. “And we are the Three Little Pigs.”

“And we are safe and snug inside our little brick house,” added Mommy.

Andrew grinned. He yelled, “You cannot come in! Not by the hair on our chinny-chin-chins!” He looked better. Mommy and I smiled at each other.

After dinner Mommy set up the flashlight on the living room table and shone it toward the wall. Then she used her hands to make shadow animals. She made a crocodile, a rabbit, a dog, a bird, a spider, and a camel (her head made the hump).

Andrew and I tried it too. We could make most of them, though my camel looked more like a fat giraffe. (Andrew’s looked the same as his rabbit.)

Then we read by candlelight for awhile. I felt like a pioneer girl again. The house was becoming very stuffy. We could not open the windows because of all the wind and rain. But the storm seemed to be dying down a bit.

That night Andrew and I did not take baths. Our bathtub was full of water that we would need to use for washing dishes, and ourselves, if our running water got turned off. (It had not been, so far.) At bedtime Mommy tucked me in and kissed me good night. She put a flashlight next to my bed, in case I had to get up during the night to go to the bathroom.

“You were very brave today, Karen,” said Mommy. “And you were a big help with Andrew.”

“Was I?” I asked. I had really tried.

Mommy nodded. “I am proud of you and Andrew, and of Seth,” she said.

“I am proud of Seth too,” I said. “I am glad he is downtown helping other people, even if we do miss him. At least we know that he is okay.”

“That is right,” Mommy said. “Seth will come home tomorrow, and the hurricane will be over. Now, good night, sweetheart.”

“Good night, Mommy.”

After Mommy left, I took the flashlight and went to my window that looks out onto Nancy’s house next door. I aimed the flashlight toward her bedroom window and clicked it on. The beam of the flashlight showed the rain still coming down hard, even though the wind was not so fierce.

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