Mighty Millie Novak by Elizabeth Holden

Author:Elizabeth Holden [Holden, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult
ISBN: 9781635831030
Amazon: 1635831032
Goodreads: 193796622
Publisher: Flux Books
Published: 2024-08-19T22:00:00+00:00

We stopped at Stork’s after we left the gym, so she could lend me the book. She lived at the end of a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood with smaller, older houses packed closely together. She’d grown quieter as we approached her house, quiet enough that I’d begun to wonder if something was wrong.

She parked along the curb.

“I’ll be right back.” Her voice was clipped. “Wait in the car.”

I’d thought everything between us had been fine—good, even—when we left the gym. What had happened?

“Actually, would you mind if I ran inside, so I could use your bathroom? I’ll be quick.” Maybe it was Stork’s sudden mood change making me nervous, or maybe it was the three bottles of water I’d drunk, but I suddenly had a desperate need to pee.

Something weird flashed across her face. “I guess. Yeah, okay.” She sighed. “Come on.”

I followed her across the lawn, the old and frozen snow crunching under my feet. Did she not want me to come inside? Why? Was she embarrassed by me?

Then I stepped inside, and—oh.

Stork avoided my eyes. “The bathroom is down the hall, first door on the left.”

I wound my way carefully through her foyer and into the hall. Stuff, everywhere. My eyes couldn’t even sort out individual items. Plastic bins and boxes and bags, stacked on top of one another, balanced precariously. Storage bins filled with a mishmash of unrecognizable objects, cardboard boxes overflowing with clothes, old appliance boxes with worn-out labels, shopping bags thin and stretched to capacity. They made a sort of maze. I could see a path through Stork’s living room to the couch, only wide enough for a single person.

The house wasn’t dirty or smelly, but it was incredibly, incredibly cluttered.

Actually, I thought as I made my way farther down the hall, cluttered is an understatement. I had never watched any of those shows about hoarders on TV, but I knew enough to recognize hoarding when I saw it.

There was space in the bathroom for me to sit on the toilet, but just barely. My knees pushed against a clear plastic dresser with a dozen shoe boxes stacked teetering on top. This was unbelievable. How did Stork live like this? God, no wonder she hadn’t wanted me to come inside. I peed hurriedly, washed my hands, and wiped them on my coat to dry them.

“I’m up here,” Stork called when I came out. “In my bedroom.”

I found the stairs, made my way past stacks of newspapers—newspapers! My parents had read the news online for as long as I could remember—and took a breath at the top. This was just too much. An awful sadness for Stork welled up inside me.

“In here,” she called again. “End of the hall.”

I slipped into Stork’s bedroom, and, wow, what a difference. It was spare, Spartan—a lot like my room at my dad’s place, actually. She had a bookcase with neatly arranged books, a slim dresser—its top completely bare—and a single bed covered in a pale blue blanket embroidered with white flowers.

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.