The Chain Letter by Julie Schumacher

Author:Julie Schumacher [Schumacher, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-51711-1
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2005-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Livvie's father called before dinner on Sunday, as expected. Now Livvie told him about her fall, about the ice on the back steps, and about having to scratch inside her cast with a vegetable skewer. Because it involved too much explaining, she didn't tell him about the chain letter.

“I broke my arm when I was your age,” her father said. “The difficult thing, I remember, was keeping the cast out of the water. It was summer, and all my friends were swimming and I couldn't go.”

“I have to take sponge baths,” Livvie said. “When I get more used to the cast I'm going to take real baths but hang my leg over the side of the tub.”

They talked about the bed-and-breakfast for a while, and Livvie remembered to ask how Sharon was.

“Fine,” her father said. “She's looking forward to seeing you this summer.”

“Me too,” Livvie said, even though the time she spent with her father and Sharon was always slow and quiet.

Livvie's mother was putting two bowls of vegetarian chili on the table. Livvie could smell the garlic bread. “I have to go, Dad.”

“That's fine,” he said. “Say hello to your mother.”

“I will.” She always felt that her father sounded relieved when their Sunday-afternoon calls were over. She knew he loved her, but her mother was right: He wasn't very good at conversation, especially on the phone.

“Take care of that toe,” he said.

Livvie told him she would. She hung up and hobbled to the table. “Dad said to say hi.”

Her mother cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Hi, Stan! How're you doing?”

There was a muffled bang against the wall. “Sorry, Darryl!”

Livvie sat down and ate three slices of garlic bread, then carefully investigated the chili. She suspected it had tofu in it. One of her mother's missions in life seemed to be to put a little tofu into everything. Then she would happily announce, “You didn't even taste it!”

“By the way,” her mother said. “Phil offered to pick you up from school in the afternoons.”

“What?” Livvie was poking inside the top of her cast with a serving spoon. “What do you mean, he offered? Why?”

Her mother looked surprised. “Because you can't get very far in that cast, and I won't be home to come and get you. I'll drop you off on my way to work, and he'll pick you up after school at three-thirty. It's a very kind gesture.”

“But this is a walking cast,” Livvie said.

Her mother nodded toward the window, where the thermometer outside the glass registered five below. “It's the coldest December in twenty years. And the sidewalks are icy.”

“But what about Joyce?” Livvie plucked a mushroom from the chili and set it on the edge of her bread plate. “I'm supposed to be delivering her homework.”

“Talk to Phil. Maybe he wouldn't mind swinging by.”

“Right. I'm sure he's dying to drive me all over town.”

“I doubt he would mind. Phil likes you. He always has.” She refilled Livvie's glass with milk. “Maybe he can even take you Christmas shopping.

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