The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Author:Zilpha Keatley Snyder [Snyder, Zilpha Keatley]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Usenet, C429, Kat, Exratorrents
ISBN: 9781453271971
Publisher: Open Road
Published: 2012-10-23T01:39:00+00:00

13

MARTHA HAD LEFT THE ruined house that first day not at all sure she ever wanted to go back. What she didn’t at all suspect was that she herself would be the first one to urge that they return.

It happened because Martha’s mother had made plans to take both her daughters to the city to an afternoon performance of the ballet. Cath, who was a Sophomore in high school that year, was still taking ballet; but she was beginning to complain that the lessons were taking up too much of her time. And it turned out that that particular Saturday afternoon she had no time at all. Pretty much at the last moment she told her mother that there just wasn’t any way that she could fit the matinee into her schedule. And so Mrs. Abbott asked Martha if she would like to bring a friend. Mrs. Abbott suggested that since Kelly Peters was also a ballet student, she might be delighted to see the performance. Martha was pretty sure that Kelly wouldn’t be delighted to go anywhere with her, but at her mother’s insistence she called to find out. Kelly’s mother answered, and she must have stayed within earshot because Kelly was ickily polite.

“Well, thanks a lot, Martha,” she said. “It sure is nice of you to ask me, and I’d just love to, but today is the day that Janine is having her big roller skating party, and I already said I’d go to that. Da-a-rn!” she drawled with exaggerated regret, and the word phony leaped into Martha’s throat in such solid form that it almost choked her. But, like always, she didn’t say it.

Then Mrs. Peters must have left the room because Kelly’s voice crisped, and she said, “I thought you knew about Janine’s party. Nearly everybody is going.”

So Martha reported to her mother that Kelly had another date and suggested, not too hopefully, that maybe Ivy could go. Somewhat to Martha’s surprise, Mrs. Abbott agreed.

Martha had known that Ivy would want to go, but she was really surprised by the extent of Ivy’s enthusiasm. She arrived early, combed and dressed so carefully that she hardly seemed like Ivy for a moment. On the way into the city Ivy told Martha and her mother that she had never seen a real ballet before—and not even very much on television. Aunt Evaline had no T.V., and the Carsons’ set was always either broken, or being used by someone else.

“But I know a lot about it,” Ivy told Mrs. Abbott. “I took lessons the last time I was in Harley’s Crossing from a friend of my aunt’s. And I’ve read books about it—and I know in other ways, too.” When she said the part about “other ways,” she looked at Martha and grinned. Martha grinned back, knowing that Ivy meant about having been a ballet dancer in another reincarnation.

Ordinarily, Ivy probably wouldn’t have bothered to leave out something just because it might sound too unusual for an adult. Martha had heard her say some pretty fantastic things, even in front of teachers.

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