The Girl Who Owned a City by O. T. (Terry) Nelson

Author:O. T. (Terry) Nelson [Nelson, O. T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781467700047
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

CHAPTER TEN

W

hat’s the matter with Lisa? they all wondered. She just sits there thinking.

Actually she didn’t think about much during that next week. Sometimes she would wander by the lake, and other times she’d talk to Todd, usually at night, in their bed. But most of the time, Lisa did nothing.

Her thoughts were all jumbled. I’m such a fool, she said to herself. I talked about changing things, and now things have changed me. I thought I could do anything, and I made such a big deal out of what I would do. Just look at me now. I’m just another orphan.

Jill had to take care of her. She was patient, and that’s what Lisa needed most of all.

But the other children couldn’t understand Lisa’s reaction to the fire. She had faced much bigger problems and hadn’t been discouraged. Why now?

Lisa thought about it too, and began to form an answer for herself. She still wanted to believe in the things she used to talk about. Before the fire, everything had seemed very simple to her. “Why not?” used to be her confident answer to anyone who questioned a wild plan of hers. When the old problems had come up, she knew what had to be done. But now she doubted her ability to think clearly. She doubted herself. So she waited and thought.

Lisa became more and more interested in Jill’s children. They liked Jill for her kindness. And she really was kind to them.

Still, there was something wrong, something that was troubling them. They didn’t play as they had in the old days. Instead they wandered about and whined for attention or treats. They wanted to feel useful. Lisa could sense it by the way they smiled whenever they had a new idea. “Jill, let’s make a garden,” one of them had said. “The flowers will make everybody happy.”

Jill would say, “Yes, we’ll do that in the spring when it’s warm.”

One boy invented a weapon out of woodscraps he’d nailed together. Jill told him, “You have a good idea there. Show me how it works.” And she patiently watched him demonstrate it.

But it seemed to Lisa that the children quarreled too much. They fought constantly over their toys. There were enough toys so that each child could have at least two or three, but they all clamored for the same, beat-up, popular ones. The more Jill told them to share, the more they all seemed to need one particular toy for themselves. Even Jill lost her temper now and then when her words about sharing were ignored.

Sharing? Maybe that’s part of the problem, Lisa thought one morning. An idea roused her into action.

Maybe what these kids needed was to have at least one toy they could call their very own. Lisa gathered the children together and tried assigning toys. But it didn’t work; they still demanded the same old favorites.

Jill came in from the yard. “What’s going on in here?” she asked. She didn’t like Lisa changing her rules around.

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