The Pandora Device by Joyce McPherson

Author:Joyce McPherson [McPherson, Joyce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Candleford Press
Published: 2016-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

I woke up early the next day and made my way to the dining hall before anyone else was awake. A lot of things had happened, and I needed to think. I was surprised to find Jayden already there.

He was just pulling down a book from the shelf above the fireplace and grinned sheepishly when he saw me. “I just needed some time to read. I’m not used to being around people all the time.”

Jayden was a different person at camp—more like the kid who used to pedal around the neighborhood with me, not the one who clammed up this past year. I hadn’t realized how much I missed his friendship. I grabbed two slices of bread from the counter. “I know what you mean,” I said. “Tell Cecily I’m going to skip breakfast this morning.”

I followed the path to Aunt Winnie’s place and ate the bread as I walked. The sun slanted through the trees, lighting up the specks of dust that floated in the air.

Aunt Winnie’s cabin stood in the middle of a cluster of pine trees where the hill dipped into a hollow. She was in the yard, sitting in her wheelchair with a shallow bucket balanced on her knees. She made clucking noises as she sprinkled corn on the ground for the chickens, and they squawked and bobbed their heads to gulp the grains.

“Aren’t chickens the most comical things?” Aunt Winnie said, as if we’d already been chatting for hours.

“Can I feed them?” I asked.

She passed me the bucket, and the chickens followed me around, pecking at my shoe when I let up for a moment. They were so interesting I almost forgot my reason for coming, but not for long. “Aunt Winnie, did you ever meet my parents?”

She tilted her head and studied me. “I did. Your mother made me this cord for my glasses. I was old even then, you know.” She took off her glasses so I could touch the cord. “They call this stuff gimp.”

The cord was made from the same plastic as my key chain, but the pattern was different—looser and more flexible. “Can you tell me more about them?”

Aunt Winnie looked out at the tree tops, as though she stored her memories up there. “Your mother arrived first, as I remember. She found her gift the first day—a gift for making intricate things with her fingers. She used to help me thread my needles, twenty at a time so I’d have one whenever I needed it.”

Aunt Winnie’s words flowed over me like a wind, setting everything right in my mind. I knew I’d never forget a single thing she said.

“Your father started coming the next year, and he was a handful.” Aunt Winnie laughed, only it came out more like wheezing. “One day I woke up to find baby bonnets on all the piglets. He was in the telekinesis class with your mother, but he had another gift, too.”

“Were they friends right away?”

“More like enemies. She thought he was a show-off.

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