When You Believe by Deborah Bedford

Author:Deborah Bedford [BEDFORD, DEBORAH]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780446561013
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2009-05-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

The porch light hadn’t been left on for him, which wasn’t a good sign. Sam mounted the three brick steps to the Olins’ house that night and rang the doorbell anyway. As its hollow ding-dong echoed somewhere far inside, he heard a distant muffle of conversation, approaching footsteps.

When the light came on, it was the first time he realized Shelby’s door had a peephole in it. He saw the convex glass darken, knew that the lens and light were being blocked by somebody’s eye.

Sam fiddled with the wallet in his back pocket, which contained thirty-seven dollars in wrinkled, limp bills. He craned his neck at the porch ceiling, whistled a few bars of a song he couldn’t remember the name to. In one corner of the cedar siding, a perfect web vibrated as a spider moved in toward a tiny, trapped gnat.

The eye must have left, because Sam saw empty light through the peephole again. Then, as quickly as he’d noticed it missing, the eye came back again. He couldn’t figure out what was going on. Why was Shelby acting so strange?

Sam rocked backward onto the heels of his father’s Sunday shoes, examining the polished Bordeaux toes. They were the only pair he’d been able to find in the house appropriate for a formal dance. With both hands he lifted, in offering fashion, the clear plastic box with its chrysanthemum corsage and its curled ribbons. He shifted his weight from his right foot to his left. From his left foot to his right. And felt his underarm Sport Speed Stick begin to fail.

Finally, the door cracked open. A yellow cat with a tattered ear shot out, weaving a question mark between his legs. Tom Olin’s square frame filled the space. “Hello, Sam.”

Sam shifted his weight from his right back to his left again. He started to speak but nothing came out. He cleared his throat. “I’m here to pick up Shelby for the dance.”

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Olin said. “I thought she would have called you before now. I’m afraid she doesn’t want to go.”

Sam, his shoulders slumping, just stood there, wondering what he was supposed to say. He gave what felt like a foolish smile and scooped the cat off the ground. The feline dangled over his forearm as if it had no backbone. “Come on, Butterball.” Shelby had named the cat after the turkey last Thanksgiving. “You aren’t supposed to be outside.”

In a fit of wisdom, though, Sam held on to the animal and handed over the enormous flower instead. Mr. Olin took it cautiously, as if he thought it might give him hay fever.

“Maybe you could give it to her. Maybe she would see it and change her mind.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen, son.”

“I’d like to at least try.”

A man would have to be dead to resist such a plea. Tom glanced from flower to boy, from boy to flower, and back again. Tom wasn’t dead. He stepped back to admit both boy and Butterball. “Here.

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.