The Curse of Rosie Stone by Amy Cross

Author:Amy Cross [Cross, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackwych Books Ltd
Published: 2022-01-23T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

“Where's that stupid girl?” Frank Stone muttered angrily, stumbling through into the hallway and then stopping to look up the stairs. “Rosemary! Where are you? Get down here right now!”

“She's out,” Mary said, calling through to him from the kitchen. “Just sit back down, and I'll have your dinner ready soon.”

“Out?” he roared. “Out where? What's she got to do that's so important?”

“She's had a very difficult week. You know that one of the other girls in her class died last night, don't you? Apparently she killed herself. It's all very horrible.”

“What's that got to do with anything?” Frank asked, making his way through and then stopping to watch as she took a tray of chips out of the oven. “Why's everyone always making excuses for that girl? She's too old to be let off the hook like this. Bad things happen all the time, we don't all get to cry and moan about it.”

“Plus, their teacher died a few days ago,” Mary pointed out. “It's a lot for these young minds to deal with. The school's going to arrange for counselors to be available on Monday, and I'm going to tell Rosie that she really must go and see one. To be honest, I've been a little worried about her for a while and I think it'd be good for her to... I don't know, try to get her head straight.”

“Get her head straight?” Frank sneered. “No good'll come of all this nonsense, you know. In my day, you just got on with things.”

“And how did that work out?” she muttered, casting a disapproving glance at him.

“What's that supposed to mean?” he asked. “My generation came out tough, not like all the little weaklings you've got running around today. How are they supposed to grow up, if we constantly try to protect them from all the things that'll toughen them? If we keep going the way we are, we're going to raise a generation of idiots who can't cope with life. Does that sound right to you?”

“I don't know,” she replied, “you're probably -”

Before she could finish, she caught the bare side of her hand against the hot tray. Letting out a gasp, she pulled back and let the tray fall, spilling the chips all over the floor.

“You're completely useless,” Frank said, making his way over and – in the process – stepping on some of the chips, crushing them into the floor. “You know that, don't you? I'm the only one round here who actually knows how to get things done.”

“I just -”

“Give that here!” he shouted, grabbing the tray and throwing it into the sink. “Do you have any idea how annoying it is, watching you screw things up all the time? You can't even take chips out of the oven properly!”

“It'd help if you weren't always shouting at me,” she replied, dropping to her knees so she could start gathering the chips back onto the tray.

“I'm surrounded by idiots,” Frank said with a sigh, watching her with a slowly-developing scowl.

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