Amazing Grace by Lesley Crewe Read Free Book Online Page B

that much, and when I do she’s usually on her phone with him.”
    â€œIt must get lonely.”
    She takes a gulp of hot chocolate. “I know what you’re doing. It’s not going to work.”
    â€œMelissa, I know kids your age mess around with alcohol and weed. It’s usually a phase they grow out of. But I want to know, why the Melissa show on the computer?”
    â€œIt’s none of your business.”
    â€œPerhaps not.”
    After I add another log to the fire, I gaze into the flames. The smoke rising from the chimney makes it feel as if the house has started to breathe again.
    â€œThis is almost the last of the apple wood. One of the apple trees was blown down by a wild storm years ago and I cut it up and stacked it in the back shed. Do you smell it?”
    She nods.
    â€œImagine. Even though it’s been here for years drying out and forgotten, it’s still here for us to enjoy. No matter how deeply we bury ourselves, our true essence stays with us, even when we think it’s gone.”
    Melissa makes a face. “You’re talking like a shrink again.”
    I don’t respond.
    â€œBut you’re better at it than most.”
    â€œHave you been to a psychiatrist?’
    â€œOnce, when Mom and Dad got the divorce. They thought it might help, but it made me furious.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œThey could have just asked me how I was. Instead I had to sit with this old guy who had bad breath.”
    This makes me smile. She sees it.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou’re an awful lot like me.”
    â€œI’m more fashionable.”
    â€œSo true.”
    I poke at the fire once more. Melissa watches me. “Why did you bring me here?”
    â€œTo the farmhouse?”
    Melissa nods.
    A deep sigh escapes my lips before I can stop it. “This house, and the women in it, saved me. It is one of the only places where I feel truly safe, and what I’m about to tell you is terrifying.”
    Her eyes get big.
    â€œI brought you here to tell you the story of a little girl named Amazing Grace.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    THEN
    The first time my sister and I go to the bog, our mom takes us there. She makes us run faster and faster, telling us to hurry up. I laugh with delight as we tear through the woods, stumbling on the wet ground as we wave branches out of the way.
    â€œOver here!”
    We hide behind an outcropping of rock and then sit, leaning against the warm, hard surface.
    My heart races. “Did I do good, Mama?”
    She nods. “You’re the fastest.”
    â€œI can run faster than the devil himself.”
    My sister turns on me. “Shut up, Grace. You can not.”
    â€œI’m Amazing, thank you very much! Amazing girls can do anything!”
    Mom puts her hands on our shoulders. “Hush now. We don’t want anyone to find out about this spot. We can have picnics here and play cards. Would you like that, Gracie?”
    â€œNo. I hate playing cards. It’s too boring. Remember?”
    â€œOkay then, what about cops and robbers?”
    â€œI hardly think so,” Ave Maria tsks. “I am twelve.”
    I forget what we played that first time, but it’s a place we return to often, just to get away from the others. I’m not sure who all the others are. Mom’s always vague with her answers and Maria, who thinks she knows everything, doesn’t tell me a thing because I’m only nine. Who does she think she is?
    One thing I know is that my mother loves hymns, and that’s why my sister is Ave Maria and I’m Amazing Grace. My name is so much better than Maria’s, but I don’t tell her that, because she’s usually grumpy, but I’m always happy. Mom calls me a chatterbox.
    â€œYour mouth will get you in trouble one day.”
    We live on a farm with a lot of buildings. Some of the adults call it a compound, others a camp. I’m not sure who my father is, but I must have at