Anastasia Again! by Lois Lowry Read Free Book Online Page A

announced.
    "No kidding," said Anastasia. "How do you know?"
    "I looked out a window, and she was looking out a window."
    "How do you know she's a witch? Was she wearing a pointed hat?"
    "No," he said, picking some dirt out from between his toes. "She had an ugly witch face."
    "Hey," said Anastasia, "I have an idea. We need a pitcher until we find ours, right? Why don't I go next door and borrow a pitcher? That gives me an excuse to meet one neighbor, at least. I'm dying to meet the neighbors."
    "You want to meet a
witch?
" asked Sam, his eyes lighting up.
    "Sure. You want to come, Sam? Find your sneakers and I'll take you with me. I want to comb my hair first."
    She was heading out of the kitchen when her mother called her back. "Did it really have that article, the one you said? About wives who just chuck it all and run away? What happens to them? Do they end up happy, living in Malibu or something?"
    "Mom," said Anastasia, "just hang in there a couple more days. Post-moving Depression goes away. It really does."
    ***
    The house next door looked like a Charles Addams house. That didn't bother Anastasia. She even watched the shower scene in
Psycho
without covering her face with her hands, something her mother had never been able to do. She read vampire books and watched late movies about gooey blobs that grew and ate entire city populations, without ever having bad dreams.
    But Sam was scared. He wasn't old enough to have developed an immunity to it yet. He held tightly to Anastasia with one hand and tightly to his yellow blanket with another. When they got to the front steps, Sam let go of Anastasia and dropped back to hide behind a bush.
    "Dope," she needled him, and left him there. She went up on the porch and pushed hard on the unpolished brass bell. The shrill ring sounded inside the house. After a
moment she heard footsteps, slow ones, shuffling.
    The door finally opened, and a woman peered out from the dim hall.
    Good grief. She really
did
have an ugly witch face. Sam was right. She would have looked perfect on a broom.
    "Hello," said Anastasia politely. "I'm your new neighbor. My name is Anastasia Krupnik."
    The woman with the witch face stared at her without smiling and didn't say anything. Her gray hair stood out around her face, tangled, like a nest that Anastasia had once seen high in a tree in winter.
    "What's your name?" Anastasia asked.
    The woman stared at her for another long moment. Finally she said, "Mrs. Stein."
    "My mother was wondering if maybe you have a pitcher we could borrow, just for this afternoon until we find ours. We're still unpacking, and it's so hot we need something to make iced tea in."
    "No," said Mrs. Stein abruptly. "I don't have one."
    Liar. Everybody has a pitcher unless they can't find it.
    "Oh," said Anastasia. She wanted to say sarcastically, "Well, thanks anyway, you old bat." But she didn't say that. Instead, she said nicely, "Thank you anyway. I'm sorry I bothered you."
    Mrs. Stein began to push the door closed. Then she stopped, looked beyond Anastasia, and said, "Who's
that?
"
    Anastasia looked. It was Sam, who had come out from
behind his bush and was looking at them fearfully, his yellow blanket wrapped around his arm and his thumb in his mouth.
    "That's my brother, Sam."
    "What is that disgusting thing he's holding?"
    "It's his blanky. He holds it when he's sleepy or scared."
    "Come here, young man," called Mrs. Stein.
    Sam climbed the steps to the porch, carefully holding the railing. It took him a long time because he still went up stairs the baby way, with both feet on each step at the same time.
    "Do you like cookies?" Mrs. Stein asked him.
    Sam nodded.
    "How can you eat cookies if you keep your thumb in your mouth?"
    Sam removed his thumb and wiped it dry on his blanket.
    "Can you talk?"
    "Yes," said Sam solemnly.
    "My name is Gertrude Stein. Can you say that?"
    "Gertrustein," said Sam. He said it the way he said Frankenstein when he was playing monsters.
    "Do you