Dana's Valley by Janette Oke Read Free Book Online Page B

arms to us, and we scrambled off the bed and went to meet him. He hugged us both. I felt him kiss me on the top of the head. “How about coming down to the kitchen,” he said at last when we had stopped crying again. “Mom made some hot chocolate. We need to talk.”
    By the time we entered the kitchen, Mom and Brett and Corey were already there. We all took our regular seats at the table while Mom poured the hot chocolate, adding lots of cool milk to Corey’s cup. She had sandwiches and cookies on a plate, and in spite of feeling so sad we all were glad for the snack. Somehow we had missed out on lunch.
    I was on my third cookie when Daddy said, “I’ve been on the phone with Uncle Patrick. He and Aunt Lynn have already gone over to be with Grandma.”
    Dana and I exchanged glances. Both of us knew that Grandma Walsh and Auntie Lynn often had differences of opinion. It wasn’t discussed at our house, but Grandma often made little remarks during our visits, and when we were with Aunt Lynn we heard the other side of the stories. Mom refused to speak about it when we kids were around, but I once overheard her and Dad talking about what a shame it was that family members couldn’t get along.
    â€œYour mother and I want to leave as quickly as possible,” Dad was continuing. “We’ve asked Mrs. Joyce to come and stay with you.”
    â€œCan I come?” Corey put in quickly. “I want to see Grandpa too.”
    Poor Corey. He still didn’t seem to have things figured out.
    â€œWe will only be seeing Grandma now,” Mom said patiently. “Remember. I explained about Grandpa.”
    Corey wrinkled up his face in concentration. “Oh yeah,” he said and leaned up against Mom. She put an arm around him, and her fingers reached up to brush the reddish hair back from his forehead.
    â€œI think you need to know how it happened,” Dad went on. “Grandpa and Grandma had gone to bed, and for some reason she awoke in the night. She couldn’t hear Grandpa breathing, so she turned on the light. That was when she discovered that he was gone.”
    â€œWhere’d he go?” piped up Corey. “I thought you couldn’t walk when you got dead.”
    In spite of the sadness we all felt, I saw Dad smile just a little bit. “That’s right,” he said, reaching out his hand to Corey’s knee. “He was still there, but he was dead. Grandma didn’t know he was dead—for sure—so she called an ambulance. They took Grandpa to the hospital, and the doctors there said it was too late. Grandpa had already died.”
    I was about to start crying all over again. I looked over at Dana. She was already in tears. For some reason that made me determined to hold my tears at bay. I had done enough crying. I fought back the lump in my throat and blew my nose hard on the tissue I was holding.
    â€œYour mom and I will be back home tonight. We need to meet with Grandma and Uncle Patrick to arrange the funeral service. But we will be back tonight. It may be rather late because of the three-hour drive. We want you all to mind Mrs. Joyce. Go to bed at your proper time. There will be school for you tomorrow.”
    That last remark did not come as a surprise to me. Daddy had commented before, when other families had gone through similar sorrows, that he thought it was best to keep as much of the familiar routine as possible. So it seemed reasonable to me that we wouldn’t miss another day of school tomorrow. In fact, I decided that I didn’t want to sit at home the next day crying every time I looked at another family member’s teary eyes. But by the way Dana’s face twisted, I gathered she would have preferred to stay home one more day.
    I looked around the table. Everybody looked very sad—though I was sure Corey still didn’t have too clear an idea what death was all about. Dana certainly did. She looked ready to