EMIT (THE EMIT SAGA) by Barbara Cross Read Free Book Online Page A

got scared being out here alone and turned around.”
    There was a boat that had its lights on and as we passed , it went completely dark. From the light of a nearby boat, I saw that someone was standing on the deck.
     
    Lily and I woke up and smelled baked goods all the way upstairs. In the kitchen, we found everyone preparing a birthday breakfast for Grammy.
    “Happy Birthday, Grammy!” Lily and I yelled out together and kissed her.
    Mom was scooping scrambled eggs into a bowl and Aunt Cecile was making a fruit salad. Uncle Ian, who hated to cook, was preparing the coffee and tea. Dad was flipping pancakes and making a terrible mess. Grammy looked upset and sat down at the table.
    As Mom put the eggs on the table, she whispered, “Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up.”
    “Paige, ar e you riding today?” asked Lily while reaching for a blueberry muffin.
    “Yeah, I have a lesson. Want to come?” I asked, knowing what she’d say.
    “No way. Never again.”
    I laughed. One summer, Lily was bored waiting for me to come home every day, so Aunt Cecile signed her up for a two-week session.
    The firs t day she had a lot of fun, but that wasn’t the case on her second. Lily was told to clean a horse stall and she adamantly refused to do it. When a girl began mucking my stall, I got upset and Lily thought I was insane. “Why do you care if someone picks up the horse poop?”
    “ I want to do it myself,” I whined.
    “Are you crazy?” Lily stared at me in utter disbelief.
    After camp, Lily ran to her Mom and shrieked, “Did you know that you paid for me to clean stalls?” Lily was convinced that the pony camp was just a ruse and that parents were paying for their kids to do child labor. That was the end of Lily’s equestrian life and she never went back.
    After breakfast, I drove to my riding lesson.
    Sara set up the gates and I was thrilled to jump the rails. Towards the end of my lesson, something spooked Milton and I saw a man in a suit walking behind the bushes.
    Sara saw him too and called out, “You can’t be over there. This is private property.”
    Without saying a word, the man walked down the hill towards the street.
    As Mom and I left the farm, a dark car was blocking the driveway. This was so weird.
    “What are they doing? Beep the horn .”
    Before I did, the car pulled away.
    The rest of the day Lily and I hung out by the pool. When Lily started playing her guitar, I read some more poetry.
    A poem called ‘When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be’ was really depressing.
     
    WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE
    When I have fears that I may cease to be
    Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
    Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
    Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
    Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
    That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
    Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
     
    Since his parents, grandmother and brother died, Keats was cognizant of his own mortality or he wrote this poem when he was ill. Keats died when he was twenty-five. Time was the theme of the poem and it alluded to fulfilling dreams of fame and love. In the end, Keats knew that he would “stand alone” since dying was a solitary journey.
    That evening we had reservations to celebrate Grammy’s birthday at her favorite restaurant, The Bayview Inn in Jamesport. We sat on the outside deck and as I looked down the street, I saw two dark cars idling nearby.
    “Dad, I keep seeing dark cars with tinted windows everywhere,” I said.
    “So have I. The North Fork is getting very popular and there are a lot of wine tours so there are a lot of car