Getting Lucky by Carolyn Brown Read Free Book Online

Want to trade? I'll give you a black and white one for a yellow one," Lizzy said.
       Annie nodded. "You got a black and white one on your horse?"
       "No, I didn't bring it today. But I'll take one of yours and bring mine back to you another day."
       "Okay. Come around to the front yard and there's a gate. You can pick out whichever one you want, but don't want this one because I really want to keep him because he's my favorite," Annie said.
       Lizzy shook her head again. "I can't come in your yard. A witch lives there in that house. My Nana Rita said so. I'm afraid of the witch. She called me a spawn."
       Annie left the kittens and went to the fence. She looped her small fingers in the holes and looked right into Lizzy's eyes. "Are you trying to scare me? You can't be my friend if you do, and anyway, what's a spawn?"
       Lizzy walked up to the fence, laced her fingers over Annie's and whispered, "I'm tellin' you the truth and I don't know what a spawn is but the devil makes them 'cause she said I was a devil's spawn. I saw her at church lots of times, and I rode my pony up to the trees and watched her but I didn't tell Daddy. She had gray hair and a long nose. She looked at me real mean and never did talk to my daddy and her name was Edna Lassyturn. She died but her ghost still lives here because she was so mean."
       "My momma don't know she bought a witch's house. I'll have to tell her."
       Lizzy nodded very seriously. "Nana Rita said nothing could kill something that mean."
       "Who is Nana Rita?" Annie asked.
       "She's kind of like my grandma, only I have one of those, too. She lives in… I can't remember but it's a long way to her house. She's Daddy's momma and I call her Granny, but Nana Rita lives in a house on the ranch and she comes every day to cook and keep me."
       "I had one of those. She lived in the house beside ours, and I went there every day. I called her Grammy. I miss her but I'm glad my momma bought this place because I found you for my friend and we both got a white streak in our hair," Annie said.
       Lizzy touched the white forelock. "It's my lucky streak."
    Annie touched her hair. "Is mine lucky, too?"
       "We'll ask Jane. She's Slade's wife now. She's my friend and I like her a lot. She'll tell us if yours is a lucky streak. You think you can put a yellow kitten through the fence so I don't have to come in there?"
       "Yes, I can. There's a hole. I found it yesterday when the momma cat got under the fence. I can give it to you back there. Which one do you want?" Annie whispered so the ghost of that Lassyturn woman couldn't hear.
       Lizzy pointed toward the back side of the yard. "Can you bring them all back there and we'll look at them?"
       Annie picked up five squirming kittens and carried them to the place where Lizzy stopped. They sat down, one on each side of the fence, passing kittens back and forth and giggling like only five-year-old little girls can.
       After half an hour Lizzy had made her choice and mounted up, waved good-bye to Annie, and rode back toward the ranch house. Lizzy was happy until she looked up and saw the car in the driveway. She was there. Lizzy determined she'd stay in the barn until she was gone. Sometimes her daddy was so stupid. Nana Rita even said he was when it came to her.
       She stayed out in the barn with the momma cat, who accepted the yellow one right in with her three black and white babies without so much as a slap or a meow. Lizzy played with all of them until her stomach started growling and she had to go inside.
       "Where have you been?" Griffin asked. "We were ready to come looking for you."
       "I was playing with my kittens," Lizzy said.
       "Well, get washed up for supper. Rachel is staying with us. Isn't that nice?"
       Lizzy dragged her heavy heart back to the bathroom without answering. She could think of nothing worse than Rachel staying for dinner. She lathered up her hands