Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor Read Free Book Online Page B

deep breath and let it out in a sigh that made Ugly jump off her lap and trot over to the kitchen to eat.
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    Aggie slept in the lounge chair all night with the afghan pulled up to her chin. She didn’t even wake up when the sun poured in through the window the next morning. She woke
up when Clyde Dover banged on her door and called her name.
    Aggie jumped.
    â€œComing,” she answered, smoothing her hair and straightening her shirt.
    When she opened the door she could hardly believe the sun was up so high and the day had begun.
    â€œI can’t hardly believe I slept this late,” she said, opening the screen door for Mr. Dover.
    â€œI’m sorry to bother you,” he said, “but I thought maybe we could go over some things today.”
    â€œThings?”
    â€œUm, yeah, you know, make a list of things.”
    Aggie cocked her head. “A list of things?”
    Mr. Dover ran his hand over his buzz-cut hair. “Well, uh, yeah,” he said. “Things we need to talk about before we sign the final papers.”
    Aggie stared at him. What kind of things was he talking about?
    As if he’d read her mind, he said, “Um, like, things that need to be repaired and outstanding debts and all.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œAnd the inspector is coming this afternoon,” he said. “If that’s all right.”
    Aggie felt dizzy. She clutched the doorframe.
    â€œAre you okay?” Mr. Dover asked.

    Aggie said, “Yes,” but she didn’t feel okay. Dizzy, she could handle. Lord knows she’d been dizzy before.
    But all this other stuff?
    Final papers?
    Inspector?
    That stuff was harder to handle than a little ole dizzy spell.
    Mr. Dover said something else, and Aggie nodded like she’d heard him (even though she hadn’t), and then he left.
    She washed her face and went outside to water her plants.
    â€œWhat ya doin’?” someone called.
    Aggie looked up to see Loretta, that little girl from Room 6, skipping toward her.
    Aggie smiled.
    She had forgotten all about skipping. How that felt, so happy and free.
    When was the last time she had skipped? she wondered.
    A long, long time ago, that was for sure.
    â€œJust giving my pals some breakfast,” she said.
    Loretta examined the begonias and geraniums and marigolds in the mildewed flowerpots and rusty coffee cans outside the office door.
    â€œBut not really breakfast, right?” she said.
    â€œSure,” Aggie said.
    â€œJust water?”

    Aggie snapped a yellow leaf off one of the begonias and tossed it into the gravel. “They hate Cheerios,” she said.
    Loretta giggled. A sparkly kind of giggle that made Aggie feel better about the day.
    Loretta took a crumpled piece of paper out of the pocket of her shorts and showed it to Aggie.
    â€œWe’re going to all these places,” she said.
    She beamed at Aggie and flicked her dark, straight hair out of her eyes with a dramatic shake of her head.
    Aggie adjusted her glasses and squinted down at the paper. “Oh, my,” she said. “That’s a lot of places.”
    â€œI know.” Then Loretta told Aggie all about her other mother and the charm bracelet. She held her arm up so Aggie could see all the charms.
    Aggie examined every little silver charm and made sure she said something nice about each one.
    â€œLawd, look at that itty bitty little starfish!
    â€œWell, I’ll be darned. The Statue of Liberty! Ain’t that something!”
    Someone slammed a door.
    Hard.
    Kirby Tanner marched across the parking lot toward the road.
    â€œOh, Kirby,” Aggie called.
    Kirby glanced over his shoulder but kept on walking.
    â€œCome meet Loretta.”

    Kirby stopped.
    â€œCome see what she’s got,” Aggie said.
    Kirby turned and walked back toward them, his hands shoved deep into his pockets and his shoulders hunched up around his ears.
    Loretta jiggled her hand, making the charm bracelet