Jumping the Scratch by Sarah Weeks Read Free Book Online

both doctors, so they could afford that kind of thing. There was cocktail sauce too, with horseradish in it.”
    â€œI don’t like horseradish,” I said.
    â€œYou might when you’re older. It grows on you. Like coffee.”
    â€œWhat’s this made out of, anyway?” I asked, rubbing the plush blue fabric between my thumb and finger.
    â€œVelveteen,” she said, “like the rabbit in that old story.”
    â€œIt’s soft,” I said.
    â€œMm-hmm,” said Sapphy as she ran her hand slowly down the front of the dress. Then she closedher eyes and stroked it in the other direction, against the nap, her fingers leaving little trails as they went. “My mother made all the buttonholes by hand, and she covered the buttons with fabric so they’d match perfectly. I stood on one of our dining room chairs while she pinned up the hem. I remember she couldn’t talk because she had pins sticking out of her mouth. She looked like a—like a—”
    â€œPorcupine?” I said.
    Sapphy smiled and sighed deeply as her chin dropped down to her chest. The pill had finally kicked in. I helped her up and managed to get her into bed. Then I slipped the blue dress back into the plastic bag and hung it up in the closet. Yet another key that hadn’t fit the lock.
    As I switched off the light and pulled Sapphy’s door closed, for the second time that night I suddenly remembered the laundry. I was not supposed to leave Sapphy alone in the house, but if Marge arrived in the morning and found out that despite her warning, I had left the clothes sitting in the dryer overnight, I’d never hear the end of it. I was sure Sapphy wouldn’t wake up, not that soon after the pill had kicked in, so I pulled on my jacket andquickly ran down to the laundry shed. A minute later I was leaning against the dryer, waiting to catch my breath, when I heard a noise at the door and turned around to find Audrey Krouch standing there.
    â€œHey,” she said. “What are you doing here so late?”
    â€œIt’s a free country,” I said sarcastically.
    I opened the door of the dryer and pulled out a wad of wrinkled clothes.
    â€œI hope you have an iron,” Audrey said.
    I gave her a dirty look.
    â€œI don’t know what your problem is. It’s not my fault you called me up tonight,” she said.
    â€œYes, it is,” I said. Then I went over to the bulletin board, tore the light-blue flyer off the board, and ripped it in half. A couple of silver stars came loose and fluttered down to the floor.
    â€œI can just make another one,” she said with a shrug. “I’ve got a whole box of those stars.”
    â€œYou better not make another one,” I said, “or I’ll rip that one down too.”
    â€œYou’re just jealous because I have special powers.”
    â€œThat’s the dumbest thing I ever heard,” I scoffed. “You don’t have any special powers.”
    â€œI do so. I told you, I have ESP,” she said, pushing up her glasses, “Extrasensory perception. I can see things nobody else can see.”
    â€œMust be your glasses,” I said.
    â€œFor your information, these glasses do help me see,” she said.
    â€œOh, come on. They don’t even have glass in them,” I said. “How could they help you see?”
    â€œIt’s not that kind of seeing,” she said.
    â€œWhat other kind is there?”
    â€œThe kind that lets me read someone’s mind,” she said.
    â€œGive me a break,” I told her. “You can’t read minds, Audrey. And you don’t have ESP either.”
    â€œOh, yeah? Then how come I know you’re scared of the office?” she asked.
    â€œI told you, you don’t know squirt,” I said.
    â€œI suppose I don’t know squirt about cherry cans either, then, huh?”
    A chill went right up my spine and made me shiver so hard, I bit my