Kristy and the Secret of Susan by Anne Martin Read Free Book Online Page A

Susan. "I'm Claire," she said. "I'm five." Flap, flap, flap. Click, click, click.
"I said," said Claire, "I'm Claire and I'm five." (Susan didn't answer, of course.) "She doesn't talk," Mal reminded Claire.
"Not at all?" "Well, a few words when she wants to," I finally answered. "But she can't have a conversation with you." "Why not?" asked Mathew.
The kids were standing in a circle around Susan, staring at her. She was oblivious to them.
I tried to explain about autism.
Then Margo said, "Maybe she can play tag with us. You don't have to talk to play tag." "Yeah!" exclaimed James. "Maybe we could teach her to play." So we tried. First, we decided that James would be It. He would chase the kids slowly around the yard, just to show Susan how the game was played.
"Run, Susan, run!" I cried.
Susan wandered under a tree. She looked up to where the sun was filtering through the branches and began waving one hand in front of her eyes. Under her breath, she hummed the music she'd been playing on the piano earlier.
Then we tried to get Susan to chase the other kids. That didn't work, either, of course.
We were still shouting, "Run, Susan!" when two of the boys who'd regularly been teasing the Hobarts sauntered into the yard. One was a good six inches taller than the other.
"Hey, Crocs," said the short one.
No one answered him.
"What? Are you all deaf?" he asked.
"Funny as a funeral," muttered James.
"What was that?" asked the taller boy. He stood imperiously over James.
At that point, Ben walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. The boy turned around. He didn't look so tall anymore. He probably didn't feel so tall anymore, either. He backed away. And then he caught sight of Susan.
"Who's that?" he asked. "And what's she doing?" (Susan was flapping and clicking and humming under the tree again.) "Her name is Susan Felder," I spoke up. "Who are you guys?" The boys looked at each other. "We're Bob and Craig," said the tall one. "Yeah, he's Bob and I'm Craig," agreed the short one, just as the other one said the same thing.
"Afraid to use your real names?" I asked.
"Funny as a funeral," said Bob-or-Craig, obviously mimicking James.
Why, I wondered, did the teasers continue to come back? They must have been fascinated by the Hobarts. Otherwise they wouldn't keep egging them on. Maybe they liked hearing new words and phrases and names for things. But the teasers were so mean. If they wanted to hear Johnny ask for "fairy floss," or Ben call someone a "rev head," or Mathew talk about "brecky," they could just ask the boys to tell them about Australia. Most teasers, I had found out, tease because they feel inferior and need to feel superior - like a bully who beats up the runt of the school because the runt is easy to beat. However, I knew this - but it didn't help the Hobarts much.
Ben and Mal and I put our heads together and had a conference. We decided to let the kids try to work things out for themselves. And so the teasers kept teasing. In the middle of the worst of it, though, I noticed something. James was eyeing Susan. When Bob-or-Craig (the short one) stood in front of her and began flapping and clicking right in her face, James ran to Susan and put his arm around her protectively.
"Leave her alone," he said. "She's - she's my mate." Susan had a friend! My heart soared. And then I got another of my ideas. Even though Mallory and Ben and I had decided to stay out of things, I joined James, Susan, and Bob-or-Craig.
"You won't believe this," I said, "but Susan is really smart." "Yeah, right," said the teaser. "Sure she is." "No, really." I explained that Susan had a calendar in her head. "Go on," I said. "Give her any date. She'll tell you the day of the week it fell on." "Okay," said Bob-or-Craig (the tall one) with a smirk. "December first, nineteen eighty-three." "Thursday," said Susan woodenly.
"That's right!" exclaimed the boy. "That's my sister's birthday. How did she know that - and so fast?" "Oh, that was probably easy