Memorymakers by Brian Herbert, Marie Landis Read Free Book Online Page A

called, and he’ll be by with Nonna this morning to take you somewhere.”
    “Great!” Thomas said.
    Emily smiled.
    “Stay home all day tomorrow and do as Mrs. Belfer says,” Victoria said as she lit a white nicotine tube.
    The children made long faces.
    Victoria set the nicotine tube down in a ashtray and took a large spoonful of her fortified cereal. She alternated spoonfuls with nicotine puffs, and as she ate, smoke curled from her nostrils.
    You look like a fire-breathing dragon, Emily thought.
    Victoria pointed at Emily. “Do you realize that without manners or nice clothes a person is nothing . . . nobody? Look at you, Emily, uncombed hair and elbows on the table. Thomas, your T-shirt ought to go in the garbage. What people must be saying! This is a fine house, with a housekeeper, you know. Mrs. Belfer keeps everything nice and clean, and there you children are looking so nasty and dirty.”
    Nice and clean? Emily thought. The paucity of work Mrs. Belfer did wasn’t done well, and now the house was infested with invisible insects.
    “What’s written on that shirt, Thomas?” Victoria asked.
    “Tom-Tom the Atom Man,” answered Thomas with good humor. He puffed out his chest to display. “Emily drew it because I’ll be a microbiologist when I grow up.” The shirt was white, with bright red, orange and yellow letters, each letter a smooth blending of color.
    “You’ve made your brother look like a vagabond,” Victoria said, taking a drag of nicotine. “You did it because you don’t understand values, the importance of presentable behavior and appearance.”
    “People ought to feel relaxed at home,” Emily protested. “Mrs. Belfer says so.”
    Victoria frowned. “Without nice clothes and your hair and nails done at the best salons—the necessities of the haut monde—life as an adult is very difficult.”
    “Daddy gets by without all that,” Emily said, and with the words out she was afraid she had created trouble for her father.
    Victoria’s frown became a scowl, with deep lines that would have horrified her had she seen them. “Live in the proper neighborhood,” she said tersely, “frequent the proper establishments, associate only with proper people.” She took another drag on her nicotine tube.
    “If you do all that, you can join the tennis club, right?” Emily said, her tone sarcastic.
    “And what’s wrong with that?” Victoria’s eyes narrowed dangerously, her expression icy.
    Emily stared at the television, which showed a female reporter in front of a hospital emergency room entrance. Children were being wheeled in behind her.
    On the screen, the reporter began her nightly news broadcast. Emily kept her eyes and her attention on the television monitor. Any news was better than Victoria’s mouthings.
    The reporter wore a strained expression as she spoke. “The mystery disease continues to strike children in this area. Joining us later tonight, county health officials will give us more information about what they believe is a new and virulent strain of an old disease—meningitis.
    “The onset of the infection is abrupt, and young children appear to go directly into a coma. It is believed that adults are not susceptible because they may have developed immunity to a less dangerous strain earlier in their lives.
    “Please stay tuned for further details.”
    “ Mon Dieu!” shrieked Victoria.
    Her shrill cry startled Emily. “What’s the matter?”
    “I’ve broken a fingernail on the edge of the table. Just what I needed. Now I have to see if I can get in the salon without an appointment. One problem after another!”
    Emily stared at her stepmother’s artificial lavender nails and saw one dangling like a broken talon.
    “Turn that depressing news off, Emily,” Victoria said as she carefully pulled away her broken nail fragment. “Well, I’m off now.”
    She stood, reached in her purse and withdrew a handful of money, which she gave to Thomas. “Buy yourselves some