Scattered Leaves by V. C. Andrews Read Free Book Online Page B

somewhere behind me. so I closed the door and
went to the kitchen. Looking through it into the
laundry room. I saw her fuming over the sink and
mumbling to herself.
I was glad Felix hadn't come this far into the
house and seen the kitchen. If he thought the other
parts of the house were bad, he would think this was a
disaster. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned up not
only after breakfast but after last night's dinner and
maybe even yesterday's lunch. too. The table was
covered with dishes and glasses and some open food
containers. I wondered how long the bottle of milk
had been out and if it had turned sour.
The sink was filled with dishes. Why hadn't
they been put in the dishwasher? I wondered, but then
again. I didn't see anything that resembled a
dishwasher. The small refrigerator and the gas stove
looked old to me. However, although it was not nearly
as big as Grandmother Emma's kitchen, it was a nicesize kitchen with plenty of counter space. When it was
cleaned up, it would probably look very nice. I
thought.
"What's your name?" Mae Betty demanded as
she turned to me from the laundry- room doorway. "Jordan March," I said.
"I knew you was a March," she said, twisting
her lips. "Why you come living here?"
"My parents were in a bad car accident and my
grandmother had a stroke."
"They all dead?"
"No." I said emphatically.
"So? Why you here?"
"My grandmother is in the hospital. My father
is in a wheelchair."
"What about your mother?"
"She's in a coma in a hospital, but she'll get
better," I added.
"Right. And I'll be the queen of England
someday," she muttered, picked up the pail and started
out. "You'll see," she said after she passed me and
stopped in the hallway. "I'll get this place looking
decent and shell turn it back to a pigsty."
"Why are the dishes piled up in the sink? Isn't
there a dishwasher?'" I asked.
"Dishwasher? You're looking at the
dishwasher," she said. "but she don't make it easy.
She'll use a new dish and a new glass every five
minutes. I tried to get her to use paper plates and
plastic forks once and she threw it all in the garbage,
telling me her sister would be furious. What sister? I
asked. I ain't seen a sister here since I come, but you'd
think she visits her every day the way she carries on
about her."
She walked down the hallway to the front
entrance, pushed the coat hanger back, rolled up the
old rug, and began to wash the wood floor. As she
worked, she continued to mumble under her breath. I
thought I heard a slew of curse words. so I pretended
not to hear and instead started to clean up the kitchen.
Once in a while, back at Grandmother Emma's house,
her maid. Nancy, let me help.
I found the dish soap and began to do the dishes
in the sink. As I worked. I suddenly thought that
maybe this was what Grandmother Emma had meant
when she'd told me my great- aunt Frances needed
me. She didn't need me to work on her farm, but she
needed me to help with taking care of her home, with
taking care of her.
"Oh, my, my," Great-aunt Frances said, coming
to the kitchen doorway when her soap opera had
ended. "Look at you. Not here ten minutes and you're
helping out like a little trouper already. That's the way
I was when I was your age, too. I always helped out.
My sister never helped out. She always said. 'We have
servants for that. Frances. If you do their work, what
will they do? You'll put them out of work. Or you'll
make them lazy.'
"Now, guess what I have here for you." she said, coming into the kitchen and going to a drawer under the counter. She opened the drawer and took
out a large manila envelope. "You know what this is?" I shook my head.
"It's all the arrangements for your school." She
handed the envelope to me.
I wiped my hands on a dish towel and opened
the packet.
There were directions about the bus I was to
take, and there was information about my class with
my teacher's name. Mrs. Morgan. There was a
diagram showing where my classroom was, and then
there was a page about how we were to dress