Summer Of Fear by Lois Duncan Read Free Book Online

sleep well?” and Peter flushed pink under his freckles and said, “Hi, there,” not looking at me but at Julia.
    “We’re going shopping today,” I said. “Julia wants to get some summer clothes.”
    “That’s a good idea,” Mother said. “In fact, I was going to suggest it myself. The things girls wear at boarding school are sure to be different from what they wear around a place like Albuquerque. I’d go with you, except that I have to print up those snow scenes and get them into the mail.”
    “I think I’ll call Carolyn,” I said. “She loves to go shopping, and it will be a chance for Julia to meet her. Maybe Mrs. Baker will run us over to Winrock.”
    “I’ll drive you over,” Peter offered. “I can get to work a couple of minutes late without hurting anything.”
    It was so out of character for Peter that both Mother and I turned to him with our mouths hanging open, and Bobby nearly dropped his toast.
    “Boy!” he exclaimed. “Now I’ve heard everything! Pete Bryant offering to take a bunch of girls shopping and nobody even asked him!”
    “Cut it out,” Pete said, looking embarrassed. “The shopping center’s right on my way to work.”
    “I’ll give you the credit cards,” Mother said. “For heaven’s sake, don’t lose them.”
    So I called Carolyn, who wanted to come, of course, as she was dying to get a look at Julia, We stopped at her house to pick her up, and then Peter drove us to Winrock and dropped us off there, and Carolyn and I took Julia through the stores. I had a few qualms at first about how Carolyn and Julia would get along together. Julia was so different from all of our school friends that I still felt sort of awkward with her myself. But I needn’t have worried. She seemed to take to Carolyn immediately and though she didn’t talk much she smiled a lot, and she listened to all of Carolyn’s and my suggestions as we swept her along from store to store.
    “What about House of Fabrics?” I suggested after we had bought jeans and two pullover shirts and an India print blouse. “Mother says there’s a sale there. I want to make a dress to wear to the teen night dance on the fifteenth.”
    “That’s a great idea,” Carolyn said enthusiastically. “Rick’s seen everything I own at least a hundred times. I’d like to surprise him for once and show up in something different,”
    So we went to House of Fabrics and picked out patterns and material. Carolyn got a pale blue with a white design going through it and I went wild and got pink. “At least, I can be sure no other redhead will be wearing it,” I said, laughing. “Julia, what are you choosing?”
    “I don’t sew,” Julia said. “Besides, I don’t need a dress. I have my yellow.”
    “Yes,” I said, “but still—” I struggled to think of a way to say politely that although the dress was lovely, it was not a dress that was becoming to Julia. It belonged on someone else, someone with lighter hair and complexion—someone—but who? The question of the night before leapt back into my mind, tugging at the edges of my memory in irritating little jerks. Where in the world was it that I had seen a dress like Julia’s, and who was it who was wearing it?
    “Do you have a swimming suit, Julia?” Carolyn asked, unaware of my mental conflict. “If not, you’ll really need one. We all spend a lot of time at the pool out at the club.”
    So we went back to Penney’s where we had purchased the shirts and took a look at the bikinis.
    Julia picked out a couple and went into the dressing room to try them on.
    “What do you think of my cousin?” I asked Carolyn as we waited.
    “I like her,” she said immediately. “She’s sort of exotic, isn’t she, with those big dark eyes? And she has such an interesting way of talking, as though she’s always looking for just the right word to express her meaning. I love the way she says ‘yeller’—like a hillbilly, one minute—and sounds just as refined as