The Midnight Twins by Jacquelyn Mitchard Read Free Book Online Page B

something. She’ll be here any minute, trust me. She sounded all weird. She probably thinks we’re dead out in the yard,” Merry answered.
    “She’ll bring cucumber and cream cheese on toast squares!” Mallory said with a laugh.
    “I can’t wait!” Merry yelled. “I just love those cucumber sandwiches. You only have to eat fifty!”
    The girls exchanged grins.
    “Let’s make toasted bagels and tomatoes with cheese,” they said together.
    “I’ll make,” Merry offered. “I think they’re finally asleep.” Adam was sprawled, of all places, on the dog’s bed in the corner of the living room.
    “Me too,” Mallory said. “I’m so totally excited by babysitting and idiot fireworks I could party all night. But I think I’ll get a ten-minute power nap instead.”
    “You’ll sleep through your own funeral,” Merry said, echoing their father in his litany of complaints about Mallory’s comatose Saturday mornings.
    “God, I hope so,” Mallory said.
    She lay back on the sofa.
    She was drowsy, almost asleep, when the roof fell in. A five-foot burning column from the porch crashed through the roof just over Mallory’s head.
    Before Merry could cross the room, their aunt’s huge brocaded curtains caught and disintegrated, with a sound like a million crushed pine needles, into huge golden torches that fell like fronds onto the couch. Mallory clawed to keep the strands, pliant and sticky as hot sugar, away from her face.
    “Get on the floor! Roll!” Merry screamed as Mallory leaped up, the back of her sweater alight. Merry pushed her sister down and, once sure that Mallory had rolled out the flames and ripped the sweater off as well, leaped up the stairs two at a time. She dragged Hannah and Heather from their bunks and forced them down into a four-legged crawl toward the back stairs, shouting for Alex, who appeared, groggy, in his basketball pajamas, at the door of his room.
    “The house is on fire!” Merry shouted. “The porch roof is on fire! It broke the front window!”
    Smoke was filling the hall. Merry couldn’t figure it out. Somehow, the flames must have penetrated the roof. Glancing into her aunt’s room, she noticed the three baby albums prominently displayed on a whitewashed bookshelf. Ever tenderhearted, Merry dashed to grab them. But as she did, little Heather screamed and scooted under her mother’s bed.
    “Alex!” Meredith shouted. “Get Hannah downstairs. Get Adam outside. See if Mally’s hurt!” His eyes huge, Alex stood still in his doorway, staring. Smoke was beginning to curl around the molding, and the smoke alarms were shrieking. Merry’s throat began to sting. “Alex, go!”
    Alex seemed to find his feet and began to run. Merry couldn’t believe how fast all of it was happening. Coughing, she threw the baby albums down the stairs and crawled across her aunt and uncle’s floor. “Heather! Heather Lynn! Come out here!” She could see Heather, back against the wall under her parents’ headboard. But small as she was, Merry couldn’t work her way under the bed. Heather had thrown herself on her face and was sobbing for her mother. The smoke was thickening. Merry could hear a rumpus downstairs—Mally screaming Adam’s name, the other two crying, the door banging open. Finally, with a mighty lunge that opened a gash in her scalp when she hit her head on the bed frame, Meredith grabbed Heather’s long braid and pulled the squirming child toward her.
    Meredith picked Heather up and held her like a football, as the child fought and choked. Merry tripped over the photo albums on the landing and fell down three steps. Grabbing them, she scrabbled for the back door, pushing Heather ahead of her with her knee. A full second passed before the message reached Merry’s brain that the doorknob was oven-hot and the skin on her hand was already bubbling. She screamed, instinctively turning toward the sink. But the kitchen curtains were crackling. Meredith couldn’t even see into