The Ride of Her Life by Lorna Seilstad Read Free Book Online Page B

Levi for supper?
    She quickened her step on the dirt path leading to the roller coaster site. When she found Nick Perrin, she was going to educate him on the definition of shortly .
    Taking a deep breath, she inhaled all the scents of spring but didn’t have time to savor it. The late afternoon sun would soon sink behind the bluffs. The tall foundation posts came into view like a forest of matchsticks as she approached. My, they’d gotten a lot built in the last week, and it looked like the coaster would be as long as ten or eleven streetcars lined up end to end.
    Moving along the length of what would soon be a roller coaster, she searched the area for Levi, but not even one of the work crew was in sight. She shouldn’t be surprised. Their day was over. Hers, however, was not.
    “Levi!” she called.
    From around the side of a stack of lumber, his head poked out. “Here, Mama.” Like a turtle, he pulled his head back in.
    She hurried to the pile and marched around it. “Where on earth . . .”
    When she rounded the stack, she stopped. Levi sat perched on top of a large, homemade worktable holding a much-too-heavy hammer in his right hand. Mr. Perrin bent over her kneeling son, his hand covering the boy’s.
    “Remember.” Mr. Perrin held a nail in place. “First you have to set the nail with a little tap. Then you can drive it in.” He demonstrated the motion and pulled his hand away. The nail remained standing upright.
    With his tongue stuck between his lips, Levi tapped the nail. “I wanna try it by myself.”
    “Okay, but don’t hit your thumb.” Mr. Perrin stepped back and placed his hands on his hips, making his already broad shoulders widen further.
    Lilly couldn’t take her eyes off the two of them. Intent on his project, Levi focused on the nail and Nick Perrin focused on her son. Levi drove the nail, albeit crookedly, through the wood.
    Levi swung his legs over the side of the table and grinned at her. “We’re building a snake cage.”
    Chicken wire had been tacked to four sides of a frame. She guessed Levi was working on the lid.
    Nick tousled Levi’s hair. “And you’ve done a fine job. It’ll need a hinge and a latch, but I can pick those up in town when I go for supplies.”
    “Did you boys even notice the others had all departed for supper?” Lilly’s words came out with more bite than she intended.
    “I apologize, ma’am. I guess we got a bit carried away with our project.”
    “Mama, we’re working men.” Levi hooked his thumbs in the suspenders of his knee pants. “We can’t quit till the job is done.”
    “Well, working men need to eat too.” She ran her hand along the cage, and her irritation evaporated. Even though Nick Perrin should have kept his word and brought Levi back, how could she be angry with someone who’d been so kind to her son? “I was worried, is all.”
    “Of course you were.” Mr. Perrin took the hammer and set it in his wooden toolbox. “Again, I apologize. I should have been more mindful, but as long as you’re here, why don’t you let Levi and I show you around?”
    She took a step backward. “I really should be getting back to the dishes.”
    “But, Mama, it’ll only take a minute.”
    She released a long breath. Her nerves were spent, and she had no desire to face Eugenia too soon. “All right, my little pestering magpie. Perhaps I can spare a few minutes.”
    “Excellent.” Mr. Perrin lifted Levi off the table. “Levi, why don’t you lead the way?”
    Lilly followed her son, who led her around the structure as if he’d built it all himself.
    “These here posts will hold the track.” Levi laid his hand on the rough wood. “The cars will race on it faster than a horse can run on the streets.”
    “Really?”
    “Up to thirty miles per hour.” Mr. Perrin walked several yards away. “This is where the depot will stand. There will be a forty-foot climb at the beginning, which will give the cars the momentum they need to make it