Who Is Frances Rain? by Margaret Buffie Read Free Book Online

take time off whenever I feel like it. Not like some people.” She stood up and started to stack dishes. “And some people don’t seem to realize that I had a life before they moved in and I still have it. And what I decide to do,
I
decide to do. Not some people.”
    Tim stared at her through narrowed eyes. “I don’t think anyone here wants to interfere with your career plans, counsellor. Just remember that your life includes a few more people than you, okay? Your decisions may ... what is it you lawyers say ... your decisions may impact on third parties.”
    â€œWhat does impact mean?” asked Erica.
    â€œImpact? Oh, it means a collision of sorts,” replied Tim, and when Erica frowned over that one, he said, “Or a bump. Like when you have a door slammed in your face.” He looked at Mother.
    â€œYou mean like maybe a car crash?” Erica offered. “A real smash-up?”
    â€œYes, something like that,” he said quietly.
    Mother looked at him, startled. Then she turned and stalked into the kitchen. The sounds of slamming doors and clattering dishes echoed back to us. When Tim got up to clear the table, Gran removed some plates from his hands.
    â€œI don’t believe in women being the only ones in the kitchen,” she said quietly, “but tonight if I were you, I’d leave well enough alone.” Louder she said, “Evan, you go in there and give your ma a hand. Erica can clear. Lizzie helped make dinner, so she and Alex can work on that new puzzle of mine in the corner. Tim, you and I need a drink. Whisky okay with you?”
    Evan’s stupid satisfied grin turned into a gargoyle-level scowl, but he did as he was told. He’s never worked up the nerve to cross Gran.
    When she walked across the room, I thought I saw a strange stiffness in her walk. She was rubbing her left arm as if it were hurting her. Could she be sick? I gave that idea a hard shove, but when she turned and I saw how pale her face was under the dark tan, a fine thread of worry pulled it back.
    She mixed their drinks and sat down across from Tim. Surely, it was just the dull light that made her skin look so grey. Tim must have said something funny then, because she laughed and flapped her hand at him. He rumbled back. There was nothing to worry about, I told myself. Funny how we can snow ourselves sometimes.
    â€œHey! Earth to Lizzie. Earth to Lizzie. Come in please.”
    Alex’s voice close to my ear brought me back to life. I looked into his dark eyes and blinked.
    â€œGood,” he said, “I thought you’d gone to another planet.”
    â€œSorry, I was thinking.”
    â€œDo girls do that? I’ve often wondered,” he said. “Don’t strain too many cells up there, okay? You’ll need them to put together this puzzle. Your gran picks up the toughies.”
    I pushed him aside. “Did you know girls are better at puzzles than boys?”
    â€œOh, is that so? And how do you know that?”
    â€œMy English teacher this year hates men, so she told all the girls what to look out for and what we’re better at. Puzzles are one of those things.”
    I wanted to eat my words. Millions of tiny pieces were spread across the table.
    â€œWell, this ought to separate the girls from the boys,” he said, squinting at them. “Sit down, and prove how good you are at
this
.”
    I spent the next five minutes trying to make one bit of blue fit into a partially finished sky. Alex was working on a section of grass, and he was dropping pieces in one after the other. What I needed was a decoy. Erica’s round cookie face came like a gift from heaven across the ocean of blue pieces. She sat down beside me and began fiddling with the little piles of sky I’d collected.
    â€œErica! I won’t get any more pieces in if you keep mucking around in them.”
    â€œDon’t you mean, you won’t even get one