Read Online Amazing Grace by Lesley Crewe - Free Book Online Page B

laughs and shakes a finger at me. “Don’t make me mad.”
    Now I have to pretend to like everyone again. The cook who bakes with me, the teacher who teaches me, Iris who makes sure I have hand-me-downs and the occasional bag of treats. The adults are in on this. All these women run around and tell me to be modest and obedient and stay invisible, like that’s going to protect me, but they know the man is going to come and get all the girls at some point. They pretend they care but they don’t. And now the red-haired man wants to marry me.
    I have to think of a way to make them all pay.
    First I stop eating and hope someone notices, but they don’t really. There are so many of us that we’re easy to overlook. The mothers pay attention to their own kids. Iris does the best she can but she has seven to look after. All it does is make me feel weak, and I need to be strong. So then I eat a lot, so much that even the man notices. He pinches the skin on my stomach.
    â€œYou’re getting porky. I don’t like fat girls.”
    Perfect. I’ll get so fat he’ll have to roll me everywhere, but as hard as I try, I can’t eat enough to get any bigger. I think it’s because I’m taller and the fat seems to be smoothing out over my bones. So that idea doesn’t work.
    But setting the barn on fire does.
    I make sure the chickens and cats and our two goats are all outside when I light the match and hold it against the straw. It’s the spot where the man first touched me. I’m burning him in those flames. I want him dead. I almost forget to leave but sneak out before anyone smells or sees smoke. I run to the treehouse to watch.
    Deep down I know it’s a sin to destroy something, but I only need to get the attention of strangers, hopefully the fire department. At some point I’ll grab one of them and make them take me out of here. Me and Buddy.
    But I didn’t count on the wind, or remember that the summer was a dry one. The crispy October leaves fly though the air like tiny lanterns spreading out in the late afternoon sky. They fuel the flames that get bigger by the minute. Soon everything is on fire. People scream and run around, carrying things out of the houses. The sirens I hear way off come closer and closer. All the men have to open the gates to let in the fire trucks and policemen. I want to watch it all but I’ve forgotten something. Mom’s duffel bag has my grandmother’s address and phone number on it. That’s all I have left that ties me to anyone. I know Buddy isn’t going to like it, but I stuff him in a burlap bag I keep in the tree house and put him over my shoulder. A fireman sees me come down the ladder and hollers for me to get away from the trees, but I run as fast as I can into the woods to get the duffel bag, Buddy occasionally scratching me through the burlap. I know he doesn’t mean it.
    There are voices behind me and one of them is the man’s voice. The devil is coming after me. I run so hard my chest might explode. I’m tearing through the woods, stumbling on the wet ground and brushing branches out of the way.
    I hear my mama’s voice. “Over here!”
    I hide behind the outcropping of rock, and frantically dig in the mud to get the duffel bag.
    â€œIs he still out there, Mama?”
    â€œStay very quiet.”
    That’s hard to do because I’m breathing too hard. People call my name. “Grace! Grace!”
    The man screams, “Get out here now, Grace!”
    I grab the duffel bag, stand up and scream back. “I’m Amazing!”
    There are two firemen with the man and when they see me cut up and bloodied by the branches and filthy with mud, they look concerned. Like they’re actually seeing me.
    I know what to do. I point at the man. “He married me. You have to get me out of here! Please help me!”
    The firemen both turn at the same time to look at the