Read Online Dragonfly Secret by Carolyn J. Gold - Free Book Online Page B

think Miss Ryderson will say in her report?” I asked Mother when the two of us were sitting at the breakfast table alone.
    She sighed and turned her coffee cup in little half circles, pushing the handle between her thumbs. “I’m afraid it won’t be good, Nathan.”
    â€œWhat will she say?” I persisted.
    â€œWell, let’s see. She saw him yell at Mrs. Pruitt yesterday, and throw rocks at her cat. She’ll probably call that antisocial behavior.”
    â€œBut that cat is always in our yard,” I objected. “It scratches up your flower bed and does things under the bush by the front window. And yesterday it got in the house and knocked my lizard cage off my desk and broke it.”
    â€œDoesn’t matter,” Mother said, her face glum. “It shows he doesn’t get along with other people.”
    â€œHe gets along fine with us.”
    â€œThat’s different, Nathan. We’re his family.”
    â€œIf he doesn’t get along with people, why should he go live where there are lots of people around instead of only a few?” I demanded. “It doesn’t make sense.”
    Mother looked at me. “No, it doesn’t, does it?” She sounded sad.
    â€œWhat else will Miss Ryderson say?”
    â€œThat he thinks Louise is trying to get him committed.”
    â€œShe is.”
    â€œWell, yes, but not because she wants to hurt him.”
    I frowned. “She doesn’t care about him at all. All she wants is the money from the farm. That hurts him a lot.”
    Mother’s eyes were wide and serious. “So you believe that, too.”
    I swallowed a mouthful of cereal. “She’s always saying he ought to sell the old farm. Why else would she say that?”
    â€œBecause she thought it was costing your grandfather too much money. Until a few weeks ago she didn’t even know it was rented for pasture. She thought it was sitting abandoned and he was paying the taxes out of his retirement check.”
    â€œShe still wants him to sell the farm,” I said. I couldn’t believe that Aunt Louise was really trying to help Gramps.
    â€œShe thinks it’s too much responsibility for him.”
    â€œWhy? He doesn’t have to do anything.”
    She smiled. “Louise and Edward have a house in Jamestown that they rent out.”
    I knew that. It was the house Edward lived in before they were married. It was a little house, and when they moved into the big one where they lived now, they had rented the old one instead of selling it.
    Mother stood up and walked to the window. “They go to check it over every month, when the rent is due. There’s always something that needs to be fixed. A dripping faucet. A leak in the roof. Paint starting to peel. Louise thinks the farm is the same way.”
    She walked over to the refrigerator and took down a magazine clipping that had been pinned there with a magnet shaped like an apple. “Louise gave me this for Dad. It’s about a group called the Nature Conservancy. They buy land to keep it from being developed.”
    â€œSo she does want him to sell it.”
    â€œActually, she suggested that he donate the farm to them, to be set aside as a park. She said they might name it after your grandmother.”
    I sat staring into my cereal, ideas whirling in my head. It sounded like a wonderful plan. Like something Gramps might really like to do.
    â€œWhat does Gramps think about this?” I asked.
    Mother took the clipping and stuck it back on the refrigerator. “I don’t know. With all that’s been happening around here lately I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about it. Anyway, you wanted to know what Miss Ryderson will say in her report. People who think others are out to get them are paranoid, so she may say that.”
    I nodded. “Aunt Louise told her what Gramps said about trying to poison him.”
    â€œWith too much sugar in the