Read Online Gabby Duran and the Unsittables by Elise Allen - Free Book Online Page B

Every bit of her seemed to reach for the sky: the bun, her posture, her
dangerously arched brows, the tip of her aristocratic nose. Even her wrinkles seemed angled upward in a pose of superiority.
    “My, aren’t you dressed like a penguin today,” Edwina remarked.
    Gabby looked down at herself. “Concert day,” she explained. “Black skirt and tights and white blouse. My mom had this black velvet ribbon she wanted me to put in my hair, but I
always feel so weird and constricted with my curls pulled back and I—”
    “I was making an observation, not looking for a treatise,” Edwina said in her clipped voice. “Please, get in and close the door.”
    Abashed, Gabby did as she was told. She pushed aside one of several black square throw pillows, so she could slip onto the bench seat across from Edwina’s. Then she placed her purple
knapsack on the floor at her feet, just like Edwina had done with her own black bag. It was dimmer inside the car than outdoors, and if Gabby squeezed her eyes the littlest bit, Edwina’s
all-black clothing melded into the upholstery, so she looked like a ghostly head floating in nothingness.
    “I’m really glad you came,” Gabby said. “I mean, the
way
you came was a little disturbing, but still. I was starting to think I’d imagined everything, you
know?” She smiled her most infectious smile.
    Edwina didn’t return it.
    “I
don’t
know,” Edwina said. “I tend to trust my senses. It’s a wiser way to live.”
    Gabby felt her mouth swell to accommodate her foot. She never had trouble talking to anyone, but chatting with Edwina was like walking a tightrope.
    “I have a job for you,” Edwina said.
    Gabby’s heart gave a hopeful little leap. “With Philip and his family?”
    “Not this time. Your charge in this case is a little girl named what.”
    Edwina’s coal-dark eyes bore into her. Was Gabby supposed to know the answer?
    “Um…I’m not sure,” she stammered.
    “Not sure of what?” Edwina asked.
    “Of the little girl’s name.”
    “What.”
    “The little girl’s name!” Gabby said louder. “I’m not sure of it!”
    “The little girl’s name is what.”
    “That’s just it,” Gabby said. “I don’t know.”
    “You don’t know
what
?”
    “The little girl’s name!”
    “It is
WHAT
.”
    “I can’t tell you what it is!” Gabby cried. “You haven’t told me!”
    Edwina closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “The little girl’s name…is what.”
    Gabby opened her mouth to object, but Edwina held out a palm. “W-U-T-T,” she spelled. “Wutt.
That’s
the little girl’s name.”
    “Wutt?” Gabby echoed.
    “The little girl’s name,” Edwina raised her voice. “
Wutt
is what it is!”
    “No, no, I get that now,” Gabby assured her. “I just meant…really?”
    “It’s quite beautiful in her own language, I assure you.”
    “I see,” Gabby mused. “Then, great! I’m in. When do I sit for her? I can tell Carmen tonight and she can work it into the sched—”
    Edwina picked up one of the throw pillows and thrust it in Gabby’s face. “You sit today.”
    “WHAT?!?!”
Gabby cried.
    Instantly, the pillow folded out of itself and became a miniature-size girl with long red hair, giant eyes, and an enormous mouth, which opened in a high screeching shriek. Gabby shrieked back
at the creature she suddenly held in her hands, then dropped it to the floor, where it scurried behind the bag at Edwina’s legs and promptly folded itself back into a throw pillow.
    “What
was
that?” Gabby gasped.
    “
Yes
,” Edwina snapped, reaching down to pat the pillow gently on its corner.
    “Yes,
wha
—” Gabby began, but caught herself as she realized. “Oh…what
was
that. I mean,
Wutt
was
that
. That was Wutt.”
    “Indeed,” Edwina scolded. “And I assumed after Philip you’d handle the metamorphosis far more professionally. Now you’ve frightened the child.”
    Gabby blushed. “I’m so sorry.” She pushed herself off the