Read Online Magnet & Steele by Trisha Fuentes - Free Book Online Page A

for an herb and vegetable garden.
     
    Nancy and Francine were on their
knees pulling weeds from inside the herb garden when Francine
looked up for a moment and watched her mother vigorously pulling
weeds from around the basil. “Mom?”
     
    “Yes?”
     
    “Do you think Suzy’s all
right?”
     
    “Why do you ask?”
     
    “Well, we haven’t seen any letters
from her. Do you think she’s all right?” Francine asked again,
uncertain.
     
    Nancy got up off her knees and
grabbed the hoe next to the brick wall and started to over-turn the
soil. “I want to believe that she is,” she grimaced, sticking the
hoe into the hard ground.
     
    “Do you think dad will ever let her
back into the family?”
     
    Nancy dug a nice hole in the soil,
“That remains to be seen.”
     
    Francine shook her head. “He can’t
do that to us, can he?”
     
    Nancy stopped and looked over at her
daughter, “Yes Francine, he can.”
     
    Just then, a Frisbee came whirling
down and landed on top of one of her mother’s tomato
plants.
     
    “What the—”
     
    “Excuse me?” A muffled voice on the
other side of the stone wall asked.
     
    Francine looked oddly at her mother
and they both started to smile. “Yes?” Francine answered
back.
     
    “Could you please toss that Frisbee
back over the wall?”
     
    Francine stood next to the stone
wall. “What Frisbee?” She asked with the Frisbee now in her
hands.
     
    Nancy thought it was funny too and
began giggling alongside with her.
     
    “Um…didn’t a Frisbee just come over
the wall?”
     
    “Ooooh, you mean this bright colored
object that just chopped off some of my roses?” Francine quipped,
twirling the Frisbee around in her hands once more.
     
    “Yeah, that’s it, sorry.”
     
    Francine seemed to annoy the person
rather than amuse them.
     
    “Could you just throw it
over?”
     
    “Poor sport,” Francine said to her
mother, “Can’t take a joke.”
     
    “Just flip it over Fran,” Nancy
directed, going back to her digging.
     
    “OK mom, now how am I gonna do this?
This is crazy, you know I can’t throw. I can’t even toss what
should I do?”
     
    “Just kinda flip it over,” Nancy
suggested.
     
    Grabbing the Frisbee with her right
hand, Francine whirled it as hard as she could and the Frisbee
seemed to take flight and landed in an unreachable boundary of a
tree in her neighbor’s backyard.
     
    “Crap!” She heard the fella
say.
     
    “Oh man, I’m sorry!” Francine
apologized running up to the wall. After hearing nothing from the
other side, Francine took a few steps backwards and watched her
neighbor as he climbed the tree to retrieve the Frisbee. The young
man climbed his way up the branches, reached over for the
toy…reached…but couldn’t seem to get it…then fell!
     
    “Oh my God!” Francine yelled, making
Nancy flinch.
     
    “What’s going on Fran?” Nancy asked
now, her elbow resting on the handle of the hoe. “What’s happening
over there?”
     
    Francine ran over to the wall. “Oh
my God mom, he fell! The guy next door, he just…fell!” She
exclaimed, running to the wall and then running backwards to take a
look up at her neighbors’ tree again.
     
    Nancy watched her daughter as she
scampered around her and flew out the backyard.
     
    Moments later at her neighbor’s
house, Francine repeatedly knocked on their front door.
     
    A short, plump Italian woman
answered, “Yes? May I help you?”
     
    Francine stared at her for a moment.
“Hi, I saw your son fall from a tree. Is he OK?”
     
    The short, plump Italian woman was
Sophia, in her late sixties, and her son was in his forties…and he
fell from the tree? She looked oddly at Francine. Did she
misunderstand? She knew she didn’t speak very good English, but
even this sounded a little unusual. “Are you the girl who called
earlier?”
     
    Francine nodded her head, “No, I’m
not the girl who called earlier. I’m your neighbor, and I saw your
son fall from a