Read Online My Mother Got Married by Barbara Park - Free Book Online

pointed me toward the sink. Then she held her breath and carried the can out of the room.
    A few minutes later she phoned my mother at work.
    “Sorry, hon, but your mother isn’t in the office right now,” she reported. “They say she’s out looking at property.”
    She tried my father next. He wasn’t in his office either.
    I sighed deeply. “Try my house,” I suggested weakly.
    She stared curiously at my emergency card again. “But if both your parents work, who would be at home?”
    I took a deep breath. I had no choice. I was finally going to be forced to say the word.
    “My stepfather,” I replied, feeling sicker than ever.
    Nurse Cook dialed the number. “Busy,” she reported. “I’ll try again in a few minutes.”
    She did, too. She tried calling my house for more than an hour. But every single time her message was the same. “Sorry, hon,” she’d say. “Your phone is still—”
    “I know. You don’t have to tell me. Busy,” I would mutter weakly.
    By one o’clock my head was splitting and I had the chills. I tried to stay warm, but every kid who wandered into the office lifted up the blanket to see who I was.
    At one thirty, Nurse Cook drove me home. I think she was afraid I was going to die on her cot. When you’re a nurse, you have to worry about stuff like that. A death doesn’t look that good on your record.
    I was never so glad to see my house in my life. All I wanted was to go upstairs, crawl under my covers, and shiver in private. I dropped my books on the first step and started up to my room.
    “That you, Charles?” called Ben, sounding raspy. “School out early?”
    Slowly I turned around. Then, holding my head so it wouldn’t explode, I walked gently into the living room.
    Ben was stretched out on the couch watching TV. He was covered by a giant quilt. Lydia was curled in a big pink blanket next to the phone. The receiver was slightly off the hook.
    I stood there and stared in disbelief. She had probably been talking to one of her sick friends and hadn’t hung it up all the way. I couldn’t believe it. All this time and no one had even noticed. Hadn’t they heard the loud beeping the phone makes when it’s off the hook? How could anyone sleep through a racket like that?
    I should have started yelling. After what I’d been through, I should have yelled my brains out. But I just couldn’t. If I yelled, my head would have split open.
    I started out of the room. Ben looked sort of green. “Wait. So, how was your day?”
    This time I couldn’t resist. “Great. It was just great, Ben. I ralphed in the nurse’s trash can.”
    Then I turned toward Lydia. “Oh yeah,” I added. “Nurse Cook tried calling, but …”
    I pointed at the phone.
    Right away, they both saw the problem. Lydia got this sheepish look on her face. “Whoops. Sorry,” she said, replacing the receiver. “I didn’t hear it beep or anything. I must have been in the bathroom.”
    Ben frowned at his daughter. “Lydia,” he said sternly. But that was it. I’m serious. That’s all the punishment she got.
    After that I went right to my room and got into bed. Then I burrowed my head in my pillow and tried not to die until my mother came home.
    She walked through the front door at four o’clock. Ben must have told her what happened. At four thirty she brought hot tea and chicken noodle soup up to my room on a tray.
    “I’m working on the Jell-O,” she told me. Then she sat down on the edge of my bed—carefully, so she wouldn’t spill the soup—and gently rubbed the side of my cheek with her hand.
    She put her forehead next to mine and smiled sympathetically. That’s one good thing about my mother. Even when I’m contagious, she’s never afraid to get close to me.
    “Sorry about what happened today,” she said softly. “You okay?”
    “No. You promised you’d be there and you weren’t.”
    “I know, Charlie. I’m sorry. I was called out of the office unexpectedly and—”
    “I knew this