Read Online Snow Apples by Mary Razzell - Free Book Online Page A

shook.
    I dared to look at my father. He sat at the table, playing with the cigarette package. The clock ticked loudly in the silent kitchen.
    â€œOh, no! Quarter to eight!” I’d never make it on time to the Lawsons’.
    â€œWait,” said my father. “I’ll walk with you as far as the new house. I’d like to take a look at it. That is, if it’s all right with your mother.”
    â€œNow, Frank, of course it’s all right,” she answered, almost successful in sounding brisk and cheery. “We could use your help. I’d hoped we could move in by the time school starts, but I don’t know. There’s so much to be done yet and the money all gone...”
    She flung the dish towel toward its nail, missed, but didn’t notice. She picked up her sweater from the kitchencouch and ran, with worried little steps, to catch up with my father, who was already out the back door.
    I grabbed the dish towel and hung it where it belonged, then hurried after them.
    *  *  *
    We all worked hard on the house. My father did the wiring, and when it came to insulating, we all helped. We used blackout paper given to us by Mr. Percy, who had ordered too much of it at the beginning of the war. Nels and Mr. Bergstrom were paid and regretfully let go. The money had run out, and although my father was enthusiastic about the quality of their work, he didn’t offer any money to keep them on the job.
    Before Nels left, he made a closet for my bedroom. It was built on the narrowest wall, and he ran it across the whole width so that it didn’t stick out.
    One late afternoon Nels and I went swimming at the beach after work. He was a strong swimmer and stayed in long after I had tired. I dropped onto the hot sand, my skin tingling from the ocean. Now that it was mid-August, with its longer, colder nights, the water had a nip to it. I lay in the last of the afternoon sun, drowsy, completely content.
    It made me shudder when Nels dribbled water from his hand onto my legs.
    â€œYou look too comfortable,” he said. He sat down, his back against a log, and kept flicking me with water until finally I sat up beside him.
    The sun was dropping behind Gower Point. I shivered.
    â€œSummer’s almost over. School’s in two weeks.”
    Nels wrapped a towel around my shoulder.
    â€œI guess so. I never liked school myself. Quit in grade eight. Wasn’t learning anything, anyway.”
    As we sat side by side, I could feel the length of his legs along mine. He began to gouge out the sand with his heels.
    I pulled the towel tighter around me.
    â€œI love school! And if I don’t finish high school, I won’t have a chance at a decent job. I’ll end up working in a store or something.”
    He looked at me through wet eyelashes.
    â€œWhat’s the matter with that?”
    â€œWell, nothing. It’s... I want something more. I’d really like to go on to university. But at least I want to finish high school.”
    â€œIt’s never seemed that important to me.” He slipped down to lie on his back, a towel rolled under his head for a pillow. “I’ve never been sorry I quit.”
    â€œDon’t you miss learning about things? Reading?” Now I was making heel marks in the sand.
    â€œNever. If I want to read, I read.”
    â€œWhat do you like to read?”
    â€œOh, I don’t know. Westerns, mostly. Comic books, I guess.”
    I turned to look at him, thinking he must be joking. He pulled me down beside him.
    â€œYou’re too serious, Sheila.”
    His body was warm beside me, and I had to close myeyes against wanting him. He must have felt something, too, because his body tensed, and he turned over on his stomach, away from me.
    That evening around nine, Nels’ truck stopped outside our house. I heard only the short beep of a horn.
    It was Tom who called to me, “Hey, Sheila, your boyfriend’s waiting for