Read Online Sparrow Road by Sheila O'Connor - Free Book Online Page A

“You have a—” She stopped like the word was stuck down in her throat. “I mean—you have a father, Raine.” She pressed hard on my hands like she was afraid I’d pull away, run out in the storm.
    People think we didn’t have parents. We had parents . Lyman’s voice echoed in my brain. I had a father. Everybody did. “I know,” I said, like it wasn’t even news. I didn’t want Mama to know how much it made my throat ache to hear her finally say it, after years and years of saying that I didn’t.
    “You do?” Mama reared her head back in surprise.
    “I guess,” I said. “I know I have one someplace. Everybody does.”
    “Oh,” Mama stammered. “Yes, of course. Of course you’d know that, Raine.”
    A gust of wind blew back the kitchen curtains and thunder shook the walls. The sky moved from day to night.
    “So?” I said. “Is that the person Grandpa Mac didn’t want me to meet? Him?” I couldn’t stop my heart from pounding, so fast and hard I heard it in my ears.
    “Yes.” Mama’s eyes held mine. “Yes,” she said again.
    That man was here at Sparrow Road? “Is it Diego?” I heard the hope squeak out in my voice; Diego would be the perfect dad. Maybe that’s why he told Mama she should tell me. And why he’d asked about my dad the first day that we met. And why he spent all that time with Mama. Maybe Mama brought me here to meet Diego. “Mama, is it him?”
    “Diego?” Mama gave a small, sad smile. “No, but Diego would be lovely, Raine.”
    Suddenly my heart lurched inside my chest. If my dad wasn’t Diego, that only left one man. I slapped my hands over my ears; I didn’t want to hear it. Not another word. The root beer float rose up in my stomach. “I don’t want to know,” I said.
    “Raine.” Mama rubbed a circle on my back. “Sweetheart, you said that you were ready for the truth.”
    “But I don’t want it to be Viktor.” His name came out like a choke. My father was the Iceberg. A silent, sunken man as old as Grandpa Mac.
    “Viktor?” Mama’s eyes grew huge. “Oh, heavens!” She shook her head. “Raine, it isn’t Viktor!”
    “No?” I let my hands drop from my ears. “You’re sure?”
    “Absolutely.” Mama gave a little laugh. “I’m sure it isn’t Viktor.”
    “Then who?” There wasn’t another man at Sparrow Road.
    Mama stared out at the storm. “Gray,” she finally said. “Gray James.”
    “Gray James?” The words sounded like the weather. “Gray James? Is that some kind of name?”
    “Yes,” Mama said. “It’s his name.”
    “Gray James?” I said again, confused. “But I don’t know him, Mama.”
    “Not yet.” Mama lifted up my chin. “But he wants to know you, Raine.”

20
    For the first few minutes, Mama let me sit in silence with that name. Gray James. It was a name I’d never heard. Not anywhere. Not at Sparrow Road. Not even in Milwaukee.
    “He’s here?” I shook my head. “Where?” I stood up and looked out the open window. The storm had settled some, a bruised sky stretched over the field. Gray James wasn’t here at Sparrow Road. Wasn’t living in the attic or in some silent wing. If he was here, I would have seen him.
    “In Comfort,” Mama said.
    “In Comfort? Gray James lives in Comfort? Is that why you wouldn’t let me go to town? Why Viktor took me home today? So Gray James wouldn’t see me? Or so I wouldn’t see him?”
    Mama gave a guilty nod. “More or less,” she said. “Yes. All those things.”
    “But why didn’t you just tell me? Right from the beginning?”
    “It’s complicated, Raine. Gray and I have things we still need to resolve. Grown-up things. And I needed to be ready.”
    “Ready for what, Mama?”
    “I don’t know.” Mama looked up at the ceiling. “The changes this will bring. Sharing you with Gray, I guess. I know that it sounds selfish, but sharing you with Grandpa Mac has been enough. And our life has been so happy. At least it has been for me.” The way that Mama