Read Online The Amulet by Alison Pensy - Free Book Online Page A

open her eyes. It was the vicar and he was heading in her
direction.
    “Good evening, Faedra. I thought I might find
you here this evening,” he said with a knowing smile.
    “Hello, Vicar.”
    “Are you feeling alright, my dear?” he asked,
his eyebrows pulled together to form a frown.
    “I’m fine,” she lied. “Haven’t been sleeping
very well the past couple of nights and right now I feel a little
sad, but I’ll be fine.”
    He seemed satisfied with her answer and
smiled again. “Well, if you need me, dear, you know where to find
me. Say hello to your mother for me won’t you.”
    “I will, Vicar, thank you.”
    The vicar turned and headed towards the
church. Faedra watched as he disappeared behind it, closed her eyes
again and sat in silence for a few more minutes. She was trying to
clear her head before she spoke to her mum, but the more she tried,
the more out of focus she became until she could hold it in no
longer. A wave of emotion swept over her and she burst into tears.
She was tired and had had an awful day.
    “Mum, I miss you so much,” she sobbed. “All
this strange stuff is happening to me. I don’t know why and I don’t
know what to do about it. I don’t feel like I can tell anyone. I
mean, I think I’m going crazy, so I can’t imagine what other people
would think. They’d probably lock me up and throw away the
key.”
    Tears tumbled down Faedra’s face. The eyes in
the woods, the fortune-teller at the fair, the abuse by Mr.
Thompson, her hands, and the fact she missed her mother
desperately, all came flooding out. She buried her face in her
hands; her body was wracked with emotions that were out of her
control for the moment. The tears were relentless and she felt
powerless to stop them. She was hoping a good cry would make her
feel better.
    A cold wet nose nudged her elbow. She ignored
it. Faen nudged her again; this time she took her hands away from
her face, which was now red and blotchy. She could see the blurry
outline of her dog looking at her with sadness in his eyes too.
    Faedra wrapped her arms around his neck, just
like the first time she had met him. She buried her face in his
soft fur and accepted the comfort she felt when she did so.
    “I wish she could give me some kind of sign
that she was still with me,” Faedra said into his neck. “Faen,
sometimes I feel so alone.”
    He whimpered in response; she still had her
head buried in his fur. She didn’t have the strength, just yet, to
leave the security and comfort she felt when he was close to her,
and he was not about to move a muscle until Faedra had calmed
down.
    A few more moments of sobbing passed, and the
shudders rippling through her body started to ebb. Her breathing
became less ragged. She pulled herself from Faen to wipe the tears
from her eyes with a tissue she had grabbed from the picnic basket.
When her eyes began to focus and the drumming in her ears from the
pulse of her heartbeat calmed, she heard a familiar sound that she
hadn’t heard for a very long time.
    She looked up and gasped. Sitting on the
headstone directly in front of her was a bird, not just any old
bird, but her mum’s favorite bird. Its name escaped her at that
moment, but she knew it was fairly rare and not seen in this area
very often. It looked directly at her and sang its beautiful
lilting song.
    A surge of comfort swept through Faedra at
the sight. It was the sign she had asked for.
    “I knew it. Look, Faen,” she said, pointing
at the bird. “It’s Mum’s favorite bird. She sent me a sign; she is
with me,” she looked up heavenward. “Thanks, Mum, that’s just what
I needed.”
    Faedra felt her spirits lift exponentially in
comparison to how she felt when she first entered the graveyard a
little while before. She regained her appetite and decided it was
time to eat the sandwiches she had packed into her picnic basket.
Straightening herself up, she sat cross-legged on the blanket and
placed the basket in front of her.
    The