Read Online The Spell Book Of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty - Free Book Online Page B

coffee break, Fancy did not feel ready to go home, so she shopped for Cassie’s birthday. At home again, she stood before her computer, and decided she ought to do some housework.
    â€œOh, Cassie, ” she said aloud to herself when she put on the washing-up gloves. Cassie was always putting soapy wet hands into the gloves, and leaving them wet, cold, clammy, and unpleasant on the inside.
    Luckily, by the time she had finished washing up, it was just about time to fetch Cassie from school.
Dear Ms. Murphy,
    This is just a note to thank you for keeping an eye on my daughter (Cassie) yesterday afternoon. I noticed that you were on “bus duty,” and I also noticed that you are very good at keeping all the children within your “radar.” As I waited for Cassie, this is something I observed, and as a mother, I was pleased.
    I do hope our Cassie is behaving herself. I know she can be a little erratic, but she has a good heart.
Kind regards,
    Fancy Zing
    At nights, staying up with her wilderness romance, Fancy felt afraid sometimes when she went to the bathroom. She would glance at the shower cubicle, with its curtain tightly closed, and think, There is somebody in there!
    She supposed she would see a shadow through the curtain, but it was a thick forest green material, and she was nearsighted, not wearing her glasses in the bathroom generally (preferring to see herself, in the mirror, as somebody blurry and unmarked).
    Sometimes she swung the curtain open quickly, to catch the stranger out, but so far the cubicle was always empty.
    â€œYou look tired,” remarked the Canadian from his porch next door. He was eating sliced mango and kiwifruit this morning.
    â€œIt’s funny you should say that,” said Fancy, “about me looking tired. Because I just saw myself in the hallway mirror without my glasses on and I thought, ‘I look awful,’ and then I thought, ‘Isn’t it lucky I wear glasses so that nobody can see my eyes?’ I put my glasses on and felt safe. And now I come out here, and you notice right away.”
    The Canadian took a pensive sip of coffee.
    â€œCassie, honey!” Fancy called, as usual, through the screen door.
    â€œMum, I can’t find my shoes, where are my shoes? What did you do with my shoes?” came a panicky little call from upstairs.
    â€œI didn’t do anything with your shoes. They’re right here by the front door where you left them.”
    â€œTo be honest,” said the Canadian from his porch, “I didn’t notice that you look awful. If you look awful,” he continued, and peeled the foil lid from a boysenberry yogurt, “your glasses are hiding that well.”
    Fancy looked at his wide white breakfast plate, with its elegant butterflies of fruit, and tried to think of something to say besides, Isn’t it hot?
    â€œKiwifruit is very good for you,” she declared. “Vitamin C and zinc.”
    â€œYou don’t say?”
    Cassie clattered down onto the front-door mat to put on her shoes.
    â€œI’ll do one lace, and you do the other,” offered Fancy.
    â€œNo, Mum. I’ll do them both.”
    â€œBye now,” called Fancy to the neighbor as she tightened the straps on Cassie’s satchel, her keys at the ready to open the car door.
    â€œIt is possible,” called the Canadian, his voice melting distantly against their car windows, “to be both beautiful and tired. A sleeping beauty. You see?”
    Fancy adjusted the rearview mirror and reversed with the regular bump of the fender on the steeply graded drive. Cassie, meanwhile, wound the window down slightly, and gave the Canadian a stare.
Dear Ms. Murphy,
    Please excuse Cassie for being late today.
    It was all my fault! I was up late last night, working, and then overslept this morning.
Best regards,
    Fancy Zing
    Dear Ms. Zing,
    Thank you very much for your note!
    I’m sure that Cassie was not more than a few