Read Online The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder - Free Book Online Page A

the outside of the library made Robin lose herself for a minute, remembering the feel of libraries. There was that special smell made up of paper, ink, and dust; the busy hush; the endless luxury of thousands of unread books. Best of all was the eager itch of anticipation as you went out the door with your arms loaded down with books. Libraries had always seemed almost too good to be true. It didn’t seem possible that anything as important as a book could be free to anyone — that is, to anyone who had a permanent address.
    The equipment that Dad helped Mr. Criley load at the farm-supply store was to be delivered to El Pasto. Robin had heard about El Pasto. It was the part of Las Palmeras that was still really a rancho, because cattle were raised there and a few horses. It was up in a canyon, south of the main ranch.
    When they passed the main gate of Las Palmeras, Mr. Criley stopped the truck to let Robin off. She waved good-bye to Dad and started up the gravel road past the big new McCurdy house. Thinking there might still be time to get to Palmeras House if she hurried, Robin began to run. But she didn’t get very far.
    The rolling white gravel and Theda’s too big shoes made a dangerous combination. Robin’s ankle turned, and she came to a sliding stop on one bare knee. For a minute the twisted ankle hurt so much that Robin thought it must be a real sprain, and the skinned knee burned like fire. She limped over to the side of the road by the hedge and sat down. She had taken off her shoe and was rubbing her ankle when she heard a voice say, “Hi! What’s the matter with you?”
    Robin turned around, and there was Gwen McCurdy looking through a thin place in the hedge. “I turned my ankle,” Robin said, putting her shoe back on quickly to hide the hole in her sock.
    “Let’s see.” Gwen came around the end of the hedge and knelt down beside Robin. She was wearing a white sunsuit with a short ruffled skirt, and her blond hair was tied back with a matching ribbon. “I don’t think it’s really sprained,” she said. “It isn’t swelling.”
    “It’s all right,” Robin said. “It’s almost stopped hurting.” She stood up quickly and tried to walk; but it hadn’t really stopped hurting, and she couldn’t help limping a little.
    Gwen looked concerned. “Look,” she said, “come on in the house. Then if it doesn’t get better pretty soon, we’ll call Doctor Woods and have him look at it.”
    “Oh no,” Robin said. “I don’t need a doctor.”
    “Well come on in anyway, and wash off your knee. If you let that dirt stay on, it’ll get infected. Here, lean on my arm.”
    Gwen grabbed Robin’s arm, pulled it across her shoulders, and started for the big white house. Robin tried to protest. She felt silly, but it seemed even sillier to jerk her arm away. They struggled up the wide front stairs and into an entry hall full of huge curved surfaces and glass panels that glowed with light. Wide curving stairs covered with thick carpeting led upward.
    “Do you think you can make it up the stairs?” Gwen asked. “We’ll go up to my room. Nobody’s home except Carmela — she’s our maid. She always screams at the sight of blood. You should have heard her the time I fell off Mirlo,”
    All the way up the stairs and through an upstairs hall Robin determinedly watched her own limping feet in their scuffed and floppy shoes. A stubborn feeling made her refuse to look around. Somehow the whole thing reminded her of last winter, when Cary had come home dragging a lame and scrawny dog. The thought made her want to giggle, but at the same time it made her mad. At least she wasn’t going to bounce around and lick people’s hands.
    But when they reached the door of Gwen’s room, Robin caught her breath in spite of herself. “It’s beautiful,” she said. Gwen only shrugged.
    The room was all yellow and white. Sheer yellow curtains over big windows made the white walls seem washed in sunshine. The low bed