Andi Unexpected Read Free Page A

this summer for a research trip. My colleague was upset that I have to back out.”
    I stared at my orange socks. “Because of Bethany and me.”
    She bumped my shoulder with hers. “Sometimes it’s hard for people to understand that now and again family has to come first. That’s what I was trying totell this person on the phone. I can go to England another time. It’s not going anywhere.”
    “Are you sure this person is just a colleague?”
    She laughed. “Did you sleep well?” She lowered her body onto the yoga mat on the floor and began stretching her long legs.
    I shrugged. Every hour or so, I’d woken up to hear Bethany’s snoring or the old house groaning as it settled deeper into the earth. Sometimes both.
    “I’m glad,” she said, jumping to her feet. “Would you like some breakfast?”
    I followed her into the kitchen, a room filled with windows that were now dimmed by the dark, brooding skies outside. I stared out one of the windows as Amelie floated about the room like a colorful bird. The sky looked like what I’d expect to see on the day of a funeral. Although, on the day we buried my parents, it had been unseasonably warm and the sun shone in a periwinkle sky. Today’s sky would have worked better for me then; it was a sky that let me stay angry.
    Amelie peered out the window, “Looks like it’s going to be a doozy.” She turned on the frosted glass ceiling light. As if she’d beckoned it by flipping on the electrical switch, the trees outside the kitchen windows bent almost in half from a wind gust that indicated the coming storm. The clouds churned to life. But no water splashed against the windows. The ground outside appeared dry, and the clouds swelled with the heavy burden they refused to release. The rain, it seemed, was holding back for the perfect moment. I wondered if it was waiting for a funeral to begin. I hoped not.
    Amelie opened a cupboard and peered inside. “The weather is supposed to be bad all day. Kind of a crummy way to start the summer, don’t you think? But it should clear off by tomorrow.”
    I nodded and climbed onto a tall stool by the breakfast bar.
    “Are Honey Nut Cheerios okay? I used to like them when I was a kid, and I didn’t know what you guys like to eat for breakfast.”
    “Cheerios are great,” I said. Hands-down, they would beat the runny eggs that Mrs. Cragmeyer insisted I eat every morning for the last few weeks. I’d be happy if I never ate another egg as long as I lived.
    Amelie pulled the cereal box out of the cupboard and placed it, a bowl and a spoon, and a half-gallon of milk in front of me on the breakfast bar.
    “Did you already have breakfast?” I asked.
    She shook her head and grabbed a second bowl and spoon for herself. She ate her cereal while standing at the counter. After we’d settled into our breakfast, Amelie said, “You know, Andi, I really am glad that you and Bethany are here. I know we haven’t spent that much time together. And that’s my fault. I should have made more of an effort. But now I’m looking forward to getting to know both of you a lot better. Despite our disagreements, I loved your dad and mom very much. And I love you and Bethany just as much.”
    I took a big bite of Cheerios.
    As if she sensed my discomfort, Amelie asked, “Is there anything you want to ask me?”
    I asked the first question that popped into my headthat wasn’t about my parents. “Why do you think Bergita acted so weird when I told her my full name yesterday?”
    The neighbor lady’s peculiar reaction had bounced around in my mind all night while I listened to the house murmur in the darkness. It was easier to wonder about that than the other questions that plagued my thoughts. Like why my parents died in that plane crash in Guatemala.
    She grinned. “You sure are inquisitive. Your dad told me you want to be a scientist like him and Paula. You’re on the right track with such acute observation skills.”
    I grinned. “Do you