Feels Like Family Read Free Page A

get at them. Can you try to do that?”
    “I guess,” Daisy said, sounding resigned.
    “Thank you,” Karen told her solemnly.
    “Who’s ready for cookies and milk?” Frances called cheerfully.
    Both kids immediately abandoned Karen, scrambling down and heading toward the kitchen, the disagreement forgotten. Frances’s cookies were always a huge hit with her kids, who preferred them to the fancier desserts Karen sometimes brought home from Sullivan’s.
    “Why don’t we make it like a picnic?” Frances suggested. “I’ll put a big tablecloth on the floor in front of the TV and you can have your cookies and milk in there.”
    “I love picnics!” Daisy said enthusiastically.
    “Me, too,” Frances confided. “And you know the best part of having it indoors?”
    “What?” Daisy asked.
    “No ants.”
    Daisy giggled.
    Karen helped Frances spread out a plastic red-checked tablecloth, where she then set down a plate of cookies. “Two for each of you,” Frances said emphatically. “Mack, here’s your sippy cup with milk in it, and Daisy, here’s your glass of milk.”
    She flipped on the TV, then handed the control to Daisy. “Find that cartoon channel you both like, okay?”
    That was something else the kids loved about visiting Frances. She had cable TV, which gave them a whole range of channels Karen couldn’t afford. At home they had only the three major networks and one local station that carried ancient reruns.
    “That should keep them busy for a while,” Frances said. “I’ve made some tea for us to have with our cookies. You sit down at the dining-room table and I’ll bring it right in.”
    “Please, let me help,” Karen said.
    “The day I can’t carry a plate of cookies and two cups of tea to the table is the day I’ll check myself into that nursing home they built up the street a few years back,” Frances said.
    Karen knew better than to argue. Frances was as strong-willed and independent as anyone she’d ever met. It was probably the reason she was still doing so well on her own. Every now and then one of her children would come for a visit and drop in on Karen to see if she thought Frances was getting too feeble to be left alone.
    Karen had never felt a need to shade the truth even slightly. Frances still had a sharp mind and plenty of energy for a woman her age. She was active at her church and made a trip to the library at least once a week to pick up something to read. Until a few months ago, she’d even volunteered at the regional hospital, but the long drive had gotten to be too much for her. Now she spent an hour or more a day checking on local shut-ins, calling or visiting them just to chat and to see if they needed anything more than a few minutes of company.
    Though Frances’s apartment was the same dimensions as Karen’s, it was cozy and welcoming in a way Karen’s was not. Maybe it was the lifetime of memories on display in pictures and collectibles. Every knickknack crowded onto every surface in the living room had a fascinating story behind it. Surprisingly the kids—even Mack—had learned to look, and not touch. On the one occasion when, to Karen’s chagrin, something had gotten broken, Frances had waved off the incident.
    “One less thing to dust,” she’d said, sounding as if she meant it.
    Now, as she poured tea into mismatched chintz teacups, she studied Karen intently. “You still have that worried look in your eyes. Did your meeting not go well?”
    “Actually it went better than I’d expected,” Karen admitted. “But the real test is going to be tomorrow. The attorney I saw thinks we should sit down with my boss and work out a solution to the problem I’ve been having getting to work lately. She’s optimistic everything will work out. I’m not so sure.”
    “Surely you don’t think Dana Sue would fire you,” Frances said, clearly startled. “Is that what this is about?”
    Karen nodded. “I wouldn’t blame her if she did.”
    “Honey,