Masks Read Free Page B

change out of my scrubs, “but I want to be here when Mittens wakes up.”
    David and Brenna are still there when Maggie and I walk out into the waiting room. “Mittens came through surgery OK, but there’s danger ofinfection,” I tell them. “There’s nothing more to do for her right now, but I’m going to stay here until she wakes up.”
    “We’ll wait with you, then,” says David.
    We try to go back to our mask making, but none of us has the heart for it anymore. After a while I go to the front desk and start putting all the loose papers in order and filing them away. Brenna and David clean the kennels, and Maggie tackles the supply closet.
    After what seems like forever, Dr. Mac tells me that Mittens is starting to wake up. “She came through surgery well, Sunita,” Dr. Mac says.
    I walk back to the recovery room and enter quietly, so that I won’t startle Mittens. She’s lying on her side, and she’s looking at me with dull, glazed eyes. She’s still groggy from the anesthetic. She opens her mouth to meow, but no sound comes out. I open her cage and stroke gently behind her ears, in her favorite spot.
    “I’m so sorry, sweetie.” Tears roll down my cheek. “The last thing in the world I wanted to do was hurt you. Dr. Mac’s going to take great care of you, and I’ll come here to visit you every day.”
    I kiss her furry forehead, and she starts to purr softly. “You get some rest now. That’s what you need most to get better,” I say as I close the cage door.
    When I come back out into the waiting room, my friends all look at me anxiously. “Mittens is awake and OK so far. I’m going to go home.”
    “Are you all right?” Brenna asks. “Do you want us to come with you?”
    “No, but thanks,” I reply. “I’ll be OK.”
    I bike down the road, pedaling slowly as I ride by the renovated barn the new woman in town has moved into. I remember an article I once read on witches. It claimed that witches were simply women who knew a lot about folk cures for sickness. They worked mostly with plants and herbs, using cures that had been handed down from woman to woman through time. Some people, especially men, feared these women because they didn’t understand what they did.
    Wouldn’t it be nice if I could stop off at this woman’s house and ask her for something that would heal Mittens? I stop my bike and gaze at the barn-house, wishing for some kind of magic.
    The sun reflects off an upper window, and I see something move. I have the uneasy feeling that someone is looking at me.
    I get back on the bike seat and begin pedaling again—a bit faster than before.

Chapter Four

    S unita’s home!” shouts Harshil when I walk in the door.
    Jasmine races down the stairs. “Sunita, will you play Barbies with me?”
    Playing Barbies is just about the last thing I feel like doing right now. “Later, OK?” I beg off.
    “Would you read me these books I got from the library?” Harshil asks, holding up three picture books.
    “I’ll do that later, too,” I promise. “Why don’t you two watch TV?”
    Jasmine makes a disappointed face. “We’ve been watching TV all afternoon.”
    I know my mother is at the hospital on Saturday afternoons, so I don’t even bother to hunt for her. My father is probably buried in his study as usual.
    Out of habit, I head for the kitchen, but I realize I’m not hungry at all. I pull open the refrigerator, stare into it, then shut it again without taking anything out. When I turn, I see my father at the table, cutting a piece of cake for himself.
    He looks at me and frowns thoughtfully. “Why so glum?” he asks.
    I sit in a kitchen chair and tell him all about what happened to Mittens. He forgets about his cake and nods as he listens.
    “I feel so terrible,” I say at the end of my story. “Maybe I’m not responsible enough to take care of animals.”
    He folds his arms and sits back in his chair, studying me. Is he disappointed in me? I hope he doesn’t say it