Story Time Read Free Page B

never know. It could be, like, Korea, Japan, Thailand." She added, "I haven't heard back in a while." Kate pointed to the photo. "I look totally like my father." Then she frowned and looked at the door. "I don't look a thing like June."

4. Agoraphobia
    Dinner was spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic bread. June sat silently among the children as they talked. The conversation, inevitably, turned to the Whittaker Magnet School.
    "My grandmother used to work there," Molly said, "back when it was only a library. She still goes to County Commission meetings at the Whittaker Building."
    June looked up.
    Molly went on, "I don't know if you've heard the stories, but lots of people say the Whittaker Building is haunted."
    June looked back down.
    "The building itself has a bloody history," George said. "Lots of people have died there."
    Kate turned to June. "So you want me to leave Lincoln, where all my friends are and where I'm set to star in
Peter Pan,
to go and be killed in a haunted library? Is that the plan?"
    June swallowed hard and answered, "No, Kate, that is not the plan. But as far as that play goes, you're not certain to get the lead part. It could go to someone else. Right, Molly?"
    Kate snorted. "Who? No one else will even audition for the lead. Everybody knows I'm perfect for Peter Pan."
    Molly mumbled, "LoriBeth Sommers will."
    "LoriBeth Sommers! Please, I'm trying to eat. She can't dance. She can't act. All she can do is stand next to the flagpole and sing the national anthem. So what? She hits her one high note; then all the guys yell, 'Play ball!'"
    If Kate expected enthusiastic agreement from George and Molly, she did not get it. Instead, George informed the group, "I learned this, too: The Whittaker Magnet School is ranked number one in the United States in standardized testing."
    Kate reached over and pinched his cheek. "Great. Have fun there. Alone. I will be at Lincoln Middle School."
    Molly asked, "Have you ever seen the place?"
    "No," Kate said, but then turned to June. "Have I?"
    June seemed offended. "Of course you have. Many times. I used to take you there when you were little."
    She was offended further when Kate replied, "Oh? Was that back when you took me places?"
    "That's not fair, Kate. I drive you everywhere you want to go."
    "Okay. Let's be fair." Kate leaned forward. "Take me there now. I want to see this haunted building."
    "It's-it's Sunday night, Kate. I'm sure it's not open."
    At that moment, a familiar vibration began in the floors and walls, three times as strong as before, as all six members of the Tri-County Cloggers started practice.
    Kate offered a compromise. "Let's just drive over and look at it from the outside. If I ever went there, I must have been two years old. I sure don't remember."
    Molly was enthusiastic about the idea. "It's cool looking. Like Frankenstein's castle."
    "Do you mean Baron von Frankenstein?" George asked. "Or Frankenstein's monster?"
    "Uh, the monster."
    "Frankenstein's monster didn't have a castle. He lived in a shack in the woods. With a blind guy."
    "He did? What, was he like his guide dog?"
    "No. He was his friend. The blind guy didn't know the monster looked like a monster."
    "Uncle George!" Kate snapped. "Does it really matter?"
    George backed off. "No. I guess not."
    "The point is that Molly thinks it looks like a scary castle, okay?"
    "Okay."
    June stood up. She steadied herself with both hands on the table, then stammered, "How about if we make ice-cream sundaes and sit on the front porch for a change? The clogging won't sound so loud there."
    Kate stretched her neck, trying to make eye contact. "We're leaving the house, June. That's what normal people do. They leave their houses and they do things."
    June exhaled. "Then I have to go to the bathroom." She hurried out of the kitchen.
    "Maybe this is a bad idea," Molly whispered. "If you really want to go, my grandmother could drive us there tomorrow."
    "No. June can drive us there now. There is no reason why