Free Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn Page B

half asleep in the afternoon sun, when I heard Emma's bare feet patter into the kitchen. The refrigerator door opened and shut. Soon she was staring at me from the doorway. A purple Popsicle dripped down her arm and stained her mouth.
    "You can't make Sissy go away," Emma said. "She'll be my friend forever, no matter what." Her face was closed off and hostile.
    Grumpy and out of sorts from the heat, I frowned at Emma. "Your mother doesn't want you to play with Sissy anymore."
    Emma sucked her Popsicle, leaching the purple out, something I'd enjoyed doing when I was her age. "Mommy can't make Sissy go away. No one can."
    I picked up a
New Yorker
magazine and fanned myself. I was tired of the conversation, if you could call it that. "Do you want to go swimming?"
    Emma studied the colorless lump of ice on the Popsicle stick. "With you?"
    "I don't see anyone else. Do you?"
    "Not now." Emma scowled at me. "But I bet we'll see Sissy later." With that, she stalked off to her room. I followed to see if she needed help with her bathing suit.
    "I can do it myself," she said and closed the door in my face.
    A few minutes later, the two us were wading in the shallow water along the shore. To my relief—and Emma's disappointment—Sissy wasn't in sight. The ruined castles lay where we'd left them. Emma knelt beside hers and began to repair it.
    Leaving my pouty little cousin to work on her castle, I began collecting interesting stones and driftwood. I hadn't talked to Dulcie about my idea yet, but I was sure she'd let me use her potter's wheel.
    After a while, Emma came over and nudged my pile of stones with her toe. "Want to play in the water?"
    I took her hand, and we waded into the lake. Emma seemed almost herself. She splashed and dog-paddled in the shallow water, wallowing like a puppy.
    When I noticed her lips and nails turning blue, I led her to shore and dried her with a big beach towel.
    "Do you want to go back to the cottage?" I asked. "You're shivering."
    Emma shook her head. Droplets of water flew from her wet hair. She spread the towel on a sunny patch of sand and sat on it. I saw her glance toward the Cove as if hoping to see Sissy.
    "Why did Sissy get mad at me?" Emma asked. "We were having fun and laughing, and then all of a sudden she got mad."
    I wasn't sure what to say. If I criticized Sissy, Emma would get cranky again. To avoid that, I shrugged and said I didn't know why Sissy acted the way she did. "Some kids are like that."
    Emma hung her head and toyed with strands of her wet hair. "Sissy mixes me up," she whispered. "Sometimes she's nice, and other times she's mean."
    "Maybe we should go to the Cove tomorrow," I said, "and find some other kids for you to play with."
    Emma hunched her bony shoulders. "I don't want any friend but Sissy."
    I lifted her chin so I could see her face. "You just admitted she's mean. Why do you like her so much?"
    Emma pulled away, pouty again. "I wished and wished for a friend, and she came."
    I looked at her more closely. "Wishing didn't have anything to do with it. You were at the beach, and she was there at the same time. That's how people meet."
    Emma poked at the sand with a stick. "She came because I wanted her to come."
    "That's what you think." Sissy stood a few feet away, her hands on her hips, her hair a cottony tangle. "Nobody can make me do anything. I only do what
I
want to do."
    "Where did
you
come from?" I was definitely not happy to see her.
    Sissy pointed toward the woods behind us. "I sneaked up on you, didn't I? I'm as quiet as an Indian."
    All smiles, Emma jumped to her feet and ran to grab Sissy's hand. "I was scared you were mad at me."
    Pulling her hand away, Sissy flopped down beside me. "How old are you?"
    "Thirteen. Why?"
    "Do you have a boyfriend?"
    "No."
    "When my sister was thirteen, she had a boyfriend." Sissy looked me over, taking in my skinny legs and arms. "She had a really good figure, and she wore lipstick and nail polish. She was pretty, too. In fact,