Free The Spider Catcher (Redemption by A.L. Tyler Book 1) by A.L. Tyler Page B

good. It made it easier to change clothes.
    With her hair still wet, she walked downstairs to breakfast. Thalia and Nan had been laughing about something, but Thalia’s smile vanished when she saw Ember standing at the end of the table.
    “I told you to get home before dark,” she said.
    “I know.” Ember paused. “I’m sorry.”
    Thalia stared at her a moment longer, and then went back to eating her oatmeal. Nan was giving them both suspicious looks.  The frown marks made deep trenches in the wrinkly skin on her face, from the height of her brow to the tip of her chin. Ember leaned to peek into the kitchen, and was about to ask where Gina was, when she spotted something outside the kitchen window.
    “Is the back yard on fire?” She asked, squinting.
    Thalia turned to look, and then shrugged. “Mom had some stuff to burn.”
    “Stuff?” Ember asked, looking her sister in the eye.
    Thalia shrugged again as she chewed on her oatmeal for a little too long. When she finally swallowed and opened her mouth, Nan cut her off.
    “Old boxes from the shipments.” The ancient woman grunted, sending a small streamer of spittle to settle on her chin. A tiny half-bit of oatmeal sat right at the end of it, like an exclamation point. “She burns them—the boxes and the crates. We’ve got nowhere to put them, and they pile up in the side yard, and then the damn spiders start nesting in them.”
    Ember tried not to stare as Nan wiped off her chin with the back of her wrist. “Some people think spiders are good luck,” she mumbled absently. “They say a spider hid the Christ child from Herod when he was born.”
    Nan leveled her glare on the girl, and Ember suddenly felt three feet shorter. Nan had picked up a butter knife to point as she spoke. “You’re a Christian, girl?”
    Ember looked from the knife in her grandmother’s hands to her accusing eyes, and felt the air escape her lungs like it had been sucked out into the vacuum of space. She turned to Thalia.
    “We’re a Christian household.” Thalia offered. The way she said it was almost robotic.  “Yes!” Ember gushed in relief. “Yes, I’m a Christian.”
    Nan contemplated for a moment; her eyes danced around Ember’s face as she pressed the flat of the knife to her lips. Slowly she set it back down on the table. “You’re a liar. Real Christians don’t need permission or prompting. Damn Christians go around telling damn well everyone what they think and who’s right and who’s wrong……”
    Nan hoisted herself up from her chair, and grumbled herself into the kitchen to put her dish up in the sink. Ember looked back at Thalia.
    “She’s more devout some days than others.” Thalia said quietly, looking at the table.
    “The problem,” Nan continued, walking back out into the dining room, “With Christians, is the same as the problem with spiders. You’re going along fine in your life, and then, bam! They drop off the ceiling and scare the crap out of you, you’re swatting them with newspapers to make them go away, and the lucky ones escape out the door. A perfect afternoon of reading is ruined, and your coffee’s all over the damn floor…”
    Ember waited until the older woman had ambled up the stairs before turning back to Thalia.
    “She doesn’t really think that Christians drop from the ceiling.” Thalia said seriously.
    “Are you sure?” Ember asked, raising her eyebrows.
    They had just started to smile—both of them, together, for the first time in Ember’s memory—when the back door slammed open.
    “Yow!” Gina yelled, grabbing at the door handle as another gust of wind threatened to bounce it off the wall. She kept talking as she turned to shut the door and lock it behind her. “It’s a cold one today, I’m going to have to talk to—“
    When their eyes met, Ember felt the fun sweep from the room, like it had gone with the wind out the door. Gina’s eyes glistened momentarily, and then she looked at the floor as she