Free Fabulous Five 015 - Melanie's Identity Crisis by Betsy Haynes Page B

turned to greet her grandmother.
    "Oh, there you are," said Gran. She set her purse on
the counter and began rummaging through it. "I was thinking about your
interest in your great-great-grandmother Cordia, and I remembered a newspaper
clipping about her that I know you'll be interested in. I don't know why I
forgot about it before, but luckily I found it in the trunk."
    Beaming, she spread the old, yellowed newspaper clipping in
front of Melanie. "My, my. You two are so much alike."
    Melanie sucked in her breath. The headline read, "Courageous
Girl Saves Doomed Dog From Certain Death." And there in the picture was
Cordia Mae Lee, smiling and cuddling a brown and white dog.
    "Read the story out loud," urged Gran Pennington.
    Melanie cleared her throat and began, "'Thirteen-year-old
Cordia Mae Lee, who lives on Brighton Street, was passing Thistle Creek
yesterday when she heard a dog yelping. Upon investigation, she discovered that
the dog had been thrown into the creek with a rock tied to its feet.' Oh, my
gosh!" Melanie shrieked, and then read on quickly, "'Cordia jumped in
and pulled the half-drowned dog out of the swift current, saving its life.'"
Melanie glanced quickly from her grandmother to her mother and back to her
grandmother again. "Why would anyone do something like that to a poor
little dog?"
    "That's one of the ways people used to get rid of
animals they didn't want in the days before there were animal shelters,"
her grandmother said gently. "But the important thing is that Cordia saved
the little dog just as you and your friends saved all those animals at
Christmastime. And she took it home to her family just as you brought Rainbow
home. I guess you come by your love of animals naturally, don't you?"
    Melanie swallowed back tears and nodded. It was too perfect
to be true. She had really inherited a lot of things from this relative
who had lived so long ago. If only she were alive today, she thought, we could
be such good friends.
     
    Gran Pennington let Melanie keep the clipping. And even
though she read it over dozens of times over the rest of the weekend and smiled
at the thoughts of all the things she had in common with her
great-great-grandmother, she couldn't forget the problem that still nagged at
her. She felt as unwanted as the two mutts, Rainbow and Cordia's little dog,
had been.
    When she got to school Monday morning, Melanie didn't feel
like joining her friends at their usual spot by the fence, so she ambled over
to a cluster of birch trees and stood by herself. She knew her rotten mood was
back, and she didn't want to inflict it on The Fabulous Five.
    "What's the matter, Mel?" Funny Hawthorne had
walked up behind her and was looking at her with concern. "I can tell
something is bothering you. It has been for days. I even noticed it when you
spent the night with me Friday. Would you like to talk about it?"
    Melanie felt tears jet into her eves. "No," she
whispered, looking away. "Thanks, though."
    Funny didn't say anything for a moment as she drew circles
into the dirt with the toe of her shoe. Finally she looked at Melanie and said,
"I know how you feel. I didn't want to talk about my genealogy project
last week either."
    Melanie looked at her sharply. What does that have to do
with anything? she wanted to ask.
    "But you wouldn't leave me alone." A smile broke
over Funny's face, and she went on, "You bugged me until I told you what
the problem was. Remember?"
    Melanie felt her face color as she nodded. Still, this was
different. How could she talk about her own problem without letting Funny know
that she was part of it?
    "Soooo," Funny said, ignoring Melanie's silence, "I'm
going to be just as good a friend to you as you were to me. I'm going to bug
you. Come on, Melanie. You'll feel better when you talk about it, and maybe I
can help."
    Melanie looked at Funny as a tiny feeling of hope rose in
her. She really did need a friend. Maybe she could talk to Funny about part of
her problem without telling