Free Colette and the Silver Samovar by Nancy Belgue Page B

fire and into her eyes. “And I say she will not go back to that hospital. I will take care of Alice and make sure that she’s getting all the stimulation she needs. I am her mother!”
    â€œAll right, Emily,” my grandfather said. His voice sounded so tired. “All right. You win.”
    I backed away from the door. No, no, no! I had to go and visit my mother. But how was I going to get there if my grandfather wouldn’t take me? I would find a way. I didn’t care what Ethelberta had said about helping my grandmother. My mother needed me, and I would run away if I had to!

Chapter 12
    The next morning my grandfather’s car was gone, and there was a note on the kitchen table from my grandmother. I am at the hospital, and will be back by 6:00. Your grandfather had to go to his office this morning. He will be home by this afternoon. Elena will look after you. Do not leave the house.
    Elena was washing dishes. After I read the note, she gave me a giant hug and then poured some cereal into a bowl.
    â€œIt will be okay,” she said as she patted my back. I sniffed.
    â€œEat,” Elena said. “I go change beds now.” She left the room.
    The cereal tasted like straw, so I pushed the bowl aside. I started writing in my journal. I wrote about my grandmother and her cold heart and how my grandfather looked like a bent branch that couldn’t grow straight anymore. I wrote about Elena’s kindness and how Ethelberta was my only friend in my new world. I wrote that I was going to run away so that I could see my mother whenever I wanted.
    Writing about Ethelberta made me think I’d better check on her just in case she needed anything before I left. I ran down the stairs, out the back door and across the wall, landing on Ethelberta Jarvis’s back porch in what seemed like only two seconds. I let myself into her big empty kitchen. Amos was whimpering, and Ethelberta was trying to soothe him.
    â€œThank goodness you’ve come, Sprite,” said Ethelberta when she saw me. “Something seems to be wrong with Amos.”
    â€œWhat’s happened?” I asked as I knelt beside them.
    â€œI think he’s hurt his eye,” Ethelberta said. “Maybe he did it when we were in the ravine.” She pointed at Amos’s right eye, which was swollen shut. “I do remember him pawing at it yesterday,” she said.
    â€œWill he be all right?” I asked.
    Ethelberta sniffed. “When I was a girl, I had a dog named Sullivan. One day he gouged his eye with a stick. We didn’t realize it until it got infected. And Sullivan died,” said Ethelberta. Her voice wobbled. “I think Amos needs to go to the vet,” she said.
    â€œI’ll help you take him,” I said.
    Ethelberta shook her head. “I can’t move,” she said. She pointed at her swollen ankle. Amos pawed his eye and whimpered. He wedged himself under the stairs where no one could get at him. “I can’t afford a vet for Amos,” Ethelberta whispered. “I guess I’ll have to call my niece and her husband. Maybe I should stop fooling myself that I can keep living like this.” She looked around her almost-empty house.
    â€œWhat if I take Amos to the vet, and then we can think about how to pay him?” I asked.
    â€œI don’t think they’ll treat him unless they get paid, Sprite. That seems to be the way it works.”
    Amos had helped me to not be afraid of dogs. He was gentle and had the softest tongue in the world. He was Ethelberta’s only friend, except for me. I knew I couldn’t let anything happen to him. I would just have to run away later.
    â€œI have to go,” I told Ethelberta. “But I’ll be right back, and I will help Amos.”
    â€œWhere are you going?” Ethelberta said. “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. You must take care.”
    â€œI will,” I said. As I ran back across