Girl in the Shadows (Shadows 2)

day. "but I think I'll have had more success bringing

up a girl with a hearing disability than one who was

healthy in every way."

"Not every way," Trevor said, scowling back at

her. "She inherited some rot from some ancestor. Of

course, not on your side of the family." he added, and

she smacked him playfully on the shoulder. Echo and

I watched it from the rear and both laughed. "Stick to our grapes," she told him.

"Our grapes? Now they're our grapes?" "They always were. I just humored you so

you'd do a good job."

"Well, I'll be... you hear that. April? Is this

woman the mother of all deception or what?" "Oh, go eat your hat," she told him.

The following day we returned to the mall to

buy Echo some more new clothes. It was Mrs.

Westington's idea after she saw what the other

teenagers at the school were wearing.

"I guess if they all want to go on looking

foolish and clownish with those baggy pants and cut

up blouses and pants, there's nothing I can do about

it," she decided. "I just hope she doesn't go and get

rings put through her nose."

The purchases delighted Echo. I couldn't

remember seeing her happier and neither could Mrs.

Westington. Echo and I carried everything up to her room and I helped her organize her things for her

move to the school in what was now two more days. Her preparations reminded me of my own first

days at school: the anticipation, the nervousness, and

the hope.

Late that same afternoon. I received a phone

call from the lawyer who had been taking care of

Uncle Palaver's estate. He told me it was now possible