"It's never enough. We have to buy some school supplies so she won't wonder about it, but that won't leave much for our party needs."
She thought a moment, then smiled with crooked lips.
"After she goes asleep one night, we'll start our own search through this house. Well find it."
"No. I wouldn't do that. It would be like stealing," I said. Ian would surely agree.
"You're not stealing if you're taking it from your own family. She would have given it to you anyway eventually. I swear, you do have a lot to learn, and fast. too. This ain't Wonderland and you ain't Alice. C'mon. Let's get my granddad to take us now."
I followed her out of the house. Lester Marshall was cutting the weeds that had grown in the driveway.
"Granddad!" Alanis screamed. "Damn, he's deaf," she muttered when he didn't look our way. She took a few steps toward him, cupped her mouth and shouted again. He turned. "We gotta go now."
He nodded, took a few more swipes with his tool, then dropped it to walk toward the car.
"C'mon, and don't say anything about anything," she warned me.
What did that mean?
I followed her to her granddad's car. She told me to get into the backseat. The seat was ripped, and some of the stuffing was leaking out. There was a tear on the back of the driver's seat, too. How old is this car? I wondered.
Alanis oat into the front seat and leaned over before her granddad got in.
"Put on the seat belt. He's a nutcase for seat belts ever since my uncle Roland died in a car crash."
"Your uncle died in a car crash?"
"When he was only nine, He was in the backseat and..."
She raised her eyebrows when her granddad opened the door to get in.
"Well, how do. Miss Jordan," he said, smiling at me. "How was your first night at the farm?" "Okay," I said.
"I don't know why you still call it a farm. Granddad," Alanis said. "There's only a few scrabbly hens and that old rooster, and half the time we don't get any eggs."
"A farm's always a farm," he said, closing the door. The car's engine groaned with reluctance. He pumped his pedal and turned the key again.
"Time for the junk heap," Alanis said.
"People's always so eager to give up on things and each other, too," he said as soon as the engine started. He turned back to me. "Good, you wearing your belt. Well, then, let's get started. It's not the limousine that brought you, but it will get us where we got to go," he said, shifted and started down the driveway. "And how's Miss Wilkens doing today?"
"She's fine," I said. "I made her breakfast and brought it to her room."
"Did you now? Hear that. Alanis?"
"I'm not deaf. Granddad."
"I bet she just loves having you, having company," he told me.
"She makes up her own company," Alanis said. "She doesn't need her for that.'
"Watch what you say," her granddad warned. He smiled back at me. "I'm sure you were brought up right and proper. Miss Jordan. You know it's not nice to say bad things about your elders, now, don't you?"
"Yes, sir."
"I'm sure," he said. "Maybe some of that will rub off on my granddaughter here."
Alanis waned and wrapped her arms around herself. She turned away and stared out the window, and she was silent almost all the way to the mall, only complaining about how slowly her grandfather drove,