That's ironic, and that means funny in a serious sort of way this time, is that I am talking more with her non' than I did when we -were both at the mansion and free. Maybe it because neither of us has much else to do.

However, I am afraid that some medication they will give me might cloud my brain and make it impossible for me to continue to talk with Mother, so I want you to start practicing telepathy.

Here's what I want you to do, Jordan. I want you to sit quietly someplace -where no one can disturb you and where you won't be disturbed by anyone talking to you or any noise and I want you to try to picture Mother in your mind and just keep sending out a call to her. Work hard on it and one day, you will hear her voice. It that simple, but it won't work unless you have a place to go where you can be undisturbed.

I have to stop. . .my arm is aching and so are my shoulders.

Ian

.

Where could I go to do what Ian suggested? I wondered. And then I quickly realized, the attic. I would go up there when I could go up alone, go up whenever Alanis had to be at her granddad's house cleaning. I just had to know where the key was. Excited about it, I was now happy Alanis had made the discovery.

I opened Ian's last letter in the bag. It was in scribbling so awkward and clumsy that I had to study it hard to understand. It was all over the page, too, some words even sideways.

.

Dear Jordan,

My arms are wrapped. I can just move my wrist. Tomorrow, I won't be able to do that.

Good-bye.

Ian

.

For a long time. I sat there staring at the scribbling. I was surprised at the tear that fell on the paper and realized it was mine. It had come from my eye and was being followed by eager brother and sister tears charging down my cheeks and leaping off to join the first. What did this mean? Would he never write to me again? What good was Daddy sending him my letter finally?

My shoulders shook and my chest began to ache. I rolled over on the carpet and brought my knees up against my stomach to make it feel better. I closed my eyes and rocked and rocked until I was too tired to continue.

And after a while. I fell asleep.

I woke when I heard Alanis's laugh. She was sitting on Grandmother Emma's bed reading Ian's letters.

"Stop!" I cried, grinding the sleep out of my eyes and sitting up. I reached for Ian's letters. "Give them back to me now."

"Talk about being bonkers," she said. "Your brother is really nuts. No wonder why you didn't want me to read these letters."

"He's not nuts. He's very, very smart," I said.

She smirked. "Yeah, right. The rest of the world is nuts." She put the letters down, and I started folding them back into their envelopes.

"I told you not to read them. Ian wanted only me to read them."

"Don't worry about it. I'm not going to tell anyone. Remember? Real friends keep secrets for each other. Besides, this isn't important. Our discovery is what's important."

I thought about Ian's instructions about telepathy. "Where did you say the key to the attic is?"

"The bottom drawer in the food pantry. It's the only one with a little blue stain on it. I don't know if there is more than one, so we have to be sure to put it back after we use it each time." she instructed. "I just told your aunt that you and I are going to make her a surprise for dinner so she doesn't have to think up any silly costumes or anything tonight. She looked tired anyway and was happy to hear it."

"What are we going to make?"

"I can make macaroni and cheese. You make the salad. Granddad bought a nice bread and a pecan pie, which is one of her favorites. It's Friday night so we'll watch television with her and keep her mind off asking about our trip tomorrow. We'll wake up, have breakfast and go before she realizes she had said it was okay. Granddad does most of his other shopping on Saturday so he won't see us leave. Ifs perfect as long as you don't say anything stupid."

"I won't say anything stupid."

"Just remember what I told you about speaking to adults. Take your time before you say anything. Count to five after they ask you questions so you don't accidentally blurt out the truth."

Tags: V.C. Andrews Early Spring Horror
Source: readsnovelonline.net