A Handful of Time Read Online Free PDF

everything went wrong, that she had begun to feel afraid of her as well.
    Now her mother rarely laughed, but she always smiled—a grim, determined, barricading smile.
    Patricia’s daydreaming was interrupted by a shrill cry: “Hey! What are you doing in our boat?”
    Two boys rushed onto the beach. Patricia jumped up and tore out of the bushes in the opposite direction. She caught a glimpse of Kelly running like the wind. She sped ahead and Patricia panted behind her.
    â€œIn here!” Kelly hissed. She grabbed Patricia’s hand and yanked her so hard her arm felt as if it had been jerked out of its socket. They collapsed in the shrubs by the side of the path. Then Kelly stuck her head out.
    â€œThey aren’t following us. Probably checking their precious boat to make sure I didn’t hurt it.” She brushed a few twigs off her pants. “What happened? Where’s everyone else? And why didn’t you warn me?”
    Patricia couldn’t look into her cousin’s angry face. “They all went away. Trevor and Bruce went fishing, and Christie and Maggie went to pick carrots or something. They left me on guard.”
    â€œSo why didn’t you watch?”
    â€œI … I guess for a minute I wasn’t paying attention. I’m sorry.”
    Kelly clenched her fist. “You are the end, Potty, you really are! You’ve ruined everything. You have since you got here, and I wish you’d never come!” She pushed through the bushes and disappeared.
    Patricia stayed there for a long time, wondering what to do. She couldn’t go back to the cottage—Aunt Ginnie would wonder why she was alone. She trudged back to the Grants’ beach and sheltered behind the canoe. It felt like her only friend; even though it had dumped her, being in it was the only thing she had enjoyed at the lake so far.
    â€œLoon,” she whispered, tracing her fingers over its faded name.
    When she thought it was dinner-time, Patricia crept into the cottage and found her cousins playing Monopoly on the verandah. Kelly reddened and turned away. Patricia thought for a second that her cousin looked ashamed, but Kelly had been so angry it was difficult to believe she felt sorry.
    After dinner it began to rain. When the baby was asleep Aunt Ginnie read them a chapter from The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be . Sitting and listening without having to participate felt so safe that Patricia wished her aunt would never stop.
    The rain blew in gusts against the windows and the fire crackled and steamed. It was cosy, but Patricia felt so removed from the contented family around her that she almost pinched herself to make sure she was really there.
    â€œLook, Patricia.” Aunt Ginnie put the book aside and took down a framed photograph from the mantel. “Here’s a picture of your mother at the lake.”
    The picture was of a strange family group who seemed to be in costume. “We were all dressed in each other’s clothes for a party,” Aunt Ginnie explained. “I can just remember it. I was Gordon and his pants legs kept coming unrolled and tripping me. The men looked so funny, dressed as Mama and Ruth and me.” She was pointing out the faces as she talked. “There’s your grandmother. You’ll see her when she comes to stay next week.”
    â€œLook how fat you were, Mummy!” crowed Maggie, leaning over Patricia’s shoulder.
    â€œYou mean you don’t think I still am?” teased her mother. “I must have been four then … and Ruth was twelve. Your age, Patricia.”
    Patricia couldn’t stop staring at the photograph. The firelight flickered on its glass, making the faces seem alive. Most of the members of the long-ago family laughed in their silly costumes. All except one, a young girl who glowered between her brothers.
    Her mother. Patricia recognized the same fiery eyes, her mother’s expression when she was upset about