A Perfect Storm Read Online Free PDF Page B

nodded.
    After a quick breakfast, we hurried upstairs. I grabbed my camera as Lily packed up her stuff. Then I walked her back to her house. The air was very still, and weirdly warm.
    â€œDo you think this is what they mean by ‘the calm before the storm’?” I asked, snapping a picture of the sun peeking through the branches of a tree above our heads.
    Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never been through a hurricane before. It feels odd around here, though, somehow, in a way I can’t really describe.”
    â€œIt’s the light,” I said, snapping another picture. “It’s a funny yellow-green color. It’s really strange.”
    Lily looked around uneasily. “It’s true.”
    As soon as I got back home, my dad put me to work closing the shutters on all the windows so he could hang the hurricane panels.
    â€œSince the hardware is already installed, I just have to put up the panels and fasten them with wing nuts,” he told me, looking pleased with himself.
    My dad is king of planning for the worst-case scenario. Now, though, I was very glad to be the daughter of Mr. Disaster Preparedness.
    â€œWhile you’re busy closing the shutters,” he said, “I’ll be outside sandbagging the casement windows so no water can get in.”
    I started at the top of the house. My dad had said there wasn’t much I could do about the attic windows, which didn’t have any shutters for me to close. They were small and round, with thick, old-looking panes of leaded glass that blurred the landscape outside. My dad had told me he would come up later and put up plywood from the inside. But I wanted to be sure my mom’s trunk was protected. It was full of her dresses. They were inside an interior room without a window. Lady Azura referred to it as the cedar-lined storage room. After making sure the trunk was sealedtightly and pushed to a far corner, I closed the door to the storage room, feeling satisfied my mom’s dresses would be safe.
    After closing the shutters in my craft room and the other room on the third floor, I headed to the second floor.
    I took care of the shutters in my room, and then my dad’s. In the pink room I found one of our resident spirits, seated in her rocking chair as usual, rocking slowly back and forth. I knew her pretty well. When we’d first moved in, I used to hear her crying all the time. But Lady Azura and I had worked with her and helped her cope with her grief for her son, who had died very young. I’m not exactly sure how we did it, but by helping her come to terms with his death, she was somehow reunited with him. She wasn’t sad anymore. Sometimes I’d even see her with her spirit baby in her arms.
    â€œHello,” I said cordially. “I hope you don’t mind if I just close the shutters. A big storm is coming.”
    She looked at me, her dark eyes reflecting no light. She nodded and smiled briefly, but then her eyes went back down to the sleeping spirit baby I could now see in her arms. I went about my business quickly andcarefully, closing the shutters and making sure they were latched tightly.
    â€œBye,” I said to her as I headed out.
    â€œPlease don’t be afraid,” she said suddenly. “I see in your face that you are concerned about the storm. This house has weathered many, many storms over the years. You should take solace in being home safe and sound, here with your family.”
    â€œThanks,” I replied. “You take care in the storm too. You and Angus, I mean.” I gestured to the sleeping baby in her arms.
    I hesitated on the threshold of the blue bedroom. Though I had been dreaming about it a lot lately, I almost never went in there. It was in this room that I had seen the spirit of the sailor or sea captain or whoever he was. The same one I’d been surprised to see outside of Scoops the other day. He’d never been friendly, or even