Alice Alone Read Online Free PDF

sleepover?”
    “Of course.”
    “Alice, let me give you one little piece of advice: Familiarity breeds contempt.”
    “Huh?”
    “It’s true. The more familiar you let a boy get with you, the more favors you give him, the less respect he will have for you.”
    Familiar? Favors?
    “Then I guess after people marry they absolutely hate each other,” I reasoned.
    “Oh, I didn’t mean that! I just mean there’s a lot of truth in the saying that if a girl lets a boy go all the way, he won’t respect her in the morning.”
    “How about halfway?” I teased. I couldn’t help myself.
    “Now, Alice …”
    “A third of the way? Three-eighths?”
    “Alice …”
    “Aunt Sally,” I said. “Picture this: Twelve guys and girls, each in his or her own sleeping bag, sprawled out on the rug in our living room, withLester right smack in the middle of us, listening for every sound, watching for any move …”
    “What I see is Lester snoring away, surrounded by a dozen fourteen-year-olds, who … well, I’ve said all I’m going to say on the subject, Alice. But have fun!”
    Have fun? I knew at least one person I could count on to stay awake Saturday night: Aunt Sally. I always tell Dad he doesn’t have to lose any sleep over Lester and me. Aunt Sally will do it for him. I went back out in the kitchen.
    “What did Sal have to say?” asked Lester.
    “Familiarity breeds contempt,” I said.
    Lester grinned. “She’s got that right,” he said. “Every time you wash your undies and drape them over my towel in the bathroom, kiddo, I want to toss you out the window along with them.”
    We had dinner ready when Dad got home around six-thirty, and I spent the rest of the evening at the dining room table doing my homework. Lester did the dishes, then went up to his room to read, and Dad sat on the couch, his feet on the coffee table, a clipboard on his lap, writing to Sylvia Summers.
    About nine-thirty, I’d just gone out in the kitchen to get some chocolate grahams when thedoorbell rang, and a few moments later I heard Dad’s voice in the hallway. “Janice!”
    Janice’s voice: “I know it’s late, Ben, but could I come in for a few minutes?”
    “Of course! Something happen at the store this evening?”
    I heard the door close and their feet crossing the hallway into the living room.
    “That for me?” Lester yelled from upstairs.
    “No, Les. Janice just dropped by,” said Dad.
    I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t very well take my graham crackers back into the dining room and sit there chewing while they talked. But if I stayed in the kitchen I’d be eavesdropping. What I should have done was go upstairs, but I didn’t.
    Dad: “You look upset.”
    Janice: “I am upset. I didn’t want to bring this up at the store, Ben, so I decided to come by and tell you in person. I’ll be leaving the Melody Inn at the end of September.”
    “Janice! Why on earth?”
    “I’ve asked the main office for a transfer, and they’ll let me know. I can’t go on working for a man I don’t trust.”
    “What? Janice, sit down. Please!”
    More footsteps, then a pause. Then the squeak of the couch springs.

    “I’ve worked for you for six years, Ben. Longer than any of your other employees, and the store has had its ups and downs. But I thought we made a good team.”
    “We did, Janice! We do! What do you mean, you don’t trust me?”
    “I don’t expect you to tell me everything that goes on in your life,” Janice said, and now her voice was trembling. “But when it’s a subject as intimate as marriage, and I have to hear about it from a part-time employee …”
    “Ah.” It was a cross between a sigh and an exclamation, and Dad paused. “Marilyn told you that Sylvia and I are engaged. Right?”
    “Can you understand how that made me feel, Ben? Hearing it from her? She gets the news and I don’t?”
    “Janice, I swear. I know I’m a fool when it comes to social relations sometimes, but it was only