All About B.A.D. Read Online Free PDF

originals? She scooped up a handful of shells and tried sifting them between her fingers, but they clung to her skin. It was fascinating how they managed to retain shreds of color and still sparkled after traveling hundreds of miles, tossed and ground by turbulent tides—the never-ceasing pounding of water. She could stay here forever.
    She took out a pad and pencil from the beach bag and began sketching tiny bits of the leftover lives strewn everywhere. Shadowing resulted in sharp, crisp edges, making them jump from the paper. She squinted, remembering lessons on dimension and perspective. BAD wished for her workbooks. A hasty exit from Lone Grove meant things she now needed weren’t easily replaced. But life here was different and varied and interesting. Gritty, smooth, curved, flat—her drawings gave each a renewed beauty, restoring their dignity. She carefully printed a description and color beside each draft.
    The next day he left her to survive on her own.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 12
Prime Lots
     
    Once her mind had been made up, Bertha’s real struggles began. But she would stay in control. She would look forward and refuse to languish in self-pity, wallow in the past or dwell on what-ifs. She took out the little index card and wrote down the things that were most important to her. Next, she added the word ‘GOALS’. Under each of these, she carefully scripted sentences of implementation. The paper was tacked onto the wooden frame of her mirror where she would confront it each morning with an evolving image of herself. Over time, it made her a force to be reckoned with.
    Bertha Mae Pease ran the Corps of Engineers office with a firm hand and a gracious heart. She took good care of the hardworking crew who had nicknamed her Mother Mae. When they put in long hours, so did she. When they confided their worries, sorrows, joys and concerns about their families, she listened carefully. Everything stayed in order and ran smoothly.
    From the task of copying topography maps, Bertha learned that the newly created lake would extend to the back edge of her folks’ property—land she had inherited, and for which she was barely able to afford the taxes once their tiny estate had been probated. She drove the borrowed truck to the place where the water would lap the fringes of the land and immediately understood its potential. A goal was added to the slip of paper: “Settle delinquent taxes – asap”. She sold the remaining farm equipment and applied it to the debt. She put in extra hours for extra pay and rarely bought anything not considered essential. It paid off. Before the Lone Grove Lake spread out over pasturelands from the dam built by the Corps of Engineers, Bertha Mae Pease foresaw reaping large rewards from soon-to-be prime waterfront lots ready to be sold to urban dwellers. Again, things were about to change for she and Lilly. Only this time, the changes would be in their favor.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 13
On My Own
     
    Lilly felt swallowed up by the recurring thought that she was entirely alone. Papa had left, Bertha was working all the time, and Bernadette fled to greener pastures. Lilly wallowed in her aloneness, letting it weigh her down and wear her thin, until she came to the conclusion that self-pity was pretty useless if there was no one to hear her complaints. Putting her energy into something other than an emotional sinkhole would prove more productive. 
    For months she had been the human transport for coffee, supplies and gossip, occasionally being asked to share her thoughts or opinions with the little staff. It was a heady feeling, so when offered a summer position with the newspaper, Lilly readily accepted. She felt the excitement of being in the inky hubbub of words flying around like bees released from papery hives. She liked seeing facts plucked from bits of information turned