Baby-Sitting Is a Dangerous Job Read Online Free PDF

our kitchen when I got home, watching my mom stuff a pair of chickens for roasting. I helped myself to a banana to match the one Irene was eating, and said, “The little one says ‘shicken’ and you have to figure out if she means chicken or kitchen.”
    Mom started to truss up the first bird with dental floss, the way she usually did, giving me a smile. “How was it?”
    I sank into a chair beside Irene. “Okay, I guess. Those kids have everything to play with you ever heard of. Including a neat dollhouse, Irene. Remember how we used to play withthat old one of mine? Of course we’re too big for that stuff now, but I still kind of like to look at them. Maybe they wouldn’t care if I took you in and showed you the place.”
    Mom gave me a look. “No visitors while you’re on the job unless you have permission, Darcy.”
    â€œYeah, I know. Come on, Irene, let’s go jog around the park or something. I need some exercise.”
    I didn’t ask her why she was here before I got home, when she knew I’d be at the Fosters until four o’clock. Tim and a couple of buddies were working on the Volks in the driveway, and she’d needed an excuse to walk past them and say, “Hi, Tim.” I knew how he’d answered: a grunted “Hi” without even pulling his head out from under the hood. Irene never gave up, though.
    â€œWhen he’s twenty-one,” she said once, “I’ll be seventeen. Then I’ll be old enough for him, don’t you think?”
    â€œWhen he’s twenty-one, he’ll probably be gone, at the police academy,” I told her. “That’s all he thinks about, becoming a cop. It’ll take acouple of years at the junior college, and then the academy, and he might go away somewhere to get a job.”
    â€œI’ll bet he’ll look darling in a police uniform,” Irene said. Trust her to see the positive side of everything.
    We went past the boys, who had paused for cold drinks. Irene said “Hi, Tim,” and he lifted a lazy hand to wave without speaking. As long as we were where they could see us, Irene walked in that special way she saves for such times. After that, she broke into a trot beside me, heading toward the park.
    There were a few mothers with small children there, near the wading pool and the playground equipment. We cut off in the opposite direction—I’d had enough of small children for one day. The park is a nice one, with lots of open space plus some woods and little ravines.
    We ran across the grass to get onto a path, where I took the lead and kept going until I got tired. Puffing, I flopped down on the grassy hillside, and Irene stretched out flat beside me.
    It didn’t take her long to get her wind back, though, and she sat up, staring down into the ravine to where a small waterwheel turned on the stream.
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œWhat?” I asked, following her gaze.
    â€œIt looks like a tent. You can’t camp in the park, can you?”
    I squinted to see better. “I think it’s just a sheet of plastic. It probably blew down there.”
    â€œIt looks more like somebody fastened it over those bushes to make a shelter.”
    I shrugged. “Kids playing. We used to make tents out of blankets over card tables or clotheslines, or tied between trees.”
    Irene shoved herself to her feet. “I’m going down and look.”
    At first I thought I’d just sit there and watch her, but then I decided, what the heck, I might as well tag along. I didn’t expect to find anything, though.
    She was right about somebody making a shelter, though I still thought it was just kids. The sheet of dark plastic was almost the same color as the shrubs, so it didn’t show up fromvery far away, and the grass was beaten down beneath it, as if someone had been sitting or lying there.
    â€œLook,” Irene said. She was down on her