Every Living Thing Read Online Free PDF Page A

trouble,” Doris added. “I like her.” She smiled at them, but they continued to ignore her.
    â€œI figure she’s real smart,” Doris said to her mother. “I could teach her things.”
    Mrs. Lacey just shook her head and stuffed a forkful of sweet potato in her mouth. Doris fell silent, praying the weather would never clear.
    But on Saturday, nine days after the dog had arrived, the sun was shining and the roads were plowed. Mr. Lacey opened up the trunk of his car and came into the house.
    Doris was sitting alone in the living room, hugging a pillow and rocking back and forth on the edge of a chair. She was trying not to cry but she was not strong enough. Her face was wet and red, her eyes full of distress.
    Mrs. Lacey looked into the room from the doorway.
    â€œMama,” Doris said in a small voice. “Please.” Mrs. Lacey shook her head.
    â€œYou know we can’t afford a dog, Doris. You try to act more grown-up about this.”
    Doris pressed her face into the pillow.
    Outside, she heard the trunk of the car slam shut, one of the doors open and close, the old engine cough and choke and finally start up.
    â€œDaddy,” she. whispered. “Please.”
    She heard the car travel down the road, and, though it was early afternoon, she could do nothing but go to her bed. She cried herself to sleep, and her dreams were full of searching and searching for things lost.
    It was nearly night when she finally woke up. Lying there, like stone, still exhausted, she wondered if she would ever in her life have anything. She stared at the wall for a while.
    But she started feeling hungry, and she knew she’d have to make herself get out of bed and eat some dinner. She wanted not to go into the kitchen, past the basement door. She wanted not to face her parents.
    But she rose up heavily.
    Her parents were sitting at the table, dinner over, drinking coffee. They looked at her when she came in, but she kept her head down. No one spoke.
    Doris made herself a glass of powdered milkand drank it all down. Then she picked up a cold biscuit and started out of the room.
    â€œYou’d better feed that mutt before it dies of starvation,” Mr. Lacey said.
    Doris turned around.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI said, you’d better feed your dog. I figure it’s looking for you.”
    Doris put her hand to her mouth.
    â€œYou didn’t take her?” she asked.
    â€œOh, I took her all right,” her father answered. “Worst looking place I’ve ever seen. Ten dogs to a cage. Smell was enough to knock you down. And they give an animal six days to live. Then they kill it with some kind of a shot.”
    Doris stared at her father.
    â€œI wouldn’t leave an ant in that place,” he said. “So I brought the dog back.”
    Mrs. Lacey was smiling at him and shaking her head as if she would never, ever, understand him.
    Mr. Lacey sipped his coffee.
    â€œWell,” he said, “are you going to feed it or not?”

Planting Things
    Mr. Willis was a man who enjoyed planting things. He had several beds of zinnias, a large circle of green onions, a couple of barrels of eggplants, a row of spinach and some Swedish ivy on his front porch. Mr. Willis was not a practical gardener, so it did not matter to him whether or not he could eat what he grew, or even if what he planted grew badly or not at all. Mr. Willis just enjoyed planting things.
    Mr. Willis’s wife lived with him and she was not well. She was old (as was he, but it didn’tseem to bother him so much), and she lay in bed most of every day. Mr. Willis loved her—he had loved her for fifty-six years—and he tended to her needs. Her favorite food was a chocolate milkshake mixed up with an egg and some powdered malt. He fixed one for her twice a day—and more, if she asked.
    Mr. Willis missed his wife as he puttered about his yard, planting his favorite things. Sometimes she would pull