Fabulous Five 015 - Melanie's Identity Crisis Read Online Free PDF Page B

downstairs. "Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes, dear. Would
you like me to call your mother and see if it's all right for you to stay?"
    "Eeek," squealed Melanie, pulling herself into the
present and looking around the room. She hadn't realized that it was so late. "Sorry,
Gran. I've got tons of homework so I'll have to go home. I'll be down in a
couple of minutes."
    Melanie looked at the pile of letters in her lap. She wanted
to go on reading them. There was something almost magic in holding them in her
hands and knowing that they had been sent to someone very much like herself so
long ago. She could almost see Cordia's flirtatious smile as she bestowed it on
first one young man and then another, and feel her great-great-grandmother's
heart skip a beat when the smile was returned. "I know just how she felt,"
Melanie murmured, reluctantly putting the letter she held back on top of the
packet. I absolutely have to come back and read more of them tomorrow.
    She retied the letters with the pink bow and started to put
them back into the trunk when she noticed another letter. It was addressed to
Gran Pennington, and her own mother's return address was in the corner. What
caught her eye was the postmark, only seven months before her own birth, and
Gran's notation on the envelope: News that Kathy's going to have a baby.
    Melanie stared at the letter for a moment. Kathy was her
mother's name, and her family had lived in another city from the time her
parents were married until they moved to their present home when Melanie
entered second grade at Mark Twain Elementary. It gave her a tingly feeling to
see the letter lying there and know that it was about her before she was even
born.
    Should I read it, or shouldn't I? she wondered. Shaking her
head, she placed Cordia's love letters back in the trunk and started to close
the lid. Still, she reasoned, Gran said to look through the trunk as much as I
wanted to. She didn't say there were things I shouldn't see.
    Slowly Melanie lifted the trunk lid again. She could see the
corner of her grandmother's letter peeking out from under the stack of letters
tied with the pink ribbon. Using two fingers like pincers, she slowly pulled
the letter out and held it up, reading the notation on the front one more time. News that Kathy's going to have a baby.
    "It's about me, " Melanie said aloud. "So
I'm going to read it."
    She felt a glow of anticipation as she pulled the pages out
of the envelope. It was going to be exciting to read about how she was going to
be born. Dear Mom , the letter began.
     
    I know you've been wondering why I haven't written in
such a long time and that you always say that no news is good news , but
the truth is , I haven't been sure if the news I'm going to tell you is
good news or not.
     
    Melanie gasped softly. What had her mother meant? This
certainly wasn't what she had expected to read. The letter went on:
     
    Larry and I had planned to wait awhile to have a baby.
You know how I've worked for years to become a concert pianist and have given
up a lot to achieve my dream. But accidents happen , I guess, and now
I'll have to forget that dream.
     
    The words blurred before Melanie's eyes as their meaning
slowly sunk in. "An accident! " she whispered. "They didn't
plan for me to be born. They didn't even want me!"
    With trembling fingers, she folded the letter and put it
back into the envelope, stuffing it under an old photograph album. She didn't
want to read the second page. She already knew what the letter said, and it
was awful.
    Melanie sat in the growing shadows of the old-fashioned
bedroom, staring at the crumbling photo album in the trunk and thinking about
the letter underneath it. Her mother had said she wanted to be a concert
pianist, but now she couldn't. She couldn't because she was going to have a
baby. "And that baby turned out to be me," Melanie whispered.
    It took all the acting skill that she possessed to go
downstairs and face her grandmother