Invitation to a Stranger Read Online Free PDF

few words with Drake. Shouldn’t be any problem.”
    She groped her way up the winding path that led to the ornate porch over the front door. Ronnie followed close behind her.
    â€œWhat do you think you are doing?” Ronnie hissed.
    â€œKnocking on the front door,” Katie replied.
    She raised her hand and knocked three times, hard. The knocks sounded very loud in the silence. Ronnie shivered, and stood closer to Katie.
    A porch light went on, lighting up their white, scared faces. The heavy front door swung back, revealing a dark shadow in the opening.
    â€œDrake?” Katie asked, as she peered into the darkness of the house. “Have you had your electricity cut off or something?”
    â€œWhat do you want?” Drake’s voice whispered. He sounded unfriendly and unwelcoming.
    Ronnie was revising her ideas of Drake. He didn’t sound nice any more. . Maybe he was involved in some weird scheme of kidnapping the district pets, but if he was, why had Wing ended up at the pet shop?
    â€œ We wanted to thank you for dropping Wing into the pet shop,” Katie said. “Jasmine collected him this morning.”
    â€œAnd have you seen anything of Sing?” Ronnie asked. “The two cats are usually together.”
    â€œBrod’s here, so clear out,” Drake whispered and shut the door in their faces.
    The porch light was turned off. It was abruptly very dark. Ronnie clutched Katie, as they turned and groped their way down the steps and along the winding path that led back to the street, and under the welcome street light.
    â€œWhat’s eating him?” Katie grumbled as they collected their bikes.
    â€œBrod, I guess,” Ronnie said. " So we catch up with Drake some other time. Or maybe not, ” she said after a pause.
    There was something weird about a family that lurked in a darkened house. What were they all doing in the dark? Why had Drake turned so unpleasant? She wasn’t game to admit it, but she had been scared when the heavy front door had swung back. What if that whispering man introduced as Drake’s father had answered Katie’s knock or even that nasty Brod?
    â€œ Maybe not , ” agreed Katie in a relieved tone. “Maybe Brod will be gone again tomorrow afternoon.”
    â€œWonder if his grandfather is as creepy as his father?” Ronnie said when they reached Katie’s house.
    â€œWonder,” Katie said. “Also why was Drake so upset at seeing us?”
    â€œMaybe because Brod was there,” Ronnie suggested. Or maybe not as Katie had said. What if Drake was as equally unpleasant as Brod only they hadn’t realized it because he had put on the charm?
    The next day started badly. It was another clear, sunny day and Katie and Jasmine had turned up to meet so they could put up more “lost” posters for the missing animals.
    â€œYou are not going anywhere until you clean that room,” her mother yelled, as she spotted Ronnie, with Kate and Jasmine leaving the house. “It is a disgrace! I don’t see that it is too much to expect you to hang your clothes somewhere else but the floor.”
    â€œGive you a hand,” Katie offered.
    â€œMe too,” Jasmine offered.
    They helped Ronnie change her bed, pick up and put away her clothes, and sort out her library shelf.
    Katie had already told Jasmine about Drake’s odd reception when they visited him in his unlit house and they discussed it in more detail.
    â€œSo maybe they did have their electricity cut off,” Jasmine suggested. “And Drake wouldn’t have wanted us to front Brod again.”
    â€œThe porch light went on,” Ronnie said.
    â€œMaybe just one of the light fuses went,” Jasmine argued. “In a house that large they would have more than one fuse in their fuse box.”
    â€œMaybe,” Ronnie agreed.
    Now it was broad daylight and such a sunny day, she felt a bit stupid. It was embarrassing to