Out of the Ashes Read Online Free PDF

the Man of Her Dreams at the moment. That usually worked, although it was trying for me to have to listen to her rave on and on about the various guys’ eyes and lips. When she progressed to how cute someone’s butt was, I’d wish I’d just let her gossip about Mr. Taylor!
    Well, as I mentioned before, there were no more fires that fall. After a while things settled back to normal and the talk of Greg’s father died down, to be resurrected only when things were really boring. There’d been no arrest, and it began to appear that the culprit was going to get away with it. People were unhappy about that. It was a real disappointment to have that kind of excitement fizzle out without the expected drama of an arrest and trial.
    Even a great story like the fires can’t keep going when there’s nothing new to feed it. By the time November had passed, the town’s adults had switched to talking about the usual things. I’ve never understood why it’s interesting to old folks, which I suppose would include anyone over twenty-five, to spend their time discussing really boring stuff. The women seem to talkmostly about who’s getting married or having a baby, while the men generally spend all of their time trying to decide whether or not it’s going to rain.
    As for the kids at school, we were mainly talking about the upcoming school dance. We have one every year, a week or so before Christmas, and it’s a really big deal. It’s embarrassing if you don’t have a date, but some people go alone anyway, just so they don’t have to miss out on it. The girls start getting their dresses as early as September, shopping out of town in bigger cities, or sometimes ordering material from Della’s Fabric Store on the town square and having them made.
    My mom was making mine, a deep blue formal gown with a glittery sash. She insisted on fittings every time I turned around, but I didn’t really mind because that just meant it was going to fit perfectly. Even when it wasn’t done, I felt special with the soft, satiny material flowing down around me.
    Naturally, I’d been hoping that Nick Jarvis would ask me to be his date. Well, by the first week of December there was no sense in pretending that was going to happen. He’d made it official with Jane Goodfellow by then and asked her out. Jane was telling everyone that her gown was going to make the others look like country frocks. Did I mention that I don’t like Jane Goodfellow?
    Still, there were a couple of other guys at school who would have been pretty acceptable dates, even ifthey weren’t Nick. I waited and prayed and turned down a few offers, hoping that one of them might come through. By the week of the formal, it was clear that I’d made a big mistake. Everyone worth going with was taken, and there I was with a dress and no date.
    I know it’s no excuse for what I did next, but I was desperate.
    You’re probably thinking that I accepted a last-minute invitation from Greg, but it’s way worse than that. You see, Greg didn’t actually ask me. I’d been thinking he might, but he never brought it up.
    What happened was that, in a moment of panic, I asked him . To say he looked surprised is an understatement. It must have been a shock all right, after the way I’d basically been avoiding him.
    He was outside waiting for his bus, standing off to one side with a faraway look on his face. Greg is like that a lot. You can see that he’s drifted away from whatever is going on around him, which I have to admit I do too sometimes.
    I got looking at him and thinking that he really wasn’t all that bad. He’s not a geek or anything, and even though he’s not exactly handsome, he’s at least passable. All of a sudden he seemed like a reasonable solution to the dance problem. Actually, by that point in time, he was pretty much the only solution.
    â€œIf you’re