Restoring Harmony Read Online Free PDF

coming.
    I watched a man in a horrendous plaid suit struggle out the doors of the station and make his way through the crowd with a woman in a wheelchair. Her skirt was made of the same yellow plaid. I couldn’t take my eyes off either of them because I’d never seen anything so ugly. When he got to the train, he lifted the woman out and handed her to a conductor whose knees buckled under her weight.
    “My wife can’t manage herself,” he told the conductor, who carried her aboard.
    I stood on my tiptoes, trying to see if any of the last few people coming down the path were Jane. Where was she? If we sat here for even ten more minutes, she’d probably make it. I watched the plaid man fight the wheelchair, trying to collapse it so he could take it on board.
    Of course! I turned to him. “Can I use your wheelchair?” His plaid jacket was even more blinding close up.
    “What? No! Of course not.”
    “I’ll bring it right back. Please? My friend, I mean, my grandmother, my great -grandmother is going to miss the train if I don’t borrow it.”
    “And if you don’t make it back, then what will I do for a wheelchair?”
    “Please? Please?”
    The man grimaced and held on tightly to the handles. I fished around in my pocket for what was left of my money. “Here! Take this as security. I’ll bring your chair back. I promise.”
    “It’s worth a lot more than that,” he said, grumbling but eyeing the money. He grabbed the bills and shoved the chair towards me.
    From further down the platform, I heard a conductor shout, “Two minutes! All aboard!”
    I raced across the concrete, pushing the wheelchair. I had to get Jane, no matter what!

6
     
     
     
     
     
    I SWERVED AND DODGED, DODGED AND SWERVED.
    The pavement tore at my bare feet. Little kids shrieked, and parents screamed at me to be more careful. I didn’t care. I was so close now! I found Jane picking her way down the slope of the maintenance trail. Leaving my fiddle in the chair, I ran up the path and just as I reached her, something punctured the ball of my foot, momentarily crippling me.
    “We’ve got to hurry!” I said, swallowing back the pain. I scooped Jane up into my arms-her tiny body almost as light as one of our chickens! I ran down the slope, deposited her into the chair and she clutched my fiddle to her chest. Then I spun her around like a top.
    “Whoooheee!” she whooped.
    “Is the train moving yet?” I asked.
    “Can’t tell.”
    We hit a bump, and I grabbed her shoulder to keep her from flying out. “Hang on!”
    She gripped the arm of the chair with one hand, her knuckles white. There were still stragglers everywhere, and I wove recklessly through the crowd. When I got to the train, I screeched to a halt, nearly catapulting Jane out of the chair.
    “All aboard!” yelled the conductor.
    “Wait! We’re coming!”
    Jane jumped up and hobbled towards the door, still holding my fiddle. Her long white hair hung loose to her waist, floating behind like cobwebs. I kicked at what I thought was the release mechanism on the wheelchair, but I couldn’t get it folded up.
    “Leave the chair!” the conductor shouted as he helped Jane aboard.
    “I can’t!” I said. “It belongs to that man in the plaid suit.”
    “No it doesn’t,” he yelled. “It belongs to the station!”
    The train began to move slowly away.
    “Come on,” Jane shouted.
    I couldn’t believe it. That man had tricked me out of my money! Jane was still holding Jewels, and I abandoned the chair and limped painfully alongside the train, my backpack thumping against me. It was picking up speed, nearing the end of the platform. I made a last-ditch leap onto the train step and fire shot through my feet all the way up my legs. Jane and the conductor pulled me aboard just as my knees gave out.
    The conductor was really annoyed when I told him about the plaid man and my money, and he helped me search the car. The man must’ve ducked into a washroom and changed his