Running Around (and Such) Read Online Free PDF

and look at Mam.
    Mam sighed and started to clear the food from the table.
    CRASH!
    Lizzie jumped as the milk bottle she was holding slipped through her soapy hands and landed on the floor. The whole glass gallon jar lay in a hundred pieces on the linoleum as milk streamed in every direction.
    “Lizzie! You did that on purpose!” Mam shouted.
    “I did not!” Lizzie yelled back. She grabbed a roll of paper towels and dropped to her knees, swabbing at the flow of milk.
    “Ouch!” she yelped, as a large chunk of glass embedded itself in the palm of her hand. She sat back on her heels as blood spurted from the wound.
    Emma knelt down beside her and calmly wiped up the milk with an oversized towel from the bathroom, absorbing most of it. Mandy gingerly picked up pieces of the glass jar with her thumb and forefinger. Mam bent over Lizzie, her face red, scolding and fussing anxiously. Jason sat on the bench at the table, his curly hair sticking out every which way and said calmly, “This is about a mess.”
    Lizzie sat with her back against the cabinets, holding her bleeding hand while Emma filled a bucket with warm, soapy water and finished mopping up the milk. Mam stood up and turned to Lizzie.
    “Whatever in the world were you doing? Banging the pots and pans around because you were mad about something again, Lizzie? Well, you just let me tell you something.”
    She paused and took a deep breath.
    “Emma, go get the gauze and tape. Union salve, too.”
    While Emma hurried to the bathroom, Mam pressed the paper towel down hard until Lizzie winced.
    “Ow. Watch it!” she said.
    “Oh, sorry. As I was saying, you can just straighten yourself up right this minute, Lizzie Glick.”
    “I heard you and Dat talking about Emma last evening,” Lizzie snapped, pulling her hand away.
    Mam grabbed her hand again.
    “Well, you’re going to have to learn to stop being so selfish. All you ever think about is yourself, and whether or not I like you as much as I like Emma. Now listen to me.”
    Mam took off the paper towel, releasing the pressure on the wound, and only a small swell of blood seeped out of the cut. She cut off a piece of white sterile gauze and laid it aside.
    “As long as you are planning to go through life thinking only of yourself, you’re going to have an awfully hard time. I’ve often told you girls, Jesus first, others next, and yourself last spells J-O-Y,” she said.
    Lizzie shrugged. Emma and Mandy stood in the doorway listening.
    “You know, too, Lizzie, that I’ve had an awful time giving myself up to moving to Cameron County. It’s a struggle to think of Jesus first. But if it’s his will that we move—which I hope it is—and if I don’t want to give in to that, then I most definitely am not putting God’s will first. And Dat …” Her voice trailed off.
    Lizzie watched the emotion on Mam’s face. She wanted to be truly submissive, Lizzie knew, but it was very hard.
    “You think it’s stupid, don’t you,” Lizzie asked.
    “What?”
    “Farming.”
    Mam held Lizzie’s hand tightly as she applied the dark brown pungent salve before laying the gauze carefully on top of the wound.
    “I shouldn’t say this, Lizzie. Especially not to you. But, yes, it’s stupid. Financially, for sure. I don’t know about spiritually. Maybe it will be good for all of us to do without money again.” She tore off a few lengths of adhesive tape, wrapped them around Lizzie’s hand, and stood up.
    “There. No more washing dishes for you.” She bent down, her face level with Lizzie’s. “And quit your pouting.”
    Lizzie looked squarely into Mam’s face before she said, “I will, if you quit treating Mandy and me like we’re two years old. Mam, I am 15, not four. And I have feelings, too, you know.”
    Mam laid a hand on Lizzie’s shoulder, softly rubbing it back and forth. “Ach, yes, Lizzie, I know. You’re just so very, very different from Emma that it seems as if you’re younger than you