September Wind Read Online Free PDF Page A

been?” he growled the minute she walked in. He looked out of place making a sandwich.
                  “ I’ll do that,” she said rushing over. She took the bread out of his hands, and he went to sit at the table.
                  “ If you think going to school’s gonna change things around here, you’d better think again.”
                  “ No, I don’t. I–I don’t. I was over at Aunt Francine’s, and I walked to the schoolhouse to see how long it would take me. I wanted to know what time I’d have to be up.”
                  “ Before dawn, I’m sure. And stay away from Francine’s.”
                  “ What? I don’t go over that much.”
                  “ How many times have I said that Sundays are enough? I let you go one time and you start marching over whenever you please.”
                  “ But Grandfather...”
                  “ Sundays, and that’s final!”
                  He sat stone-faced as she made his roast beef sandwich and filled a bowl with the soup she had prepared that morning.
                  She didn’t mind that Grandfather liked everything just so. Even the yard had to be perfect. If he walked into the barn, or the tool shed, and something was out of place, he would throw a fit. Yet, he seldom noticed if she did something extra, like paint a picture to hang on the wall, or fix her hair differently. Recently she started wearing it in a ponytail. Sometimes she walked so it would swing. She made ribbons to put in her hair, but even the brightest prints and colors didn’t make him notice her. She thought of telling him that every so often she wore one of her mother’s ribbons.
                  Aunt Francine wasn’t the most pleasant person to visit, but sometimes she even noticed something different. Like just that very morning.
                  “ Your knees are beginning to look knobby, Emily. You ever notice how bony chicken legs are? Well that’s what yours’ll look like soon enough if you don’t put some meat on.”
                  Aunt Francine had been in good spirits, considering her usual moods. She was acting a little odd, though, but still with just a smidgen of sparkle in her eyes. Sometimes she surprised her like that. Emily stopped on the way out the door that morning, sensing something about her aunt’s mood she couldn’t quite place. Though she realized at the same time she felt it before. Hmm, whatever it was, she thought as she closed the door, it didn’t matter now that she was going to school. She couldn’t believe it was actually about to happen. It became even more real later that day when her aunt walked over to lay into her brother.
                  “ You’re a damn fool sometimes, Rupert. And you’d better stop being so ornery about Emily going to school. It’s time you resign yourself to the idea.”

CHAPTER TWO
     
    If Grandfather really resigned himself to the idea of Emily going to school, he certainly had an odd way of showing it. He hadn’t said a word at breakfast, although when everyone else left, he lingered in the doorway. Emily was at the sink when she heard him shuffle around to face her.               “Mark my word, young lady. If you fall behind in your chores... dang it, I’ll sure as hell find a way to take you out of school.”
                  She wasn’t so sure he could do that. But she worked tirelessly anyway for a week and a half catching up on the washing and ironing. She planned meals and prepared some ahead of time just like her grandmother used to before heading into town for the day.
                  When Steven brought her school supplies home, she carefully lined them up on her dresser. Several times a day, she would check on them, usually move them around as if they were pieces of