Soul Fire Read Online Free PDF Page A

back in here and do what your mother said. Now!”
    I froze, my nerves jangling. My maternal grandmother had moved in with us a year ago, after my grandfather passed away. Her presence in our household had been absolute agony. She was an ornery, nasty, vile, unhappy—oh, I could go on—woman whose disposition left her friendless. Her acerbic remarks could empty a room faster than a fire. We never took her out with us, and since her arrival into our home, we no longer had guests over. I turned away, my own sharp tongue, probably inherited from this woman, was forming a forbidden phrase. I bit down on my lip.
    “You hear me?” she shouted.
    Silently, I dropped my pack and slid the lasagna into the oven. Firing a dirty look her way, I opened the dishwasher door and carefully put everything away, throwing a glance in her direction as I finished. She was still there, like a prison guard, watching over me. I grabbed my bags and tried once again to escape.
    “Oh, no you don’t. The table needs setting. It’s time you took some responsibility and helped out around here. Your mom has taken on five more kids and an assistant to help her in the daycare. Your dad is working two hard jobs just to cover your darned hospital bills. You’re the plague, you are.”
    I stared at her. The words stung. I knew the hospital bills were going to be a burden and today I had applied at numerous places for an after school job. Even if I did get one of those positions, the pay wouldn’t contribute much, but it was the best I could do.
    Dad no longer had his old job at the engineering firm and with it had gone all our health insurance and other benefits. He had worked there faithfully for over twenty years. I didn’t know what had gone wrong. Mom just said he was missing too much work. Hard to fathom as he was never home. With money so short, I knew this would be my last year with the swim club. “No cash for extras,” Dad had sadly declared. Worse, if the ski resort decided to bill us for the rescue, I had no clue how we would pay it.
    With the dining room table set for five—how I wish we were still four—I grabbed my bags and dashed upstairs to my bedroom. My private space was comprised of a loft built into the attic. I loved having this area to myself, along with my own bathroom.
    Alone now, I could dig into my shopping bag. The items I had bought were the key to my plan, but I needed to test it. I pulled out the black wig I had purchased from a salon going bankrupt, a pair of dark brown contact lenses from Walmart, and a hospital uniform from the thrift shop.
    Putting the wig on first, I walked over to the wall mirror. The short black hair stood on end in a spiky way. This was not the look I’d imagined. So . . .  I lathered on curl release and style gel and gave the wig a second critical examination. Still spiky, but the truth was I didn’t look anything like myself, so in that regard . . . I’d succeeded.
    Next, I tried to put in the brown contacts. Who would have thought it would be so difficult? It took a while, and when I finally got them in, I performed another inspection. Red, watery eyes, but not too bad . Standing back, I stared at the stranger in the mirror. The uniform could wait for tomorrow when I would try out the complete look. I had talked Celeste into driving me to Harborside Medical Center. I needed to see how Justin Ledger was doing… without him seeing me.
    It had grown quiet downstairs. The children were gone for the day. The headlights of Dad’s car appeared on the drive, so flaunting my new look, I headed down to the kitchen.
    Mom was crossing the room with a bottle of salad dressing in her hand when I walked in. She stopped short, the bottle hit the floor, and raspberry vinaigrette splashed around her slippers. “Ashla!” she screamed. Her mouth gaped long after the scream stopped. At that exact moment, Dad stepped into kitchen from the garage and froze, his eyes bugged. “Ho-ly!”
    Anika popped through