The Gravesavers Read Online Free PDF

a tiny startled circle. She dropped the crockery pot filled with stew and it smashed on the stone floor.
    Ignoring the mess, Dad wrapped his arms around Mum. He danced her around the room.
    “Patrick Hindley! You’re not kidding this time, are you? It’s for real? We’re going to see my girls? Tell me I’m not dreaming.”
    He pinched her on the bottom “You’re not dreaming, Mare.” He spun her again, hugged her close.
    I started mopping up the mess for something to do. Thomas was holding his head in his hands.
    Our parents continued to rock back and forth as if we were invisible.
    “Your girls, Mare, and your grandkids too.” Mum was sniffling by that time. Dad stroked her hair, like she was a dog needing petting. He winked at us over the top of her head.
    “We’ll be leaving in a fortnight,” Dad said. “It’s not a lot of time. Will we be ready, boys?”
    “Yes, sir,” I said, grinning from ear to ear.
    Thomas said nothing.
    “Tom?”
    We all waited.
    “Yes, but—,” said Thomas.
    Thomas was thinking about Becca? At a time like this? Well, too bad for him, I thought.
    Ever since our sisters had married and sailed across the sea, ever since they started sending those letters filled with excitement about the sights of New York, I’d been dreaming of joining them. New World, new life. Our mother missed her daughters something fierce. She’d weep for no reason, knit her brow as tightly as the bonnets she was making—“for my grandchildren who I’ll never ever ever
ever
see,” she’d say. And her sigh would last longer than a month.
    My father finally made the decision to join them. “Family’s meant to be together,” he’d told me when he confided his plans.
    “John, catch me, catch me, catch me can!” he shouted then.
    “Patrick, he’s too heavy and you’re too old,” Mum started in. Too late. I ran across the room, jumped into outstretched arms and wrapped my legs around my father’s waist. It was a game we’d played since I was a tot. He step-danced with me attached like a raggedy doll, hanging upside down.
    “Look here, Mare, the boy’s so big now, his hair can sweep up the floor for us!”
    Next thing I knew Dad was dumping me down like one of his sacks of cotton at the mill. He threw Thomas on top and hugged us in. Mum didn’t get away either.
    “Imagine,” she said, gasping for breath. “Imagine if someone could see in this place now, what a bunch of raving fools they’d think we must be.”
    Thomas wriggled out from under the pile.
    “Tom?” Dad’s smile crumpled into an awkward lopsided grin. “Tom?”
    “Got some thinking to do, if that’s okay with you. Got to think over whether I’ll be sailing with you.”
    Silence followed.
    “You’re old enough to make the right decision,” Dad replied.
    I watched Tom pull on his coat and walk out the door.
    “Gurls,” I said to my folks. “Nothing but a whole heap of trouble.”
    My parents exchanged worried glances.
    My hunger was gone, replaced by what felt like a lump of coal in my belly. Sure, Thomas wasn’t perfect, but I couldn’t imagine not having my big brother by my side.
     
P REPARATIONS
    “For folks that got nothing, we sure got a lot,” said Thomas.
    Mum wiped the sweat from her brow with the sleeve of one of Dad’s old shirts. Then she bit into the shirt to make a tear and ripped it in three. She tossed two rags at us and dipped her piece in a pail of sudsy water.
    “We’re not leaving this place dirty,” she warned us. “No one’s going to say the Hindleys left filth behind for someone else to mop up. Scrub!”
    She was thinking of the Grovers, who moved away the year before. People still talked about the smell of rotten eggs they left for the new tenants to try to get rid of.
    “Once folks leave this town, those left behind don’t have a good word to say about them anyhow, Mum. They’re all wanting to get out of the mill and are just plain jealous when some folks do. Don’t