The Keeper Read Online Free PDF Page B

shiny, curly hair. He had Julia’s hazel eyes rimmed with lashes so thick they looked like a brush. Not fair! Not fair that Julia and Menno took after their mother, while Sadie took after her father’s side of the family. Short, round, bordering on plump, large-chested, and her honey-colored hair frizzed up on humid days like a Brillo pad. M.K. seemed to have features from both parents—small like her mother, snapping brown eyes like her father, hair that was colored lighter than Sadie’s, but thick and satin-smooth, like Julia’s. So not fair. And then she felt a pin jab of conscience.
    The barn door slid open and M.K. flew in, feathers ruffled like an offended parakeet. True M.K. style. “Family meeting!” she shouted. “We need to have a family meeting! Right now! It’s a dire emergency! Where is everybody?”
    Sadie popped up so M.K. could see where she was. She held a finger in silence against her lips. “The puppies just fell asleep.”
    Menno was watching M.K. with an alarmed look on his face. “Is it Dad? Is he okay?”
    “Menno, you know that M.K.’s dire emergencies are never real emergencies,” Sadie said quietly, in a voice of one long accustomed to her little sister’s fire alarms.
    M.K. overheard her. “But it is! We are facing a terrible problem!”
    “Calm down, M.K.,” Sadie said. “Sit next to Menno and look at the puppies.”
    M.K. came into the stall and crouched down. As she reached out to touch a puppy, Lulu growled at her, so she drew back. She gave Sadie a pleading look. “Even the dog won’t listen to me!”
    Sadie’s heart went out to her little sister. Her daily emergencies were casually dismissed by the family. Crying wolf, they said. Yet Sadie indulged her—she knew that M.K.’s enthusiasms were always genuine and passionate but seldom long-lasting.
    Sadie put an arm around her. “You’ve got my full attention now, M.K. What’s the emergency? Why do we need a family meeting?”
    “Fern! Haven’t you met her?”
    Sadie and Menno nodded. “She made me a big lunch,” Menno said. “It was amazing!” He cast a sheepish glance in Sadie’s direction. “No offense, Sadie.”
    “None taken,” Sadie said. “Why are you upset, M.K.?”
    “She said no one is allowed in the refrigerator. Pretty soon, we won’t even be allowed into the kitchen.”
    Menno scrunched up his face. “But how would we eat?”
    “My point exactly, Menno!” M.K. folded her arms against her chest, satisfied that she had conveyed the critical urgency of her message. She pointed to the puppies sleeping in Menno’s lap. “Dibs on the big one.”
    Menno shook his head. “You can’t just say dibs, M.K. These puppies belong to me.”
    M.K. waved him off. “Menno, come with me. There’s a pot of beef stew simmering on the stove and it is tempting me something fierce. Let’s go see if we can sample a bowlful. Maybe Fern won’t yell at you. Nobody ever yells at you.”
    Menno nodded solemnly at Sadie. “It’s true. Everybody likes me.” He gently placed the sleeping puppies next to Lulu and scrambled to his feet to follow M.K. to the house.

    Julia was having an awful day. Awful! She already felt fragile from yesterday’s conversation with Paul, and now, Uncle Hank had invited a stranger to become their housekeeper. They didn’t need a housekeeper. Well, maybe they did, but Julia should have been the one to choose her. Not Uncle Hank!
    The woman who had arrived at their doorstep earlier in the day couldn’t be any more of a mismatch for the Lapps. When Julia first met her, Fern Graber had a look on her face as if she had a kernel of popcorn stuck in a back molar. That was before Fern walked into the kitchen and actually gasped in horror. Within one minute of arriving, she was sweeping the floor and clucking her tongue.
    And not only that—Fern Graber had ears on her like a librarian. She was already listening in to their conversations and offering up her opinion on serious matters.