The Old House Read Online Free PDF

choose from? He lived here all his life until he graduated from high school. He must remember the nearest decent-sized town is sixty miles away.”
    â€œMaybe you should have suggested something specific as a present,” Cassie said. “Theway you usually tell him what we need or want? Gordon’s pretty reasonable about getting things when you do.”
    â€œWhy do I have to think of things like that? Hasn’t he got a brain of his own?” Addie said crossly. “We’ve got enough to do right here, keeping up this old barn of a house. Worrying about an old man who has to have everything done for him. Can’t leave him alone for fear of what he’ll do. Can’t go anyplace unless we take him, and he doesn’t want to go anywhere but church, and then he embarrasses us by his loud belching and singing so loud, he drowns out the organ.”
    â€œEverybody there has known him all their lives, and they’re used to him. We’re living here, so we’d have to keep house, anyway,” Cassie said. “And where do you want to go, Addie? We’d be practically hermits whether we had Grandpa to look after or not.”
    â€œWe’re too young to be hermits,” Addie snapped. “And I’d like the option of having some choices, not having to do it because we’re stuck with taking care of him.”
    Cassie was beginning to seem a bit annoyed herself. “Well,then, go ahead and go somewhere. We’ll still be here, Gus and Max and I.”
    â€œGus!” Addie let out a gust of air. “Fat lot of use he is. Spends every minute down at the Hayloft with the rest of those bums.”
    â€œHe can’t work, Addie. You know how bad his back is. You can’t expect the man to sit around the house with a couple of women who are too busy to even talk to him.”
    â€œHe can’t talk about anything but football and basketball and baseball scores, anyway. I never did figure out why you married him, Cassie.”
    Buddy, feeling as if she was unwillingly listening to a conversation that was none of her business, shifted her weight from one foot to the other, trapped inside the small room until they finished what they were saying.
    Cassie responded quietly, sounding hurt. “Same reason you married Ed, I suppose. I never had a chance to get out of this little town and meet anybody else, getting close to forty and it didn’t look like I was ever going to get a chance to find anyone better. He promised me he was going to quit drinking, and Max neededmore of a home than the two of them had, living in that little apartment. I thought we could all be a family.”
    Addie’s face flushed, and Buddy wondered how many times they’d already had this same conversation.
    â€œAt least Ed had the decency to die on me,” Addie said flatly. “I don’t have to lie awake at night, listening to him fumbling with the key to get in. Listen, Buddy, it’s not raining, so let’s walk over to the school and get you registered. It’s too late for you to stay today, but you can go on Monday. Max can show you around.”
    Buddy had her doubts that Max was going to want to do anything of the sort. Yet going with Addie seemed the only way to end this mortifying eavesdropping on what should have been a private conversation. Funny, that they could be embarrassed by Grandpa’s behavior, yet not be aware of their own.
    Under other circumstances, if she’d been with her own family, for instance, Buddy might have enjoyed the walk through Haysville. It was a pretty time of year, and now that the sun hadcome out, the red and gold leaves brightened the lawns and yards everywhere. There were lots of interesting-looking houses, all of them old, the kind that Mama had always said she’d like to have someday. They looked friendly, and comfortable, even if quite a few of them could have benefited from a coat of paint or some fence