The Search Read Online Free PDF Page B

to foot while standing at the end of the bed. There wasn’t any other chair to sit in. “So I guess that makes you my great uncle.”
    Simon’s eyes opened wide, full of mockery, as he looked Bess over. “Another holy howler.” He looked at her long and hard with cold blue eyes.
    She’d never seen eyes so cold. There was a touch of meanness in his thin smile. Bess felt a bead of sweat run down the valley between her shoulder blades.
    Mammi was watching her. “Bess, en rauher Glotz nemmt’n rauher Keidel.” A rough log requires a rough wedge. “Never forget that.”
    How could Bess remember it when she couldn’t even understand it? Bess looked at her, confused, but Mammi had turned her attention back to her brother.
    “Simon, you never did know beans from honey,” Mammi said. “If you could put two and two together, you’d figure out by now that Bess is a relation.”
    “So?” Simon asked.
    “So mebbe she’d be willing to get a blood test and see if she can help you out. Mebbe her bone marrow could be a match for you.”
    Bess’s eyes went wide as quarters.
    “If she’s willing, that is,” Mammi repeated, avoiding Bess’s eyes.

    The ride home on the bus was a silent one.
    Mammi had been told by the nurse that since Bess was underage, the hospital required a parent’s consent before her blood could be tested. Mammi hadn’t expected that, Bess could tell. But Bess was thoroughly relieved. It wasn’t easy to say no to Mammi, and yet she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to have her blood tested. The blood test was pretty simple, she knew that, but what if she were a match? Giving blood was one thing. Bone marrow was entirely different. She wasn’t even sure what that meant and didn’t want to ask. Her only experience with bone marrow was to cook up a pot of soup and simmer the bones for a good long while. Besides, even if Simon was her great uncle, he was not a nice man. He was downright mean-hearted. Maybe it all worked out just fine, Bess decided happily. Since she was only fifteen and her father was in Ohio—with no intention to come to Pennsylvania—there was no possible way she could have a blood test. Bess looked out the window and smiled. Things had a way of working out.
    “Bess,” Mammi asked, one sparse eyebrow raised, “have you ever driven a car?”
    Bess shook her head. “Just a tractor.”
    Mammi gave up a rare smile. “Same thing. When we get back to Stoney Ridge, we got us another errand to do.”

    Lainey O’Toole reread the letter she had written to her friends one more time before licking the envelope and sealing it shut. She had written and rewritten this letter during her break today until it sounded just right.
    Dear Robin and Ally,
    A moment of silence, please, for the passing of my Beetle. It sputtered to a stop in a little town called Stoney Ridge, but it didn’t die in vain. It took its final breath in front of a bakery called The Sweet Tooth just as the owner put out a help wanted sign. I kid you not! One thing led to another and . . . well, instead of hunting for a temporary job in upstate New York, circumstances dictate that I am going to spend the summer here. But do not worry! It is just a short-term turn of events.
    Love you tons and miss you more,
    Lainey
    P.S. Did I ever mention that my mother and I had lived in Stoney Ridge until I turned ten?
    Satisfied, Lainey dropped the envelope into the mailbox before she crossed the street to head to her little rented room.

    When the bus dropped Bess and Mammi off in Stoney Ridge, Mammi told her to keep up as she made her way through the streets. Finally, her grandmother found what she was looking for. She made a beeline straight to the sheriff’s car, parked by the hardware store.
    Mammi peered in the open window of the sheriff’s car and saw the keys dangling in the ignition. She turned to Bess. “Come on, big talker. Show me what you know.”
    Bess’s jaw dropped open. “Mammi, you don’t