The Secret Hour Read Online Free PDF Page A

sharply, gathering up her knapsack and holding out her down jacket. “You’re going to school.”
      Maggie sat down hard, arm clenched around Brainer’s neck. Her face was red, scrunched up, reminding Teddy of when she’d been a baby. Maggie had cried a lot. She’d always been too sensitive to hot and cold, to being hungry, to needing more sleep. Right now, she was being too sensitive to having their father at the hospital with a cut head. Maggie’s tears were huge and clear, the biggest tears Teddy had ever seen.
      “I’m…not…going to school…” she sobbed, “until…I…know…Daddy’s okay!”
      “He’s fine,” Teddy said, crouching down, feeling the panic again. He had to reassure his sister, so he would believe it himself. “It was just a little cut.”
      “Mommy wasn’t even bleeding,” she gasped. “They said she looked perfect…there wasn’t a bit of blood anywhere…but she just sat down and died.”
      “That was different,” Teddy said, feeling ice in the pit of his stomach. “Mommy was in a car accident. She had internal injuries.”
      Maggie just squeezed her eyes shut, unable to keep those big tears from popping through.
      “Come on, Teddy—here comes your bus,” Kate said gently. Teddy felt her hand on his shoulder. It felt so small and warm, but so solid, he wished she would hold on forever. He wanted to close his eyes and disappear into the feeling, but Maggie needed him. So he stayed focused, staring at his sister.
      “Maggie,” he said. “Don’t miss school.”
      “I don’t care about school,” she wept.
      “Teddy,” Kate said, insistent. “She’ll be okay. I hear your bus.”
      Crouching on the floor, Teddy felt torn. He was on track for getting high honors this term—his progress report had shown straight A’s. He had perfect attendance, the first time since his mother had died. Today they were having elections for the eighth-grade dance committee.
      But how could he leave his sister with this stranger? She said she was their baby-sitter, but she’d seemed so vague about school. Teddy was clear about reality: His father was a top defense lawyer, so he knew the world was filled with killers, rapists, thieves, and victims.
      Kate didn’t seem like any of those, but people said that Greg Merrill had seemed like the boy next door. That he had an open face, a friendly smile; that he’d gone to UConn and worked on the school paper. That he had made money house-sitting and walking people’s dogs. People had trusted him to do that.
      Outside, Teddy’s bus rumbled up the block. He heard it stop at the stop sign. If he stood up now, he’d make it. Kate’s hand was still on his shoulder. She squeezed, pulling him to his feet.
      They were about the same height: The realization surprised him, giving him a jolt. Although she was an adult and he was only fourteen, Teddy looked straight into her eyes—dark green, shining like clear water. Teddy swallowed, waiting.
      “I know, Teddy,” she whispered.
      Teddy was frozen, captured in the moment with Kate Harris. Her river eyes glistened.
      “You know what?” he whispered back.
      “About loving your sister…about how you’d do anything for her.”
      “I would,” he said, casting a glance down at Maggie, still clutching the dog—poor patient Brainer, his once soft coat studded with dry rockweed, thorns, and probably ticks. The hopelessness welled up inside Teddy, and he forced himself to swallow it down.
      “I would do the same for mine,” Kate said. “Anything, Teddy. I know just how you feel.”
      “I can’t go to school,” Teddy said, his throat so thick he could hardly talk. “If she doesn’t.”
      “Oh, Teddy,” Kate said, her cool water eyes warming up, making her smile. “That’s where you’re wrong. See, you’re her big brother. She looks up to you. You have to be an example, to show her how things are done.”
      He heard the school bus pull out