The Summer We Got Free Read Online Free PDF Page B

There was something about that little girl that intrigued Maddy, though
she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was. She did not know that a
dozen of her neighbors were standing at the windows of their own houses, also
watching this child, and trying to put their fingers on just that same thing.
She also did not know the reason she remained at the window, and did not
immediately go out and introduce herself to the family, as any good Christian,
and any good neighbor for that matter, would. Standing there, she told herself
that she would go over, in just a
minute. She told herself that for half an hour.
    Through the
window, she saw Malcolm Hansberry, her two-doors-down neighbor, climb over the
banister of the house that separated theirs and knock on her front door. “Come
on in, Malc ,” she hollered.
    “ You been watching them, too?” Malcolm asked when he saw
Maddy at the window. “That explains why you aint ready.”
    She looked at
him, then remembered. “Oh shit! The leadership meeting.”
    Malcolm took her place at the window while she went to
throw something on and pin up her hair. He had spent several minutes staring
out of his own window at the new family moving in and it was only because he
had to get ready for the meeting at the church that he hadn’t gone over and introduced
himself and offered to help with the boxes. At least that’s why he figured he
hadn’t gone over. Pastor Goode always asked that they be on time for the
meeting and Malcolm didn’t like to keep people waiting when they were expecting
him. It was bad manners. So, he had watched the young family while dressing, so
as not to lose any time. There was something about that littlest girl, he had
thought, standing at his window, and now thought again, standing at Maddy’s window, that made him feel happy as he watched her
running around, something that reminded him of the very tops of very green
trees, something that recalled for him the yellow taffy his favorite aunt used
to make. That something made him want to go over and say hello to the family,
made him eager to do so, but still he stood there.
    Maddy came back a
couple of minutes later and soon she and Malcolm left the house and walked down
the front steps to the sidewalk, headed for the church. Looking over at the small
girl running around in circles, her arms outstretched as though she were
pretending to fly, both Malcolm and Maddy felt a strange, almost physical tug,
like the feeling of being moved by the wind at your back, only this wind seemed
not to push but to pull, and without either of them suggesting it to the other,
each altered their course mid-step and crossed the narrow street.
    “Well, hi
there,” Maddy called as she approached the pick-up truck.
    The children’s mother,
who was pulling a box from the bed of the truck, smiled and said, “Good
morning.” She was a little bit taller than Maddy and built like a country girl,
with broad hips and thick calves. Her hands were elegant, long and thin. She
had a wonderful face, with cheekbones cut like a cliffside ,
and her dark skin was the most flawless Maddy had ever seen.
    “I heard
somebody bought this house. I’m Maddy Duggard . I live
right here.” She pointed over her shoulder to the white house she and Malcolm had
just exited. “This here’s Malcolm Hansberry.”
    “I live in the
green one,” he said, pointing to his own house.
    “Nice to meet
you both,” said the woman, smiling, revealing a little space between her two
front teeth. “I’m Regina Delaney.”
    She had a heavy southern accent that sounded Alabama- esque to Malcolm and Georgia- ish to Maddy. “Where you from?” Maddy asked.
    “Georgia.”
    “Thought so.”
    “But we been up here about five years now,” Regina
told them. “We was living over on Highland Avenue. And
y’all?”
    “I’m from here,” Malcolm said. “ Maddy’s from Chicago.”
    “I moved up here two years ago with my husband and our
children. My husband moved