The Unseen Read Online Free PDF

weather and what was going on in Washington. Xandra was the next one to leave, and that was when the problem that could have fouled up Belinda's visit began to happen.
    Xandra had closed the door firmly behind her and was headed for the window seat when she came to a sudden stop and whirled around to stare at the closet door. Someone or something was moving around inside her closet, thumping and shuffling and then bursting out through the door, as Xandra stood motionless, frozen in shocked surprise that quickly changed to anger. It was only Augusta, or Darling Little Gussie, as most people called the youngest of the Hobson siblings. As she stumbled outof the closet, Gussie's curly blond hair was a bushy tangle and her big baby-doll blue eyes were wide and unblinking.
    At first, while she was still recovering from the scare, Xandra could only stammer, “Wh-what are you doing in my closet?”
    Gussie was smiling now, a little shakily. “I was just …” She paused then before she went on in a questioning tone of voice, “I was … maybe I was … walking in my sleep?”
    “Sure you were,” Xandra snarled. “You think I'm going to believe that?” And then, noticing a suspicious bulge under Gussie's bathrobe, “What's that under your robe?”
    Reaching under her bathrobe, Gussie pulled out an alligator, one of Xandra's favorite animals, and held it out toward Xandra's bed. “I know I promised I wouldn't play with your animals again and I wasn't playing with it, not really. I was just …I was just looking at it a little. I was just getting ready to put it back on your bed.”
    “Yeah, I'll bet you were,” Xandra said. “I guess that's why you were hiding in my closet with my alligator hidden under your robe?”
    Gussie tried for the cutesy dimpling smile that got her out of trouble with most people. But it wasn't going to work with Xandra. Particularly not this time, when she'd been up to something she'd done before and had promised she was going to stop doing.
    “I didn't hide,” she whimpered. “I didn't hide until you were coming and I was scared. And I didn't hide the alligator. It hid under my robe 'cause it was scared too.”
    Before she could go on, Xandra had her by the shoulders and was shaking her so hard that her curly hair flipped and flopped like a shaken dust mop.
    “I've told you and told you to stay out of my things, Gussie Hobson,” Xandra said through clenched teeth. “Do you hear me, you little brat?”
    “Okay. Okay. Don't hurt me.” Gussie looked terrified. “Here, take it back. Take back your old alligator.” Pulling away from Xandra's grasp, Gussie almost, but not quite, ducked the slap Xandra aimed at her as she threw the alligator on the floor and ran from the room.
    As Xandra watched her go, she knew she was in trouble. The little creep would tell on her for sure and probably lie about it too. She'd probably say that Xandra hit her, which wasn't true—at least not exactly. Maybe she had more or less tried to hit the little troublemaker, but she was pretty sure she had mostly missed. But if Gussie said she'd been hit, there was going to be trouble. People tended to believe the worst about Xandra, and the best about their Darling Little Gussie. Even their mother, who, as a lawyer, wasn't supposed to make up her mind about who was guilty without hearing all the evidence. The chances were Xandra would be grounded, which meant Clara would pick her up after school and she'd have to go straight to her room and stay there all evening. So there would be no way she could smuggle Belinda into the basement.
    She went back to the window seat and threw herself onto it, thinking about how unfair it was going to be. Gussie would tell her side of the story, and the whole family, all the siblings as well as the parents, would be mad at Xandra and she'd probably get some horrible punishment, like having her allowance cut in half, besides being grounded for a whole week.

X ANDRA WENT DOWNSTAIRS the