This Enemy Town Read Online Free PDF

find wearing a hat more comfortable than a wig, at least while you’re working. I know I did.”
    Dorothy pulled out a blue canvas hat with Sea Song embroidered on it in white script. “ Sea Song is my sister-in-law’s sailboat,” I told her. “We should go sailing sometime.”
    The next hat out of the bag was one decorated with red, white, and blue sequins. Dorothy settled it over her wig. “This seems appropriate,” she announced, turning her head from side to side as if examining herself in an imaginary mirror. “How do I look?”
    â€œPatriotic. When you get home, you can experiment with wearing it without the wig.”
    Dorothy’s smile faded. She removed the bespangled hat and placed it, along with the blue canvas one, in the bag with the others. “I’ll have to think about it,” she said. “I’m not sure that Ted …” She clutched the duffel bag to her chest. “Let’s say I’ll take them home. And, thanks, Hannah. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.”
    Kevin appeared—without being asked, he had fetched box dinners for his mother and me—then just as quickly, he disappeared. Dorothy and I ate passable ham and cheese sandwiches in companionable silence, cardboard boxes balanced smartly on our knees.
    After rehearsal ended, Dorothy dragged me into the hallway, where the lumber, Sheetrock, and power tools were being temporarily stored. I gasped. There was enough material in the hallway to build a home for Habitat for Humanity. Maybe two or three of them.
    â€œLet’s go,” I said with a smile. “I hope we’re not going to need all this material! Way too depressing! I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”
    â€œNeed a ride?”
    It was after eight o’clock, but I wanted to walk. “No, that’s okay, Dorothy. Prince George is one way, so you’d have to drive the long way around. It’s shorter for me to go on foot. Really,” I added when she looked doubtful. “But I’ll walk you to your car. Where is it?”
    â€œOut front.”
    On our way to the parking lot, we noticed Kevin and Emma standing next to one of the empty coatracks at the end of the hallway. Dorothy opened her mouth to call out to her son, but I threw out an arm to restrain her. “It looks like a private conversation,” I warned.
    Whatever the two young people had been discussing, the conversation was clearly over. “I’m really sorry, Kevin,” Emma was saying, her voice small and tight. “But I’m not going to do it. I’m just not !” She hoisted her book bag over one shoulder and hurried down the staircase that led to the exit on the lower level. Kevin stood in stunned silence for a moment, then ran after her, his words echoing hollowly off the marble walls. “Emma! Wait up!”
    â€œOh, dear, I hope there’s nothing wrong,” Kevin’s mother said, her brows drawn together in a frown. “I think he has a bit of a crush on that girl.”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œWell, you know what they say?”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œThe course of true love never runs smooth.”
    â€œSo they say.”
    The fact was, in the course of the past two years I had grown to know Emma Kirby fairly well. Kevin might be standing on the platform, but that train was not coming into the station for him.

CHAPTER 3
    Seeing me at the musical rehearsal had apparently pegged Emma’s guilt-o-meter, too, because when I got home that evening, Paul told me she had called.
    â€œShe leave a message?”
    Paul looked up from the crossword puzzle he was working. “She apologized profusely for ignoring us and asked that you call her back. She left a number. I think it’s her cell.”
    I returned Emma’s call at once, because I wanted to see her. I was keen to find out why she had returned to the Academy. The last time we talked, she had been