Words Get In the Way Read Online Free PDF Page B

boxes of kitchenware stacked in the garage. Who knows when I will need them again.
    She lifted a flattened pile of boxes and maneuvered them clumsily down the narrow hall that divided the cozy, modest ranch down its middle. “Ready for lunch?” she called as she passed the living room, but then stopped in her tracks. Colorful towers of LEGOs were arranged in neat rows on the carpet, but Henry was not there.
    “Hen-Ben?” Callie dropped the boxes on the table and hurried back down the hall. She quickly scanned the bedrooms and then went back to look under each of the beds and in the closets. “Henry?” she called as she pulled back the shower curtain. “Henry, where are you?” Her heart and mind began to race. Oh, God, where is he? Please let me see him!
    She ran into the kitchen and down the stairs to the basement. Her voice was strained. “Henry, are you hiding on me?” But there was no sign of him anywhere. Callie flew back up the stairs and realized the screen door was open. She clearly remembered clicking the little metal lever down and pushing on the door to make sure it held. But now it wasn’t even latched, and the breeze blew it open and closed. “Henry, where are you?” she shouted.
    She pushed open the door and shouted his name. She looked in the garage, her car, her dad’s truck, all around the house, and then she ran down the driveway to the road, but there was still no sign of him. She was absolutely beside herself as she hurried down the road. She stopped at the intersection with the town road and then backtracked past her parents’ house and up the hill, feeling as if she had been swept into a terrible dream. She kept picturing the way Henry furrowed his brow fretfully when he was concentrating ... and then she was overwhelmed by the terrifying thought that she would never see that look again. A sickening wave of nausea swept over her. “Oh, God, please let me find him,” she pleaded. “I’ll do anything. Just let me find him.” She looked up at the sky and begged, “Please, if you just show me where he is, I promise I’ll never ask you for anything ever again.” She paused to listen, certain that God would answer such a selfless prayer, but all she heard were songbirds, chirping and fluttering in the bushes, their seemingly cheerful indifference only adding to her agony. Finally, she pulled herself up, clenched her fists, and loudly commanded, “Henry! Answer me!”

8
    L inden was still in a bit of a funk when he pulled into the yard. Kat and Springer were happily oblivious to his mood, though, and greeted him with sloppy tennis balls entrenched in their mouths. At first, Linden shook his head. “Not now.” But the dogs persisted, following him around and dropping their soggy treasures at his feet. Finally, he relented, picked up both balls, and threw them as far as he could. The dogs raced away and returned moments later, happily wagging their tails and nudging their tennis balls toward his feet. Linden continued to throw the balls until the dogs’ tongues were dragging on the ground. “Okay, that’s enough,” he said, turning on the hose. Kat wagged her tail and slurped and snorted at the cold stream while Springer danced around, barking and chomping at it. Linden turned off the water and headed around the corner of the cabin. The dogs stood still, watching curiously, and then rounded up their tennis balls and bounded after him, grinning from ear to floppy ear. As they neared the river, the dogs plunged headfirst into the cold water, and Linden, laughing at their unabashed enthusiasm, pulled off his shirt, and joined them.
    A while later he emerged, refreshed, from a deep swimming hole and sloshed up through the shallow current, looking down into the clear water as it rushed playfully over the smooth stones sparkling in the afternoon sun. Linden shook the beads of water from his hair, reached into a small pool lined with river rocks, and pulled the last icy bottle out from its