Prologue
...so I had to go down to live with Grandma Dowdel, till we could get on our feet as a family again. It meant I'd have to leave my school. I'd have to enroll in the hick-town school where Grandma l...
Chapter 1
Grandma lived at the other end of the town in the last house. She was sitting out in the swing on her back porch, though as a rule she kept busier than that. It almost looked like she was waiting f...
Chapter 2
"I'll leave this wire stretched till morning. Watch your step on the way to the house," Grandma said. "I'll be along in a little while." She meant she was going to use her privy, and she spoke with...
Chapter 3
In Chicago it never really got dark, not like this. And the house was too quiet, though things scuttled in from the walls. Once in a while a thumping sound came from overhead in the attic. I didn't...
Chapter 4
But there was one more miracle. I looked up at the tall man behind Grandma, and it was Joey. Taller and leaner and handsomer. But Joey—changed and the same. And so I was looking my Christmas in t...
Chapter 5
Mrs. Wilcox made a beeline across the room. "You's my long-lost sister!" She flung out her arms to Mrs. Weidenbach, who flinched. Punch went everywhere, and horror and defeat were written in her fa...
Chapter 6
Word went around like the wind that Grandma had snagged an artist on government pay and was charging three, four, as much as five dollars a day, depending on who told it.Arnold Green was no trouble...
Chapter 7
Spring didn't come to Chicago like this. I went around with a lump in my throat I couldn't account for. Then a letter came from Mother with a postscript from Dad. We'd written back and forth all ye...
Chapter 8
When he asked who gave the bride away in marriage, Grandma said, "That'd be me." She handed me over. Then she looked aside, out the bay window, blinking at the brightness of the day. I know because...