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Show 47 Later, with the day starting to fade, Dyna headed back across the park toward home. Gram was in the kitchen, making a pot of tea for the Mums who were due to arrive any minute. "I'd better have mine in my room," Dyna told her grandmother as she peeled off her sweatshirt. "Oh . . . Can't you sit with us awhile? The girls will be disappointed." "Gram, I have to do this hairy assignment. I've been putting it off." "All right, Dyna. School comes first." Gram wiped her hands on her Sunday apron. "Miss Mary and Aunt Grace will just have to understand." But it wasn't the Mums who knocked at the door a short while later. It was Mrs. Simpson, and Dyna nearly had heart failure seeing her teacher there on her doorstep. "Sorry to come by like this without giving you any notice," Mrs. Simpson said with a big smile, "but I need a babysitter tonight. Are you available?" Dyna hooked a strand of hair behind one ear, looked down at her grubbies. "Yeah, I guess. I better change, though, and I still have a history assignment-" "Bring your homework along. You can do it while you're tending." "You want to come in?" Dyna was aware that her cheeks had gone pink. Why'd she have to get so embarrassed? "Thanks, Dyna, but Timmy and I need to put some gas in the car. We can be back here about-oh-" she looked at her watch "-about five. Can you make it that soon?" "Sure, by five easy." Mrs. Simpson walked sideways to the edge of the porch, holding her plaid wool skirt against the bursts of wind. "Don't eat now," she said as she left, "we'll get something on the way to my place." "Okay." The screen door slammed shut with a mind of its own as Dyna hurried to tell Gram the good news. It doesn't take much to make me happy, she thought, feeling better than she had for a whole week. By 5:10 Dyna was in the front seat of Mrs. Simpson's car, heading for JB's Big Boy. Timmy was warming up fast. Already she'd coaxed him |
