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Show Peppermint Monday Chapter 6: Dandelion Jam Things settled down when Barton left. Everything • returned back to normal, except Renae. She remained friendly to our family. After all, we were still a link with Barton and politics. Mrs. Todd must have remembered too. She visited ma a few times for no reason. At least she pretended there was no real reason past a friendly chat, but we all knew better. There was a purpose behind everything Mrs. Todd did. No wonder Renae was the way she was. Andrea was back to her diet again. She had lost four pounds, at least that was what she claimed. I never could see any difference in her appearance, but she insisted she continued to shed pounds with each new diet. Matt was real thin, probably too thin. It wasn't fair, because I had seen him eat. He ate a lot more than Andrea and never seemed to gain any weight. It made it doubly hard for her- So did Grandma Ruby's homemade cookies. Grandma Ruby told us she was glad Barton had left before we all went crazy. I guess she had been watching Renae and Mrs. Todd. Jason had turned sort of crazy too. He had spent most of his time thinking up things to do that would make Barton mad. Most of them did too. Barton either ignored Jason altogether, or yelled at him. I think Jason was the happiest to see Barton go. The only thing I was sad about was that Barton had never met old Jake. Jake had been around, but Barton was either in the house or with Renae. Somehow, the two had never met. Ma said it was good because Barton wouldn't have understood a person like Jake. That was the exact reason I wanted them to meet. I didn't understand a person like Jake and I had lived in the Ozarks all my life. Barton would have probably never got over Jake. Renae would probably never get over Barton. Especially |
