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Show Twisters . . . 84 He told me once they believed babies were God's jewels. Like gifts they weren't given to just anyone. When I told that to Mom one day- before she was expecting Ryan-she had a fit. "I've wanted another baby for ten long years!" she'd snorted. "God doesn't have anything to do with it." Well, that wasn't what the Darlingtons believed. "Let's push these cots together," Stacey was saying, acting sweet and motherly again. "We'll have to sleep crosswise, I guess." We helped her, then all of us 6tretched out on the plastic, facedown, to see if we'd fit. Stacey's feet hung over. So did mine, a little, but there was room enough to curl up. For some dumb reason, right then I remembered the $18.00 worth of pennies I kept in a big pickle jar in my room. They'd be scattered all over Nebraska. There's no way to identify a penny, is there? I was still wondering how I'd be able to tell my money from Jason Miller's, who also collects pennies, when we heard voices outside the door. In came Mrs. Minetti, followed by four grown-ups and a whole bunch of kids-five, as it turned out. And I had thought we looked bedraggled. Four of those kids didn't have any shoes on! Two were in their p-j's, a little one in a droopy diaper was crying its head off. They were all wet and stringy-haired like us. A white-faced girl about our age with a bandage on her arm mistook us for criminals, I guess, until Mrs. Minetti explained that we were "just visiting, too." Finally, the girl's mother got her to quit staring and made her lie down on one of the couches. The adults were very quiet at first. They spoke in low voices or not at all, as if they were still in shock. The kids were shaking with |
