Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Afternoon Shadows Evan didn't want to stop. He and Pete were fixing the holes in the roof. Pete was outside, up on the extension ladder, ripping up shingles and tossing them through the hole to Evan. Evan was inside, crouching under the sloping ceiling so that he could catch the shingles as they fell and heave them into the garbage barrel. He also had to hand Pete whatever tools he needed. So when Mrs. Treski appeared in the doorway of Grandma's office/construction site and asked Evan if he would please take Grandma for a walk, he made a face and said, "Can't Jessie do it?" Evan, kneeling under the hole, looked up and caught sight of Pete's face looking right back at him. Pete didn't need to say a word. He just

shook his head once, and Evan knew that was that. "Yeah, okay, Mom," said Evan. He stood up and wiped the grit from the knees of his pants. "I'll be back in a few minutes," he hollered up to Pete. "I'll be here," Pete called down. "Same as before. Take good care of your grandma, Big E." Evan followed his mother, scowling. "Why can't Grandma take a walk by herself?" Grandma was a nut about walking. She took long walks by herself every day. Sometimes she'd walk five miles, circling her property, which covered a hundred acres at the foot of Black Bear Mountain. "Evan, please," said his mother in the voice she used that meant there would be no more discussion. Evan walked into the mudroom just off the kitchen. Grandma was looping her new purple scarf around her neck, the one that Jessie had

knit for her for Christmas. Her injured arm was tucked inside her bulky winter coat, which was zipped closed over it. "Hey, Grandma," said Evan. "Something tells me you don't feel like going for a walk right now," said Grandma. Evan bent over his boots, tugging them onto his feet and hiding his face. Was it that obvious? The memory of what his grandmother had said to him two days ago in the kitchen flickered in his brain, but then he remembered his mother's explanation. She's not herself, Evan. "No, I want to go," he said, knowing that it was okay to fudge the truth when you didn't want to hurt someone's feelings. "It's just that I was helping Pete, and he kind of needs me right now." "Pete's a good boy," said Grandma. "Boy!" said Evan. "He's a grown man." "Not to me, he's not. Everyone looks young to me!" Grandma used her mouth to hold a mitten

still while she wriggled her good hand into it. "Ready?" "Ready," said Evan. Grandma opened the back door and was just about to step out, when Evan's mother called from upstairs. Evan tromped up to the second floor, feeling hot and puffy in his heavy ski coat and boots. "Evan," said his mother, "try to make it a short walk, okay? Grandma thinks she's back to her old self, but I don't want her getting too tired. And try to hold on to her good arm, if she'll let you. Or at least keep close to her, so if she trips you can grab her before she falls. Okay?" Evan didn't like the sound of any of this, but he nodded his head. He wasn't used to taking care of his grandma. She had always taken such good care of him and Jessie. "And, Evan, one more thing," said his mother. "Don't let her go near the bell. Okay? I don't want her... Just keep her away from that hill, okay?"

Afternoon shadows came early to Grandma's woods because the sun set behind the mountain. Evan was surprised that the blue-gray light of late afternoon was already painting the snow. He turned to walk up the long, plowed driveway toward the main road—that would be a good half-mile walk— but Grandma said she wanted to walk a different way, through the woods. She set out on the path that headed for the foot of Black Bear Mountain. There were footprints in the snow along this path and the steady slicing marks of skis, so Evan knew that Jessie and Maxwell had already come this way today. Evan talked about the repair work that he and Pete were doing, especially the thrilling part about ripping out the old scorched studs in the wall and putting in new ones. It had been tricky, because the wall they were working on was a load-bearing wall, which meant it was holding up a lot of the weight of the second story. If they took out too many studs at once, the whole

house could collapse. Evan thought it was like playing Jenga—the game where you build a tower of blocks, then try to pull out each block without causing the tower to fall. Grandma didn't say much. It took some effort to walk on the packed-down snow, and there were branches and rocks you had to watch out for. Even Evan could feel his heart beating fast with the effort, and the cold intake of each breath of frozen air made his breathing seem heavier. He thought about Pete up on the roof all afternoon and wondered how he did it. "Grandma, you want to go back now?" The light was definitely fading, and they'd already been walking for fifteen minutes. Evan wasn't even quite sure where they were, but Grandma knew her property like the back of her hand. Grandma shook her head but didn't say anything. Her breathing was louder now, and she was grunting a little with the effort of climbing uphill. It was a pretty big hill, and the snow