Page 24 of Drawing Home
He flipped through the pages. “Are they very popular with kids your age?”
“Graphic novels? Yeah. Totally.”
“Why not just read a novel? There’s something to be said for just a good, old-fashioned book.”
“Henry, this is a great storyandgreat art. I mean, you of all people should get that.”
He smiled at her. “You certainly know how to sell it. Although I don’t like the termgraphic novel.”
“What would you call it?” she asked him.
“Sequential art.”
“A sequential-art novel? That definitely does not sound as good.”
He asked to see more, and she brought him her copies ofCoraline, The Graveyard Book, Awkward.She showed himMs. MarvelandRoller Girl.He took them home and read them all.
Henry appreciated the underdog element of the stories. He told her that someday she would find her own superpower. She just had to be patient. In that moment, she had believed him. But now that he was gone, she wasn’t so sure.
She tossed her empty yogurt container in the garbage and packed her book away. Hopefully Angus would be busy and wouldn’t notice if she sneaked off to the back room to read for an hour or two.
Penny walked down the BuddhaBerry steps just as Robin and Mindy were coming up. Everything about Penny that was wrong, Mindy got right: her hair (straight), her clothes (new), her jewelry (real), her phone (the latest). It was like she didn’t even have to try.
She had every intention of slipping by with just a wave; the last thing she wanted to do was talk about her nonexistent summer-vacation plans.
“OMG, Penny, I wasjusttalking about you,” Mindy said, grabbing her by the arm.
“You were?” It was unimaginable that she would ever cross Mindy’s mind, let alone be the topic of conversation. She could barely believe she was speaking to her.
“Is it true?” Mindy asked.
Penny stood mute and clueless. Was this a joke? What was she missing?
“My mom read in the paper that you inherited a major house on Actors Colony Road,” Robin said.
Henry’s house was in the newspaper? “Um, yeah—it’s true,” Penny said.
Mindy and Robin looked at each other, then at her.
“That isamazing,” Mindy said. She touched Penny’s arm again. “And you aresohaving a party.” She smiled conspiratorially, then added, “Actually, I’m having some people over tonight. You should totally come.”
“Okay. Sure. Great.”
Mindy’s phone pinged. She showed her screen to Robin, who giggled. Mindy hunched over and started tapping away furiously.
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you later,” Penny said, brushing past them quickly, dazed by the encounter.
The house was changing her life and she hadn’t even moved in yet.
If there was anything Bea loathed, it was people who felt sorry for themselves. But walking up and down Main Street, invisible among the couples and young families, she fought that particular emotion with limited success.
Abandoned in her hour of need.
I told you I was leaving for New York today, with or without you.
How could Kyle just quit? Half a decade of employment and he didn’t give so much as one day’s notice. It was profoundly disappointing that after all the time he’d spent with Bea, he hadn’t learned the first thing about doing things the proper way. This was why she’d never had children—she wouldn’t have been able to stand the disappointment.
Henry hadn’t wanted children either. He’d never even married. Which made the idea that he would leave his estate to some random girl all the more outrageous.
