Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (30 page)

As
everybody
at
e,
Glory
said casually, “
L
ast night we pressed our luck by taking down the booby
traps. We probably shouldn’t chance it again
.
Let’s all sleep together in the living room
. Those
little
squirrel-munchers will think twice before taking on all of us at once.”

Dad
grimaced and
pushed
himself away from the table
. He
made a production of slamming his plate into the sink
.

“Look what you’ve done.” Randy kicked
Glory
beneath the table
.
“You made
Dad
lose his appetite.”

“Father Winter’s Day is just around the corner,” Danny smirked
.
“Maybe
Glory
’s
little men are really elves.”

After seeing their
glowing
need
le
and
portal-opening
feather,
s
he was open to about anything
,
and
w
ith Father Winter’s Day around the corner
,
the suggestion of elves had merit.

“Don’t feed the madness
,
”
Brandon said.

“
Glory
Alley
,”
Dad
said
through his teeth
.
“
Breathe one more word of this nonsense and I’ll have to beat it out of you.”

Dad
left through the
back
door slamming it behind him
.

Glory flinched.

“Wheel me out there,
Nana
,”
Grandpa
said
.
“He needs a
talking to.”

Nana
pushed
Grandpa
through the back door leaving it ajar
.
Glory
’s
g
randpa
rents couldn’t talk quietly even when they wanted to
.
The kids sat around the table
listening
in silence
.

“Take it easy, Robert,”
Grandpa
said
.
“
Glory
’s
perfectly fine, beating h
er
isn’t going to solve anything.”

“How can you be so sure there’s nothing wrong with h
er
?
These stories are getting out of hand.”

“
Glory
i
s
a real deep thinker and the best Treasure Quest player I’ve ever seen
—
other than me, of course. H
er
mind works different than the rest, but it’s a
good
different, rest assured.”

“I can’t tolerate lying.”

“The
girl’s
not trying to deceive anyone,” said
Nana
.
“Besides, it ain’t lying if
s
he really believes it.”

“But crazy’s worse than lying,”
Dad
said, his voice
strained. “You can break a kid of lying, but crazy’s a whole other ball game.”

Glory felt the eyes of her siblings burning holes of accusation into her skull, but she refused to look at them, stubbornly fixing her eyes on the door
.

“Please,” said
Nana
. “No more talk of breaking the child
.
Listen to
Grandpa
. There
ain’t nothing wrong with
Glory
.
If you’re not careful
,
Child Protective Services will be all over you. That M
iss
Crenshaw is something else
.
She’ll
take
Glory
and
George
away for sure and probably the rest of them too.”

The
Alley
s had their problems
, s
ure
.
Dad
could be scary, but tearing them apart would do more harm
t
han a thousand beatings
.
She
looked at
George
who was smiling and humming as he munched on a roll
.
H
is
golden hair was matted against
his scalp.
H
e had no idea what was going on
.
Maybe it was better that way.

“I want to do right by my kids,”
Dad
said
.
“But
I don’t know anything about raising girls
.
Or boys for that matter
.
T
hey need their mother
.
I
need
her. I just don’t know how much longer I can keep it together.
”

Grandpa
’s voice carried into the kitchen. “Losing
my precious
Rose
was the worst thing I’ve ever been through
.
A
big part of me died that day right along with
my daughter
.
But I learned I have to go on being grateful for what I have, like for you
, and your sister,
and the grandkids
.

“
Robert
, I probably never told you this
,
it’s been so long ago, but I had lots of reservations about taking
you and
Martha
into our house
back then
.

“
Money was tight and we already had a gi
rl of our own to raise
.
Two
more
adolescents
in the house seemed like a bad idea
.
But
Nana
told me doing the right thing
was
n’t always the easy thing
.
Turns out
,
she was r
ight
.
Opening our homes to both of you
was the smartest thing
Nana
and I ever done
.
Now that
Rose
is
gone, without you and Martha, we’d
have nobody.
”

“And I’m eternally grateful
, but
...
”

“I’m not finished,”
Grandpa
said
.
“I know you loved
my Rose
with all of your heart.”

“She was everything to me.”

“Let me talk, will ya
?
What I’m trying to say is being a man means doing the right thing even when it
ain’t
easy
.
Like I tell
Glory
in
Treasure Quest
, always keep your eye on the
goal
, work
toward
the prize
one step at a time.”

“Life isn’t a game of
Treasure Quest
,
Grandpa
,
”
Dad
replied.

Nana
peeked through the door
.
She sent the e
avesdroppers
a scolding frown before shutting the door all the way,
drowning out the grown-ups
’
conversation.

Randy’s face twisted
scornfully as
he jabbed a finger at
Glory
.
“If
Dad
starts drinking again it’s all your fault.”

“How’s that?
”

“Because you’re nuts
.”

“Am not.
”

“Gone off the deep end!
”
Danny added
.
“You’re a brick short of a load.
”

“Screwball!
”
Randy sang.

“Knock it off you two,”
Patrice
said
.
“
Dad
’s stopped drinking before, but it never lasts
.
Don’t blame
Glory
if it happens again.”

“That’s right,” Danny said
.
“We’ll blame
YOU
,
Patrice
.
If it wasn’t for you tramping around with
Filmore
,
Crenshaw wouldn’t be back on our case.”