Who Is Frances Rain? (13 page)

Chapter Thirty-Three

“IT'S yours now,” she said, matter-of-factly. “You and I can share her memory. She'd like that.” I tried to argue but she held up her long hand. “It was sent to my grandfather. I found it in his desk a few months after I'd returned to live with him. That's when I knew she was dead.”

I slipped it onto my middle finger. I felt warm and tingled a bit.

“I have something else for you, Gran,” I said. I took the spectacles out of my pocket and handed them to her.

“Well, for heaven's sake,” she said. She put them on the end of her nose and pushed them back. For one brief moment, I saw the long narrow face of the girl from Rain Island. Then she took them off and she was Gran again. Pale and tired. She lay back on her pillows. “Poor Frances. All alone at the end.”

“Gran? What are you going to do this winter? I could stay with you. Go to school here.” I sat down facing her and put my head on her bony chest. “I don't want you to be alone like Frances.”

She laid a large hand over my head. “I've got that all worked out, honey. May and I talked it over when I was there yesterday. I'll move in with her. We're both getting on and she could do with some help on her quilting during those long winter days. I'll sell the house in Fish Narrows. And you'll be with me next summer. Won't you?”

I nodded, my head moving under her hand. I was too busy snuffling to say anything.

“I'll wait till you come back, don't you worry. May says you can work at the lodge over the next month or so to get your feet wet. Then if you want to, you can work steady there next summer.”

I looked up. “But —”

“It'll be just like always, only better. And don't forget, Alex will need a place to stay in Winnipeg when he goes to university after next summer's over. Who knows? Anything can happen, eh? You have an extra room in that house of yours. Would save him a lot of money.”

I wiped my eyes and grinned. The sound of voices, loud arguing voices, floated through the window beside us.
They
were back.

“Now go and get your family and bring them here. Tell Tim I wish to be escorted to the living room for tea and that chocolate cake. Okay, okay. Tea and toast for me. Even so, I'm awfully hungry.” She pushed pins into the small knot of hair on the top of her head and smoothed the sides with her hands. “I'm thirsty as a drunk on payday.”

We laughed like two kids with a wonderful secret. Maybe someday I'd tell her about the Rain Island ghosts. For now, it was just plain wonderful to know that the girl I'd been watching and worrying about — my girl from Rain Island — had been with me all my life. And to know that Frances was finally at peace.

I ran out of the house and down the path, my feet barely touching the ground. That boat, filled with its grumbling passengers, was just nudging up to the dock. A pot of blueberries had spilled all over the bottom of the boat. Erica was wailing, so it wasn't hard to tell whose it was.

“If you'd waited two more seconds before lurching all around the place, Evan, this wouldn't have happened,” growled Tim, shutting off the motor. The boat glanced off the dock and hit the shore with a bump.

Three other pails slid around on the seat and Mother lunged at them.

“If you'd quit swinging the boat back and forth,” snarled Evan, “I wouldn't have slipped and hit the stupid pail.” He moaned loudly at the purple juice squashed against the white canvas of his sneakers. “Damn!”

“Now, Evan, what have I told you about your language?” said Mother, underlining a few words with her voice.

“Baaah!” howled Erica, pointing at the crushed berries under her feet.

I stood on the end of the dock, grinning. Alex tiptoed towards me and said, “Is everything all right?”

I laughed. “Well, I've got some good news about Gran and May. And you and me. At least I think you'll think it's good. So ... is everything all right?” I looked over my shoulder at my family. “I wouldn't have it any other way.”

About the Author

MARGARET BUFFIE is renowned as a writer of superb supernatural and psychological novels for young adult readers. Her award-winning books include
Out of Focus
,
Angels Turn Their Backs
,
The Dark Garden
and The Watcher's Quest Trilogy:
The Watcher
,
The Seeker
and
The Finder
. Margaret Buffie lives in Winnipeg.