Oddfellow's Orphanage Read Online Free Page A

braid. She’s so quiet and nice. I don’t know why I did it. I think I just hate this day because it reminds me of my mom.”
    “Why does Haircut Day remind you of your mom?” Daniel asked. “Was she a barber?”
    “No, but she used to cut my hair,” said Felix quietly. “She would pretend she was going to snip off my ear and laugh and … of course she would never do that. Snip my ear, I mean.”
    Daniel nodded in understanding.
    Felix fed the baby bear more honey. “So when I feel those scratchy hairs prickling my neck, it makes me miss her.”
    The boys heard a rustling behind them. Delia stood there, and in place of her braids, she had two short pigtails.
    “Did you hear all of that?” Felix asked.
    Delia sat down next to Felix and took the honey and spoon. She turned to Felix, nodded, and put an arm around him.
    Delia smiled at the bear. He made little barking sounds and licked honey from his nose. Felix leaned his head on Delia’s shoulder as Daniel tiptoed to the door.

A FEVER FLOWER
    W EEKS passed, and the air grew even warmer. Oddfellow’s halls were hot and bright from the great windows lining the walls. There were no classes in the summer, so the children spent all day playing. They picked blackberries in the woods, climbed trees, and read books.
    The days’ warmth stretched into the evenings, and every night Delia found herself kicking off her covers. Late one night, as she sleepily and grumpily kicked at the too-warm quilt, she heard Ava’s finches chirping. Their chirps sounded worried, and Delia realized that she had never before heard them chirp in the night.
    Delia climbed drowsily out of bed and padded over to Ava’s side. She turned on the dim lamp. Ava’s licorice-black hairstuck to her forehead, and her breathing was strange. Ava opened her eyes and just looked at Delia.
    Delia thought of the way her own mama had always known what to do when someone was sick or hurt. She knew what bandages to use, what teas to make, and how to put on a puppet show to take your mind off a sore throat. But Delia didn’t know what to do. She went back to her own bed and grabbed her pencil and notebook. She wrote a note, and then showed it to her friend.

    Ava shook her head. “Nurse Effie,” she whimpered.
    Delia didn’t want to leave Ava alone. She looked at the other girls, sleeping in their beds. Delia went to the next bed and tapped Imogen.
    Imogen sat up and said something that sounded like “Whatsahmmmph?”
    Delia pointed to Ava and wrote:

    Imogen’s eyes opened wide and she quickly got up. “I’ll stay here,” she whispered. She went to sit on the edge of Ava’s bed.
    Delia crept as quietly as a mouse from the room and into the hall. Moonlight through the windows cast a shadow three times bigger than the girl walking quickly in her bare feet. She hurried to the east wing of the house, where the grown-ups’rooms were.
It’s a strange feeling to be awake in a house full of sleeping people
, Delia thought.

    Furniture sat empty and the halls were ghostly still. The darkened floral wallpaper looked like a night garden that stretched on and on through the long corridors. At last, Delia reached a hall lined with a row of numbered doors, which led to the grown-ups’ apartments.
    Which is which?
Delia wondered. She had no idea which door was Nurse Effie’s!
I’ll start at the first one
, she thought, and knocked softly on the door.
    Delia heard a muffled exclamation, a great rumble, and then the sound of heavy footsteps. The door opened, and the headmaster peered out. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
    Delia scribbled in her notebook and held it up.
    “Nurse Effie?” Headmaster Bluebeard said, completely awake now. “Well, we better scoot down there. On the double, Delia!”
    Delia kept up with the headmaster as he walked briskly to the door marked with a brass number five and knocked. A few moments later, Nurse Effie appeared in her robe, her curls messy.
    “Someone is sick, and