Shelter Me Read Online Free Page A

thought, and her throat tightened into a painful rope. But I remember it, if that helps.
    After a while the breeze blew refugee drips from an overhanging branch onto her face. She crawled down to the gutter and started throwing handfuls of wet leaves and muck onto her freshly mown back lawn. She heard the creak of metal and wondered momentarily what she would do if the ladder blew down. If she jumped, would she sprain an ankle? Or would she merely feel like an idiot for stranding herself on top of her own house?
    “Hello?” called a man’s voice. Malinowski the contractor appeared over the roof peak. With the sun lighting him from behind, his thinning auburn hair looked almost orange. “Gutters,” he nodded seeing the muddied gloves. “Just did my own.”
    “Nice of you to show,” she said.
    “Are you a lefty or a righty?” asked Malinowski, as he squatted and hobbled toward her.
    “What? Righty.”
    “Give me this one then.” He pointed to her left hand. She looked down at Robby’s glove, smeared with muck. Malinowski held out his hand for it. Confused, she slipped the glove off and gave it to him. He dug into the gutter, lobbing a massive handful directly onto her pile below.
    “You’re making a mess of your lawn like this. Better to put something down there to throw it into.”
    Janie picked up a handful and winged some muck out across the yard. “You could have called, at least,” she said, trying to ramp up to the satisfaction of her earlier fury.
    “We don’t call,” he said.
    “We who?”
    “Contractors. We don’t call. It’s in the handbook.”
    “What handbook? There was no handbook…”
    “No, the Contractor Handbook. They give it to you at Contractor School. It’s says, ‘Don’t call. Especially if you SAY you’re gonna call, don’t. And if you have to call, wait a couple days.’” He dropped another glob onto the pile below. “We take an oath. Sort of like the Hippocratic Oath doctors take, except without the ‘Do no harm’ part.”
    “What?” Janie demanded, her face pinched in irritation. Then a slow grin bloomed on Malinowski’s face, and she understood the joke. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, trying not to smile. “Then why are you here?”
    “Well, listen,” he said, scooping and dropping a little faster. “When I saw it was going to rain all week, I started this kitchen rehab over in Weston. That way the footing holes aren’t full of water when the town inspector comes out.”
    “It only rained for three days, not all week,” said Janie.
    “It’s going to start up again tomorrow, and I can’t afford to lose a week of work for a porch. No offense.” He kept moving and scooping, and Janie had to crawl after him to hear what he was saying. “So, I’m going to start here in about a month. Probably around the first of June.” He took off the glove and handed it to her. “There, the whole back side is done. I’ll put a piece of plastic down in the front yard for you.” A hint of a smile crossed his face. “Aim your muck at that.”
    T HURSDAY , M AY 3
    That porch guy came by today to tell me he’s NOT going to start work like he said he would, not for another month. At least the gutters are clear.
    Aunt Jude brought dinner over. Franks and beans, even though it’s not Saturday, the “official” franks and beans day. A package of generic hot dogs, a can of Boston baked beans, anda bag of Tater Tots. Gotta be the most highly processed foods known to man, with nary a vegetable in sight. Oh, excuse me, Aunt Jude is of the opinion the Tater Tots are a vegetable—they’re potatoes, aren’t they? Sort of, I told her. If you squint.
    Carly adores her. I think it’s all the colors. The dye job makes it seem like her head’s on fire, and the lipstick looks like the fire engine’s on its way to put her out. Then there’s that baby blue eye shadow she orders online to match the color of her eyes. What with all the big shiny jewelry, Carly probably