The Pantry Door - Julie Steimle (reading strategies book txt) 📗

piles of origami paper and searched around for a pen. Looking through Nissa’s things, she found a green marker. Taking it up, and pulling off the cap, Katy grabbed one of the papers and wrote out a note on it.

 

Nissa,

Gran is taking me to the library today, so I’ll be late coming. Please wait for me.

Kathleen

 

Folding it then writing Nissa’s name on the front, Katy capped the pen and stuck it into Nissa’s jewelry box. There Katy spotted a small unfinished bead strand she had not seen before, but somehow it looked familiar. The stand contained letter beads forming words in the chain. Katy read the part Nissa had finished.

“K…A…T…I…E.” A blue bead for space came next then an ampersand. “N…I…S…A.” Another blue bead was here then the letter B. The rest still needed to be strung.

Katy blinked. She had always spelled Nissa’s name with two S’s, and Nissa had spelled her name incorrectly. Of course, Katy had never spelled her name for Nissa anymore than Nissa spelled her name for Katy. In a way, it seemed like up in that room she was someone else, so she didn’t think it right to correct it now.

Putting the unfinished bracelet back in its spot and setting the note on top of it, Katy started her way back out of the room. Since Nissa was making her a present, it seemed only right she think of a gift for Nissa in exchange. Who knew when they would see each other again? Climbing down the cupboard shaft, Katy’s mind went over the things Nissa liked, hoping to think of something good.

*

Friday, with her mind entirely occupied, Katy kept glancing to the house as she and her grandmother gardened. She gathered up the leaves from the trimmed bush, stuffing them into the wheelbarrow her grandmother made her wheel around. After that, she had to take the wheelbarrow to the compost heap. On her way, Katy noticed one gnome just trotting about. He tipped his little leaf hat to her and continued on his way. Undoubtedly, he knew she had seen him, and that left her stunned for several seconds. But then with a shrug, she continued on her way. What was there to do anyway with tiny people nodding to her? As long as she didn’t step on one, she thought she would be ok.

Then she saw the pixie. It strolled along the top of the old corral fence, watching her as its wings flickered and twitched with gusts from the slight breeze. Its tiny face looked curious, blinking its overly large eyes as it watched Katy dump off the leaves and sticks into the compost. Then it spoke.

“You know, the bushes don’t appreciate being cut like that,” it said in its tiny, buzzing voice.

Unsure how to respond, Katy just stood there.

“But I’ve been watching you and that old farmer for years. And I know those trims do them some good—though it makes those bushes so domestic,” it said.

Having no answer to that either, Katy took a breath and leaned on the fence.

The pixie hopped up to the top of the fence post with a flick of its wings. “We miss his music. Come out and play for us some day, and we’ll forgive you.”

“Forgive me for what?” Katy said before she could stop herself.

The pixie smiled. However, it merely bowed and said, “For taking him from us.”

Katy blinked. “I—”

With a laugh, the pixie fluttered up on the breeze, its wings a whirl of activity much like that of a hornet’s. “The world misses him. But he made his choice.”

“I miss him,” Katy said, tears breaking into her eyes, not sure why she was suddenly crying.

Fluttering up close, the pixie touched her face, collecting up in its hands one of her tears as though it were a treasure. It put the tear into a small leaf pouch at its side. With a miniature smile at Katy, it flew up and patted her on the head, then zipped off like a shot. Not sure what just had happened, Katy swallowed, staring off to where it had gone. The magic world had made contact, and somehow Katy knew she would not be able to look at the world the same ever again.

“Kathleen?”

Turning around, Katy heard her grandmother call out again.

“Kathleen? Where have you gone off to?”

Katy wiped her face and drew in a breath. Grabbing hold of the wheelbarrow, she pushed it back to where they were gardening for the rest of the load.

 

Once they cleaned up and made lunch, Grandma Schmidt collected her car keys, took up her purse and beckoned Katy to hurry up. Katy took one glance at the cupboard door, hoping to hear Nissa inside reading her note. But the chances of hearing that seemed silly. Turning to go, Katy followed her grandmother out the back door to the car.

During the silently drove to Fillmore, Grandma Schmidt fidgeted with the air conditioner, then the radio, but found nothing suitable and eventually turned both off. When they arrived at the library, she sent Katy to the adolescent book section to find a novel to read. However, as soon as her grandmother’s back was turned, she rushed into the reference section and started to look up books about pixies and mythic characters.

“Can I help you?” A librarian with a cart full of returns paused next to where Katy was reading from an enormous encyclopedia about sprites.

Blushing, Katy hesitated. “I’m…I’m just looking for stuff.”

“I know the library pretty well. I can help you find what you’re looking for,” the librarian said. She was a young woman with more of a metropolitan accent. A wedding band was on her left hand, so she was probably married to a local rather than from the area.

Shifting in her seat, Katy looked at her from the side of her eye. “I’m looking for something about a legend. Uh, how to handle pixies or gnomes.”

“Oh,” the librarian said, nodding slowly. She gestured over her shoulder to a set of wide stairs. “Then you’ll want to look over in the children’s section.”

Katy rolled her eyes. “I’m looking for a serious book. Something in mythology.”

“Mythology and serious in the same sentence,” said the librarian. “Wow. That’s a first for me.”

Katy scowled at her. And the woman saw it, immediately clearing up her amused expression.

Sighing gently, the librarian gestured down another row. “Mythology is that way, though I don’t think they make them easy to read. They have plenty of good books in the kid’s section that you might—”

“This is research,” Katy said sharply. “If I wanted something for fun, I could find a book without your help.”

Giving a shrug, the librarian pushed her cart again and went back to her task, though Katy figured the woman thought Katy was just being silly.

As soon as the woman left, Katy hurried down that aisle towards the myth books. However, when she got there, she found her grandmother standing right in that spot, peering at the outside of a book entitled, Greek and Roman Myths and another book Mythic Creatures. Katy froze then ducked out of sight. As her heart pounded, not sure if her grandmother had seen her, Katy tried to gather up her senses. Was Grandma Schmidt going to check those out? Or was she collecting them to lose them so Katy could not find them?

“You’re being paranoid,” Katy told herself. “And you’re wasting time.

“She reminded herself Nissa would have to wait a long time and would probably get bored if she didn’t just pick up a couple books to show her grandmother she was done. Rushing over to the juvenile section, Katy picked two novels with decent looking covers off the spinning rack. She really didn’t care about the content. She just wanted to get home soon. Then her eye caught on a title on a picture book.

“The Magic Flute?” Katy reached down at the book on the display stand and plucked up the book. Opening it up, she flipped through the pages, reading only a few words before she heard her grandmother.

“Kathleen Nielsen, what are you reading?”

Looking up, Katy shrugged. Her grandmother held a handful of books, but she didn’t have the myth books she had just been looking at. “Nothing. I was just looking.”

“Do you want to check that out?” her grandmother asked, gesturing to the book.

With another shrug, Katy handed the book and the two paperbacks to her grandmother’s stack. “Sure.”

Glancing at the cover, Grandma Schmidt smiled. “Ah, The Magic Flute. It is a very famous opera.”

Opera. For some reason Katy felt disappointed. Somehow she had felt she was on the edge of learning something important. Instead, she joined her grandmother in the library check out line and waited for each book to be scanned, sighing to herself with poorly masked disappointment.

As the books piled up, Katy glanced outside through the tinted glass doors, wondering if Nissa had gotten tired of waiting and left the attic. She started to feel anxious again, glancing at the clock over the check out counter then at her wristwatch, wondering which one was the correct time. When the librarian handed back Grandma Schmidt’s card, Katy heaved the books from off the counter and nodded, urging them to hurry.

“What is the rush, Kathleen?” Her grandmother walked slowly behind her.

Not looking back in case her flushed face revealed her anxiety, Katy tried to make her voice sound unconcerned. “No rush. I just want to get home.”

Her grandmother frowned. “Kathleen Nielsen, what is going on?”

“Nothing,” Katy said, turning with a slight look back.

Shaking her head, Grandma Schmidt stuck her hand into her purse, digging for her keys. “I don’t know why, but you have been acting very suspicious lately. And it bothers me when you don’t tell me what is going on.”

Sighing as loudly as she could, Katy turned as soon as she reached the car. “Grandma, nothing is going on. I just want to get home. Ok?”

Humming with disapproval, and still searching Katy’s face for some sign of mischief, Grandma Schmidt removed her keys from her purse and stuck it in the driver’s side key hole. After unlocking her side, she opened all the locks so Katy could dump their books on the back seat.

Katy closed that door when she was done and walked over to the other side, opening her door. Climbing into her seat, she put on her seat belt then closed the door. Katy sighed, wondering what her grandmother was looking for in those myth books. Did her grandmother know about the creatures she saw around the yard? Was she seeing them too? Like an adult, Grandma Schmidt probably was researching how to deal with them rather than panicking, though it seemed more natural to panic. But gazing towards her grandmother’s face, Katy realized that Grandma Schmidt was always calmer than most, almost always in control of her feelings. If her grandma had seen gnomes and sprites, then perhaps she was seeking a way to get rid of them as a protective grandmother would.

But they rode home almost in the same silence as when they came, except her grandmother asked her one question.

“What do you want for dinner tonight?”

Katy blinked then shrugged. “Sandwiches?”

“That sounds like a question rather than an answer,” Grandma Schmidt replied.

Shrugging again, Katy then looked out the window. “Don’t we usually have sandwiches for dinner?”

With a sigh, Grandma Schmidt nodded. “Yes, but I was hoping we could make something special. Maybe we’ll have lemon chicken tonight. How does that sound?”

It sounded great, and Katy said so with enthusiasm.

“Good,” said Grandma Schmidt. “After my nap, we’ll start it.”

Katy nodded. That plan was perfect. Grandma Schmidt would nap and Katy would sneak up into the cupboard to see Nissa. It was exactly what she wanted.

So when they got home, according to plan, Katy waited until her grandmother lay down to sleep then she climbed through the cupboard to see if Nissa waited for her.

Pushing open the upper door, Katy peered inside. No Nissa.

She let out a moan, but she crawled