Ann Martin - Mary Anne And The Secret In The Attic

"Too painful?" I said. "Why?" I could guess, but I wanted to hear him say it.

"Because you look and behave so much like your mother," he said, after a moment. 'It used to be painful for me, too — but now it's a comfort." He reached out to hug me.

I hugged him back — hard — and there were tears in my eyes now, too. "I love you, Daddy," I said. "I'm glad you fought to get me back."

"Me, too," he said into my shoulder. "Me, too."

I went to bed that night totally exhausted, but calmer than I'd felt in days. At last I knew the truth. But I was starting to think about something else: Now I knew that I had a grandmother, and she wanted to see me. What was I going to do about that?

Chapter 13.

Kristy was thinking a lot about families that day. It was the day of the parent-child picnic — the day I ended up having that great talk with my dad. Kristy was at home, sitting for David Michael, Emily Michelle, Karen, and Andrew.

Kristy's friend Shannon Kilbourne, who's an associate member of our club, was visiting that afternoon. She'd been telling Kristy and the kids about the family reunion she'd just gone to.

"It was great," she said. "Everybody wore these T-shirts that said 'Kilbourne Family Reunion', and name tags that said who we were. Like, mine said, 'Shannon, daughter of Ted and Kathy.' I met all these cousins I didn't even know I had, and we played volleyball and horseshoes and stuff."

"That sounds cool," said Kristy. "Did you meet any really old people who knew about the history of the Kilbournes?" Kristy had been thinking a lot about history because of the Heritage Day activities.

"Yeah, that was neat," said Shannon. "In the afternoon, after we'd had the picnic, all the old people got together and talked about things they'd done long ago. My uncle videotaped it and he's going to make everyone a copy."

"Let's play family reunion," said Karen. "Ill

be the great-great-grandmother!" She picked up a stick and started to hobble around, using it as a cane.

Kristy thought for a minute. "Boy, if my family had a reunion, it would be pretty complicated. I mean, I have these cousins? Ashley and Berk? What would their relationship be to Karen and Andrew? I guess they'd be stepcousins."

"Yeah, and if your cousins had kids, they'd be step-cousins once removed!" said Shannon. "Or something like that."

"What if they had stepkids?" asked Kristy. She was beginning to feel a little dizzy. "They'd be step-step-cousins."

'Tep! Tep!" said Emily Michelle, grinning.

"That’s right, Emily," said Kristy. "You got adopted into a big family."

"One of the things they had at the family reunion was this huge chart," said Shannon. "It listed all the members of the family and showed how we're related. That helped a lot."

"We could make one of those," said Karen. She threw down her "cane" and ran to get paper and Magic Markers. Then she sprawled on the floor and started to write. "Karen Brewer," she said out loud as she wrote her name.

"That’s a good start," said Kristy. "Now, put your parents' names over yours, with a line connecting them to you."

Karen added those names, and then looked at the chart, confused. "Where do I put my stepmother?" she asked.

"Draw a line next to your dad's name, and put my mother's name there," said Kristy. "Then you can draw a line down from them and put in me and Charlie and Sam and David Michael and Emily Michelle."

Karen was concentrating so hard her tongue was sticking out as she wrote the names in their proper places. "What about Nannie?" she asked.

"Nannie goes over my mom's name," said Kristy. "And then you have to put in my aunts' names over there," she pointed. "Aunt Colleen and Aunt Theo."

"Where do I go?" asked Andrew. He'd put down the G.I. Joe he'd been playing with, and was looking over Karen's shoulder.

"Right next to me," said Karen. "Then I have to put in all of our aunts and uncles and cousins."

"Cousins!" Kristy said. "That's right. You have to put in all of my cousins, too. Ashley and Berk and Grace and Peter go under Aunt Colleen's name, and Luke and Emma and Beth go under Aunt Theo's. And I don't even know where my dad's brothers and sisters and their kids would go."

Shannon shook her head. "Boy, your family is complicated," she said. "If you ever had a

family reunion, you'd have to rent a baseball stadium or something."

"That would be cool," said David Michael. "Maybe our family could make a team and play against the Mets."

Shannon and Kristy laughed. "I like my big family, though," said Kristy, after she'd thought for a moment. "I'm connected to so many people in different ways. I love being a stepsister to Karen and Andrew, and I love being a granddaughter to Nannie. It's like all these people help you know who you are in the world."

"I know what you mean," said Shannon. "I love to hear my aunts talk about the day I was born, and what I was like as a baby."

This made Kristy think. Relatives weren't the only ones who could remember things that happened in the past. Friends could, too. And her mom had been friends with tny mom and dad, back before I was born. Kristy decided then and there that as soon as her mom came home that day, she'd ask her more about what had happened when my mother died.

When Karen's chart was finished, it looked like a road map. There were lines going every which way, and names scrawled everywhere. Kristy helped her hang it up, and then joined in a game of "family reunion" for the rest of the afternoon.

When her mom got home, Kristy cornered her in the kitchen. "I want to ask you something," she said.

"Why don't you help me put the groceries away, and then we can talk," said her mom.

Kristy thought while she stacked cans of tunafish and tomato sauce. She didn't want to put her mom on the spot, but she was very curious.

"Come sit down," her mother said, when the grocery bags were empty. She patted the seat beside her at the kitchen table. "Now, what did you want to talk about?"

"About Mary Anne," said Kristy. "I mean, about when Mary Anne was young. What happened when her mother died?"

"Oh," said Kristy's mom. She shook her head. "Oh, it was so sad. We all knew that Alma was sick, but none of us expected her to go so quickly. We weren't that dose — your father and I had only just moved into the neighborhood — but she was a lovely person. I remember how welcoming she was when we moved in. She brought us an applesauce cake, and offered to help me unpack."

"But what about afterwards?" asked Kristy. "What happened then?"

"Well, Mr. Spier was just torn apart," said Kristy's mom, "He walked around looking lost. And when Mary Anne would cry, he

looked confused. It was as if he had no idea how to deal with his baby girl."

"Is that why he sent her away?" asked Kristy.

Her mom looked at her, surprised. "Why, yes, I suppose it was," she said. "You know, I'd forgotten about that. It was so long ago. But Mary Anne did go off to live with her grandparents — in Idaho, I think it was." "Iowa," said Kristy.

"Somewhere far away," her mother agreed. "But when she was gone, Richard looked lonelier and sadder than ever. I think he missed her very much." "So she came back?" asked Kristy. "As soon as he felt ready, he sent for her," said her mom. "And now that I think of it, I wonder how I ever could have forgotten that time. I remember it as if it were yesterday. One day, soon after she'd come back, I saw Richard pushing Mary Anne in her stroller. 'Look at my little girl/ he said to me. 'Isn't she beautiful?' Then I saw him smile for the first time in almost two years, and it nearly made me cry." Kristy told me later that her mother seemed close to crying that afternoon in the kitchen, just thinking about that time. "So he always wanted her?" asked Kristy. "Why, of course he did," said her mom. "She was his little girl."