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CHAPTER 5
On Knight Street
Granny's mind was getting more and more muddledLina would come home in the evenings and find her
rifling through the kitchen cupboards, surrounded by
cans and jars with their lids off, or tearing the covers
off her bed and trying to lift up the mattress with her
skinny arms"It was an important thing," she would
say, "the thing that was lost
"But if you don't know what it was," said Lina,
"how will you know when you've found it?"
Granny didn't try to answer this questionShe just
flapped her hands at Lina and said, "Never mind, never
mind, never mind," and kept on searchingMurdo spent a great deal of time
sitting by their window rather than her ownShe
would tell Granny she was just coming to keep her
company"I don't want her to keep me
cambon chanel company,"
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Granny complained to Lina, and Lina said, "Maybe
she's lonely, Granny
Lina rather liked having MrsMurdo around--it
was a bit like having a mother thereShe wasn't anything
like Lina's own mother, who had been a dreamy,
absent-minded sort of personMurdo was
mother-like in quite a different wayShe made sure
they all ate a good breakfast in the morning--usually
potatoes with mushroom gravy and beet teaShe lined
up the vitamin pills by each person's plate and made
sure they were swallowedMurdo was
there, shoes got picked up and put away, spills were
wiped off the furniture, and Poppy always had on
clean clothesLina could relax when MrsShe knew things were taken care of
Every week, Lina--like all workers between age
twelve and age fifteen--had Thursday offOne
Thursday, as she
chanel classic handbag was standing in line at the Garn
Square market, hoping to get a bag of turnips for stew
that night, she overheard a startling conversation
between two people standing behind her
"What I wanted," said one voice, "was some paint
for my front doorIt hasn't been painted for yearsIt's
gray and peeling, horribleI heard a store over on
Night Street had someI was hoping for blue
"Blue would be nice," said the other voice wistfully
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"But when I got there," the first voice continued,
"the man said he had no paint, never hadAll he had were a few colored pencils
Colored pencils! Lina had not seen colored pencils
in any store for agesOnce she'd had two red ones, a
blue one, and a brown oneShe'd used these for her
drawing until they were stubs too small to holdNow
she had only one plain
omega replica watches pencil left, and it was rapidly
growing shorter
She longed to have colored pencils for her pictures
of the imaginary cityShe had a feeling it was a colorful
place, though she didn't know what its colors might
beThere were other things, of course, on which her
money would be better spentGranny's only coat was
full of holes and coming apart at the seamsBut
Granny rarely went out, Lina told herselfShe was
either at home or in her yarn shopShe didn't really
need a new coat, did she? Besides, how much could a
few pencils cost? She could probably get a coat for
Granny and some pencils
So that afternoon she set out for Night StreetShe
took Poppy with herPoppy had learned how to ride
piggyback--she wrapped her legs around Lina's
waist and gripped Lina's throat with her small, strong
fingers
On
cartier love Budloe Street, people were standing in long
lines with their bundles of laundry at the washing stationsThe washers stirred the clothes in the washing
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machines with long polesIn days past, the machines
themselves had whirled the clothes around, but not
one of them worked anymore
Lina turned up Hafter Street, where the four
streetlamps were still out and a building crew was
repairing a partly collapsed roofOrly Gordon called
out to her from high on a ladder, and Lina looked up
and wavedFarther on, she passed a woman with bits
of rope and string for sale and a man pulling a cart full
of carrots and beets to the grocery storesAt the corner,
a cluster of little children played catch with a rag ballThe streets were alive with people todayMoving fast,
Lina threaded her way among
tiffany co jewelry t
