Paint by Magic by Kathryn Reiss Page A

a challenge—but not this one, coming out of the blue like that. I was shocked. How had Betty guessed? The other kids hadn't, from the look of them. They were gaping at me and Betty in surprise. Obviously they hadn't cottoned on to it yet.
Cottoned
on to it. Get it?
    "I don't know what you mean," I said sternly to Betty.
    "Oh, of course," she replied. "You never heard of Pammie in your life?"
    "How could he?" asked Homer.
    "This is the exact spot where Uncle Fitzy found her," Elsie said suddenly. "Right, Homer? Wasn't it right here under the plum trees?"
    "Yup." He nodded. "Lying on the ground like some old
corpse
—but she was only sleeping."
    "He
found
her out here?" I asked. Mom must have been swept through the wind like I was. She must have landed here—just like I landed on the floor of the studio.
    "Yup," said Elsie. "Right here." She sighed. "I miss her. I thought they were gonna get married. I coulda been the flower girl. It's not fair."
    "What did you say?" I demanded. "
Married?
"
    They just stared at me. I wrenched out a handful of grass. "Who was going to get married?" I asked Elsie more gently, staring at the blades and dirt in my palm.
    "Uncle Fitzy and Pammie, of course," Elsie said. "Pammie was Uncle Fitzy's model. He loved her; you could tell. But then she left us, and now we're all sad."
    "Mama's not so sad," Homer corrected Elsie. "I mean, she liked Pammie and all—who wouldn't? But she'd rather have Uncle Fitzy marry
her,
don't you think?" He jumped high to pull down a tiny hard plum off the tree, and then looked over at me. "Since our dad's dead, our mama could get married again, you know. If she found the right person."
    "Uncle Fitzy isn't going to, marry Mama," said Betty scornfully. "He's in such a black mood all the time, he doesn't even notice Mama anymore. He doesn't notice
anybody
anymore, and he's grown rather horrid, if you ask me, even worse than before. He's always snapping at you when you say anything. I'm glad Mama won't be marrying such a grouch."
    "He's just missing Pammie," said Elsie. "It's so romantic."
    "
Hmmph.
" Betty sniffed. "If you like him so much, then
you
can take up his meal trays."
    "I didn't say I like him!" Elsie corrected her hastily. "I just said he's missing Pammie."
    I couldn't hold it in anymore. "Well, she couldn't marry him, anyway, because she's
already
married!" I blurted out. And then, of course, I wished I hadn't said it, because Homer and Elsie and Chester were all over me: "What do you mean?" "How could you know?" "Do you know Pammie after all?" and so on.
    Betty just sat there with a superior smile on her face because I'd given myself away. She'd been right all along that I did know Pammie.
    But I tried to cover up, anyway. "It's just an educated guess," I said quickly. "Probably that's why she left you—she must have had a husband waiting." I looked up at the lacy branches of the plum trees.
    Here on this sun-warmed grass, my mother had been found by Fitzgerald Cotton. She'd been a time traveler just as I was—and to this same place. This was where she'd been and why she'd made that strange comment about having been away for so long! She'd known these same people I was just meeting now. It was more mind-boggling than any
Mad Scientist
episode I'd ever seen, because things like this just didn't happen.
    But it had, and I couldn't help but feel it had happened for a reason. I was here because I was supposed to do something.
    But what, Mom? Why didn't you tell me?
    Because she couldn't. Because she was frozen. Maybe because she thought no one would believe her. I felt close to her suddenly, and almost thought I could hear her voice calling to me from far away.
    Connor! Connor!
The voice had a desperate tone to it.
    I shook my head and the voice was gone. I looked up at all the kids staring at me and rubbed my hands across my face. "So tell me more about this model," I said to the kids in what I hoped was a cool, casual tone. "Like, did she