The Pantry Door by Julie Steimle (top 100 books of all time checklist TXT) 📕

police. Katy stayed behind with orders not to clean up. That was fine. Instead of cleaning up, Katy walked around counting all the things that had been damaged. So far, it was mostly appliances, things that were out on the counters, the stove, and the table.

The police came around three in the afternoon. It was baking by then. This time the sheriff looked likely to do something rather than just shake his head. His feet crunched over the glass. It almost entirely covered the floor. He had only one question for Katy after he had seen the damage.

“What made them run away? You said you saw them. They left their weapon, but you look unharmed.”

There was no way Katy could tell him about the secret room or about her grandfather’s pipe, which had worked like magic. Instead, Katy recalled what Lloyd had shouted. “He disturbed some hornets, and they chased him out of the house.”

“The hornets didn’t sting you?” the sheriff asked, his eye scanning her obviously sting-free skin.

Katy just shrugged, not sure if what she was saying was a lie. “I wasn’t holding the bat that hit their house.”

He folded up his notebook and nodded. “Thank you.” He then turned to Grandma Schmidt and recommended she spray for hornets.

“Spray for them?” Grandma Schmidt said with a chuckle, glancing once at the broken kitchen window that now needed to be replaced. “I ought to be thanking them.”

The police left at around five in the afternoon, taking their photographs and the baseball bat as evidence, but leaving behind a man to stay with Grandma Schmidt while Katy helped her clean up all the glass. That evening they fixed a light supper of soup and sandwiches. The policeman stayed the night, waiting for news of Lloyd Gibson’s arrest.

That news didn’t come until morning.

Katy awoke, rubbing her eyes and climbing the stairs for breakfast, blinking a couple times at the new police officer that was helping the other replace their broken table with what looked like an antique. Grandma Schmidt tisked over the poor, damaged one, muttering how sad it was to lose something from her hope chest so tragically. However, this new table wasn’t any worse off than the first one. It looked equally old, and it had a crack in the center so it could be extended. They also brought in new chairs someone had donated.

She heard: “We chipped in for these as apology for not taking you seriously back in town.”

Grandma Schmidt let out a sigh that said she wished they had taken her seriously to save her the trouble. “I would have appreciated not losing a table more.”

They stood around uncomfortably at that, but neither said a word except “Sorry.”

“Are we making breakfast?” Katy asked, peeking in.

Her grandmother nodded and beckoned her to the stove. She already had eggs out, but nothing had been started.

Things only got better after that. They worked in the garden briefly. Katy kept one eye out for sprites, though she also searched for gnomes under the shadows of the bushes and in the grape vine arch where she was not permitted to go. If she saw a fluttering leaf or butterfly, Katy turned to look at it. But she didn’t see anything as miraculous as what she had the day before. By lunchtime, she was heaving heavy sighs of disappointment since all the fun and excitement was over.

When her grandmother took her afternoon nap, Katy climbed back up into the cupboard, hoping this time Nissa would be there.

Nissa wasn’t, not yet anyway. Katy heard her outside the window, but she was shouting at someone. “I said leave me alone, or I’ll get my daddy to get those hornets to chase you again!”

Scrambling to the window, Katy stuck her head out to see if it was Lloyd. The sheriff had said he had caught him that morning, but did he escape? All Katy could see was Nissa in a muddy dress, her hair looking like she had been hit with a dirt clod, the majority of mud still on top of her head. The boy she was shouting at was on the other side of the tree. All the branches and leaves obscured any clear view.

Some kid shouted back at Nissa. “Your daddy is a devil!”

“He is not! He’s the Pied Piper of Hameln, and he’ll make rats chase you if you don’t watch it!”

“Fairy story! You baby!” the boy shouted back.

Katy felt her face getting hot. She wished she had that pipe again to send pixies after him, but with a glance to the room, she knew the pipe was not there. All she had was her wits, a few books, and a voice.

So she shouted. “Nissa!”

Nissa looked up.

The boy backed off. “What was that?”

Tossing her hair back, Nissa said, “My magic friend. You’d better run, or she’ll call the pixies after you!”

And he did run. Katy saw him trip, fall down, scramble up, and run. She squinted at the face, sure it was a Gibson, but she couldn’t place which one. There were so many of them.

Nissa casually strolled to where the ladder was imbedded in the grass. She looked up, ginning at Katy. “I’m glad you’re here. I missed you yesterday.”

“Come on up.” Katy pointed to the ladder.

But Nissa shook her head. “I can’t. I have to take a bath and then go to Mrs. Hunsaker’s home for piano practice. Mom’s making me.”

“You still take piano?” Katy leaned on the sill frowning. “You didn’t tell me.”

Shrugging, Nissa sighed. “I don’t really take it, exactly. I started years ago, but I’ve never liked it. I’ve been slacking off for a while now. But since I’m leaving in a week, Mom wants me to—”

“You’re leaving in a week?” Katy’s heart immediately felt as if it had been crushed. A week was too soon. “That’s not fair!”

Nissa just shrugged again. “I know, but I don’t have a choice. The Gibsons won’t leave me alone, and Mom’s afraid that if I stay longer one of them will beat me up and leave me for dead.”

Katy thought of Lloyd. He could have beaten her to death if it weren’t for the pixies. Thinking upon that, she recalled what she had just overheard, and Katy stuck her head out to say, “Those hornets you talked about were pixies, right?”

Blinking and staring up, Nissa nodded. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

With a grin, Katy hugged the windowsill, leaning over with a grin. “I saw them too. Lloyd Gibson came over yesterday to bully Gran and me, and they came. It was so cool.”

Nissa jerked her head around in panic, looking to the left and to the right before hissing in a whisper. “Be careful. Daddy says pixies like trouble.”

Katy wondered whether that was true as she watched Nissa wave goodbye. It sounded like them. Those pixies, with their glee and their buzzing seemed just as likely to tear up the house as to drive out Lloyd and his friend. At that moment, she counted herself lucky she hadn’t found a pixie in the garden that day. And Katy hoped that if she ever did see one, the pixie wouldn’t spite her for it.

 

Sunday morning, Katy washed and dressed and went to church with Grandma Schmidt. She saw all the same folk sitting in the pews as the last time, though the Gibson row full of cousins and Lloyd’s family practically glared at her and her grandmother. Thomas, Mark, and Tent in particular held dark looks all fixed on Katy’s back. Nobody else seemed to notice, though the Sheriff sat in the pew just behind Katy and Grandma Schmidt. As everyone parted from the main service to Sunday School, Trent bumped into Katy on purpose and Mark stepped on her foot, both squeezing out a nasty ‘excuse me’, but their eyes said if they found her alone, she would be minced meat.

But Katy did not spend the rest of the day alone. And though Carly Hillerman gave her dirty looks with Trent Gibson, no one laid a finger on Katy at all. Martha Sandberg and her friends, Tabitha and Lindsay, sat with her during class. And right after church services, Katy walked with them over to Tabitha and Lindsay’s home, with Grandma Schmidt’s permission. Martha’s mother also drove Katy home when she picked up her daughter.

“So, how much longer are you staying with your grandmother?” Mrs. Sandberg asked.

Katy was feeling tired and had to blink to keep awake when she realized Martha’s mom was talking to her. “Oh. Uh, two more weeks. My mom is coming t….”

But her voice died as she realized that she forgotten to be mad at her mother for leaving her in that hick town. Katy swallowed and then sighed, glancing at Martha. It wasn’t so bad. That Sunday had been good, despite the dirty looks from the Gibsons.

“Denise is coming when?” Mrs. Sandberg asked.

Wetting the inside of her mouth, Katy pressed her lips together before saying decisively “She’s coming a week from Saturday.”

Martha’s mother smiled, steering the wheel to turn a corner. “It will be great to see her. Is she staying long?”

Katy shook her head. “No. She’s just coming to pick me up.”

The woman sighed with genuine disappointment. “That’s too bad. I would have liked to have visited with her.”

She couldn’t help it, but Katy peeked at the woman’s legs to see if they were misshapen or fake. But Mrs. Sandberg’s legs were as shapely and real as any thirty-something’s legs, though her stockings sagged a little around the ankles where the nylon had stretched out.

Leaning back in her seat, Katy recognized her grandmother’s house as they rolled over the gravel into the drive. When they came to a halt, Katy hopped out.

Martha waved to her. “Come hang out at my place tomorrow.”

Katy glanced at the house, half expecting to see the window with Nissa staring out. “Uh, but my Gran makes me work in the garden most of the day.”

“Come when you’re done,” Martha said.

It felt like betrayal. Turn her back on her friend in the other dimension? How could she do that?

“I dunno,” Katy said with a shrug. “I’ll see if I can.”

Grinning, Martha waved, and the car backed out of the driveway. Katy watched it go, and for the first time she felt torn.

“Kathleen! Come in for supper.”

Turning, Katy saw her grandmother standing in the doorway with a smile.

There was nothing to it but to go. So Katy went inside, putting the question into the back of her mind.

 

Monday.

Katy woke feeling somewhat ill. It wasn’t a cold, but a sick premonition that she would have trouble waiting for her if she tried to go to Martha’s house. It wasn’t just the thought of ditching Nissa, but that the Gibsons were watching her. It hadn’t even struck her until that morning that even though Lloyd Gibson was off at the sheriff’s office under charges of breaking and entering, vandalism, as well as attempted assault with a deadly weapon; the other Gibsons were still out for vengeance—blaming her for everything. Wishing she hadn’t seen Trent steal that candy, wishing she hadn’t come to her grandmother’s house for that summer at all, Katy dreaded even getting out of bed.

However, her stomach gurgled. She sat up, clenching it as the delicious aroma of sausage and eggs wafted down the stairs to her nose. It was like that wind from the cupboard that constantly hinted that she go up to the magic room, luring her, pulling at her, calling to her—sneaky and unfairly using influence where Katy just wished to be left alone.

She got up and climbed the stairs. Grandma Schmidt, as usual, was making a feast for them both. Guilt forced Katy to go all the way up, knowing it would be such a waste to let such wonderful food not get eaten.

As usual, after breakfast they worked in the garden. No one bothered them there, and Katy did not look for sprites this time around, though in the corner of her eye Katy could have sworn