Read Broken for Free Online Page A

river. Anna Mae liked to think there were angels in the clouds casting sparkles over the water.
    Frowning, she turned away from the window. Today it had happened again. She started out in one place, ended up in another, and didn’t know how she got there. When she was little she thought it happened to everyone. Once Aunt Sarah accused her of lying about not remembering. She said Anna Mae made it all up so she could get out of trouble. Sometimes she wasn’t even in trouble and her Aunt Sarah would still accuse her.
    Sometimes Aunt Sarah forgot to buy something at Vinko’s. Stanley was always forgetting about his homework. But that wasn’t the same. Eventually she realized other people usually knew where they had been and what they had been doing. She knew now that her kind of ‘not remembering’ was a very bad thing. That must be why her real mother didn’t want her.
    She asked God about it. However, everyone knows that God does not always answer questions. She promised God she would study hard and make good grades if He would help her remember. Although she received an A or B on every test, nothing changed. Maybe that wasn’t good enough for God. Or maybe He was just too busy.
    “Anna Mae!” Stanley’s shrill voice made her jump. “Hey, dog face,” he called up the steps. “The rug rat is hungry. Get down here and feed him.”
    She wanted to yell back at Stanley, but she was afraid of him. He was bigger and stronger and sometimes he hit her. She’d be a little fuzzy afterward. Most of the time she would remember what happened.
    She yelled back. “I’ll be down in a minute.”
    She changed out of her school clothes and pulled her long, blond hair into a ponytail. On her way down the steps she laughed as David, complete with sound effects, taxied his plane into its hanger under the living room couch.
    “Come on, Davie,” she said, reaching for his hand. “I’ll fix you some supper.”
    “Peanut budder. Pweaseeee! Peanut budder an’ jellwee!”
    “I ain’t eatin’ thupper,” Stanley mocked from the dining room.
    He was sitting with his feet propped on the dining room table, eating potato chips and drinking Coke. In fourteen years, Stanley’s hair had changed from light blond to buff and finally to brown. The sickly shine of too much Brylcreem failed to control his cowlick.
    “That goofy George’s father got hurt at the mill,” he said. “You know George Siminoski. He’s a freshman.”
    Anna Mae hardly knew George. He was one grade ahead of Stanley and the smartest kid in school. He was also fat, wore the thickest glasses in the whole world and had a big nose. The other students tormented him constantly and George would yell back at them in the same language her uncle used when he was mad.
    Sometimes the other kids would tease her, saying George had a crush on her. The very thought made her shudder.
    “What happened to George’s father?” she asked.
    “Almost got burned to death,” Stanley said through a mouthful of potato chips.
    “When?” she asked on her way to the kitchen.
    “Today. I was with George when he found out.”
    “What happened?” she asked from the kitchen, convinced that Stanley was exaggerating.
    “His father got splashed with hot steel,” he explained as her head popped back through the doorway. “It was something about the ladle. It was crooked or something.’”
    Anna Mae stepped back into the dining room where Stanley was guzzling his Coke. He put the bottle on the dining room table saying, “Two other guys jumped away just in time. They could have been burnt to a crisp!” He stuffed his mouth with chips and mumbled, “Guess who saved George’s father?”
    Anna Mae stared at Stanley. How could he eat while he was telling her stuff like this?
    He swallowed. “Guess!”
    She shook her head.
    “My dad saved Dobie’s life. The man was on fire and my dad ran straight into the flames and threw his jacket over him. And Dad doesn’t even like him! Can you believe