Read Connecting for Free Online Page B

afternoon . . . my dad’s flying into Buffalo tomorrow to visit me for the weekend.”
    “That stinks. I mean, I know how much you miss him, but—hey, wait a minute. The mall is in Buffalo, too. What time is he coming in?”
    “I think around eight.” She looks around for the scrap of paper where she wrote down her father’s flight information when he called earlier.
    “We can all go to the mall, then pick up your dad at the airport! My aunt won’t mind. Let me go ask her. Aunt Ramona! ”
    The phone drops with a clatter in Calla’s ear before she has a chance to protest—not that she necessarily was going to.
    After what she’s been through lately, a trip to the mall would be a nice, welcome dose of normal .
    She carries some dirty dishes over to the sink.
    “What’s going on?” Odelia asks, rinsing a sudsy glass.
    “Evangeline said her aunt could take us shopping at the mall on Friday, then pick up Dad at the airport.”
    “That would be nice.”
    “I know. I just don’t want Ramona to have to go out of her way.”
    “Oh, I don’t think she’ll mind,” Odelia comments with a small, cryptic smile.
    Seeing it, Calla remembers the strange sensation she had about Dad and Ramona when her father visited a few weeks ago and they met for the first time. The two of them couldn’t be more different, but it was almost as if there was some kind of fleeting connection between them. At the time, Calla didn’t know what to make of it, or even if it was just her imagination.
    But now, looking at her grandmother, she gets the distinct impression that Odelia might somehow have the same crazy inkling.
    Evangeline is back on the phone, sounding a little breathless. “Aunt Ramona said she’d love to pick up your dad at the airport Friday night!”
    “She’d love it?” Calla echoes dubiously.
    “That’s what she said. Just get the flight information and tell him we’ll be there! Aren’t you psyched? I love how everything just falls into place, don’t you?”
    “Sure . . . I guess. Listen, I’ll see you in the morning for school.”
    “See you then!”
    Calla hangs up the phone to see that her grandmother is still watching her, looking as though she wants to say something. “What?”
    Odelia shrugs. “Nothing, just . . . Ramona is a great person, don’t you think?”
    “Sure. I love her.”
    “Good.”
    “Good?” Calla echoes. “Why good?”
    “No reason,” Odelia replies as the doorbell rings. “That’s Mr. Henry. Would you mind finishing the dishes for me?”
    “Sure. You mean Mr. Henry from yesterday? The one who’s trying to reach his dead wife?”
    “That’s the one.” Odelia dries her hands and heads for the door.
    A few moments later, she’s escorting Owen Henry— looking just as dapper as before, and just as feeble as he leans on his cane—through the kitchen on the way to the back room where she sees her clients.
    “This is my granddaughter, Calla.”
    He smiles and pauses to lean on the cane with his left hand while tipping his hat with his right. “Lovely as the lily. We met.”
    “Good luck,” she says, and goes back to the dishes as he and Odelia disappear into the back room.
    She’s upstairs doing her homework when they emerge an hour later. After hearing her grandmother show him out the front door, she goes to the top of the stairs.
    “Did you get through to Betty, Gammy?” she calls down.
    “Nope.”
    Surprised by her grandmother’s flat response, she descends the stairs halfway to find Odelia frowning.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “I wasn’t getting anything at all from him. It happens sometimes.” “Was he disappointed?”
    “Yup. He kept insisting that I try harder to reach her. I explained that it doesn’t work that way—that it’s not like a telephone where you just dial up the spirit of your choice.”
    She’s said that countless times to Calla. It doesn’t help to ease the frustration.
    I know how you feel, Owen Henry, Calla thinks as she climbs slowly