Read Sink or Swim for Free Online Page B

next room. Madison winced in pain, but it lasted only a few moments.
    “Eliot!” she called out. “Where are you going?”
    “My tucks!” Eliot screamed. He pointed to a chest in the corner of the dining room. It was overflowing with trucks in all colors and shapes and sizes. In fact, the entire room was filled with toys overflowing out of boxes and crates and even a plastic laundry hamper in one corner.
    “Wow,” Madison said. “You have a lot of toys. I guess we won’t be getting bored.”
    “Madison?” Mrs. Reed’s voice cut through the air. “Are you in here?”
    Madison told her they were looking at toys in the dining room.
    As soon as Mrs. Reed walked in, Eliot took his trucks one by one and whipped them out of a crate and onto the floor. It made a huge noise that upset his little baby sister, Becka.
    “Oh, Eliot!” Mrs. Reed cried, trying to calm down Becka.
    Madison rushed over to the toy mess and scrambled to pick it up. “I’m sorry. I should have—”
    “Nonsense!” Mrs. Reed said. “Eliot’s just not used to having someone new around, right, honey?”
    Eliot sniffled. “I wanna thwim.”
    “Maybe we should go now,” Mrs. Reed said, turning to Madison. “Would you help me get the kids’ stuff together? I can give you a tour of the house while we do that.”
    Madison got up off the floor and brushed off her knees. She hoped that once she and Eliot had spent a few days together, they’d become the best of friends. That was how it always worked out in books and movies.
    The upstairs floor of the Reed house was covered in the kind of deep, plush, wall-to-wall carpet that made it easy to fall asleep lying down. Eliot loved rolling around on it, Madison noticed. He had little carpet fuzz all over his shirt.
    Mrs. Reed pointed them toward the kids’ rooms. Becka had a small nursery painted lemon yellow. She had a black-and-white mobile dangling over her bassinet and a motorized swing in the corner. Eliot opened up all of Becka’s drawers to inspect their contents.
    While Mrs. Reed changed Becka, she told Madison it would be tough to change Eliot’s diapers. He was acting a little fussier lately.
    Diapers? Madison had forgotten all about those.
    “I told you yesterday he’s trying to start potty training,” Mrs. Reed explained. “But he hasn’t quite figured it out. During the day, you can just keep a diaper on him and change it two or three times while you’re here. Unless he tells you that he’s gone to the—”
    “POOOOOOOOP!” Eliot squealed with delight. It was obviously his favorite word.
    Madison’s stomach did a flip-flop.
    Poop? She’d really forgotten all about that.
    But Madison nodded “yes” and “okay” to everything Mrs. Reed said or asked. After all, she was used to walking Phinnie. She could get used to changing diapers. Hopefully.
    Even though his mother had left the room, Eliot seemed calmer now. He had found his favorite blue dump truck and was loading and dumping magnetic alphabet letters onto the floor. He wasn’t looking at Madison, but she didn’t mind. She tried to play with him a little, and he stayed focused on his toys.
    After about ten minutes, Mrs. Reed reappeared with two large tote bags crammed full. She handed one to Madison.
    “Here, Madison,” Mrs. Reed said sweetly. “Could you take Eliot’s bag? Let’s pack up the car.”
    Madison grabbed the bag and followed Mrs. Reed outside. Eliot ran ahead, but Mrs. Reed grabbed him by the waistband of his shorts. She buckled the kids into their car seats.
    Eliot started fidgeting almost immediately. “I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna!” Eliot wailed.
    Once again, Becka followed his lead. Within seconds the two were wailing in perfect harmony.
    Madison tried to reach into the tote bag she was carrying to find some toy that would make Eliot smile and stop fussing. But when she reached in, she pulled out a handful of towel and then everything flew out of the bag. Eliot’s stuff went