Read The Power of Love for Free Online

couldn’t.”
    “It does!” he insisted. “And you have to be very careful. You can’t make it angry.”
    “Okay, I won’t say a word.”
    He nodded approvingly, then warned, “You can’t let it know you’re afraid. You have to hold your breath.”
    “Hold my breath?” Ivy studied her brother.
    “It will see you if you move. It watches you even when you don’t think it’s watching. Day and night.”
    Where was he getting this stuff from?
    “It can smell you if you’re afraid.”
    Was he really frightened of something, or was this just a game? she wondered. Philip had always had an active imagination but it seemed to her it was becoming overactive and darker. Ivy wished his friend Sammy would return from summer camp. Her brother had everything he could want now, but he was too isolated from other kids. He was living too much in his own world.
    “The snake won’t get me, Philip,” she told him, almost sternly. “I’m not afraid of it. I’m not afraid of anything,” she said, “because we’re safe in our house. All right?”
    “All right, little girl, you stay here,” he said. “And don’t let anyone else in. I’m going over to my other house and get some magic clothes for you. They will make you invisible.”
    Ivy smiled a little. How would she play invisible? Then she picked up a battered broom and began to sweep off the flooring.
    Suddenly she heard Philip yelp. She spun around and saw him tottering on the edge of the narrow boardwalk, sixteen feet above the ground. She dropped the broom and rushed toward him, but knew she couldn’t catch him in time.
    Then, just as suddenly, he was balanced again. He dropped down on all fours and looked back over his shoulder. The rapt expression on his face stopped Ivy in her tracks. She had seen that look on his face before: the wonder, the glow of pleasure, his mouth half open in a shy smile.
    “What happened?” Ivy asked, moving toward him slowly now. “Did you trip?”
    He shook his head, then picked up the loose end of aboard.
    Ivy leaned down to study it. The bridge had been constructed like a miniature boardwalk, with two long, thin boards secured between the two trees and a series of short planks laid across them. The short planks overhung the boards a few inches on each side. This particular plank was nailed loosely on one side—Ivy could pull the nail out with her hands; on the other side there was a hole, but no nail.
    “When I stepped here”—Philip pointed—“the other side came up.”
    “Like a seesaw,” said Ivy. “It’s a good thing you didn’t lose your balance.”
    Philip nodded. “Good thing my angel was right here.”
    Ivy sucked in her breath.
    “’Cause sometimes he isn’t. Though he usually is when you’re around.”
    Ivy closed her eyes and shook her head.
    “He’s gone now,” said Philip.
    Good, thought Ivy. “Philip, we’ve talked about this before. There are no such things as angels. All you have is a bunch of statues—”
    “Your statues,” he interrupted. “I’m taking good care of them.”
    “I told you,” she said, her throat tightening and her head starting to throb, “I told you that if you wanted to keep those statues, you must never speak to me about angels again. Didn’t I tell you that?”
    He lowered his head and nodded.
    “Didn’t you promise?”
    He nodded again.
    Ivy sighed and pulled up the piece of wood. “Now slide around behind me. Before you go any farther, I want to check each board.”
    “But, Ivy,” he said, “I saw my angel! I saw him catch the wood on the other side and push it down so I wouldn’t fall. I saw him!”
    Ivy sat back on her heels. “Don’t tell me. Let me guess. He was wearing wings and a nightgown, and had a little saucer of light on his head.”
    “No, he was just light. He was just shining. I think he has sort of a shape, but it’s always hard for me to see it. It’s hard for me to see his face,” Philip said. His own young face was