Read The Virgin of Small Plains for Free Online Page A

he saw who it was who was straddling him and tickling him.
    Abby left the toast where it was in the toaster.
    She ran upstairs, got dressed in warm layers of clothes, then raced back down to find her tallest, warmest boots and to toss on all the other layers of protection that made living in Kansas such a drag in the wintertime. She told herself that if she lived on a Caribbean island, she wouldn’t get any snow days. But maybe she’d get hurricane days—
    Abby felt goofy with the sheer pleasure of being sprung free for a day.
    She flung open the front door.
    God, what a gorgeous day!
    The sun was so bright, reflecting off the snow, that she almost ran back into the house for sunglasses. Squinting hard against the glare at first, she barely noticed the presence of the sheriff’s car in her driveway. But it was just Nathan Shellenberger, Rex’s dad, her own dad’s lifelong friend, no big deal. Abby was accustomed to all of the town’s families running in and out of one another’s homes. She didn’t give it a second thought.
    It wasn’t even all that cold, really. By the time she had high-stepped the length of two front yards, and waved at neighbors who were shoveling, she was so hot she pulled her wool cap off her head and stuck it in her coat pocket.
    Abby shook her hair loose, reveling in the crisp feel of fresh air, clean hair, being sixteen.
    Yeah, she was disappointed they hadn’t been able to go through with what she’d planned the night before, but it wasn’t like it was the only chance they’d ever get. It had just felt that way to her in the middle of the night when any bad news seems worse that it really is. She certainly wasn’t mad at Mitch about it. It wasn’t his fault that her dad got an emergency call last night. Probably some woman delivering a baby and unable to make it through the storm to the hospital in Emporia. Abby hoped everything had turned out all right. Her dad hadn’t been downstairs very long, and he hadn’t called her mother down to help him make a delivery, so maybe the patient didn’t make it in, after all. No, wait, there’d been the headlights and the noise of a truck in the driveway—
    Abby shook off those thoughts, hoping for the best for everybody.
    It scared her and made her giggle, all at the same time, at the thought of Mitch hearing her dad coming, panicking, and sneaking out of the house. He must have frozen!
    Damn, why did the Newquists have to have the world’s longest driveway?
    By the time she had trudged all the way up, she had also peeled off her gloves, and unbuttoned her coat to let the sides flap free. When she reached the big front door, she rang the doorbell. Any other house in town, she could just walk on in, but not here. Nadine had heard too many crime stories from the judge. She believed there was a burglar around every bush and a rapist hiding in every backseat. Abby’s own mother constantly kidded Nadine about it, but that never did any good. Year after year, there was some new security device added to the Newquists’ house—a dead bolt, a chain, one year a security system (in Small Plains!). This past year, they had adopted a dog that barked so much they’d finally had to get rid of it before one of the neighbors got fed up and shot it.
    “Abby,” Nadine Newquist said, upon opening the door. She looked her usual elegant, unwelcoming self, Abby thought, only more so, if that was possible. How such a cold fish had given birth to a sweetie like Mitch was more than most people had ever been able to fathom. But she’d known the woman forever, eaten grilled cheese sandwiches in her kitchen, drunk lemonade in her yard, and so she made her usual effort to treat Nadine Newquist just like she treated every other adult in town, courteously and cheerfully.
    “Hi, Mrs. Newquist! Can you believe all this snow! Is Mitch awake yet?”
    “Mitch is not here, Abby.”
    “He’s not? He’s up already? Where’d he go?”
    “He drove off this morning with