The Pantry Door, Julie Steimle [read aloud books .TXT] 📗

in anyway, moving on her hands and knees to the bead box where another note rested on top of her note.

 

Dear Katie,

 

Sorry, but I can’t come either. Mom is taking me to get notebooks and paper and stuff like that. Tomorrow is our only day left. If for some reason I can’t meet with you, I want you to have the bracelet in my box.

Friends Forever.

 

Nisa

 

Katy dropped the letter and quickly opened the box. The beaded bracelet was complete. It said Katie & Nisa, Best Friends—Friends Forever.

Tears welled up in Katy’s eyes. It wasn’t fair. Nissa would be gone, and she would be left alone. What was magic without a friend to share it with? Why did she have to find that room only to lose her best friend?

Unhooking the clasp to the bracelet, Katy wrapped it around her wrist and connected it. Slightly loose, Katy shook it, watching the letters spin around. Yes. Friends forever. Katy clutched her arm and the bracelet to her chest, closing her eyes.

She stayed in the attic for an hour making Nissa a special origami rose, the kind her mother taught her how to make with a stem and a leaf. She used several shades of pink and red to make the rose, each piece twirling around in a spiral. She curled the leaf, and checked the stem to make sure it was sturdy. Then, taking one of the green markers from Nisa’s box, Katy wrote a little note on the flower.

 

Best Friends Always! I will never forget you. Kathleen and Nissa BFF.

 

She set it on the bead box. Then she crawled back to the door for the cupboard. Climbing down, Katy sighed hoping Nissa would find the rose before she left for school. Nissa never did say if she was leaving in the morning or the afternoon. Katy only hoped it would be later in the day.

She dropped down to the bottom of the cupboard and opened the door. Then she looked up as she hopped into the kitchen.

Grandma Schmidt dropped her baking pan. It clattered to the ground with a boom, but that was nothing compared to the sudden gasp her grandmother made. “Kathleen Nielsen! What were you doing in there?”

Going bright red, Katy tried to look away. “Um…”

Her grandmother stomped over. “Playing in the cupboard? Kathleen, you could have gotten hurt!”

“But I wouldn’t have. There’s a room up there.” The secret jumped from her lips before she could stop it.

Pulling back, Grandma Schmidt blinked at her. “A room? Kathleen, don’t tell fibs.”

“But I’m not lying!” Katy shouted, tired of sneaking around. She stomped her foot. “There is an attic room with a carpet and a window up there. That’s where I’ve been playing my flute all this time.”

“There isn’t an attic,” said her grandmother.

“There is!” Katy stomped her foot again.

“No, there isn’t, young lady.” Grandma Schmidt shut the cupboard door to banish the entire room. “I was here when your grandfather built this house, and he did not make an attic. There is barely enough space for boxes up there. I know. I tried to store some, but they wouldn’t fit.”

Katy stomped her foot again and folded her arms across her chest. “But I was just there! And I am not lying! There is a big attic room with white carpet, a window, and the wall paper is the same as in the cupboard.” Katy jerked the cupboard open. “See?”

She stuck her head in to see if the door was open, but the usual crack of light was gone. Katy frowned.

Pulling Katy from the cupboard, Grandma Schmidt shook her head. “I think you need to lie down. Obviously the heat has—”

“I am not sick!” Katy jerked from her arms, her face contorting as she fought tears. Why had the magic abruptly closed on her? Would she never see Nissa again? “I was in a room up there! I met Nissa in that room. Look! She gave this to me!”

Katy stuck out her wrist, showing her grandmother the bracelet.

Her grandmother drew in a breath, peering at the bracelet then at Katy’s face.

“It’s a magic room, Grandma. I don’t know how it is there, but it’s there. And I have to go see Nissa off tomorrow. Her parents are sending her away, and I’ll never get to see her again if I don’t go.” Katy was panting, upset, and peering at her grandmother’s face, wishing that for once people would trust what she said.

Suddenly, the anxiety and fear that had etched into her grandmother’s wrinkles the day they had problems with the Gibsons slowly smoothed out. Grandma Schmidt drew in a breath and nodded to herself in agreement with something Katy had said. Closing her eyes, sighing softly, Grandma Schmidt nodded. “I see.”

But Katy wondered what her grandmother understood, still watching her.

Relaxing her shoulders, Grandma Schmidt closed the cupboard door again and said, “Kathleen, if you help me with supper, you can stay in that room for the night if you would like. I think your friend will be leaving early in the morning, and you won’t have much time to see her before she goes.”

Blinking first, Katy’s eyes then widened. “You believe me?”

With a wry smile, Grandma Schmidt sighed once more. “When you have lived as long as I have, you can honestly say that you have seen just about everything—especially in this house.”

Not sure which part to be the most glad about, Katy bear-hugged her grandmother then dashed to the basement stairs to get her pajamas and blanket.

“I said, after supper, Kathleen!”

Ducking her head, Katy halted in the stairwell and turned around with a sheepish grin, climbing back up. “Sorry.”

 

The chicken took an hour to cook, but it was as delicious as Katy had imagined when her grandmother mentioned it in the car. She helped clean up, and then in a flurry she ran down the stairs, gathered her things, and darted up the stairs, hauling everything into the cupboard one by one until the room was well stocked with supplies.

The window was slightly closed when she at last settled down to sleep, though in the light of the moon, Katy stared up at the ceiling and imagined her last goodbye. When her eyes closed, Katy found herself in a dreamless sleep, one that reminded her of the times when she fell asleep on her grandfather’s lap as a child. For a brief moment, Katy could feel as though he were still holding her, telling her everything would be ok.

*

“Katy.”

Hearing her name, but not sure if it were a dream, Katy rolled over.

“Katy.”

Blinking, she rubbed her eyes.

“Come on, Katy! Wake up! I have to leave in a couple minutes, and Mom hates waiting for me long!”

Katy sat right up, nearly hitting her head with Nissa’s. But, luckily, Nissa backed up in time.

“I was so glad when I saw the window. I had to come in to see you,” Nissa said. She then wrapped her arms around Katy in a tight hug.

“Did you get the rose?” Pulling back, Katy felt around near the bead box.

Nissa lifted it up, grinning. “Yeah. Thank you.”

Both girls sat there on the carpet, now suddenly without things to say for a full minute.

Nissa averted her eyes to the carpet. “I wish you could write me, but I don’t know how that could happen.”

“You can’t send me an email, can you?” Katy replied, stroking the beads on her wrist nervously.

Laughing, Nissa shook her head and climbed onto the windowsill. “You say the funniest things, Katy.”

Katy didn’t see how it was funny, and shrugged, following her as Nissa climbed back onto the ladder. Outside, they both heard a car horn sound. Nissa cringed.

“Mom must be tired of waiting for me. I gotta go or I’ll miss my plane.” She climbed down another rung then paused, looking up. “Never forget me?”

“Not ever,” Katy said, touching Nissa’s hand one last time. “BFF.”

“What does that mean, anyway?” Nissa asked.

Smiling, Katy said, “Best Friends Forever.”

With a nod, Nissa climbed down the rest of the way. The ladder sunk into the ground the second she stepped off. Nissa cast it a small glance as if wondering if the ladder would work in the future. It didn’t seem likely for some reason. She gazed up at Katy in the window and waved.

“Best Friends Forever!”

Katy watched Nissa walk under the tree across the yard to a waiting car. She could hardly make out the face of the driver. And once Nissa climbed inside, Katy could no longer even see her face. But Nissa waved to her in the window even as they pulled out the pebble drive onto the gravel road. Then, in just a few seconds, they were gone from sight.

Alone, Katy cried, holding on to her bracelet. She pulled in from the window and sat back, sighing as she sniffed to herself. Scooting farther from the window, Katy noticed that the glass slid down by itself and shut. The curtains drew in front of them—all of this with silent hands. Was that it? Was the room saying she had to leave? It was getting darker. Perhaps it was time to go.

Gathering up her pillow first, then her blankets and then her origami books, Katy put each one of her things next to the cupboard door. In her gathering of belongings, she found that picture mythology book still in the room. Nissa had forgotten it. Taking it up with her flute, Katy climbed down the cupboard slats and put the book and the flute on the kitchen table. She went back up for her other things until one by one the room was empty of them. As she removed the last thing, Katy could hear the door above shut, but somehow it did not feel locked—that is, if she really wanted to, she could go in still, throw open the curtains and open the window. But, not now. Now it was time to leave.

Carrying her blankets and pillow down the basement stairs, Katy glanced out at the morning light that softly shown into the room. At the small window was a gnome. He smiled and winked at her, then walked off. For a moment, Katy paused. The room was closed, but she was still seeing strange things. With a shrug, she continued to the bed and went right along and made it. Tossing on the pillow, Katy hopped back up the steps, glancing out the window to catch sight of another gnome if she could. Nothing was there except grass and perhaps an earwig crawling along the rim.

Back in the kitchen, Katy shut the basement door behind her, going straight to the table where she wanted to make her origami papers neater to put away. Grandma Schmidt entered from the living room, lifting her eyes to Katy’s face like she would ask a question, but she remained silent—all until her eyes fell upon Nissa’s book.

Plucking it off of the table, Grandma Schmidt turned it over in her hands. “Well, glory be! Where did you find this?”

It was clear she knew it didn’t come from the library.

Katy just shrugged. “It was Nissa’s. She forgot it when she left.”

Clicking her tongue, her grandmother just shook her head with a secret laugh. “Really? Well that explains a lot.” She then handed it over to Katy. “It’s yours now.”

Taking the book, Katy felt sorry that Nissa had lost it.

“Oh, don’t make that face. When you see your friend again, you can give it to her,” Grandma Schmidt said, and she turned to cook on the stove.

A frown settled on Katy’s face. “I won’t see her again. That’s the problem.”

Still smiling in her secret-joke sort of way, her grandmother replied, “I don’t know about that. The world is a mysterious place. You’d be surprised what might happen.”

Katy watched her grandmother as she went to the refrigerator and took out some eggs and a package of sausage. Already she was getting the makings for breakfast, but she seemed unusually chipper, as though all the stress from that week has