weren’t lucky enough to go to Fletcher Academy, your house probably had a playroom and a room that was used as a schoolroom. But none of the homes of her dozens of cousins were as close to being a children’s castle as was Grandfather’s house.
The big house had multiple playrooms, each filled with toys, games, and puzzles in seemingly endless supply. If there was an emphasis on educational toys, no one minded much. There were dolls and stuffed animals and toy soldiers to play with, too.
In the art room, you could work with clay, Play-Doh, papier-mache, or finger paints-that was Genie’s favorite room. It even had digital cameras and a scanner and a computer that you could use to change the photos into funny pictures.
Carrie liked the music rooms. One music room was for playing music, the other for listening. The listening room was filled with beanbag chairs, and if you wanted to just sit quietly and listen through headphones, you could do so. You didn’t have to listen to the same music everyone else was listening to-you could choose your own. It was also a nice place to take a nap.
You could always go into one of the spare bedrooms, of course-some rooms were for girls and some rooms were for boys. Genie didn’t like them so much if she was really tired, because the girls were always gossiping and giggling and keeping her awake. Sometimes, though, overnight parties were held here for groups of girl cousins near the same age-she didn’t mind staying up all night then! The only bad part was coming home and answering all of Mom’s questions. Mom didn’t like them to go to slumber parties. Or be away from her much for any reason.
When Mom acted like that, it just made Genie feel restless. She had even thought of running away, someday. But then she thought of not being with Carrie and the boys-as well as practical matters, like who would hire a kid to do work-and she would give up on the idea. At least for the time being.
Still, she thought that if she learned more about computers, she might be able to do it one day. People couldn’t tell how old you are on the computer. She knew this because of something her dad had said about weird men who posed as children on the Internet, men who then stole children and did terrible things to them. Genie believed him, but she also figured that if a man could pretend to be a kid, a kid could pretend to be an adult. It might work.
Her dad helped other people in the family with their computer problems, so people expected his kids to know about them, but this was not the case. They weren’t allowed to use computers very often. There was a great computer room here. The computers at Grandfather’s house weren’t hooked up to the Internet, but there were hundreds of games and a huge amount of learning software on them. Most of her cousins were allowed to get on the Internet when they were at their own houses, at least sometimes. The fact that she and her siblings were not allowed on it at all frustrated Genie. She tried to learn what she could about it from her cousins, but one day Mom overheard her talking about it and she got in trouble. Dad said they would learn about it when they were a little older.
It didn’t make any sense to her. Dad made some of his money by working on the Internet. Genie once got into a lot of trouble by trying to sneak onto his work computer in his office. She had guessed two of his passwords, but not the one that made the browser work. Somehow Dad was able to figure out that she was the one who had used it. Probably because none of the other kids would have dared to try it.
Maybe she would go up to the computer room while they were here, but she would probably spend most of her time outside. There was a swimming pool and a fully equipped playground at Grandfather’s house. No one fussed at you here if you got dirt or grass stains on your clothes, or spilled something on your T-shirt. This house always had spare clothes you could change into while yours were cleaned or mended. And if you were the one who needed mending, you would be all right, too-many of the staff had first-aid training. Besides, Uncle Roger and Aunt Susan were doctors and they lived in the house next door. If they weren’t home, you could get help at the office of their pediatrics practice, which was less than a mile away.
The staff members weren’t strangers. Some of Grandfather’s adopted children still lived with him, helping him with his businesses and the school, or helping him with the house and property itself. Other aunts and uncles lived in nearby houses.
Fletcher children and grandchildren lived in other parts of the country and in Europe, Dad had once told Genie, but he also said that most of them liked to be close to home. The uncles Genie knew best were the ones who were closest to her dad, Roy Fletcher.
One was Uncle Giles, who was Dad’s oldest brother-Dad let Uncle Giles boss him around. He seemed very ordinary, but when he told people what to do, they always did it. Genie wasn’t immune to this herself. Mom sometimes tried to argue with him, but she never won.
Her dad was also close to Uncle Dexter, who was a lawyer. He was kind of quiet. Everyone in the family talked about how good-looking he was, but Genie couldn’t see it. His wife, Aunt Maggie, was very beautiful, but she didn’t seem to care about Uncle Dex or what he did. She always seemed bored, and was one of only a small number of the older women who didn’t seem interested in him. Genie thought that he was interesting, but not in the way that most of the aunts did.
To Genie, who could admit to herself that she was a little bit of a spy when it came to the adults in her life, Uncle Dex’s effect on the older women was fascinating and worthy of study. Whenever he came into a room, some of the aunts blushed. Eventually, most of them found a way to stand near Uncle Dex for at least a few minutes. They touched him-put a hand on his arm or shoulder, things like that-more often than they touched the other men in the family. He would look at whoever was talking to him as if they were telling him a valuable secret. He listened to them and said nice things to them. He had a smile-even Genie liked his smile-that made other people smile back at him. He might joke a little with the women, but he never did anything to make the uncles mad at him. Uncle Dex always seemed able to be cautious without letting other people realize he was being cautious.
Mom dressed up a little more when she knew Uncle Dex was coming over. Genie noticed that Uncle Dex was careful to stay near Dad when Mom was around, never came over when Dad wasn’t home, and still managed to compliment Mom and make her smile.
Uncle Nelson was the other uncle who visited them sometimes. He was usually too busy to spend much time with them, and seemed uncomfortable around children, but he always made a point of asking Genie how she was doing and if she was happy. He was married, too, but Genie had never met his wife. Mom said he’d married someone who didn’t like being around all the Fletchers, especially at big family gatherings. Genie couldn’t understand that.
Naturally, not everyone was close to every other member of the family, but Grandfather had worked hard to make sure that family was the most important thing in his children’s lives. Genie always felt loved and safe here. That wasn’t just because there was always someone keeping an eye on the children, or lots of adults to embrace you and ask you how you were doing. Here, just like at the academy, there were cameras and security people. Most of the latter were Fletchers, too.
This day was an especially quiet one, even though there were a great many family members present. The grown-ups, especially Grandfather, had required their attention when they first arrived. Grandfather had been so sad. Some of the oldest cousins took Troy and Aaron to play in another room, while Grandfather spent time telling the older children (the ones who were nine and older, which meant Genie just made the cut) about Sheila, one of their cousins. Grandfather told them about Sheila’s life, how her birth mother had given her to the Fletchers because she knew that Sheila’s father was a man who would never be kind to a baby girl.
A few years ago, Sheila had wanted to find her birth mother, and Grandfather had helped her to do that. He said that he was glad Sheila and her birth mother had time to know each other before Sheila’s birth mother died, but he was even happier that Sheila had moved back here to Las Piernas. He went on to tell them that he didn’t want to frighten them, but he did want them to know that someone had killed her, and he was telling them that because he wanted everyone to be extra alert and not talk to strangers.
The idea of a murder in the family was shocking, kind of thrilling, and scary to Genie all at once. Grandfather didn’t tell them much about the murder. He just said the police were working on it. He ended the way he often ended talks with the whole family, reminding them to love one another, to work as hard as they could to learn, to use what talents they had been given by God, and to help one another.
You couldn’t help feeling sad for Grandfather today.
They all knew that other people wanted to try to hurt Grandfather through his children.
Once, Genie told Carrie that she wanted to run away, and Carrie freaked out. She didn’t tell their parents, but
