The Secret of Zormna Clendar by Julie Steimle (great reads .TXT) 📖

would sit on the bump in the middle of the bench. Neither of them wanted it.

“No,” Brian called back, gesturing for Todd and Joy to hurry inside. “Mom said we can do hotdogs.”

“Barbecue!” Ammon and Moroni shouted together.

“No.” Brian looked hard at them both. “No fire.”

“Aw!”

Todd stared at the chaos with a wry grin, glancing at the front seat wistfully then at Zormna who was smothering the urge to burst out loud laughing. Joy merely rolled her eyes at him and said she would squeeze in next to Zormna since she was small and both of them would fit in the seat. Zormna pressed her lips together, her smirk curling harder against a chuckle. It was beautiful chaos. The sound of their chatter was like music.

The van door slammed shut with a whoosh along the side. And they rolled off into a neighborhood Zormna did not know—one with older, more established houses and no fancy trash can alleys. The moment they parked in the driveway, the younger kids scrambled out of the open van, across the front lawn, through the front door, then through the front room into the kitchen ahead of Zormna and Joy.

Todd and Brian strolled after them all, sharing looks.

The twins raided the fridge for the packet of hotdogs their mother had set to thaw while the others pulled out all the condiments and set them on the counter. However, Makalya dragged out a chunk of cheese and insisted that she get a cheese sandwich. Ruth heaved up the cooking pot for the hotdogs, handing it to Joy to fill. All of this happened ahead of Zormna who took her time walking through the house. Her eyes took in all the patchwork quilts, the covered furniture, and the curio case full of handmade candy trays, kid-drawn pictures, and papier-mâché finger puppets. Again, another household so different from the McLennas. It had a different feeling also. Freer. 

Her eyes set on the bookshelf full of ratty and occasionally cover-less children’s books, encyclopedias, photo albums and scrapbook upon scrapbook. Pictures of the family hung on nearly every wall with individual snapshots at almost every age. Though there was also artwork Zormna had only seen the like of in a church building—that familiar bearded man with long hair, wearing a coarse robe—the rest of the decorations were full of cheerful slogans and happy images. By the time Zormna reached the kitchen, she stared at the homemade knickknacks that adorned the top of the cupboards. The Henderson kids were already dumping the package of hotdogs into the water and adjusting the fire on the gas range.

“Let’s make cookies!” Ruth declared.

Zormna blinked at her, looking then to Joy. “You know how to bake?”

Joy nodded as if it were nothing. “Sure. Easy as following directions.”

She walked to the kitchen counter where there were huge barrels full of flour, sugar, and one with wheat. She plucked off a small box. Opening it, Joy flipped through the cards inside. She took one out that was heavily stained with chocolate and handed it to Ruth. “Chocolate chip, at your service.”

Ruth snatched it up and ran to the kitchen table.

“Have Brian help you,” Joy said.

Zormna blinked at her again. “Brian can cook?”

Laughing, Joy cast a glance at her older brother who lifted his chin rather smugly. “Yeah. Most of us learned how from Mom when we were eight. We’re supposed to make dinner tonight also.”

“What’s for dinner?” Ammon asked. He was reaching around their TV, setting up a video game box. He already had the controllers connected.

“Nuna and Toodles,” Daniel called out.

Moroni moaned, slumping his shoulders.

“I want pizza!” Ruth said, now carrying over the measuring cups and spoons.

“McDonalds!” Makayla shouted out.

Brian rubbed her on the head with a chuckle. “No. Mom said it is tuna and noodles tonight.”

“Aw!” the others moaned in chorus.

However, Brian, Joy, and Daniel repeated that they were having tuna and noodles and no arguing. They didn’t have money for anything else anyway.

The twins settled in front of their video game, playing one of those car racing games while Brian helped Ruth make the cookies. He even put on an apron, though it was the more ‘manly’ one that had a cartoon of a pot-bellied fellow standing next to a barbecue, covered in ash as if he had set himself on fire. Todd lingered near the video game, watching the brothers play.

At first, Zormna watched Brian and Ruth mix together the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and butter, measuring out the flour and the rest in another bowl, while Joy watched the hotdogs boil. But when the hotdogs were ready, everyone dropped what they were doing and rushed into the kitchen—except for Brian and Ruth, who were now rolling their sticky mixture into walnut sized balls, setting them on the cookie sheets two inches apart. Joy passed out the hotdog buns.

Zormna was one of the first to eat a hotdog. Joy insisted, saying she was their guest—though she didn’t give one to Todd until later. Makayla was actually the first, impatient and hungry. But Zormna finished first, and didn’t take seconds. The cookies were nearly all ready to go into the oven also, so she wandered into the living room and sat in front of the TV, picking up a game controller.

“Hey! Don’t touch that! It’s on pause,” Moroni called, scrambling to get back into the living room. His brother chased after him.

She set it down. “Ok.” And scooted back from it. “But can I play it later?”

Ammon shared an identical look with Moroni and snorted. “Ok, but don’t be too disappointed if you bomb the first time.”

She stared at the pair and returned the snort. “I hardly lose.”

The twins shared another look.

“That sounded like a challenge.”

“I think we should take her up on it.”

Ammon cleared off the game they were playing and stuffed a third controller into Zormna’s hand. “All right, Zelda. Prove it.”

Grasping the controls, a curl of wicked enjoyment twisted on Zormna’s lips. It had been a while since she had played something like this. A little simulator brush-up would be great.

Brian lifted his head, and Todd raised his eyebrows. Both inched towards the living room again.

Joy craned her neck, handing Daniel another hotdog with the tongs. The other kids didn’t know what they were looking at. Though, after Zormna started playing, they soon began to see.

 

“Not fair!” Ammon kicked the ground and tossed his controller. “You beat our top score! Not fair! Why didn’t you tell us you played this before?”

“I haven’t. This was my first time,” Zormna said gazing at the space on the screen where she had to put in her name. She had completed the course far ahead of all the racers, including the computer. As she fiddled with the controls to input ZC, her eyes flickered to the second place spot. Zormna turned to Moroni. “Who is JZ? Joy?”

Moroni shook his head, scowling at her high score with personal insult. “No. That’s Brian’s friend. Jeff. He comes around and plays sometimes. He’s a crazy player too. Born genius. Now gimmie.”

Setting the controller down, Zormna got up. She looked at the clock. It was near to three in the afternoon.

Todd had been watching the game but was now sitting back with Brian and Joy looking just as stunned as Ammon and Moroni. Daniel had been watching also, but the two girls were playing somewhere upstairs. Zormna looked to Todd and asked, “Do you think everyone is back at your house by now?”

Todd shook his head. “No. Andrew’s party is a sleepover.”

“Mom would never let us sleep over to a Sunday,” Daniel said and left the couch to get one of the cookies that had been cooling on the kitchen table.

Ignoring him, Todd added, “And Mindy went to her friend’s house after campfire girls. She won’t be home till five. Why?”

Exhaling, Zormna shrugged. “Nothing. I just don’t want to be a bother.”

Joy popped up. “You are so not a bother.”

“It’s fun having you here,” Brian added, rising slower.

Ammon snapped up the controller Zormna had been using and set in another game. “Just don’t beat us at any more games. My reputation is on the line.”

Snorting, Zormna shook her head and turned, picking a cookie from off the table. It was still warm.

About then Ruth ran in, wrapped in a feather boa and covered in bright red rouge with thick plum-colored lipstick smeared over her lips. She clamped her hands on Zormna’s arm and pulled. “Come upstairs and play princesses with us!”

Joy smothered a smirk, nodding that Zormna might as well to go with her sister.

Shrugging, Zormna let herself be dragged away. Little kids were cute.

“We have been waiting forever for you to stop that game.” Ruth led her up carpeted stairs to the second floor. She took Zormna straight to a room where Makayla was sitting, practically engulfed in a pink satin dress. It probably had been a bridesmaid’s dress her older sister wore at some point.

They had Zormna sit down in the center of the carpet. Both girls promptly took out pink plastic brushes and started to comb Zormna’s free curls into frizzy blobs. Though, Ruth twisted locks of Zormna’s hair around her fingers and let them spring off in ringlets. They were midway sticking clips in her hair when Joy appeared in the doorway, smirking. She leaned on the jamb.

“You are really good with kids,” Joy said.

“I’m not a kid!” Ruth stuck her chin up in protest. But then she popped open her clunky toy cosmetics case and grabbed the fluffy rouge brush, ready to turn Zormna into a blushing tomato.

“I don’t have that kind of patience.” Joy walked into the room farther, sitting on the pink fluffy bed covered in unicorns that was next to the window. The other bed was covered in blue clouds and rainbows. The entire room was like that—mostly pink, fitted for the type of girls that liked to play fairy princess and have tea parties. Before Joy had come, Zormna had been sitting in a daze at all the pink, hardly noticing the Henderson girls attacking her hair. It was kind of cathartic, actually. As a child, she never really got to play this kind of thing, even when very young. It was all training, training, and training for her. Besides, being petted and groomed without the need to think, was therapeutic. She was tired of her head aching from stolen memories, and all the worry that surrounded her. In that singular moment, surrounded by all these undemanding people, she felt safe. 

But then Makayla found some school scissors in the makeup box they were using. She glanced once at the sheared head of her plastic baby doll and scooted closer to Zormna. Clenching the scissors, she plucked at the longer strands in front of Zormna’s ears with her other hand.

Zormna snatched the scissors up the second Makayla lifted them near her hair then tossed them to Joy who barely caught them. Joy blinked in surprise.

“Hey!” Makayla popped onto her feet.

Joy stuffed the scissors into her pocket, shaking her head at the six-year-old. “No.”

“But those hairs are too long!” Makayla pulled on the strands, almost jerking Zormna’s head to the floor.

Tugging them from the little girl’s grasp, Zormna said with patience, “I like it this way. They’re special.”

“…but why does she look so sad all the time?” Brian’s voice echoed from the air vent in the floor.

Startled, Zormna looked at it. It must have been connected to the one in the kitchen. They could also hear the background soundtrack to the video game the twins were playing.

“Why are they special?” Ruth asked, combing the back of Zormna’s hair then twisting more curls with her finger.

Joy leaned in.

“…I couldn’t tell you,” Todd’s voice answered Brian’s. “She only talks to Jennifer about personal stuff. And Jennifer’s been acting really weird.”

Zormna cleared her throat and said to Ruth, “They’re special because they remind me of my mother and father. They were killed when I was very young.”

The sisters stared at her. Makayla patted Zormna on the