BOOK 6

Joey sat in Grandmother Copeland’s kitchen, hearing her voice carry angry tones all the way down the hall. The cookie in front of him lost its appeal. Whoever Grandma was mad at was in big trouble. He sighed and looked around the big kitchen. His stomach hurt, and he wished his father would come and get him. Grandmother’s cookies didn’t taste like Jill’s, and though he loved his grandfather, Joey was sad. Everybody in the house was making brows. If he could just go home, he thought everything would be much better.

Swinging his legs, Joey wondered what baby Holly was doing. Sleeping, probably. All that baby did was sleep. He imderstood she was going to go home one day, but he sure did like having her arotmd. She made a lot of noise sometimes, and one time when she burped and he’d been sitting too close to her, he thought she smelled like a sandwich. That had made him laugh.

She was soft, too. He liked touching her head because it reminded him of the velvet on Rooster’s nose. One day, m