She ran through the worn pages until she got to the spell she was lookingfor. There was a description of the spell's effect, written in GothicGerman o... one side. On the opposite page were just a few dozen words, orat least she supposed the groups of consonants and vowels that made words.The whole lot could be read in less than a minute. Was she doing the rightthing? But she thought of the dangers. The safety of her family camefirst. She slid the book into her apron. She would take it home, make. She had a full summer planned for herself, which included a large amount of time with her older sister Kathy. Kathy was already in collage and they were going to be roommates again. Just like when they had been growing up. Their parents had never figured out why they did not mind sharing the room that had been their bedroom since they had both been old enough to sleep in their own room. Moreover, it was probably a good thing that they had not figured it out too. Because if they had been paying. Before I could say a thing I could see the plate coming towards my face as she yelled,"I knew that you were just the same kind of bastard as all the others!"Then the plate and the rolls dropped to the floor and the door slammed. I put my hand to the corner of my eye, which hurt, and I could feel my hand getting wet. Shit, I was bleeding.I turned to look at Liz, who was looking at me with her mouth open. She looked at the plate that was now in two pieces on the floor, and the rolls that had. All the family was gone, even Conrad. That made me boil inside. How dare they just leave her like this?I went to stand beside my mother. Looking down at her, I realized how badly having them leave her here alone hurt me. After tomorrow I'd never see her again. That brought on a fresh onslaught of tears.I'm not sure how long I stood there holding her hand, feeling like every tear that fell made me somehow emptier inside, when I felt someone beside me. I looked up, ready to chew off Conrad's head.