"Anybody can be good in the country."
-Oscar Wilde
I hope this is 100 percent true!
It better be!!
Hannah must get a positive impression of the Hayes family! If my family keeps their promise, I will reward them with eternal gratitude. I will let my siblings watch their favorite television programs, without complaining or saying how stupid they are, for a year. My parents will not have to nag me to do chores ever again.
The van sped toward the mountains. Traffic was heavy. It looked as if the entire world was going on vacation.
"We're making a rest top," Olivia Hayes announced. She was at the wheel. In the seat next to her, her husband had fallen asleep with a baseball cap over his face.
No one answered.
Eva and Isabel were connected to individual CD players. They each swayed in time to their music. To everyone else, it sounded like a loud metallic buzz.
Behind the twins sat Abby, Hannah, and Alex. Alex was reading a comic book. Abby and Hannah were talking quietly together.
"My sisters look like identical aliens," Abby said to Hannah. "Hooked up to space-age music machines."
Hannah grinned. She was wearing yellow Capri pants and a polka-dotted T-shirt. "Maybe the music controls them," she replied. "Maybe it programs their thoughts."
"Beep, beep, bleep!" Abby said. "Bip, bip, blip!"
"Do I hear intelligent conversation in the universe?" Paul Hayes said, sitting up and taking the baseball cap off his face.
"You're awake," his wife said. "Just in time." She pulled off the highway and parked the car.
Abby pulled out her journal. Her sisters unplugged themselves. Her
brother dropped his comic book on the floor.
Hannah picked up her backpack.
The entire family piled out of the van. |
