the headless cupid by zilpha keatley snyder

The expression had been on Amanda’s face the only time David had ever met her.ĭavid had only met Amanda once because, in all the time Dad and Molly had been going together, Amanda had managed not to be around very much. Some of the specific clues came from little things Molly or David’s dad had let slip, but the strongest one came from one particular facial expression. What it felt like was a warning, a warning to expect some drastic differences when Amanda joined the Stanley family. Premonitions ran in David’s family-on his mother’s side-and the one David had about Amanda was one of the strongest he’d ever had. That feeling about Amanda came partly from a few specific clues, but mostly from a premonition. And David had a strong feeling that Amanda might give a person more to wonder about than the average stepsister.

Suddenly to get an older sister-David was still eleven-after so many years of being the oldest, would make anybody wonder about the future. He read some, but mostly he watched for Molly’s car and wondered about the future-and Amanda.Īmanda, who was Molly’s twelve-year-old daughter, had been staying with her own father since before Dad and Molly’s wedding but now she was coming to live with her mother and the Stanley family. The kids got out some toys, and after they’d settled down, David took a book and stretched out on the window seat where he could see the driveway. He pushed them in the swing until he got tired and then he took them all upstairs to the room that he shared with his brother, Blair. It was also a good vantage point, with a view of lots of doors and hallway, both upstairs and down.ĭavid got up after a while and went outside and found his little brother and sisters. There was a central feeling about it, as if it were the heart of the old house. Even then, before anything happened, he felt there was something unusual about that spot on the landing. He sat a minute longer enjoying the deep silence of the big old house, empty now except for him.

Would you keep an eye on the kids while I’m gone? They were down by the swing a minute ago.”ĭavid said he would and Molly left, smiling back at him from the doorway. Molly, who at that time had been David’s stepmother for about three weeks, was an artist, and around the house she dressed like an artist, very informally. When Molly appeared at the foot of the stairs, David knew she was leaving because she had her shoes on and there was no paint on her hands and clothes. DAVID OFTEN WONDERED ABOUT HOW HE HAPPENED TO BE SITTING THERE on the stair landing, within arm’s reach of the headless cupid, at the very moment when his stepmother left Westerly House to bring Amanda home.

The headless cupid by zilpha keatley snyder