Show Continued

~*~

The taller girl dropped Natasha’s glasses on the floor and, with a quiet, meek crunching, ground her heel into the glass.
The two other girls let go of Natasha. She immediately went down on her knees, feeling for whatever was left of her glasses blindly.
“You think your life is bad now?� Amber whispered from somewhere above Natasha’s head. “Just wait until after break.�
Then, giggling and gossiping, the three girls left the Library.
Hot, angry tears were sliding silently down Natasha’s face as she felt for her glasses. She yelped when a piece of glass sliced open her finger but at least she had found her glasses.
One of the lenses had shattered completely; an edge of the broken glass had been the thing that had cut her finger. The other lens was simply badly cracked. But, when walking home in the snow, a cracked lens was better than nothing.
Natasha slipped the glasses back onto her face and walked out of the Library without a book.
The trip home was a miserable one; it was getting darker by the minute and the tears on Natasha’s face just made her colder.
She lived with her brother and Uncle Eddie at the edge of town, so it was a long, cold, wretched walk and she was still crying quietly to herself when she walked through the door.
“There she is!� her uncle called from the kitchen. He came stomping up to her and stopped. Natasha looked up at him. Having only one eye working properly was a little dizzying, so she pulled the remnants of the glasses off.
“Was it Amber again?� her uncle growled. Natasha sniffled and nodded, wiping her tears away on the arms of her sweater.
Her uncle sighed deeply, “Go sit in the kitchen, hon. I’ll go get extra pair.�
Natasha did as she was told, sitting at the scrubbed wooden table that, according to Uncle Eddie, had been in the family since they had come over as colonists. There was cup of hot cocoa sitting on the table.
She smiled a watery little smile and took a sip.
When Eddie came back, he had Natasha’s spare glasses held delicately in his paw-like hands. He handed them to his niece and sat down across from her as she fitted them on her nose.
He came into view, a great, grey handle-bar mustache above a smiling mouth. Startlingly pale blue eyes peered at her from their nest of crow’s feet.
“There’s my girl,� he said with gruff affection. Amber smiled at him, reaching under her new glasses to wipe away the remnant of tears.
“No use crying over it, right?� she asked. Uncle Eddie sighed, ruffling his mustache.
“S’pose not, hon. But I got something for you that might make you feel a bit better,� her uncle said, reaching into the big, leather bag that carried all of his horse-shoeing equipment.
Natasha leaned forward and a bright grin lit up her face when she saw a book in his hand. Uncle Eddie set on the table and pushed it forward.
“My grandfather read it to me whenever I’d go over,� Eddie said, “But my pa never really approved of reading when there was work to be done, and back then there was always work to be done. So I thought I’d give it to the only book worm we have in the family.�