A Song I Knew By Heart by Bret Lott

Author:Bret Lott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2010-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

LIGHT FROM those houses across the creek banged into the bedroom, even with the curtains pulled tight. Ruth and I shared the queen bed in here, the house with only three bedrooms. One of them— Jocelyn’s old room—had been turned into a workroom, Melba’s sewing machine and Gordon’s workbench and tools in there now.

This was Beau and Robert’s old room, though there was nothing to it of a boy’s life anymore. The curtains at the two windows were more of those magnolias from the dining room, only on a pink background you couldn’t say was pink in this dark. But you could see those magnolias, big and white and floating there, the light from across the creek leaking in all the way around. On the wall opposite the windows was the closet door, beside that the door into the bathroom. It was a tee-ninecy thing, only a shower stall big enough to turn around in. A toilet, a pedestal sink, a door into the other room so the kids could share it between them, though now it opened into that workroom.

At the foot of the bed was a white hope chest, on it our two overnight bags; against the wall across from it stood a white chest of drawers, above it a mirror, above that a white shelf. Set on it were a dozen or so of those crocheted toilet-paper cover dolls, the crocheted piece a hoop skirt over the roll, at the top a plastic doll head crocheted right into it, bonnet and all. There hadn’t been boys in here for a long time.

After dinner we’d visited for an hour or so, Ashley lying on the floor in the middle of us all and whispering to herself the storybook she had in front of her. Emily sat out to the dining room with her back to us and reading a novel. We’d just talked—about fifteen degrees in Northampton yesterday, and the manager at the Piggly Wiggly to Mount Pleasant and her phone number, how Jocelyn’s boys Zachary and Brian were trying to get into the magnet school and how Emily wanted to get two more piercings for her ears. Just talk, the last bit thrown in too loud by Gordon just to get a rise out of his granddaughter.

She didn’t bite, not even a sigh for it.

I’d started to nod off a little, the words and voices all melting into one another in that way that made no sense but which you were listening to all the same. Ruth’s voice was in there and fearless, talking about something, and Ellen with a word and Robert with a few and the all of them laughing of a sudden.

I opened my eyes, startled I’d fallen asleep.

There was Ruth at the dining room table with a washrag, wiping. Water ran in the kitchen, the sofa and recliner empty.

Ruth saw me, smiled. “Didn’t want to wake you,” she said. “Another of these long days we keep having.” She nodded, headed into the kitchen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.