Augusta Locke by William Haywood Henderson

Author:William Haywood Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

At a spring below Chalk Butte, Gussie filled the water barrels. Anne peeled off her shoes and socks and tested the spring with her toes, then lay flat on the rocks, lowered her face to touch her reflection, waited for the image to settle again. How could she hold herself that still, still as marble? Maybe she looked down through the spring to the underside of the desert, or she looked at the clouds moving in the captured sky, wondering which clouds were real, which sky held the real blue. She might ask a question of that pretty girl in the spring, but even a whisper would wreck the image.

“Come away, Anne,” Gussie said. “Come away from the water.”

Anne didn’t move. She hovered at her reflection.

“We have to go,” Gussie said. “North.”

“I want to stay.” But slowly Anne rose, pulled on her socks and shoes. She came toward Gussie, watching the ground. When her shadow touched Gussie’s feet, Anne stopped, looked up, stared at her mother, seemed to study Gussie’s shoulders, neck, face. And she reached to Gussie’s upper arm, pulled Gussie forward and down, so that they looked at each other eye to eye. Anne’s fingers combed up through Gussie’s hair, worked to shape the tangles. With a sigh, Anne abandoned the hair and took a moment to dig the sleep from the corners of Gussie’s eyes. Then she pushed Gussie away, stood back and stared again.

“Am I okay?” Gussie said.

“Look in the water,” Anne said. “You will look different in the water.”

“No. I always look the same.” She turned from that small, waiting face, climbed onto the wagon and took hold of the reins. Anne sat beside her. As the wagon started to move, Anne patted her mother’s hand. The girl’s touch was cold, and Gussie moved her hand away.

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.