Days of Little Texas by R. A. Nelson

Author:R. A. Nelson [Nelson, R. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-375-85361-6
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2009-10-22T04:00:00+00:00

“I don’t understand,” I say.

Lucy shifts on the bed again, slouching.

“You had to believe,” she says, “in me. At first you didn’t.

Not all the way. So I had to keep trying to come through until you did.”

“So you can’t come around unless I believe in you?”

“Yep. Something like that. The more you believe, the more you let me through. It’s like you kind of create me.”

“That’s blasphemy. Only the Lord can create a person.”

Lucy shakes her head. Shakes it so slow, I can barely tell what she’s doing.

“No. I don’t mean it like that,” she says. “We’re all creators. That’s what we do. But what we create is our own reality.” She lifts a weary arm and waves it around the room. “I couldn’t be,” she says, “without your need. Your need made it possible for you to believe. You believed, so you set me free.”

“What’s my need, then?”

She struggles to smile. “Those dreams? The white room?”

She knows, I think. It’s too much—too much to even think about. I feel so—

“Come on, don’t be ashamed,” Lucy says. “Please. Because we’re here to help each other. Right? I have a need, too. They—they know I can’t do it on my own.”

My heart draws up.

“Can’t do what? Who is ‘they’?”

Lucy starts to speak, mouth going, but no sound comes out. She holds up her hands, takes the thumb and index finger of one hand and puts them round the wrist of the other. Like a bracelet.

“Them,” she says, jaw clopping. She jiggles the fingers holding her wrist.

“A bracelet? Is that what you’re trying to show me, Lucy?”

She bows her head. Bows it so low, you’d think she was bearing up under a heavy weight.

“Don’t be thick,” she says slowly. “You almost sent me away again. I don’t know who they are. Not yet. That’s what we’re here to find out. They’re showing me … they want me—they want us—to find them. Something is holding them here.”

“Here at Vanderloo?”

“We have to work … together, you and me. Find out what is holding them and help break them free. We were brought together to do this, okay?”

“Why? Why … us?”

“I don’t know all the reasons yet. Just the most important one.”

“Which is?”

“Because I love you, Ronald Earl.”

We sit there looking at each other. Lucy asks the question for me.

“How could I, right? That’s what you’re thinking. When I don’t even know you? But I do. I’ve always known you. Inside.” She points at my chest, making me lean back a little. “I couldn’t be here if I didn’t. Not like … this.” She touches her arm. “You understand?”

“Solid?” I say, finally able to speak again. “You couldn’t be solid?”

She smiles. “You’ve got a brain in there … after all. I … have to go.”

“Wait,” I say. “There are so many things I want to ask—”

“I’ll come again. We’ll start.”

“But what about—what about the drum? Why did you do that? You scared me half to death.”

The powdery eyes bore into me. “Ronald Earl. Don’t be so afraid.

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