Eleanor: A Novel by Gurley Jason

Author:Gurley, Jason [Gurley, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Science Fiction | Fantasy | Time Travel
Published: 2014-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

Shelley pushes Eleanor in a wheelchair, and sets the chair brake at the curb, and together they wait for Paul to pull the Buick around. He does, and when he gets out, Eleanor aches for him. Her father looks humiliated, and embarrassed, and angry, and helpless. He opens the passenger door, and he and Shelley together help Eleanor into the car.

She yelps when her back touches the seat, and her eyes well up again. Everything—everything—hurts.

“It’s going to feel better tomorrow,” Shelley says, patting Eleanor’s hand. “And better the day after, and the day after.”

Eleanor nods, and Shelley steps back. Paul produces a blanket from the trunk of the car and spreads it over Eleanor’s legs, then buckles the seat belt over the top. He reclines the chair for her, which feels much better. The shoulder belt wavers in the air before her face, stretched tight like a mainsail line.

“Better?” he asks, tucking the blanket beneath her legs.

“A little,” Eleanor says.

“Bye,” Shelley calls, and wheels the chair back inside.

Paul drives excruciatingly slowly through town, and other vehicles stack up behind him. None of the drivers honk at Paul, but when he senses their irritation, he pulls over now and again to let them pass.

From the horizontal vantage point of the reclined passenger seat, Eleanor watches the tops of buildings and trees and power lines glide by. Each time the car thuds into a pothole, she winces, and her father apologizes.

“How do you feel?” he asks her, and she says, “Okay,” and a few minutes later he asks again.

Finally she says, “Are you okay?”

Her father exhales, and glances at her. “How much of that did you have to hear?”

“It isn’t fair,” she says. “That they did that to you. That they thought it.”

“It’s not always a nice world,” he says. “I understand their reasons.”

“It’s not fair,” she says again.

They ride in silence a while longer, and then Eleanor says, “I’m sorry, Dad.”

He nods. “Me, too, Els.”

The car comes to a stop, and through the window Eleanor can see her father’s apartment looming over her. Her father doesn’t turn the engine off, and she looks over to see him gazing at her. His eyes are damp.

“I don’t know what happened up there,” he says. “But—whatever it was, I—it can’t happen again. I don’t want it to.”

She doesn’t say anything.

“I’m going to go upstairs, and I’m going to get your things,” he says. “Then I’m going to drive you to your mother’s house. I think it’s probably safer for you there until I figure out what happened up there. I want you to be safe.”

He opens the door and starts to climb out.

“Dad,” she says.

Paul stops and looks back at her.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she says. “It—it’s the same thing as before.”

“When your mother found you,” he says.

Eleanor nods.

“Ellie, what in the world—”

“I don’t know,” she says. “I really don’t.”

“It’s scaring me,” he admits. “Gerry—”

“She wasn’t crazy,” Eleanor says.

“I don’t understand.”

“I know. Neither do I.”

Paul seems to be at a loss. He sits back down in the seat, and stares through the windshield at nothing.

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.