Four Spirits by Naslund Sena Jeter

Author:Naslund, Sena Jeter [Naslund, Sena Jeter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780060936693
Amazon: 006093669X
Goodreads: 100965
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Published: 2003-09-01T07:00:00+00:00

AT MIDNIGHT, MR. CARTWRIGHT rose, listened to his daughter snoring in the next room, the dog snoring, too. At least the midget dog had a loud yapper. Mr. Cartwright strapped on his holster. Well, the timing worked out just like she’d said—getting the car back, he meant. Tomorrow when he went off to work, there’d still be some real protection in the house.

Stella’s Aunts

AS STELLA WALKED UP THE RED CLAY, STONE-STUDDED driveway to the back door of her aunts’ home, Pal let out one deep bark from the shadows, recognized her, snuffed her leg, wagged his tail. Stella always spoke to nice dogs as if they were people—“How you?”—and ignored rude ones, like Goliath, as much as she could without seeming rude herself. When she went through the kitchen door, Pal slipped in with her.

Her aunt greeted the dog first. “I’m in here, Pal.”

Aunt Krit sat grading math papers at the dining room table, but she laid down the pencil, red on one end and blue on the other, to claim Pal. She stroked his head with both hands, slender beautiful hands (Stella had inherited her hands from her Aunt Krit), saying over and over, “Poor Pal, poor Pal. You like to been brown, didn’t you?”Like to been? She meant the dog only lacked a little bit of being brown. Actually Pal was pure white. He had an indistinct shading of pale tan over the top of his head.

To Stella, Krit said, “I don’t like you out walking the street so late at night.”

“It’s summer. Lots of people are out late. It’s only a mile.”

“They’ve gone to bed.” She nodded her head at the parallel house across the driveway.

The Gulf of Driveway! When Stella was little, it had been scary to cross the driveway at night; her father used to send her over with codeine tablets wrapped in a Kleenex to calm the nerves of Aunt Pratt. As soon as Stella entered the kitchen, Aunt Krit intercepted Aunt Pratt’s medicine. A razor blade lay on the kitchen table. Aunt Krit sat down, unwrapped the tablets, and shaved off their sides. One whole tablet was confiscated. She doesn’t need all this. It had never occurred to Stella to tell her father that Aunt Krit always reduced Pratt’s dosage. Maybe he had guessed it. Maybe he sent too much because he knew Krit would interfere.

“Over there, they all went to bed an hour ago.”They were the new owners who had bought Stella’s home.

As though to contradict Aunt Krit, the kitchen light came on in the bedded-down house.

“It’s a nice summer night,” Stella said. “Except for the heat. I didn’t feel a bit afraid.”

“Boodle-worm.”

Stella lifted out the chair at the end of the table—You lift, don’t drag, fine furniture—and sat down companionably. Sometimes, truth told, Stella did feel afraid alone at night, but not after she’d acted righteously or done a good deed. Not after she’d been with Cat;after that, as she walked away, she stretched and luxuriated in her mobility. It felt so fine to walk that sometimes, when she was out of sight, she flew down the sidewalk.

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.