He Sees You When You're Sleeping by Clark Mary Higgins

Author:Clark, Mary Higgins [Clark, Mary Higgins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-04-20T15:25:14+00:00

ACHES AND PAINS

Sterling’s eyes raced down the list:

1. Bad feet

2. Pains around heart

3. Gas

4. Dizzy spell

5. Threw up twice

6. Can’t taste food no more

7. Need operation

8. Broken heart

9. Never close an eye

10. Bad back

11. Swollen gums

Now, I’ve seen it all, Sterling thought, as he noticed checks after each complaint, with dates of the brothers’ phone calls from America. She’s got this down to a science, he thought. She doesn’t use the same complaint twice in a row.

Mama Heddy-Anna had hung up the phone and was standing next to him, examining the list with a satisfied smile. Then, moving with the decisiveness of a drill sergeant, she began slinging dishes, glasses, and cutlery onto the table.

A few minutes later, her friends started to arrive. Wreathed in a smile, she greeted them with bear hugs.

She had said there would be ten of them. They’re all very prompt, Sterling observed. The tenth guest was the one carrying the wine.

He guessed that they were all in their seventies and eighties and looked as if they had spent many years working outdoors. Their leathery complexions and callused hands were testimony to a lifetime of hard physical labor, but their ready laughter and joy in socializing was not different from that of the groups of friends Sterling had observed gathered at the King Cole bar in Manhattan, or at Nor’s Place on Long Island.

Mama Heddy-Anna produced a steaming loaf of fresh-baked bread from the oven and dished out the stew. The wine glasses were filled, and everyone gathered at the table. Frequent bursts of laughter followed the exchanges of stories about their fellow villagers, or about outings they had enjoyed together. There had been a dance at the church hall the week before, and Heddy-Anna had done the Wallonian national folk dance on a tabletop.

“Now I want to dance on a tabletop at the monastery when they have their grand opening as a hotel on New Year’s Day,” Heddy-Anna announced.

“I skied over and took a look,” the baby of the crowd, a sturdy seventy-year-old, said. “Can’t believe how nice it is. It’s been closed for twenty years, since the last monk left. It’s nice to see it all fixed up.”

“My boys used to ski over there all the time.” Heddy-Anna helped herself to more beef stew. “Too bad the monastery is over the border. We could use the tourists’ money here.”

The peal of the telephone made them all giggle. Heddy-Anna wiped her mouth with her napkin, winked at her friends, put her finger to her lips, and waited for the fifth ring before answering feebly. “Ha…llllo.”

She stood up to get a better look at the blackboard. “I can’t hear. Talk louder. Wait, I gotta sit down. My foot’s so bad today. It came out from under me. I laid on the floor all night. Finally managed to get up.”

Her expression changed. “What’d’ye mean, ‘Wrong number,’ isn’t this my Eddie?”

She slammed down the phone. “False alarm,” she told her friends as she sat down and picked up her fork.

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