Tempest Rising by Diane Mckinney-Whetstone

Author:Diane Mckinney-Whetstone [Mckinney-Whetstone, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061876233
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 1998-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Shern was wide-awake in this house she hated. It was after midnight, and the velvet bedroom air rippled with the night sounds: her sisters breathing, the occasional clank and hiss of the radiator, the wind spitting against the window. The sounds were tinged with a starkness as if she could see what she was hearing her senses heightened so. Her senses needed to be heightened, she reasoned, to keep her alert to when that devil-formed Addison was slinking around.

She thought about how she had botched her attempts at communicating with the aunts and uncles earlier. Told herself that it was probably for the better; they might have rushed right over there, gotten themselves in trouble. It would be better, she reasoned, if she went to them. She let the thought of telling Vie about Addison’s violation twist and turn in her head, asking Vie, could they please go stay with their aunts and uncles until their mother was well. But in her mind it was Vie who was keeping her from the aunts and uncles. It was Vie who had assured them that they were going to love it here. It was Vie whose own brother had taunted them and made Victoria fall. Who knows where they’d end up should she complain to Vie? Might end up someplace worse than here. Was there even worse than here? She might be separated from her sisters; that would be worse than here.

She blew a tear-laden sigh into the dark bedroom air at the thought of being separated from Victoria and Bliss. Victoria stirred and whimpered and moaned groggily about her knee hurting so bad and then pressed her head against Shern’s chin and was sound asleep again. Now Shern felt the sound of her sister’s pain in her stomach too.

She drew herself up slowly from where she had been cupped into the twin bed the three sisters shared. Mae actually allowed them more room than the one bed; there was a twin bed next to the one on which they slept, and there was a hunter green velveteen sofa bed under the window. But the girls preferred being cramped to being separated through the night; they’d already lost both parents in a sense, so they locked their bodies into curves on that single bed that accommodated the three in a relatively fitful sleep.

But now Shern was wide-awake, listening to the night sounds, feeling them twirl in her stomach, and needing to go to the bathroom. But how could she go to the bathroom? The bathroom was at the other end of the hall. She was afraid to go, afraid that that Addison might be crouching in the shadows of the upstairs hall. She’d have to hold it until morning. Now there was a river between her legs at the thought of holding it until morning. She’d have to go now.

She wrapped herself in her lime green velour bathrobe and pulled the belt tight around her waist, the shawl collar close against her neck.

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