The View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts

Author:Willo Davis Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

Nine

Rob tried to shrug it off, it was so fantastic, but the idea nagged at him. That heavy pot, too, falling from a part of the house where he didn’t think anybody ever went anymore. It had come from that front window on this side, and the shot could have been fired from there, too.

He’d lost his appetite. He put the remains of the tuna sandwich down on a step where Sonny would find it and sat looking at the house next door.

After a few minutes he got up and slowly made his way toward the Calloway house, the back part of it. He walked right up on the porch, his heart pounding so it ought to have made his shirt stick out with the force of it, although he knew that was silly. The old witch was dead and carried off; she couldn’t hurt him. And if there was anybody up on the second floor, they couldn’t possibly see him or do anything to him while he was back here.

The flowerpots sat in a row on the white-painted railing. Five of them. And there was a mark where the sixth one had sat, right on the end. It was easy to see, because there was a cleaner spot which had been covered by the pot and then stains where the water had leaked through it.

Somebody took that pot upstairs. Why?

To drop on me, he thought, and knew what all those people at home would say if he sprung that on them. They’d all bring up his macabre turn of mind, his morbid sense of humor, his poor taste.

He was sweating heavily, although it wasn’t really so hot there on the porch. He stood for a moment, not really wanting to make the return trip across the yard to his own house.

“Hey, Rob! What’re you doing?”

Derek stood on the Mallory steps, watching him.

Rob relaxed a little. It wouldn’t be smart of anybody to try to . . . to shoot him, or anything, with a witness standing by, would it? He went down the steps and walked toward Derek.

“I was just . . . checking something out.”

“Yeah? What?”

“Oh, nothing special. What will happen now to the house, do you think?”

“I don’t know. I suppose my mother will get it. Why? You want to live in it?”

Rob couldn’t repress a shiver. “No, I never want to go in it.”

“Oh, I don’t know. She had a lot of junk over there, but I guess there’s some stuff that’s valuable, too. It’s a big, roomy house. A family with twelve kids would have plenty of space. Too bad some of it isn’t available for this crowd your mother has now. Are you going to have enough sleeping space for everybody?”

“I guess so. Mom’s got it figured out.”

“We’ve got one extra room. If you want to get away from that little kid, what’s his name? Neddy? Why don’t you come over and stay with us tonight?”

“No, thanks. I can sleep on the floor like everybody else.

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