Thin, Rich, Pretty by Harbison Beth

Author:Harbison, Beth [Harbison, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781429996082
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2010-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

Mr. Frank was just about the only really nice thing about Camp Catoctin, Lexi thought.

He was tall and lanky, with sad eyes and a humble smile. If he grew a beard and wore a sheet and sandals, he’d look just like Jesus. She could picture him holding a little white lamb, like the Jesus on the cover of the Bible she’d gotten from Sunday school at her church five years ago.

“I understand you have something urgent to discuss,” he said, gesturing at the bent-wood chair in front of his desk. “Please sit down and tell me what’s on your mind. You’re not feeling ill, are you?” Concern etched lines in his brow.

“No.” She shook her head and suddenly found that she had no voice. It had been a long time since she felt like anyone was listening to her, or really cared, so Mr. Frank’s kind manner choked her up.

“What is it, then, Alexis? How can I help?”

A sob escaped her lips. “Someone . . . stole something from me.”

Mr. Frank frowned. “Here? At camp?”

She nodded. “In my cabin. Last night.”

“What was it?”

This was the tricky part. She had to communicate it was of real importance without admitting that she’d gotten it under less-than-honest circumstances. “It was a necklace with a ring on it. It . . . belonged to my mother.” There. That was true. The rest came spilling out of her in choked sobs. “It’s . . . the . . . only thing . . . I . . . have . . . of . . . hers.” She took a deep, ragged breath. “I . . . know . . . maybe I shouldn’t . . . have brought it. . . .” She sniffled. “But it gets so . . . so lonely.” She covered her face with her hands and cried into them.

“There now,” Mr. Frank said gently. “There.”

She didn’t know how long she cried, but he waited patiently, watching her with care yet letting her get it all out.

She needed that.

Finally she was able to collect herself enough to speak again, though it sounded funny because her nose was as clogged as if she had a clothespin on it. “I know,” she started, but it sounded like I doe, “I should have given it to you for safekeeping, but I wanted it with me. I thought it was safe because I kept it in my pocket all day and hung it on my bedpost every night.”

“Is there any way it might have fallen or gotten tangled in the bedsheets?”

She was grateful he wasn’t dismissing this as something that didn’t matter. Maybe he didn’t know just how valuable it really was—even Lexi didn’t know the ring’s worth, although she’d heard her father talking about insuring it for tens of thousands of dollars—but he had respect for the fact that it mattered to her.

“No,” she answered him. “I looked everywhere. Everywhere. I even checked outside the door and under the porch, in case it had somehow fallen and gotten kicked outside.

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