Tomorrow River by Lesley Kagen

Author:Lesley Kagen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-09-24T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Branches are beating against the four-paned window. Our house has gone deep black, which always happens when the wind comes up this fierce. We lose our power. Lou tells Woody and me that it’s a ghost playing a trick on us. I half believe her, because Mr. Cole has tried to fix whatever is wrong in the fuse box time and time again with no luck. I’ve lit a couple of stubby candles, let the wax drip onto the porcelain sink and stuck them.

My shadow is dancing across the white bathroom wall like a chorus girl in a movie musical when I sing for the fifth and, I swear, last time, “When you walk through a storm keep your head up high and don’t be afraid of the dark. At the end of the storm is a golden sky and the sweet silver song of a . . . bark.” This song from the Carousel album is another one of Woody’s all-time favorites. I have sung it to her enough times down in the root cellar that I know perfectly well that last part’s supposed to go—the sweet silver song of a . . . lark, but I knew changing it up like that would make her smile.

I already took my bath. Now my sister’s in the claw tub beneath a scattering of bubbles, her freshly shampooed hair floating like seaweed in the ocean. I’ve already inspected her for the dime-sized marks.

The first time I found the purple splotches, I scrubbed and scrubbed and when they wouldn’t come off I asked her, “Did you do a swan dive into a blueberry patch or something?” It was mysterious. And got more so when I noticed that the marks kept showing up even when there weren’t any berries blooming. I figured it out the afternoon I saw Woody running down to the animal cemetery behind the barn. She was going to bury a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. When I got down to the barn, Pegasus was pawing in the cross ties. Out the door, I could see that Blackie who was here to shoe Papa’s horse had caught Woody. He pried the dead bird out of her hand, threw it as far as he could, and when it landed up against a tree, he laughed and said, “Guess it needs some more practice.” He mimicked Woody’s flapping. “Ya can fool your idiot father, but ya can’t fool me. You’re just puttin’ this shit on.” That’s when he started pinching her all over the place. He only stopped because I yelled out to him, “There’s a woman on the telephone for you, Uncle Blackie. Got a voice like Marilyn Monroe’s. You better come quick.” I wanted to tell Papa on him, but I knew if I did, Blackie would get back at me. The next time he got ahold of my sister, he’d pinch her quarter size.

I sit on the edge of the tub and bury my toes in Ivory’s chocolate back.

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