Too Far to Fall by Shane Sawyer

Author:Shane Sawyer [Sawyer, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shane Sawyer

Edie’s pen paused its frantic scratching and she looked up. Mrs. Greenbaum had trailed off again in the midst of a story about pruning dwarf Japanese maples. Her eyes were unfocused and her hands moved restlessly in her lap, pleating and un-pleating the ends of her shawl.

The first half-hour had gone well and Edie had made steady progress through her list of gardening questions, but the distraction had begun to fail. Several times Mrs. Greenbaum had paused mid-sentence to wonder what was taking Beth so long, and now she seemed to have drifted right out of the conversation.

Was it time to bring up the slugs?

Edie rustled her papers gently and Mrs. Greenbaum looked up and tried to smile. “I’m sorry, dear. I’m afraid I’m having trouble concentrating.”

No kidding. “Of course. It’s okay.”

“It’s Beth I worry about. She says she doesn’t care, and maybe she doesn’t now, but someday … It would’ve been good for her to have something; some memento of her mother’s to keep, to look back at later. And now she won’t have that chance.” Her voice wavered a bit and her eyes grew bright.

Beth had assigned her the role of entertainer, not confessor, but Mrs. Greenbaum looked so lost. “I’m sorry. For her and for you.”

Mrs. Greenbaum shook her head and rubbed her eyes. “It’s funny, but a few weeks ago I would’ve said that I was having my second chance with Carla. She was visiting more often. She took me out to lunch a couple of times. She even came with me to one of my meetings. We were getting along better than we had in years.”

“Beth didn’t approve?” she guessed.

“I didn’t tell her. Now I wish I had, but she would’ve been so angry. She would’ve said it was another trick to get money from me. But it wasn’t like that. I admit Beth had cause. Carla could be difficult, and many times she had … But this time she never even hinted at wanting anything from me.” She met Edie’s eyes squarely, though her lips trembled. “But I guess I know why now, don’t I? She hadn’t really changed. The only reason she wasn’t asking for money was because she had a plan to get it by stealing from Jane. She was only spending time with me so she could … could … case the joint!”

Edie tried not to smile. “You don’t know that. There may be another explanation for her being at Jane’s, and even if there isn’t, that still doesn’t mean it was all a lie.”

Mrs. Greenbaum shook her head and looked even sadder. “Jane warned me, you know. In fact, we had words about it. Jane never said one word against Carla in all the years I knew her. I could tell her anything and never feel she was judging, but this one time … She warned me not to get my hopes up. She said that I should give it time, wait and see if the change in Carla lasted. I can see now that she was trying to protect me, but I was so angry.

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