With Hope by Dorothy Garlock

Author:Dorothy Garlock [Garlock, Dorothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 1998-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

CONROY, TEXAS

Marty Conroy stopped his car in front of the Victorian-style house that had been his home all his life. He slammed the door of the car when he left it and ran up the steps to the porch. His heart was beating like a hammer in his chest. Teeny, the colored housemaid, opened one of the twin beveled-glass doors and Marty entered the foyer.

“How is he?” Marty roughly slapped his hat into her hand.

“He upstairs.”

“I didn’t say where, dammit. I said how,” he snapped.

Without waiting for the maid to answer, Marty hurried across the polished wood floor, his clicking bootheels echoing through the quiet house. He looked up as he reached the stairs to see his mother coming down.

“Do you have to be so noisy? You sound like a herd of cows.”

“How is he?”

“Not good, I’m afraid.”

“What happened? He was all right when I left here a couple of weeks ago.”

“His heart is failing. He’ll go anytime now.”

“Why isn’t he in the hospital?”

“Are you questioning my judgment?”

“You know I’m not, Mama.”

“If you can’t call me Mother, don’t call me anything.”

“I’m sorry. I’m upset. I wish you’d wired me sooner.”

“I didn’t know sooner. I didn’t know until he keeled over night before last. The doctor said he’d told Martin a year ago that his heart was weak. He also said that he could either die here in the bed where his father and grandfather died or in the hospital. It would make not one whit of difference in how long he lived. When it was time to go, he’d go.”

“Can I see him?”

“The nurse is with him now. When she comes out, you can go in.” Alice Conroy, her head held high, her face calm and emotionless, moved on down the stairs. “Take off those boots. I’ve told you repeatedly not to wear them in the house.” She went past her son and into the dining room. “I’m ready for my lunch now, Teeny.”

Marty climbed to the top of the stairs, sat down, took off his boots, and waited for the nurse to come out of his father’s room. In all his life, he’d never seen Alice Conroy’s calm reserve shaken except when it concerned his sister, Emmajean. His mother had doted on her when she was a child, dressed her like a doll, showed her off. All that changed when Emmajean was about twelve years old and began to act rebellious and have temper fits.

At that time Alice Conroy’s attitude toward her daughter completely changed. She cut off all emotional ties to her child. Her main concern, then, was to get her out of their lives and as far away as possible with the least possible fuss. Marty had heard arguments between his parents as they tried to find the best way to accomplish this without causing damage to the Conroys’ standing in the community. They had thought the problem solved when Tom Dolan married Emmajean. He had not taken her back to Nebraska as the Conroys had expected, however, but had stayed in the area.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.