Beulah by Christi Nogle

Author:Christi Nogle [Nogle, Christi]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Cemetery Gates Media
Published: 2022-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

2

Mom and Tommy both had all the extra hours they could take at work, so Stevie and I had many evenings alone with nothing much to do. She’d make dinner and we’d do our homework—I had a lot more of it now that I was trying to make good. After that, we’d just hang out reading, or we’d go for short walks down Farm School Road.

Even though it was much too cold for swimming, Stevie would always look to see if Roger’s Jeep might be in front of the white house; I’d made the mistake of telling her about his invitation to use the pool. She was always trying to find something she could look forward to, and there was little enough of that.

As we set off on one of these walks, time shifted again in the schoolhouse yard. It was only the second time it happened. The first time, it had happened when I was coming home. I still remembered the leaves stirring at my feet and the kids chatting in the yard. This time, it happened almost right when Stevie and I came out the front door. It was early evening, sky all slate gray, and then I turned to check the door lock, and the sun was higher, maybe close to three o’clock, and the air was warmer.

Shadows, faint ones but so many of them, flowed out and down the stairs all around us. Through us, I supposed.

Stevie was right beside me. She rushed down the stairs at their speed and kept up a jog until she was out in the road.

I was shaken and didn’t want her to see that I was. I walked slowly. The light changed again so that, by the time I joined her in the road, the cool air and the slate gray sky were back, just like nothing had happened.

We walked, and our shadows were almost the same length now. We had nothing to talk about, together all the time as we were, but we talked about the novels we were reading, the houses along the road, cute cars that went by, anything. Stevie walked at a good clip though she was shorter of breath than I liked.

We turned back toward the house after a while, and I remember we were on the far side on the road. Because of the slight hill, your first sight of the schoolhouse would be its roof. This time, the location of the schoolhouse was clear before we saw the roof. The patch of light above it was bluer. Sun lit up the fluffy clouds and then, as we walked on, sun lit on the schoolhouse’s dark roof. Stevie was looking at the ground as we neared.

I heard Stevie gasp when she glanced up. I heard her.

“Do you see that?” I said.

“No.”

“Stevie, do you see that? Can you hear them?”

The children were shrieking loudly. It was their last day of school once more.

As we came closer, I saw the shadow sitting at his picnic table under the tree.

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.