Black Chokeberry by Martha Nelson

Author:Martha Nelson [Martha Nelson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-61254-079-5
Publisher: Brown Books Publishing Group
Published: 2012-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Ruby saw Ellen coming but waited for her to ring the bell twice. Ruby didn’t want to give the impression that she was just hanging around the front door waiting for news from Ellen Varner, of all people.

Of course, she’d already heard from Ina Schmidt, who had raced across the street like a house afire as soon as the ambulance pulled away from the curb. Ruby was not prepared to drag herself down the front stairs to deal with Ina, who would undoubtedly ring the brass off the front doorbell trying to get information. Instead Ruby went out onto her bedroom porch and called, “I-na! Oh, I-na! I’m over here! Upstairs, on the porch!”

Ina had rushed around the side of the house, her big bathrobe flapping in the wind, her hair in giant blue rollers. “What’s going on, Ruby, do you know? What’s the matter with Frances?” Ruby told her she had no idea what had happened.

“All I know is you need to get yourself back in your house before you catch pneumonia, Ina. We’ll all find out soon enough what’s going on with Frances. There’s no point getting all worked up about it now. None of us knows a thing.”

Ina had left, but not before asking Ruby four or five more questions in a desperate attempt at discovery.

“I saw just what you saw, Ina. Nothing more and nothing less. Go home now and we’ll see what we learn later this morning. The important thing is that Frances is being cared for. That’s all we know, and it’s the only thing we can say for sure.”

Ina begged Ruby to call her when she had more facts, something Ruby had no intention of doing. She had learned years ago that you could say something very clearly to Ina Schmidt and in the retelling it came out entirely different. She wanted no part of having her name associated with that kind of tangled mess. Unlike Ina, Ruby had seen Ellen crawl up into the front of the ambulance last night. She didn’t know what to make of that, really. On the one hand, she was glad Frances had someone watching out for her at the hospital; on the other, she was appalled to think that their dear sweet Frances only had Ellen at her side. How did Ellen Varner manage to worm her way into their lives so fast?

The sun was shining as Ruby opened the door, stepping aside so that Ellen could move through the vestibule. She motioned her into the foyer.

“You’ve had quite a night, Ellen,” Ruby said. “I saw you get into the ambulance with Frances. That was very good of you. Had Frances called you when she fell ill?”

“No, not at all, Ruby. I had no idea Frances was ill until I saw the ambulance arrive. If she had been able to contact friends, I’m sure she would have called you. You have a much closer relationship with her than I do. I’m guessing that she was lucky to reach 911.

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