Healer: A Novel by Cassella Carol

Author:Cassella, Carol [Cassella, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2010-09-07T00:00:00+00:00

Evelyn Zalaya’s salt-and-pepper hair is pulled back in a thick chignon that would look old-fashioned except for the magnificent silver and turquoise barrette pinning the weighty coil at the nape of her neck. Her earrings match, twisted silver with embedded blue stones. Sculptural art, really. It would seem affected on another woman, Claire thinks, but somehow on Evelyn the unusual pieces look more like a celebration of craft, a complement to the artist more than an adornment. When she opens the front door Addison lags behind on the porch steps; Claire can practically hear him struggling to find his act, remembering to smile a beat too late. She has always been the more social one, floating from group to group in a party, smoothing over gaps in conversations until Addison clicked with someone and ended up in a corner, diving into protein encoding or small molecule arrays or Janis Joplin. But when Claire introduces him, Evelyn ignores Addison’s outstretched hand and gives him the same assured hug she had given Claire, and in that one gesture sweeps away his fear that he will be called upon to justify why he is not supporting his family.

Assessing the size and quality of the house and furnishings, Claire has to wonder where two doctors have put their incomes. It is modest even by the standards of full-time Hallum residents, little more than a double-wide dressed up with shingles and strips of wood trim. As soon as she breaks from Evelyn’s embrace and looks past her into the main living area Claire sees that they have turned their home into a personal museum of folk art. Brilliantly colored textiles woven in playful geometric patterns cover the chairs and throw pillows—huipiles and ponchos and rugs. Paintings hang above the faded red twill sofa and overloaded bookcases, around the bricked-in woodstove, are propped two and three deep against the wall along the floor, as if they’d been bought that very day and await the right mood or the right sunlight to properly set them in the ideal spot. Most depict tropically colorful village or farm scenes painted in the saturated hues of a hot climate, unrelenting sun and humid air intensifying the greens and blues and reds. Jory is immediately drawn to the vivid, miniature worlds and Evelyn points out half-hidden figures—a naked boy being chased by a dog, an old woman bathing in a metal tub.

Dan stands up from the sofa when they come in, and for the first time Claire sees that he is not actually any taller than Addison; it is the lean, straight lines of his face and torso, the clear definition of his bones showing through his clothing that has made her see him so. She catches the slightest waver in his balance when he holds out his hand to take her husband’s. Addison shakes Dan’s hand tentatively once. Claire feels a sudden catch in her breath at his awkwardness, as if she had blinked and seen the world from inside his wounded ego for an instant.

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.