Straub, Peter - Shadowland by Straub Peter

Author:Straub, Peter [Straub, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-02-25T14:37:41+00:00

2

Tom and Rose

The girl would not meet his eyes. She sat on Del's bed, looking at her feet as if he had embarrassed her. Tom saw that she thought he had been making fun of her — Del was staring at him in amazement — and he said, 'I'm sorry. That just popped out. I didn't mean anything by it.'

'I know who you are,' she said. Then she lifted her face and gave him a look from her pale iridescent eyes which nearly blew him across the room. 'Everybody says you're going to be a great magician.'

'Look, I'm a little sick of hearing that,' Tom said, speaking with more heat than he had intended. Rose Armstrong looked as though a strong word would melt her. The silk shimmered about her arms. 'Who is everybody, anyhow?'

'Del and Mr. Collins. Especially Mr. Collins.'

'He talked to you about me?'

'Sure. Now and then. Last winter.'

Del smiled, and Tom looked at both of them, perplexed. 'But he didn't even know me last winter.'

'He did know you.' And that, it seemed, would be that. The girl knitted her hands together and regarded him squarely. Despite what he had thought, she was relaxed. As slight and flowerlike as she was, she was a year older than both boys, and to Tom it was suddenly as if she were ten years older — she seemed massive and unknowable. But still her face with its full lips and high forehead broadcast vulnerability. The wet hair hugged her head. He realized that he envied Del, his closeness to Rose Armstrong. The girl seemed as perfect as a statue.

Living Statue.

'He made me,' Rose said with an air of bravery.

Now Tom's uneasiness increased.

'I never had a thought in my head until I met Mr. Collins,' she said, and he relaxed. 'I was nothing.' That stabbing look of a wound deeply absorbed settled again in her face. 'I would forgive him anything.'

'Do you have to forgive him very often?'

'Well, he drinks a lot, and I don't like that. Sometimes he changes when he's had too much.'

Tom nodded. He had seen the proof of that. He asked, 'Why did you go out on that rock dressed up like it was winter? And open that smoke bomb.'

'He told me to. He gave me the clothes.'

'And that's enough?'

'Of course.'

'Did you know that we were supposed to see you?'

'I assumed someone was supposed to see me. It wouldn't make sense otherwise.'

'Does he forgive you too?'

'Why should he have to?'

'Because when I was coming up here, I met him in the hall. He was drunk. He said he was going to give Del a warning, but that I could do it for him. I guess it was about your being here.'

She flushed. 'I wondered . . . I guess I shouldn't be here. But tomorrow it'll probably be all right.'

'You mean, when he's sober?'

She nodded. 'But I shouldn't stay. Del, I . . . you know.'

Tom felt the stab of envy or jealousy again. She had not once called him by his name.

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