The Canary Club by Sherry D. Ficklin

Author:Sherry D. Ficklin [Ficklin, Sherry D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing, Inc.

My hand trembles as I reach out to touch the side of her face. When she turns to me, I hold my breath.

Will she remember me today?

I haven’t been here in so long. Not because I didn’t want to see her, but because the last time I’d come, she’d lashed out, spitting and hissing like a wild animal.

“Benjamin, this is my mother. Mother, this is my friend, Benjamin,” I say softly, kneeling at her side.

Her eyes follow my face, never even acknowledging Benjamin behind me.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Mrs. Schultz,” he says, laying a hand on my shoulder.

“I don’t think she can understand us, not really,” I admit. “I think she recognizes my face sometimes, but she can’t speak anymore.”

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers, releasing me. “Not to be rude, but I thought she was…”

He trails off, but I know what he means.

“It’s the lie my father tells—makes us tell. She was unwell for some time. Even when I was little, I could see it. She was always so sad and tired. Sometimes, she wouldn’t leave her bed for days at a time. I thought she was ill. For a long time, I believed that. But as I got older, I came to understand the truth.” I pause, humming a few more bars before continuing. “She hated the business. When she married Daddy, I think he promised that he’d get out. But he didn’t. The more successful he became, the more she sort of faded away. Until one day—and I don’t know what happened, I only heard bits and pieces—they had a terrible fight. Daddy stormed out of the house in the middle of the night. That was the first time she…” My voice breaks. The memory floods across my skin. I’d found her in the bed, unconscious and hardly breathing, an empty bottle of bichloride pills next to her pillow.

“She recovered, slowly. But by then, Daddy had taken a mistress. It was quite a scandal at first. But it seemed to me that people took his side almost immediately. Here he was, this big-time fella, and his wife wouldn’t even put on a dress and go out to dinner with him. They felt sorry for him, I suppose. No one really understood. That’s when she sent me off to boarding school. Didn’t want me drawn into the drama. Didn’t want me to have to watch my father be unfaithful.”

Opening my purse, I take out a delicate golden bracelet with black pearls dangling from the clasp. It was a wedding present, a gift from her father to her the day she said her vows. I never knew him myself—he passed before I was born—but my mother had entrusted it to me the day I left for school. Lifting her palm, I slide it on her hand. It’s so thin I don’t even have to open the clasp.

I reveal the paper-thin white scar running just on the underside of her wrist. “And this was the second time.”

I don’t tell him

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