The Music Box by T. Davis Bunn

Author:T. Davis Bunn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441270849
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group

9

In the weeks following, there was no response from Carson Nealey. Angie decided he either hadn’t understood or could not accept the truth she had shared with him. But all of life seemed held by strange and unexpected currents that year. Even the seasons were out of kilter, coming more slowly than anyone could remember. The first snowfall did not arrive until two weeks after Christmas, a Christmas which Angie had spent at her parents’ seaside cottage, and which had held more bustle and talk and even laughter than she had known in years and years.

There had been snow flurries during much of December, quick little storms that painted brush-strokes of white across the upper reaches but did not touch the valley. Christmas was white only for the uppermost hillfolk and for those who hiked their way up slopes, made steeper by their frosting, to cut special trees and carry them home. But the second week of January, the clouds gathered as they can only do in the higher reaches. They closed the sky tight with frowning gray beasts of burden, their loads so heavy they drooped down to rest upon the peaks. The air turned still and cold, and everyone knew that winter had finally arrived.

School was closed for three days, a long time for a valley town accustomed to winter storms. But the snow fell so heavily that poor visibility made it hard to walk, much less drive. It was not until Friday that the town managed to reclaim the streets. Which meant that on Friday the students were nearly impossible.

“Three days of a world turned into a giant playground, followed by one day of school, followed by a weekend.” Emma huffed her disgust at such bureaucratic decisions. She followed Angie through a lunchroom just a half-breath away from utter bedlam. “Only somebody sitting in an office ten miles from the nearest classroom would ever think that made sense.”

Angie walked determinedly to the window table where a dozen teachers pretended not to notice what was going on around them. She put down her tray just as someone said, “What I don’t understand is how they can eat and make so much noise at the same time.”

“They’re not eating,” Emma replied, taking the place next to Angie. “They’re foraging. Jungle beasts circling the kill.”

The principal rose wearily to his feet. “As head animal trainer, I suppose I better go make the rounds.”

“Speaking of noise,” Emma said to Angie. “I had a little surprise this morning.”

“So did I,” Angie replied. “One of my students slipped a bullfrog into my top drawer.”

“Don’t tell me you let something like that get to you.”

“Not until it jumped about thirty feet straight up and came down in my hair,” Angie said grimly. “Then I proceeded to put on a little show I am positive will keep them talking for years to come.”

Emma smiled with the rest of the table. Then she said in a voice that could only be heard by Angie, “You remember

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