The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Author:Sarah Addison Allen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780553805499
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2008-05-20T07:00:00+00:00

When Josey got home, she stood on the porch in the dark, holding Adam's scarf. She reluctantly hung it on the mailbox. It was a pity scarf, she decided, and she wanted nothing to do with it.

No, that was a big fat lie.

Not the part about it being a pity scarf, of course, but the part about wanting nothing to do with it. She wanted everything to do with it. She wanted to sleep with it, dance with it, snuggle it like a pet. But that's exactly what Adam thought she'd do, and she wasn't going to give him that satisfaction.

She'd always known he didn't love her. But it was easier to bear when he didn't know she loved him. That way they were even. Now he knew he had all the power. It wasn't fair. She decided she wasn't going to run to the door every day just to see him anymore. She wasn't going to pine for him like a silly girl with a heart as soft as summer fruit.

She silently unlocked the front door, wishing she'd stopped to get that pie after all. She crept into the dark house and clicked the door closed.

When she turned, there was Helena, her eyes wide and excited.

Josey screamed, which made Helena scream. Josey quickly put one hand over Helena's mouth and the other over her own mouth. Then she stood perfectly still to see if they'd woken up her mother.

When no call came from upstairs, Helena pulled Josey's hand away from her mouth and said, "Oldsey! I wait for you!"

"Thank you, Helena. I appreciate that."

"No, I wait to give something! You wait now. Okay?" Helena disappeared into her bedroom, a large room just under the staircase. She rushed back with a small piece of folded cheesecloth. "Here. Sleep this."

Josey took it. Inside the cheesecloth was a small bone, no more than three inches long. "Helena, I really don't need ... an animal bone?"

"Bad thing still here," Helena whispered.

"What exactly do you think the bad thing is?"

"I don't know. Bad."

"Have you actually seen this bad thing?" "No."

That, at least, was a relief. Josey only had to keep Della Lee hidden, and Helena from trying to exorcise her, for a few more weeks. "Everything is fine. It's all under control. The bad thing will be gone soon, I promise. I don't need this." She tried to hand the cloth and bone back to her.

Helena got a stubborn look to her. "Take."

"I don't—"

"Take take take take take."

"Okay," Josey said. "Thank you."

"Oldsey a good girl," Helena said, going back to her room, satisfied.

For the time being.

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