When the Stars Begin to Fall by James Lincoln Collier

Author:James Lincoln Collier
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: AudioGO
Published: 1985-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

It took Mom three or four days to realize that Helen’s stuff was missing. I guess she was trying to stay away from Helen’s room and forget about her, but one day, just as I was coming in through the kitchen door after school, she was coming down the stairs with a funny look on her face. “Harry, Helen’s clothes are gone.”

I tried to look surprised. “Gone?” I said.

“Yes, they’re gone,” she said. “You don’t know what happened to them, do you?”

“I didn’t do anything with them,” I said.

“I know you didn’t,” she said. “You’re a good boy, Harry.” She stopped to think. “Maybe your dad packed them away.”

But when he came home for supper, he was just as surprised as she was. He went upstairs and stood in the middle of Helen’s room, looking around. There wasn’t much to see—a few of her books under her bed, and some makeup on one of the windowsills.

“Nobody would have stolen the stuff,” he said. “It wasn’t worth stealing.” He stood in the middle of the room scratching his head. “I’ll bet she took her clothes herself. I’ll bet she came up here some time when nobody was home and took them herself.” He gave me a quick look. “You haven’t seen her, have you, Harry?”

“No,” I said.

He cocked his head and stared at me, but I managed to give him a straight look. “It had to be her,” he said. “If anyone wanted to steal something from around here, they wouldn’t have taken a few old clothes. They’d have taken the TV or some of the tools out of the barn. It had to be her.”

“You mean she was here?” Mom said. “And she didn’t want to see us?” She put her hands over her face and began to cry. It made me feel awful to see her cry like that, when I knew where Helen was.

“At least we know she’s all right, Doris,” Dad said.

Mom went on crying. “I don’t care,” she said. “I want my baby back. I miss her so much. I want her back.”

“She’s sixteen, Doris,” Dad said. “She’d have left home in a couple of years anyway.”

“Maybe she wouldn’t have,” Mom said. She tried to stop crying and it made her gasp. “Maybe she would have gone on living at home.”

The whole thing seemed weird to me. How could Mom think Helen would want to go on living in some junky place like ours with a tough father who paid hardly any attention to anybody and a mom who spent all her time in a bathrobe watching TV? Didn’t they know anything about us? But I didn’t say anything.

“Doris, that’s wishful thinking,” Dad said. “Helen’s pretty, she’s bound to get married soon anyway. Maybe that’s what happened. Maybe she and her boyfriend ran off to get married.” He looked at me. “Who’s her boyfriend, Harry?”

He’d already forgotten that I’d told him she didn’t have a boyfriend. “I don’t think she had a boyfriend,” I said.

Mom shook her head.

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