A Gift from the Past Read Free

Benton’s house burned.”
    â€œYeah, a couple of years ago. Faulty wiring.” She frowned, as if irritated that he’d forced her into talking.
    â€œRemember when we were kids we all thought old Hazel was a witch and the rumor was that at night she wandered the streets of Mayfield looking for little children she could snatch and have for breakfast the next morning?”
    â€œI remember,” she said. A ghost of a smile curved her lips. It wasn’t a real smile, but it was the closest thing he’d seen.
    He suddenly wished for one of her smiles, the sound of her laughter. God, he’d always loved the sound of her laughter.
    There had been a lot of laughter in the first two years of their marriage when they’d been too young, and perhaps too stupid to realize how life could take away all laughter if you allowed it.
    Six years ago, he’d been a small-town boy in a small-town world married to the love of his life. In an instant of tragedy it had all been ripped apart.But he wasn’t here to pick over the carrion of what had once been.
    As Sarge’s house came into view, surprise swept through him at the unkempt condition. The lawn that had always been well-manicured now desperately needed a mowing, and the house itself begged for a new coat of paint. A piece of guttering dangled precariously from one corner of the roof.
    â€œLooks like Sarge has let things go a little bit,” he observed, quickening his footsteps once again to fall in beside her.
    â€œYou’ve been away a long time. Things have changed. Sarge has changed.” Her voice held an edge sharp enough to slice steel.
    Apparently some things hadn’t changed…like the fact that she was still filled with a bitterness and rancor where he was concerned. When he told her he’d come back here for a divorce, he wondered if that would simply deepen her bitterness or finally set her free?

Chapter Two
    J oshua followed Claire up onto the front porch; he and Claire had spent many evenings on the swing that had once hung there. It had been on the swing that he had asked her to marry him. They’d been barely eighteen years old and she’d been three months pregnant.
    As he followed her through the front door, the house greeted him with familiar smells… The scent of old wood and lemon polish, of sun-washed curtains and the faint odor of the menthol rub Sarge had always used on his bad shoulder.
    He and Claire had spent the five years of their marriage here, beneath this roof. They’d been too young to afford their own place and Joshua had no real family of his own. From the time he’d beenfifteen and had begun dating Claire, Claire and Sarge had become his family.
    He tried to hide his surprise as Wilma Iverson, the next-door neighbor, came into the living room from the kitchen. Her faded blue eyes registered her own surprise at the sight of him. “Land’s sakes, if it isn’t Joshua McCane.”
    â€œHello, Mrs. Iverson,” he replied.
    She snorted. “Ah, today it’s Mrs. Iverson, but I still remember when you were nothing more than a snot-nosed kid and called me the battle-ax behind my back.”
    â€œWhy, I don’t remember any such thing,” Joshua laughed in protest.
    â€œWhere’s Sarge?” Claire asked.
    Wilma nodded her head toward the hallway. “In his room, pouting.”
    Joshua saw the tension that tugged at Claire’s delicate features. “What happened?” she asked.
    â€œI caught him with a bag of candy and I took it away from him. I told him I wasn’t going to be a party to him killing himself.”
    Joshua listened to all this with interest, wondering what Wilma was doing here and why she would take candy away from a grown man. An edge of disquiet surged up inside him.
    â€œSarge!” Claire yelled down the hallway. “Come on out. There’s somebody here to see you.”
    â€œIf it’s that creature