Darkwater Read Free Page A

hurrying toward her, Helen’s voile skirt making little swishing sounds as she moved.
    The stiffness seemed to go from the girl’s body. The shoulders slumped, the head drooped. Her young face took on a lethargic expression and her hands toyed listlessly with the pleats of her skirt, which was patently too short for her.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” Helen demanded of her.
    â€œI came to see Alicia,” the girl said, avoiding Helen’s direct gaze. The defensive note in her voice grated badly on Helen’s nerves.
    â€œAnd haven’t you been told time and again not to bother Alicia, especially when she’s having one of her spells. What did you want with her anyway? What did you do to make her...?”
    From behind Helen, Walter’s deep voice asked, “What seems to be the problem here?”
    â€œWalter,” the girl cried. His appearance effected a marvelous change in the girl. Her dispirited pose was abandoned and she was suddenly filled with the vivacity to be expected of a girl her age. She darted around Helen to fling herself wildly into Walter’s arms.
    â€œYou’re back,” she squealed, sounding altogether like a child. “I missed you so.”
    â€œNow, Liza,” he said, ruffling her hair playfully, “I was only gone a short while. What seems to be the problem with Alicia? Were you in there?”
    Walter could not see the girl’s face, buried as it was against his midsection, but Helen saw the quick, calculating look that flashed over it.
    â€œI only wanted to visit with her. I told her I wanted to be friends.”
    â€œThat’s my girl.” Walter patted her shoulder.
    Helen, not in the least taken in, said sharply, “Why was she screaming? Is that what she thought of your offer of friendship?”
    â€œNo, she was screaming because she heard that Walter came back from town with a very pretty lady friend,” Liza said.
    Walter’s grin faded and he frowned at his mother.
    And I’ll bet I know who told Alicia about that , Helen thought angrily. She kept that thought to herself and said aloud, “Liza, I think you had better join the other children and stay out of sight for a while.”
    Liza’s shoulders automatically stiffened in a gesture of resistance. Walter felt it too and again he patted her shoulder. “That’s right, little darling. It won’t do for Alicia to see you if she’s in one of those moods, as we all know from experience. You go along now.”
    â€œAll right, if that is what you want me to do, Walter,” Liza said, emphasizing the “you” and casting a quick glance in Helen’s directions. She left them, walking sedately for a few feet, like a young lady, and then breaking into a run.
    For a moment Helen watched her go with a peevish expression. She loved children and she was well acquainted with their mischief and their ability to dissimulate, but this girl rankled in some way Helen could not quite put into words.
    â€œWhat makes you frown like that?” Walter asked.
    That Walter was completely attached to the child, she already knew. And she knew too that to express the opinion she had just thought would do nothing more than provoke a quarrel. She ignored his question, and said instead, “Alicia’s been wanting to see you. She’s been asking for you ever since you left, even before this latest.”
    â€œIt’s all right now,” he said. “I will go to see her.”
    He gave her a smile which did not quite erase the signs of fatigue that played around his eyes and the corners of his mouth.
    Helen waited until he had disappeared into his wife’s bedroom. Then she went along the hall, through the spacious dining room and into the roomy kitchen.
    A huge black woman stood before the stove, stirring something in a large pot. In the heat of the kitchen her skin, black as ebony, gleamed as if it had been polished with wax. She