Pumpkin Read Free

they realized I wouldn’t go outside to take the school bus the next day or the day after, they finally decided to pack me up and ship me back to my mother in town.” David forced a smile. “So that’s the way it was.”
    “Was,” Vera said. “Not is.” She met his gaze. “Look, David, I understand, really I do. Living with that traumatic experience bottled up inside you all these years must have been a terrible thing. But it’s over now and you’ve got to realize that. You’re not a kid anymore, and Jed Holloway is long dead and gone.”
    She rose briskly, glancing at her watch. “Look at the time! We’d better get to bed.”
    David’s hand curled around the bottle. “Ill be up later.”
    Vera hesitated. “Sure you don’t want me to sit with you a while longer?”
    “Of course not. I’ll be all right now that I’ve gotten this out of my system. Thanks for being such a good psychiatrist.”
    “Come up soon.” Vera smiled. “I may be able to offer you another kind of therapy.”
    era’s smile faded quickly once she got upstairs. She’d done her best not to let David see how his story had disturbed her—not what he said, but the way he said it. Maybe telling all this would really help him; she hoped so.
    Of course there was nothing to be alarmed about, but just the same she looked in on Billy before going on to the other bedroom. He was sound asleep.
    That relieved her, and by the time she’d undressed and slid under the covers the tension began to ease. Now, if only David would come up—
    The grandfather’s clock tolled the hours in the hall. Windows rattled in reply, and somewhere a door groaned on rusty hinges. Vera snuggled back against her pillow, fighting a sudden childish impulse to bury her head beneath it.
    No wonder David had a hang-up about returning here. To a small boy, suddenly being torn away from his home and family was a disturbing experience; living here in this lonely old house must have been an ordeal for him.
    Vera sighed, shifting her head on the pillow. Thank heaven Billy didn’t seem to have that problem—
    “Mommy!”
    Vera levered upright in sudden shock, alarm propelling her out of bed and into the hall.
    “Mommy—”
    The shrill cry rose again as she raced into Billy’s room. Crouching amidst the tangled covers he turned to her, eyes alive with terror. Vera sank to the side of the bed and he buried his contorted face against her breast.
    “There now, it’s all right.” Her fingers smoothed tousled hair, soothed trembling shoulders.
    “That’s better,” she said. “What happened?”
    Billy moved back on the bed, eyes darting around the room. “Where is he?”
    “Nobody’s here, nobody but us. You can see for yourself.”
    The boy stiffened. “No, he’s coming—can’t you hear him?”
    And she did hear something, the sound of footsteps from the hall. For a moment Vera panicked, then relaxed as David entered.
    Billy looked up. “Dad—did you see him?”
    “See who?”
    “That man. The one who was looking at me through the window.”
    David strode across the room and stared out into the night. “Nobody’s outside,” he said. “Look—the window’s locked.”
    “But he was here.” Billy’s lower lip quivered. “He was standing there, outside.”
    “Now you know better than that.” David turned, shaking his head. “We’re upstairs here, on the second floor. So how could anyone be standing outside?”
    Vera held Billy close. “It was only a bad dream,” she said.
    “No!” The boy pulled away. “I saw him! This old man—he had long white hair and a beard and little red eyes staring at me—”
    Seeing the fear in Billy’s face was all Vera could bear. Luckily for her, she couldn’t see David’s.
    avid’s face was haggard in the hazy afternoon sunlight filtering through the parlor window. No wonder he was beat today; it had been a rough night before they got Billy calmed down and back to sleep again, and there’d been little enough