Shadow Creek Read Free Page A

again, and times changed.
    Twenty years, Ellen repeated silently, the thought seeping into her skin, like tea in boiling water. Could it really be so long?
    “What’s taking that tea so long?” Stuart was asking, returning Ellen abruptly to the present tense. “The poor girl’s teeth are starting to chatter.”
    “Can I have milk with that?” Nikki asked.
    “With herbal? I really don’t think it’s necessary …”
    “I prefer it with milk. Skim, if you have it.”
    “I’m afraid we only have two-percent.”
    “Oh.” Another shrug. “Okay. And four teaspoons of sugar.”
    Ellen dutifully added the 2 percent milk and four spoonfuls of sugar to the already sweet herbal tea, then walked back into the main room and handed the sturdy blue mug to Nikki. “Careful. It’s hot.” She sat down in the burgundy-and-beige overstuffed chair next to her husband and watched the girl lift the mug gingerly to her lips. “I can’t imagine what it tastes like. I don’t know how you can stand it so sweet.”
    “That’s what my grandmother always says.” Nikki took a sip, and then another.
    “Your grandmother sounds like a very wise woman.”
    “She’s a witch,” Nikki said. Then, “Do you have any cookies or anything?”
    What do you mean, she’s a witch? Ellen wanted to ask.
    “I’m sure we do.” Stuart jumped to his feet before Ellen could voice this thought out loud.
    “I’m sorry to be such a pest,” Nikki said, “but I haven’t had anything to eat since lunch, and I’m starving.”
    “Well, then, I think we can do better than a cookie,” Stuart said. “We still have some sandwich meat in the fridge, don’t we, Ellen?”
    “I think we do,” Ellen said, although what she was thinking was, That meat was for our lunch tomorrow. Now I’ll have to drive into Bolton Landing tomorrow morning to get some more. Assuming this damn rain stops by then. And how long is this girl going to be here anyway, this girl who speaks so disrespectfully of her elders? Yes, I know we can’t very well send her back into that storm, she answered Stuart, although he hadn’t spoken. But what if it rains all night? What if it doesn’t let up for days? “Maybe you should try calling your parents,” Ellen suggested to Nikki. Surely the girl had a cell phone in her canvas bag.
    “What for?”
    “To tell them you’re safe. To let them know where you are, tell them where they can come and get you,” she added, trying not to put too noticeable an emphasis on this last point.
    Nikki shook her head. “Nah. I’ll be all right.”
    “We have roast beef and a little bit of smoked turkey,” Stuart said, his head buried deep inside the fridge.
    “I’m kind of like a vegetarian,” Nikki told him.
    Ellen had to sit on her hands to keep from grabbing the ungrateful girl around the throat.
    “How does a grilled cheese sandwich sound?” Stuart asked pleasantly, although the slight twitch at his temples indicated he was losing patience with their unexpected guest as well.
    “Sounds good,” Nikki said. “I guess you don’t get a lot of visitors.”
    “Not a lot,” Ellen agreed. “We’re a little off the beaten track.”
    “You’re telling me! You don’t get scared, living out here all by yourselves?”
    “There are some cottages not too far down the way,” Stuart said.
    “Far enough. Where’s your TV?” Nikki asked suddenly, her eyes once again scanning the large room.
    “We’ve never watched a lot of TV,” Ellen told her. Probably another reason the grandchildren showed no inclination to visit.
    “We have a radio,” Stuart offered as he removed a chunk of cheddar cheese from the fridge and retrieved two slices of bread from the bread box on the counter, then began buttering both sides of the bread. “And we can watch shows on the computer, if we really want.”
    “I couldn’t live without a TV. I’d get so bored,” Nikki said. “So, you guys have a gun?”
    “Why on earth would we have a gun?”