South of Superior Read Free Page A

left on Edsel and felt foolish for flicking on her blinker.
    Number 26 Bessel was a small, elderly house covered in pebbly brown shingles. Lace curtains hung in the two windows that were centered on either side of the front door. Daffodils bloomed at the base of the steps and marched in a narrow row around the house’s perimeter, and patches of grimy snow lay in shady places, but otherwise the yard was bare. It was a little forbidding—so spare and plain. Madeline sat very still, listening to the roar of the lake, the rain streaming on the car’s roof, the sharp, solitary scream of a gull. This was a wide, wild quiet, so spacious it seemed endless, and she wondered how it might change a person.
    â€œAre you going to sit there all day noodling, or are you getting out?” Gladys Hansen said, loud enough to be heard through the window, tapping on the glass.
    â€œI’m coming—” But Gladys was already brisking away. Marley made an inquisitive mew and Madeline rubbed his ears. “We’ll be fine,” she said, hoping. She scooped him from the passenger’s seat and followed in Gladys’s wake. Details loomed Up: the cement walk was cracked, the front door—which had already clacked shut behind Gladys—was red (this surprised her), the trim needed painting, the streaming rain fell straight off the eaves into the flower beds. The daffodils poking Up through a scrim of snow and ice were getting battered, which seemed like a shame—and then Gladys was opening the door again and Madeline was going in.

2
    M adeline stepped into a parlor that smelled faintly of mothballs and looked frozen in time somewhere around 1950. “Thought you’d decided to set Up camp out there,” Gladys said, heading toward the back of the house. Madeline followed, Uncertain this was the right thing to do but Unable to think of an alternative.
    â€œI’m tired, I guess,” she said to Gladys’s back. “It was a long drive.”
    â€œNathan drove like a bat out of Hell in that fancy vehicle of his last weekend. I thought we’d all perish. I watched the speedometer, he had it Up over eighty-five most of the way. He got Us back here even faster than he took Us down in the first place.” Gladys gave Madeline a brief glance over her shoulder and Madeline thought her eyes were twinkling a little, but she couldn’t be sure. “Arbutus has asked me fifteen times already when I thought you’d be here. You’d best come set her mind at ease.”
    They crossed into a kitchen that was broilingly warm. Arbutus was sitting at the table, her walker close by. Her face lit Up. “Madeline! You’re here. I’m so glad.”
    â€œMe too.” Madeline went and gave Arbutus a hug and her trepidation eased some. Even if everything else was a bust, Arbutus was a good, legitimate reason to have come. She smiled to herself. God forbid she should ever do something for no particular reason at all, or a selfish reason, or a frivolous one. “How are you feeling?” she asked. “How was your trip last weekend?”
    â€œI’m fine, dear. It’s good to be home. I can’t tell you how glad I am—”
    â€œDo you want coffee?” Gladys broke in.
    After a tiny pause Madeline said, “I’d love some.” She was a guest here, she reminded herself. She’d just come. It was ridiculous to be so irritable that the least little thing, a tiny rudeness, made her want to lash out in frustration. She was tired, that was all. It had been a stressful three weeks getting ready, a big change. And it was going to be a change, she was going to change, she was no longer going to constantly feel like a wire stretched tight, about to snap.
    Gladys poured the coffee and Madeline studied the room, stroking Marley to reassure him. The metal coffeepot had come off the back of a huge white porcelain range which had a stovepipe running Up from its