Spirit Eyes Read Free Page A

going.”
    “Mommy!” Pearl screamed as Ruth pulled out of the garage. “The cupcakes. You left them on the roof.”
    Slamming the brakes, Ruth opened the door and got out to get them, but they were gone. “Where are they?”
    She looked under the car, all over, but the box of cupcakes was gone, nowhere to be found.
    With a twisted face, Pearl started to cry.
    “No, baby. Don’t cry. We’ll stop at Swenson’s Bakery on the way. Mommy will buy your cupcakes there. We’ll get the real fancy ones, okay?”
    “Okay.” Lower lip trembling, Pearl wiped a tear off her pink cheek and stared out the window.
    “What the hell is going on?” Ruth mumbled under her breath.
     
    After Ruth stopped for more cupcakes, she dropped Pearl off. She turned the car down a little dirt road just off the main one to their house. Having grown up in the city, both Paul and Ruth wanted to raise their children in a country environment. One of the best parts of living in the small village of Eberstark was the little mom-and-popshops dusting the landscape.
    It wasn’t too long ago that Ruth had discovered one such store. Having gotten lost, she’d taken a turn down an old dirt road and came upon a charming farmhouse. A sign out front promised the freshest brown eggs available anywhere. Goat’s milk cheese and fudge were also prominently offered.
    When she pulled into the driveway of the modest cottage covered in vines, she didn’t expect to be greeted by the two owners as if she’d just come home from an extended stay at college. A sweet couple, at least in their mid-sixties, greeted her warmly. The woman possessed a head of salt-and-pepper hair pulled back in a loose bun, escaped tendrils draping over her neck and back. Her dress, baggy, obviously hid her wide girth. He wore suspenders, smoked a pipe and wore a black hat over his gray hair.
    Ruth instantly fell in love with them. Sarah and Simon Schuster were the epitome of hospitality. They offered her a glass of lemonade and took her on a tour of their small farming enterprise. After buying some cheese and eggs and a delicious smelling loaf of homemade rye bread, she told them that she’d be back often.
    And that’s where she found herself heading. She needed more than eggs…she needed the warmth that the Schusters offered in a world that no longer considered kindness a necessary staple for life.
    She pulled into their drive, her mind going in a thousand different directions. She wondered if she should ask this wizened, elderly couple their thoughts on the matter of Pearl, but thought against it. But w hat did Pearl see? Is she having hallucinations? Does she have Schizophrenia? Oh, God, does it ever end?
    “Ruth!” It was Mrs. Schuster. “How wonderful for you to visit again.” Her deep accent charmed Ruth as she stepped out of the car unsteadily and hugged the woman who was at least a head shorter than her.
    “Come, come in before you catch your death. It’s freezing out here. I have some homemade chicken and dumpling soup simmering on the stove. Mr. Schuster’s favorite, you know.”
    They settled in the homey kitchen. Ruth savored a bowl of the soup while Mrs. Schuster questioned her.
    “You seem troubled. What is worrying you so?”
    In a change of subject, Ruth quickly asked. “Your accent, is it German?”
    “No, Polish. My husband and I came from Poland after the war. We needed to get away from all the hate.”
    Ruth remembered watching a news program years before about a certain group of people who lived long, healthy lives. It was somewhere in Europe, but she couldn’t remember exactly.
    “It was an awful time in history,” Ruth added. “I don’t mean to insult you by saying this, but you look wonderful for a woman who remembers living through the nightmare that was World War II. And `the fact that you were old enough to have children then, too, I mean, wow.”
    “Yes, Mr. Schuster and I are very blessed to be called centurions. I think we took such good