The Brushstroke Legacy Read Free Page A

kid. Would that person ever return? Susan didn’t have it easy, that was for sure. Her husband had taken off with another woman, never to be heard from again, over ten years ago.
    “Sorry,” Susan said. “Why didn’t you answer your cell?”
    “Whatever happened to hi, how was your day?” Ragni knew better than to answer her sister like that, but at this point in her awful day, she didn’t care.
    “Sorry”.
    Uh-oh, something’s wrong. Susan’s slipping. She doesn’t say sorry
—
and definitely not twice.
“Okay, what’s going on?”
    “Just a minute.” Susan covered the receiver and said something to Erika that brought forth an acid response and a slammed door.
    Ragni flinched. She knew her sister hated slamming doors. That had been a bone of contention in their growing-up years. When Ragni knew slamming doors bugged her sister, she’d made sure to do so often. Maybe it was a family trait.
    “Okay, here’s the problem.” Susan kept her voice low.
    Somehow Ragni knew that Susan’s problem was about to become her problem.
Oh, sure. One more chance to fail.

“I am not going anywhere tonight, Susan. I just got home, and I’ve been cold all day, and I’m about to take a long, hot bubble bath. You’d be the first to tell me to go to bed early so I don’t come down with anything.”
You always take care of things. Why are you forcing me to get involved this time?
    “I’m sorry, but this is really important.”
    Ragni closed her eyes against the tone of Susan’s voice. “Can’t we deal with it over the phone?”
Like we do most of the crises? Whatever you decide to do is fine.
“I just cannot deal with one more thing today.”
Ragnilda Clauson, what is the matter with you?
the voice on her shoulder scolded, worse than her sister.
    “Look, we’ll keep it short. I’ll meet you at Mom’s in half an hour.”
    “Susan, you haven’t been listening. I am not coming. I am staying here.”
Right here, and soon in my own bed.
Guilt twanged like a stretched guitar string.
    “Ragni, our mother called and said she needed to talk with us— tonight. Now, how often does that happen?”
    Our mother? Uh-oh, things are bad.
“Is Dad worse?”
    “I don’t know, but I don’t think so. She would have said so if that were the case.” Susan’s sigh came over the phone loud and clear. Susan was not a sighing person.
    “Then what can be so important?”
    “I don’t know! All I know is that Mom has asked for us to come, and we are going to do just that.” She spoke slowly and distinctly as if Ragni were either hard of hearing or slow to understand.
    Ragni closed her eyes and tilted her head back and to the sides to pull some of the neck and shoulders tension loose. “Half an hour, and it’d better be short.” She hung up the phone and stomped back to her bedroom.
Now I’ll have to swing by a fast-food place and get something to eat on the way. No wonder I’ve gained weight.
    She finished her burger and fries as she pulled into her parents’ driveway. After slugging her purse over her shoulder, she grabbed the trash and her drink and headed for the house.
This better be good
, she thought, then shook her head. In her thirty-two years, she’d learned that nothing good ever came out of emergency meetings. Not that they’d had that many. Both Mom and Susan could win the crown for capability and planning, so they had few surprises in their family.
    “How’s Dad?” she asked after their greetings.
    “About the same.” Judy Clauson glanced toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms. “I’ve put him to bed, but sometimes he doesn’t stay there.”
    “He left the house yesterday. She found him wandering down toward Homer’s.” Susan never tried to soften a blow.
    Ragni could picture her father at Homer’s Cafe with all the other oldsters in the area. They’d been meeting there for midmorning coffeefor all the years since he had retired. Sometimes her mom still took him down to join the fellows,