The Glass Butterfly Read Free

there was nothing else she could do. She hadn’t known then what it meant, and it hadn’t come again. It was no use wishing things had been different. Her ordered life had become profoundly disordered. Tragedy had struck, and she could neither deny her failure nor change the outcome of events.
    Only one thing mattered, and that was to keep Jack safe. Ice Woman was determined to succeed at that.
    She started down the slope into the valley, skidding on the mat of leaves and moss and needles that softened the forest floor. For now, she told herself, she would be grateful for the impulse that had moved her across the car seat, made her shove open the passenger side door, given her the impetus to throw herself out into the water. She could have been crushed as the Escalade tipped over the rocky bank and fell the thirty feet to the river. Had she had time to think it through, she might have decided she was safer in the car, behind the airbag, but there had been no time. And she had known, when she saw Ellice climb out of her patrol car and stride to the top of the bank to stare coldly down at the wreck, that she had done the right thing at last. The only thing she could have done.
    She kept moving, pressing north and a little bit east. After several periods of walking, resting, and walking again, she broke out of the woods to find herself on the two-lane road that led to the town of Randolph. She walked up it for a time, grateful for the gravel shoulder, which was so much easier to navigate than underbrush and carpets of leaves and dropped branches. Dusk began to obscure the hills, but the darkness was helpful. When headlights flashed ahead or behind her, she stepped down into the drainage ditch, huddling with her head down until the vehicle passed.
    Randolph was just big enough for her purposes. She didn’t know anyone there. She did most of her shopping in Sherburne Center, or even all the way north in Montpelier, but she had driven through Randolph once when Jack was in high school, and she remembered the little lane of used car dealerships with their hungry signs and strings of gaudy lights.
    Her feet hurt in earnest by the time she spotted the lights of the town ahead. She turned off the main road to walk down a gravel-strewn street that led away from the town center. Around her lights shone from modest wooden houses. Children ran and shouted in their yards, and dogs barked as she passed. She thrust her hands into her pockets, and did her best to look like a woman taking her evening exercise in well-worn sneakers and comfortable jeans, a battered red beret on her head. She tucked her hair up under the beret, pulling the front down over her forehead. She might be blonde, brunette, or gray-haired. No one would be able to tell.
    Darkness was complete by the time she found the lane of used car dealers. She eyed them as she passed, hoping a possibility would jump out at her. The strings of lights swinging in the breeze made the hoods of used cars and outdated trucks glimmer with false promise.
    When she spotted a lemon-yellow VW Beetle at the front of one of the seedier lots, she turned in. The salesman who hurried toward her had thin, pimply cheeks and a wisp of mustache that made him look as if he belonged in junior high.
    â€œHi!” he said, with an eager smile. “I’m Adam.” He thrust out his hand. The nails were too long, and she found herself reluctant to touch him. She shook his hand anyway. He couldn’t be much older than Jack.
    â€œHi,” she said hoarsely, then cleared her throat. She hadn’t spoken for hours. She tried again. “Excuse me. Hi.” She felt as if she were watching herself, observing her performance, assessing the efforts of the woman behind the ice to behave naturally. “This is kind of a cute car,” she said. She couldn’t actually dredge up a smile, but she spoke in as bright a tone as she could manage. “I thought my daughter might like