Writ on Water Read Free Page B

Claire lived in an old cabin with a sod roof where birds foraged for lunch and a dirt floor which would have been great for making mud pies—something she never got to do indoors at home. Of course, one didn’t just blurt out such arequest, and Chloe thought that if she was good all the way until lunchtime, perhaps she could bring the idea up then especially since her grandmother had forgotten her birthday and would probably be feeling bad when this was pointed out.
    However, it didn’t take long for Chloe to sense that all was not well between her mother and Granny Claire, and that the chance of mud pies in the kitchen was becoming rapidly more distant. There hadn’t even been time for the tea kettle to boil on the fire’s grate before her mother was beside her, leaning down and asking her if she was ready to go.
    â€œIs Mommy’s angel ready for another ride?”
    Chloe wasn’t ready, but she knew how to answer.
    â€œAngel?” Granny Claire had loomed over both of them, not bothering to bend down to Chloe’s eye level. “I have never seen a child so lacking in curiosity. I left all these things out for her but all she’s done is stare at the floor. She must be feeble-minded.”
    â€œShe’s four, not feeble-minded.”
    Chloe wasn’t sure what feeble-minded was, but it couldn’t be a good thing, because it made her mother’s mouth get tight. It had been an unfair accusation as well, she’d realized later when she asked her father about it. Chloe had noticed the many weird things her grandmother had left strewn on the room’s one round table, but her mother had warned her not to touch anything of her grandmother’s and so she had been
a good girl
.And anyway, Gran’s collection of the arcane had been pretty gross—bones and a crow’s wing and some scary tarot cards laid out in the pattern of a cross. Mud pies and the big spider cleaning up its web in the corner were way more interesting.
    â€œAnd I see that you left that stuff out—in spite of my asking you to put it away. You know how Aaron feels about this! And Chloe didn’t touch any of it because I told her not to. And now we’re leaving,” Chloe’s mom had said, her voice flat and for once unhappy.
    Chloe shot the old lady a so-there look. This would teach her to forget her granddaughter’s birthday. But Gran’s eyes got narrow and hard.
    â€œLook at her! I think you brought the wrong child home from the hospital. I don’t know why you had to have a baby in the city anyway.” The words were aimed at her mother, but the old lady’s gaze never wavered from Chloe’s face.
    Chloe dropped her eyes, frightened by this old woman who suddenly looked about twenty feet tall and as unfriendly as any fairy-tale giant. Sensing that her daughter was paralyzed by the criticism she didn’t understand, Chloe’s mother had taken her daughter’s hand and tugged her toward the door.
    â€œGoodbye, Mother. We’ll try this again after the millennium.” She’d added under her breath, “Don’t mind the venomous asp, sweetie. They can’t help being the way they are.”
    â€œGo, then! I should wash my hands of both ofyou!” Gran had shouted before slamming the cabin door behind them.
    But of course she hadn’t washed her hands of them. Feeble-minded or not, Chloe was her only grandchild, and Chloe’s mother hadn’t been unkind enough to order her grandmother away forever, not when the old lady had claimed to be ill and contrite. They had tried meeting annually until Chloe’s mother died, without any real success at forging a loving relationship. After that, the family meetings stopped.
    It was too late, though; the venomous asp had injected enough poison to affect Chloe’s mind, and her father’s distant rationalism hadn’t been enough of an antidote. And now it seemed like the old