Thing With Feathers (9781616634704) by Anne Sweazy-kulju Read Free Book Online

Rebecca tire you out today?”
    Sean picked the biscuit up off the floor and put it on his plate. Nothing went to waste in Mavis Marshall’s kitchen. “Just not feeling well,” he answered by way of explanation.
    “Well, son, what do you suppose is wrong with you? Still some of that stomach trouble?” Wyatt reached over and placed his hand atop his son’s.
    Sean withdrew his hand from the table. “Naw. I’m okay, Pa. I just been doin’ a lot of thinking, an’ I’m kind of tired is all. Been thinking about what you an’ Ma said about learning myself a real profession. Engineering interests me. I’d like to go to the college in the valley and learn to be an engineer of the surveying sort.” He looked up into the surprised faces of his parents.
    “That’s wonderful, Sean,” his mother answered guardedly. To her husband, she asked, “Can we afford it, Wyatt?”
    “I suppose if we have another good year, we could manage it. How ‘bout it, gentlemen? Can we have a good enough year so that Sean here can go to college?”
    “Ya mean so we don’t have to spend another dinner looking at his hang-dogged face? I’ll work double hard, Pa.” His brother, Will, ribbed him.
    “Sure thing, Mr. Marshall,” said another hand.
    Sean irritably shrugged his brother off.
    “I’m sorry, Sean. I was just kidding around. Means that much to ya, we’ll all work extra hard so you can go.” Will patted him lightly on the back.
    He knew that his brother had no interest in the farm. Some men were not meant to be dairy farmers. A job like that you had to love, and it just wasn’t for Sean, not that Sean didn’t work hard. On the contrary, Sean got up earlier than anyone and was always last in from the fields. And he worked hard while he was at it. That way, he didn’t have to feel guilty about spending time with his photography hobby. No one else really understood Sean’s passion for the camera or believed he’d ever make a living with it. But it was Sean’s life, and if he wanted to work like an ox so he could enjoy a hobby, there wasn’t anyone who faulted him for it.
    “Sorry, Will.” Sean looked over at his older brother. “Just got a lot on my mind is all. I know you all are just having some fun with me.”
    “Not much!” Johnny Arthur chimed in, which made everyone laugh.
    “That’s okay, little brother.” Will laughed. “Here. Have another biscuit.”
    He dunked that one in gravy and grabbed his brother by the neck to shove it in his face. The two brothers wrestled right out of their chairs and brawled harmlessly on the floor.
    Mavis watched her own biscuit in earnest as she buttered it, deliberately ignoring the scuffle between her sons. Wyatt passed the potatoes around again, glad that things were back to normal.

Chapter 11
    April 1928
    Cloverdale, Oregon
    S he slipped quietly from between rough blankets and tiptoed into the water closet. As soon as the door was closed and latched, she lifted her nightie and looked anxiously between her legs. She was immediately assaulted by the familiar musty smell of her father. She grabbed a cloth and dampened it in the basin, rubbing coarse soap softened with lavender oil into the washcloth before using it to make her body clean again.
    Will it ever be clean again? she wondered.
    All the soap and lavender oil in the county wouldn’t make you clean, Blair. He’s made you filthy. He’s a pig, and so are you for letting him do those filthy things to you!
    But I don’t let him! Blair pleaded with her sanity. He…rapes…me!
    She withdrew her hand from under her cotton night dress. Much to her dismay, the white cloth was still white. How many days have I repeated this routine? She was unsure, but enough days that Blair knew she should have had blood by now, enough days that panic sprouted. Yesterday at the schoolhouse, Priscilla Mason had told her that “grandma was visiting,” when Blair had asked why she grabbed her stomach so. That was Priscilla’s way of