A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson Read Free Book Online

the office turned suddenly from their work and gaped at me. My legs were rubbery under me and I was lurching sideways toward one of the desks; which I caught at desperately and clung to, a dazed expression on my face.
      One of the men, Ken Lacey, ran over to me and caught me by the arm.
      "What is it, fella?" I heard him ask.
      "Anne," I said.
      "What?"
    "Anne!" I pulled away from him, then staggered again, my hands pressing at the top of my head. I could feel terrible shooting pains there; as if someone had hit me with a hammer.
      Several other people came hurrying over.
      "What is it?" I heard one of the secretaries say.
      "I don't know," Lacey said. "Somebody get him a chair."
      "Anne." I looked around with an expression of panic on my face. I wouldn't sit down.
      "I'm all right, I'm all right," I kept insisting, managing to pull away from Lacey again. They watched me in surprise as I ran to my desk, threw myself down on the chair and grabbed the phone. They told me later I looked like a very frightened man. I was. The only trouble was I didn't know what I was frightened about. I only knew it had something to do with Anne.
      The phone kept ringing at home with no one answering. I writhed in the chair and (they said later) the tense, stricken look on my face got worse. I punched down the button and dialled again with shaking fingers. I didn't look over to where they were standing, watching. I kept the receiver pressed to my ear.
      "Come on," I remember muttering in an agony of inexplicable dread. "Come on. Answer!"
      I heard the phone picked up.
      "Hello?"
      "Anne?"
      "Is this you, Tom?" I recognized Elizabeth's thin voice and I felt as if someone had kicked me in the stomach.
    "Where's Anne?" I said, barely able to breathe.
      "She's on the bed," Elizabeth told me. "I just found her unconscious on the kitchen floor."
      "Is she all right?"
      "I don't know. I called the doctor."
      "I'll be right there." I slammed down the receiver and jerked my coat off the hat rack. I must have looked like a maniac as I raced out of there.
      The next half hour was sheer hell. I had to rush to Frank's department to get the car key-and that took a pass. Then I had to get another emergency pass to leave the plant. I raced across the parking lot until I got a stitch in my side-and, naturally, Frank had parked as far from the gate as it was possible to get. I gunned the car across the lot at sixty miles an hour, screeching to a halt at the gate, showed my pass, then jolted into the street.
      It was pure luck I didn't get arrested at least a dozen times on that drive home. I passed red lights, stop signs, blinkers. I passed on the right, turned left from the right-hand lane and right from the left-hand lane; I broke every speed law there is. But I got home in twelve minutes.
      I skidded to a halt and was out of the car before the motor sound had faded. I raced across the lawn, leaped onto the porch and slammed through the front doorway.
      I found them in the bedroom, Anne on the bed, Elizabeth sitting beside her. Richard slipped off the bed as I entered and ran to me.
      "Hi, daddy!" he said, cheerfully.
      "Hello, baby." I stroked his head distractedly and moved quickly to the bed. Elizabeth got up and I sat where she'd been.
      Anne smiled weakly at me. Her eyes didn't seem to focus very well. I saw that Elizabeth had put the ice-bag on her head.
      "Are you all right, honey?" I asked.
      Anne swallowed slowly and smiled again. "I'm all right." She more framed the words with her lips than spoke them aloud.
      "Where's the doctor?" I asked Elizabeth.
      "He hasn't come yet," she told me.
      "Well… where in God's name is he?" I muttered. I looked back at Anne. "What happened?" I asked. "No, no, never mind. Don't talk. You're sure you're all right? You don't want me to take you to the hospital?"
      "No." Her head stirred slightly on the pillow.
      "Daddy, mama