Bells of Avalon by Libbet Bradstreet Read Free Book Online Page B

driver’s seat.  Danny sprinted past, collapsing into the back seat alongside the two chattering boys.  Katie sighed and felt the woman’s hand touch the small of her back and glide her along to the car.  Suddenly, Irene’s arms came around her in a tight, breathless hug.  Katie stood rigid in the embrace as the Kittredge’s mother clung and palmed the back of head.  To Katie, it lasted forever in the blind spot toward the rear of the car. Katie smelled her acid aroma and hairspray. It seemed it would never end: the sensation of having something done to her. Best to let it run its course. The words in her mind were sing-songy like the radio’s jingle from before.  Best to let it run its course, of course…never do to break away! So Halo, everybody, Halo . She clamped her eyes shut as the refrain sang out over and over in her mind.
                  “I’m sorry for your father, child. Don’t think I didn’t remember.”
                  She didn’t really hear the words at first.  She thought she’d only imagined them, intermixed with the sing-songy voice in her mind.  She looked at Mrs. Kittredge’s face.  Behind her feigned concern was a kind of giddiness—the kind that came when something pretty was purchased at a cheap cost.  Something attractive to lay upon the mantle or tack against the wall. 
                  She felt that old needling, prompting her to say something agreeable. Something to say she was grateful for her cooked-up sympathy.  Maybe it was the urging of her father’s voice—the memory, at least, of what it had been. Give a smile to the nice man, girl, he’s speaking to you—ship -shape or Bristol fashion, followed by a pat of his hand to the small of her back. A pat that urged her forward into the intimate space of strangers.  Best to let it run its course, of course, girl.   Maybe it had always been his voice, making a tidemark for her every move, her every word. But today she would say no agreeable words to subdue the awkward air.  Katie narrowed her eyes on Irene and left her to join the boys in the back seat of the car.  
                  She found Max fiddling with a yo-yo string between his fingers. Albert sat with his hands rooted in his pockets.  Alfred gave her a glance with his still, brown eyes as she settled into her seat. Max’s eyes were exciting and blue where his brother’s were dull, and the stark difference between them struck her as it never had before.
                  “Hiya, Katie.” It was Max with a genuine look where his mother’s had been false.
                  “Hello, Max.” 
                  “You been to the Riv before?”
                  “Yes, many times—with my father.”
                  “Your—oh yes, well.”  He cleared his throat and looked down at the string through his hands. “Then—you know it’s pretty dull.  A bunch of windbags walking around in penguin suits.”
                  She smiled and turned her face to the window as the car crawled out of Danny’s driveway. She pressed her body to the hard edge of the door and watched blankly toward the passing trees and houses, trying the catch glimpses of the families—outlined and backlit through the windows.

Chapter Seven
    Pacific Palisades, California
    1949
    The Riviera looked like a red castle set against the rolling green golf courses.  The red, heat-caked layers curved around the entryways while Eucalyptus trees stretched in all directions. She liked the outside of it, the way it always looked a bit fantastical. She liked the green golf courses interrupted by creamy divots of sand as if a giant had scooped them out that way. Their party was on the second floor, a section of rooms she’d never been inside. The room was grand with a dozen bronze chandeliers overhead and casement windows looking over an ocean view that reached all the way to