Community by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page B

coming,’ said Michael, as she pulled up behind Isobel’s Jeep. ‘It’s a hell of a drive just to see somebody who doesn’t even remember who you are.’
    Sue leaned across and kissed him. ‘I know who
you
are, Greg, and that’s all that counts. You’ll start to remember stuff before too long, I’m sure. You’re in the best possible hands.’
    At that moment, Isobel appeared at her front door and came down the driveway to greet them. Both Michael and Sue climbed down from the Lexus to shake hands with her.
    â€˜Oh – Isobel, this is my sister Sue,’ said Michael. ‘Sue, this is Isobel, who I’ll be lodging with for a couple of months, if she can put up with me for that long.’
    He glanced quickly from one to the other as they shook hands, to see if either of them gave any indication that they knew each other already, but if they did they gave nothing away. Sue said, ‘I’m pleased to know you, Isobel. Doctor Connor told me all about you, and I’m sure you’ll take real good care of Greg.’
    â€˜I’ll do my very best,’ smiled Isobel. ‘So long as he likes my cooking, and doesn’t mind watching
Two Broke Girls
.’
    â€˜Don’t you worry,’ said Sue. ‘Even if
he
can’t remember how easy-going he is, Greg is Mister Tolerant. Even when he was a little kid you couldn’t rile him. You could drop caterpillars down the back of his neck and all he did was laugh and say that they tickled.’
    Michael opened the hatchback and lifted out his case. ‘OK, Sue,’ he told her. ‘Thank you for coming all of this way to see me, and maybe I’ll see you again next week. Hopefully by then a few more pieces of the puzzle will have come together.’
    Sue hugged him and kissed him, but there was still nothing familiar about the way she felt or the perfume she was wearing.
    He and Isobel stood on the snowy sidewalk while Sue turned her SUV around and drove away. They both waved as she blew her horn and disappeared from sight around the bend in the road.
    Isobel turned to Michael and said, ‘Well … welcome home, Greg. I really want you to feel that it
is
your home. Come along in. I made minestrone soup this morning, if you’re hungry.’
    Michael looked up through the naked branches of the trees at the piercing blue sky. Even the white peaks of Mount Shasta had no clouds around them. Home? He felt as if he didn’t belong here at all. He felt so alone and such a stranger that a lump began to rise in his throat, and his eyes prickled with tears, and he had to give a noisy cough to control himself.
    He followed Isobel inside. It was warm in the living room, and it smelled of soup.
    â€˜Here,’ she said, taking him across the hallway. ‘This is your room, at the front. It gets the sun first thing in the morning, and you can see Mount Shasta. I hope you like it.’
    The room was plain, with pale green walls and a dark green carpet, with a shaggy sheepskin rug beside the double bed. There were two tired-looking armchairs, and a portable TV perched precariously on a stool. In front of the window there was a desk, with a clock on it, and a mug full of pencils, and a china figurine of a woman in a long dark green cloak.
    Hanging on the wall beside the bed was a framed print of a wolf catching a wild turkey in its jaws. The wolf’s eyes were bulging with greed.
    â€˜This will do me just fine, Isobel,’ said Michael, setting his suitcase down on the bed. ‘Much cozier than a room at the clinic, anyhow.’
    Isobel touched his arm. ‘If there’s anything you need, Greg, anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask. Like I said, this is your home now. This is where you live.’
    He woke up in the early hours of the morning. The clock on the desk in front of the window did not have a luminous dial, so that he was unable to tell what time it was until he