sweetheart. When something truly terrible is going to happen, you should be able to feel it coming, like an express train in the distance. The rails start singing, don't they?" She clenched her bony fist and held it up. "Even the air starts to get tighter."
Trevor said, "What are you saying, Momma? That something bad is going to happen to us?"
"Let's pray not. But it's best to be well prepared for it, if it does."
CHAPTER 8 - Giant
Sissy respected Trevor's wishes that night and left the DeVane cards untouched on her nightstand, although she was strongly tempted to try another reading. She could feel in her bones that the wheels of the world were moving beneath her, and that the next few days were going to see shifts and changes and shadows moving in contradiction to the sun.
She dressed in her long white linen nightgown and sat in front of the dressing table taking the pins and combs out of her hair, and brushing it out.
For a split second, in the shell pink lamplight, she saw herself as she had looked when she had married Frank and was sitting at her dressing table in Connecticut, brushing out her hair for her first night in bed with him. She still had the wide gray eyes and the delicate cheekbones, and that slightly fey, otherworldly look that had led Frank to describe her as a mermaid.
I'm still your mermaid, Frank. The girl you fell in love with, she's still here. I'm the same girl who ran barefoot through the dunes at Hyannis that July afternoon so long ago.
Then she angled her head a little to the left, and the lamplight suddenly betrayed her. She saw the crow's feet around her eyes and the lines around her mouth, and a neck that looked like crumpled tissue paper. The cries from the seagulls faded, and the warm ocean breeze died away, and here she was in her stuffy spare room in Trevor's house, all alone now, growing older with every night that passed.
Molly knocked on her door.
"Sissy? Is there anything you need? How about a glass of warm milk?"
"A time machine would be nice. Look at me. I'll be seventy-two before I know it. How did that happen? I don't feel seventy-two."
Molly came into the room and sat on the end of the bed. "You don't behave seventy-two, either, thank God."
"Trevor talked to me this evening. He wants me to stop fortune-telling while I'm here. He says it gives him the heebie-jeebies."
"You don't have to stop because of Trevor. You know what he's like. If it can't be weighed or measured or calculated, it doesn't exist. Mind you, he makes a living out of guessing the future, just like you. The only difference is, he tries to guess what isn't going to happen."
"He's frightened that Red Mask is going to find out that you drew his composite, and that he's going to come after you."
"I don't think that's very likely. It's only happened once before. Some child molester threatened to throw battery acid at me. But I think I've protected myself the best way I know how, which is to draw a really accurate likeness of him, so that he'll be caught quicker."
Sissy tied up her hair with a gray silk scarf. "Did you tell Trevor about the flowers?"
Molly looked away, and didn't answer.
"I said-"
"No. No I haven't. Not yet."
"Are you going to tell Trevor about the flowers?"
"I don't know. To tell you the truth, I'm in kind of two minds about it. What do you think?"
"They're a miracle, Molly! Somehow, you performed a miracle! He's your husband! Don't you think he ought to know?"
Molly played with her necklace so that it glittered in the lamplight. One of her favorite mascots on it was a tiny golden Egyptian crocodile with dark red garnets for eyes.
"I thought of telling him, honestly. If he had actually noticed them, I'm sure I would. But there they were, right in front of him-fully grown roses and daisies and bellflowers-and he didn't even realize that they hadn't been there when he left for work in the morning."
"Well, Trevor's the same as most men. They only see what they want to see."
Molly
Trevor said, "What are you saying, Momma? That something bad is going to happen to us?"
"Let's pray not. But it's best to be well prepared for it, if it does."
CHAPTER 8 - Giant
Sissy respected Trevor's wishes that night and left the DeVane cards untouched on her nightstand, although she was strongly tempted to try another reading. She could feel in her bones that the wheels of the world were moving beneath her, and that the next few days were going to see shifts and changes and shadows moving in contradiction to the sun.
She dressed in her long white linen nightgown and sat in front of the dressing table taking the pins and combs out of her hair, and brushing it out.
For a split second, in the shell pink lamplight, she saw herself as she had looked when she had married Frank and was sitting at her dressing table in Connecticut, brushing out her hair for her first night in bed with him. She still had the wide gray eyes and the delicate cheekbones, and that slightly fey, otherworldly look that had led Frank to describe her as a mermaid.
I'm still your mermaid, Frank. The girl you fell in love with, she's still here. I'm the same girl who ran barefoot through the dunes at Hyannis that July afternoon so long ago.
Then she angled her head a little to the left, and the lamplight suddenly betrayed her. She saw the crow's feet around her eyes and the lines around her mouth, and a neck that looked like crumpled tissue paper. The cries from the seagulls faded, and the warm ocean breeze died away, and here she was in her stuffy spare room in Trevor's house, all alone now, growing older with every night that passed.
Molly knocked on her door.
"Sissy? Is there anything you need? How about a glass of warm milk?"
"A time machine would be nice. Look at me. I'll be seventy-two before I know it. How did that happen? I don't feel seventy-two."
Molly came into the room and sat on the end of the bed. "You don't behave seventy-two, either, thank God."
"Trevor talked to me this evening. He wants me to stop fortune-telling while I'm here. He says it gives him the heebie-jeebies."
"You don't have to stop because of Trevor. You know what he's like. If it can't be weighed or measured or calculated, it doesn't exist. Mind you, he makes a living out of guessing the future, just like you. The only difference is, he tries to guess what isn't going to happen."
"He's frightened that Red Mask is going to find out that you drew his composite, and that he's going to come after you."
"I don't think that's very likely. It's only happened once before. Some child molester threatened to throw battery acid at me. But I think I've protected myself the best way I know how, which is to draw a really accurate likeness of him, so that he'll be caught quicker."
Sissy tied up her hair with a gray silk scarf. "Did you tell Trevor about the flowers?"
Molly looked away, and didn't answer.
"I said-"
"No. No I haven't. Not yet."
"Are you going to tell Trevor about the flowers?"
"I don't know. To tell you the truth, I'm in kind of two minds about it. What do you think?"
"They're a miracle, Molly! Somehow, you performed a miracle! He's your husband! Don't you think he ought to know?"
Molly played with her necklace so that it glittered in the lamplight. One of her favorite mascots on it was a tiny golden Egyptian crocodile with dark red garnets for eyes.
"I thought of telling him, honestly. If he had actually noticed them, I'm sure I would. But there they were, right in front of him-fully grown roses and daisies and bellflowers-and he didn't even realize that they hadn't been there when he left for work in the morning."
"Well, Trevor's the same as most men. They only see what they want to see."
Molly
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