Mercy by Sarah L. Thomson Read Free Book Online Page B

room and dumped him on the soft carpet, where he could kick and thrash if he wanted to without hurting himself. “Go ahead, cry. Like it’ssuch a tragedy being stuck here with me. This wasn’t my idea of fun either,” she informed the little boy.
    Eddie howled. There were no tears, Haley noticed. It was pure rage. His world had been disrupted, his plans had been laid aside, and it was all simply unacceptable.
    â€œYeah, well, welcome to the world, kid,” Haley muttered, and flopped down on the couch. When Eddie got like this there was no solution but to let him cry it out. In a few minutes he’d calm down a little and she’d get him a cookie, which would bring a good mood back like flipping a switch. Then she’d call Mel and cancel when there wouldn’t be screaming in the background. Elaine didn’t approve of her bribing Eddie with food, but Elaine wasn’t around, was she?
    Haley felt the camera in her pocket nudge against her side and took it out. Turning it on, she focused on Eddie, zooming in for a close-up. His face was as red as a brick, his eyes squinched tight shut, his mouth open as wide as it could go. She clicked the shutter, zoomed in even more. Her brother’s angry face filled the screen the way his screams filled the room.

I t was the heart of winter. Too cold to dig a grave.
    In the churchyard there was a crypt aboveground, built of stones from the field. We were not a wealthy congregation and had no money to spare on fancy stonework for the dead. This was where they laid my body to wait until the ground thawed.
    My father, by that time, had been wrung dry of tears. He stood watching as they slid my coffin into its resting place. Huddled in his long brown woolen coat, the collar turned up to his ears, the beard that he kept thick and long in winter covering half his face, he looked baffled and angry, not grief-stricken. Like a great bear woken too early from his winter sleep. He looked as if he wanted to roar with fury, swing a strong clawed arm and split someone in two. But who was there for him to attack? Where could his rage go?
    Behind my father, a little to one side, were his two remaining children. Patience had Edwin by the hand. All around her, people tugged capes and coats closer, hugged their arms tight, but Patience was never bothered by the cold. She looked as ifshe were counting the mourners, adding up the total in her mind, calculating the respect shown to the Brown family.
    Some of the women wept openly. The men frowned and shuffled their feet. None of them gathered together to whisper, to cast sidelong glances, to put fear into ugly shapes, into words with claws and fangs to hurt, words with wings to flit from ear to ear, mind to mind, heart to heart.
    That would come later.
    Edwin clung to Patience’s hand. Thin and pale, he looked half-smothered in coat and scarf and cap. He shivered in the icy air.

S unny was so happy to see Jake that she couldn’t contain herself. She wouldn’t jump on him, but she nearly crawled up onto his lap as he sat on the edge of his bed. After letting him pet her for a few seconds, she flung herself away to race around the room, sniffing eagerly at everything her nose could reach, before returning to Jake’s side, panting happily.
    Maia laughed. “Now I see what I’ve been doing wrong. All those dates I’ve been on—what a waste! I need to get myself a dog. Just someone to be that glad to see me when I get home.”
    Jake still had his pajamas on, a limp gray T-shirt over flannel pants, his feet bare. That meant he probably hadn’t gotten out of bed until Maia had arrived. He hadn’t shaved.
    â€œMuch, much better than dating,” Jake agreed, fondling Sunny’s ears. “For one thing, it’s not so expensive to take her out to dinner.”
    Maia’s laugh was rich and dark and chocolaty. Haley had never understood how Maia could be so happy. A visiting nurse