Nightway by Janet Dailey Read Free Book Online Page A

solicit sympathy. It was a statement of fact—nothing more.
    “Where do you live?” His answer prompted another question from her.
    “He’s going to be living with us,” her father explained.
    “Yes, but first, Tom Rawlins,” the woman inserted, “you are going to see that the boy is cleaned up. Iwouldn’t be surprised if he is infested with lice. Where are the clothes he brought? I’ll need to wash them, too—and the ones he’s wearing.”
    “You’re right, Vera,” the man sighed, as if he were reluctant to agree. “His things are wrapped in that blanket on the porch. He’ll need something to wear in the meantime.”
    “Katheryn left a box of old clothes that Chad has outgrown. She brought them over last week so I could take them to the Women’s Club at church. We’re sending them to a missionary in South America to distribute to the needy. There should be something in the box of clothes to fit the boy.”
    Setting the little girl down from his lap, the man rose. “Come on, Hawk. We’ll get your head shampooed first; then you can take a bath.”
    There was a grim resignation in the man’s face when he motioned Hawk toward the porch. Hawk found it strange because he understood all about the crawling lice. Once they were so bad in Crooked Leg’s hogan that he and his family had to abandon it and build another.
    “She soaped my hair again and again and took the blankets outside every day for the sun to kill them.” Hawk explained the ritual that had been part of his life—and that of many other hogans, as well. “It was the only way to keep them away. Sometimes they came, anyway.”
    Rawlins looked disgusted as he turned on the water. “You won’t find any lice in this house.”
    Hawk thought they were very fortunate, indeed, but he wasn’t able to say so as his head was pushed under the running water. After his hair was shampooed, he was taken to a small room beyond the kitchen where there was a long white tub standing on four feet that looked like a cougar’s claws. It was what his father hadonce described as a bathtub. Rawlins let water run into it. With instructions to put on the clean clothes folded in a stack on a table hooked to the wall after Hawk had finished his bath, Rawlins left him alone.
    Because of the scarcity of water, baths had always been a luxury for Hawk. Perhaps here there was a limitless supply of the precious liquid. Hawk washed very slowly, enjoying this rare opportunity to the fullest. After his bath, he put on the clothes. They were loose on him, but they were clean and smelled good.
    When he came out, he helped Rawlins carry boxes from a small storage room and install a narrow bed and a chest of drawers in the vacated space. He was told this was the room where he would sleep.
    There was much to observe, much that was new to him, and strange. He was instructed in how to clean his teeth and shown how to use oil to tame the springy thickness of his hair, combing it to one side the way it wanted to go. That night, he was given a different set of clothes to sleep in, called pajamas, confirming what the teachers at school had taught, yet contrary to the habits of his father.
    Hawk didn’t sleep well. There were too many sounds that weren’t natural to him. The minute the sun peeked in his window the next morning, he was up and dressed. Once he left his room, there was very little light to show him the way, but he didn’t turn on any of the electric switches.
    Making his way onto the porch, Hawk searched through the coats hanging on the wall hooks looking for his own. Behind him, the kitchen was suddenly flooded with light. Startled, Hawk turned sharply to face the door and accidentally knocked over a boot.
    “Who’s out there?” There was a thread of fear in the imperious demand made by the woman. Before Hawk could answer and identify himself, she was in thedoorway glaring at him. “What are you doing sneaking around at this hour?”
    “What is it, Vera? Who are you