Phantom by Thomas Tessier Read Free Book Online

to know what is right and good
for a child, and what isn't. You keep thinking and hoping that it
will get easier as the child grows older, but it doesn't. It gets
worse, and harder.
    She looked at Michael. A good, well-meaning
man. Solid and reliable. It had been a pleasure to watch him grow
over the years from a nervous and somewhat awkward youth into an
assured and sociable man. A devoted husband and father, too. If at
times he seemed a little complacent, if the edge was softening—was
that so unexpected, so terrible? It happened to everyone. Didn't
it?
    As for herself, Linda knew she wasn't making
much of an effort to fight the tide, real or imaginary. Your body
slackens, your face changes. After all, she had been a mother for
nearly ten years now. The mind shifts as well. She was aware of the
fact that she read more magazines and fewer books than she once
had. It seemed that any old radio program would do, whereas in the
past she had searched out good classical broadcasts. And, worst of
all, she surrendered now to television shows she would never have
even glanced at a few years ago. At her gloomiest Linda felt as if
she were caught in a vast process of attrition, the slow but
inexorable obliteration of herself as a person.
    Day after day
    In every way
    I’m turning gray.
    On the other hand, Michael's mind never
seemed to stray within a thousand miles of such thoughts. He had
reached the point where he took life as it came and rode with it,
lucky man. He was so remarkably free of uncertainty that Linda
didn't know whether to be envious or frightened.
    Their lives were one thing, but what was
important above all else was to make sure that everything was right
for Ned. Insofar as it was humanly possible, Linda was determined
to see that it was done.
    A child is all you have.
    One boy-child.
    "Hey honey, why the face?"
    Oh, yes, and a husband. Linda smiled
mechanically and took another sip of sherry.
    "Game of cribbage?" Michael asked.
    "I couldn't pay attention to the cards
tonight. Do you mind?"
    Michael shrugged. "Okay. I just asked."
    "Do you think Ned spends too much time with
those men at the bait place or whatever it is? I worry about
that."
    "Oh, I think it's all right," Michael
answered after a few seconds' thought. "I asked Bill Fischer next
door about them and he says they're just a pair of harmless old
coots."
    "You don't think they might be a little ...
funny? With Ned being a pretty, young boy, you. know, they—
    "Nah listen. There's no gossip at all about
them, and. there'd be plenty if there was even the flimsiest reason
for it. You know that. Besides, Bill said they've been here
practically since the last Ice Age and never any trouble."
    "Well, it still doesn't seem right to me,"
Linda persisted. "He goes over there to see them almost every
day."
    "So he has found a couple of
friends."
    "Michael, they're a couple of old wharf rats
who live in a setting that belongs on Tobacco Road."
    Michael frowned at his whiskey. "That's
rather judgmental, don't you think?"
    Linda looked away. ''I'm sorry," she said.
"Maybe it was, but he is our son."
    Michael rose and went to get another
bourbon. He could see that this had the makings of a three-or
four-drink discussion.
    "Look, honey, Ned's grandparents are way the
hell up in Buffalo and he sees them only once or twice a year. So
it shouldn't come as any surprise to find that when he has the
chance he enjoys the company of a couple of older people. That's
natural and good for a kid. It increases his perspective. And
secondly, whether you like them or not, and you don't even know
them, what are you going to do? Tell Ned he can't see them, that he
has to stay away from that place? What would that accomplish?"
    Linda shook her head unhappily. "No, I don't
suppose that would do any good."
    "Of course it wouldn't. More sherry?"
    "No, thanks."
    "Linda, if you want, I'll ask around some
more about those two old-timers, maybe even go down there myself
and check them out. But I