Pin by Andrew Neiderman Read Free Book Online Page B

like to show it.”
    â€œI don’t think so. What bothers him, if anything, is that he’s got to be in the office on Sunday.” I nodded. What could I say? Father cherished his days off. He really did.
    Father went to the office first that Sunday. I accompanied Ursula. Mother didn’t know a thing about it. He looked a little surprised that I had come along too. I stood there in the doorway with her while he made his preparations. We looked at Pin and Pin looked at us, but we didn’t say anything to him. It was father who started talking to him.
    â€œNo education like the real thing, eh, Pin?” he said. “This is where it’s at, as the kids say nowadays. I took my time explaining sex to them, gave them a better start than I had; but where did it get me, huh? It got me a Sunday in the office.” He turned around and looked at us. “OK, come on in, Ursula. Leon? Are you going to observe?”
    â€œNo, sir.”
    â€œMight be educational.”
    Ursula was close to tears. She took my hand firmly in hers and I was afraid she would never let go. I shook my head.
    â€œOK, then,” he said. “You can go out and close the door. Read a magazine.” I nodded.
    When I stepped out and turned around to closethe door, father had just taken Ursula by the hand and was gently but firmly leading her to the table. I closed the door. My heart was beating very fast. I felt a little shaky. But the thing that surprised me the most was the tear that had made its way down my cheek to the corner of my mouth.

Chapter 4

    U RSULA STAYED IN BED FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS afterward. My father told my mother that she was having a bad time with her menstruation. Mother brought food up to her, but Ursula ate very little. Most of the time she lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. When I came home, I tried talking to her, but she didn’t answer much. Then on the third morning, she just got up and went to school as if nothing had happened. From that day, though, until she brought Stanley home, she never went out with boys. It was quite a drastic reversal. Mother didn’t seem to notice or care and father was always too busy with his profession to really take an interest. He never really knew much about her dates when she did go out with boys.
    For a long time afterward, she didn’t have the Need, or if she did, she kept it bottled up inside her. I asked her about it a number of times, but she just shrugged. I really was very worried about her. Pin and I talked over the situation. I thought she was heading for some kind of mental breakdown. What I used to do was go over to father’s office at night. I had one of his keys. And I’d sit in the dark on the floor at Pin’s feet and talk. I asked Ursula to come with me all the time, but she always refused. The only time she couldn’t refuse was the night mother and father were killed.
    Ralph Wilson, one of the local policemen, called at two in the morning. I wasn’t sleeping, but Ursula was.
    â€œYour parents have been in a bad accident, Leon.”
    â€œHow bad?”
    â€œPretty bad. I’ll be over to your house in a few minutes to explain all of it. You and your sister want to be up.”
    â€œI am up.”
    â€œBe right there,” he said. After he hung up, I went into Ursula’s room and woke her up. I had to keep repeating things because she was in such a daze.
    â€œWhat do you mean, accident?”
    â€œAccident, accident. Don’t you know what accident means? They didn’t slip on the ice. They’re in a car. There must’ve been a crash.”
    â€œOh, my God.” She finally got up and got her robe on. We went downstairs and waited for Ralph Wilson.
    He took his hat off as soon as he walked through the front entrance. I thought that was overly dramatic.I’ve known Ralph Wilson all my life and it seemed very strange for him to be acting so formal with us. Ursula stood to the side,