The Haunter of the Threshold by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

it.”
    Hazel ground her teeth. “Oh, that is gross.”
    “Must’ve been quite a shock. Frank walked in there thinking he was going to see his old friend, but his old friend was dead.”
    “Wait a minute,” the idea flashed in Hazel’s head. “So you’re telling me that Henry Wilmarth killed himself in the same cabin we’re going to be staying in?”
    Sonia nodded with some reluctance. “I...guess I should’ve told you that too—”
    Hazel was astonished. “Yeah, well, maybe that might’ve been nice!”
    “But then you wouldn’t have come...”
    Yes, I would’ve, Hazel knew.
    “You’re a teaching assistant at an Ivy League college, Hazel,” Sonia justified her neglect with information. She cast Hazel another beaming grin. “You don’t believe in ghosts, do you?”
    “No! But at least tell me he didn’t off himself in the bed I’ll be sleeping in!”
    Sonia laughed light-heartedly. “No. He hanged himself. In his den. If anyone needs to be concerned about ghosts, it’s Frank ‘cos the den’s where all Wilmarth’s papers are.”
    Great. I’m staying in a cabin out in the boondocks where a guy croaked! Hazel liked surprises of a sexual nature but not surprises such as this. However, her irritation melted away when Sonia, next, patted Hazel’s knee, and assured, “We’re going to have a lot of fun, just you wait.”
    “Oh, I’m fine,” Hazel said.
    “And Frank says there are some neat, out-of-the-way places to eat. Authentic regional cuisine.”
    “Oh, granite burgers, right?”
    “Don’t be a smart ass.”
    “Actually, I pretty much eat anything,” Hazel said. “When I eat rock crabs or lobster, I even eat the guts.”
    “Thanks for sharing that with me,” Sonia said and made a face.
    “When I was in junior high, my father took me to Phoenix—he had some kind of minister’s convention—and I ate roasted iguana, and—yes—it tasted like chicken.”
    “Yuck. Cold-blooded animals should be in a terrarium, not on the dinner table.”
    Yeah, I eat anything, all right, Hazel’s dirty thoughts kicked in. And I’d sell my soul to eat YOU, but then the cross about her neck seemed to heat up as if in outrage. My soul? She could’ve laughed. Who am I kidding? With the shit in my head, and all the sins I’ve committed, my soul’s worth about a buck. In Monopoly money.
    Exits for Framingham, Waltham, and Boston swooshed by on the overhead green road signs; even in this little time, they’d already penetrated Massachusetts. Suddenly Hazel felt a pang of despair. Time tended to fly when she was enjoying herself, and she feared this trip would be over before she knew it. It would be the most time she’d spent with Sonia in the two years she’d known her. She MUST know I have feelings for her. I KNOW she does. Hazel could only hope that circumstance—and perhaps a little attraction on Sonia’s part–might leave the older woman with her guard down. Just one night, just one hour...Please...
    Her mind was running circles again; it always did when her obsessions encroached. Find something to talk about! She fished for small-talk ideas, then settled for, “You said Frank and Wilmarth were working on a side project?”
    “Yes, for years, along with Frank’s dad.”
    “What kind of project?”
    “Just boring math shit. They’re all eggheads. In fact, a long time ago, Frank’s father was the dean of Princeton’s school for applied mathematics.”
    “Wow. I guess Frank inherited dear ole dad’s smarts.”
    Sonia giggled. “And his looks, too. One time I saw an old picture of his father and he was the spitting image of Errol Flynn.”
    “Errol.... Oh, is he the guy with the mullet on American Idol? ”
    Sonia stared. “You really are a kid, Hazel. But I guess that’s my point: smarts and looks run in the family. It’s funny, the thing I’m most attracted to in Frank is his personality, but it also helps that he’s handsome as hell.”
    Hazel kept her hands steady on the wheel.