Woman in Red by Eileen Goudge Read Free Book Online

on Sunday, are you?”
    “Gee, I don’t know. I’ll have to check my calendar,” Alice answered dryly.
    Denise didn’t respond, and a heavy silence fell, weighted with all that was left unsaid. Her sister had to be thinking about the changes that lay ahead, not just the good ones but the fact that the status quo that had existed for the past nine years would be disrupted. For one thing, Denise’s husband, Gary, was deputy chief of police; however much he might like Alice, her presence would put him in an awkward position. And the children Denise taught in school all had parents who might take a dim view of her harboring a paroled convict.
    “Thank you, by the way. For coming to get me,” Alice said at last, in a tone that conveyed gratitude for more than the ride. Thank you for not abandoning me. For coming to see me all those years. For giving me a reason to live . “Gary won’t mind my staying the night?”

    “Please. You’re my sister.” Denise waved aside any such concerns, but Alice noticed she hadn’t given a direct answer. Now, she chattered on, “Wait’ll you see how big the kids have gotten. Ryan’s as tall as Gary. He just made the varsity team, did I tell you? We’re all thrilled about it. Of course, we told him he can’t put football over his schoolwork, not if he wants to go to a decent college.” With them barely scraping by on her and Gary’s combined income, it was a scholarship or community college, Alice knew.
    “Speaking of school, is Taylor still planning to boycott fourth grade?” she asked. Her sister had told her that Taylor was getting teased a lot and often came home from school in tears.
    “Oh. Well. You know how kids are. She’ll get over it,” Denise said with a lightness that belied her concern. “Ryan had me for a teacher, too, and it certainly hasn’t affected his social life. In fact, if the girls don’t stop calling, we’ll have to put in another phone line.”
    Denise herself had been the butt of every fat joke in grade school, the girl who’d sat on the sidelines at dances and gotten picked last for every team. Alice thought that was what made her such a good teacher; she could empathize with the kids who had trouble fitting in.
    Alice wondered what it had been like for Jeremy. She’d missed practically his whole childhood. Oh, what she would have given to have been there even for the tough times! The tears and tirades, the awkward prepubescent years. Instead, she’d had only his infrequent letters that she’d scrutinized like tea leaves, struggling to read some meaning in them. Now, she ventured cautiously, “Have you spoken with Jeremy? About me, I mean.”

    Denise shot her a guarded look. “We don’t see him as much as we used to. He’s been pretty busy with his afterschool job.”
    “How does he seem to you?” All day the question had been beating like a moth’s wings against the window in her heart where Alice had kept a light burning all these years.
    “Okay. Really, Alice, he’s okay . He’s a great kid. And so smart! I really think he has a shot at the Ivy Leagues.”
    “I know he’s smart,” Alice replied sharply. “I’m his mother, remember?”
    “I didn’t mean . . .” her sister started to say, but it was too late: the old pain surfaced, punching through the wall Alice had carefully constructed around her emotions. Suddenly it was all too much. She felt dizzy and disoriented, like when waking from a deep sleep, her head still clouded with fragments of a dream. Only this was no dream.
    “I know you didn’t mean anything by it,” she said, realizing she’d been unfair to take it out on Denise.
    Her sister cast her a woeful look. “I’m sorry. I know this is hard for you. And I’m not making it any easier, am I? It’s just that I don’t know how much to tell.”
    Alice’s response was immediate and unequivocal. “I want to know about my son.”
    Denise sighed. “Well, as far as I can tell, he’s coping pretty well.