Part 3 (2/2)
”Then let Queenie sleep in there! Let me have my own room back, Mama!”
”Queenie,needs to have a bathroom of her own. And I want her to be near me, darling, so I can hear her if she calls.”
”Let me go over to James's, then.”
”James has his hands full with Danjo.” Elinor's voice wasn't as soft now as when Frances had made her first plea. ”Do you have any other suggestions?”
”I'll even go stay with Grandmama.”
”Miss Mary-Love would never let me hear the end of it, if I sent you over there when I have got an empty bed in this house. I don't want to hear another word. You're going to sleep in the front room until Queenie is well enough to go home and until we're sure that Carl is not going to bother her anymore. Do you understand?”
'TElinor!” Queenie called through the window.
Elinor stepped over to the window and peered in. ”Queenie, can I do something for you?”
”You sure can. I couldn't help hearing all of that and I want you to put me in the front room, and let Frances have her room back.”
”Queenie, I hope you weren't taking Frances's nonsense seriously.”
”She doesn't want me in her bed, and I can understand that. She wants her own little room back. If this were my room, I wouldn't want to give it up either.”
”Queenie, I'm not letting you move. Now you listen, you need your own bathroom, and I want you where I can sit out here on the porch and talk to you 50.through the window. That's why you are where you are, and there is no reason on this earth why Frances can't sleep in the front room. It is only six feet away. The front room is not at the end of the earth.”
Frances listened to this conversation with trembling.
”Frances,” said her mother sternly, ”come with me.”
Frances followed her mother down the hall into the front room. Elinor unhesitatingly went over to the closet and pulled open the door. ”Now do you see that there is nothing inside this closet? I have got so much stuff in there that there is not room for anything to be hiding in there.”
The child made no reply, but only hung her head.
”Frances, have you been talking to Ivey Sapp? Has Ivey been telling you stories about things that are supposed to eat up little girls?”
”No, ma'am!”
”Are you sure?”
”Yes, ma'am.”
”Well, if Ivey does start to try and fill your head with nonsense like that, I don't want you to listen to her. Ivey doesn't always know what she's talking about. Ivey gets things wrong.”
”Then there are things that eat you?”
”Not in this closet,” replied her mother with a disquieting evasiveness.
”Where are they then?”
”Nothing's going to eat you, darling,” said Elinor as she closed the closet door and seated herself on the edge of the bed. ”Come here, Frances.” Frances went over timidly to her mother and Elinor lifted her up beside her.
”Yes, ma'am?”
”Now, we go out together sometimes on the river in Bray's little boat, right?”
”Yes, ma'am/'
”Are you afraid then?”
51.”No, ma'am.”
”Why not? Other little girls would be afraid. Lucille Strickland won't go out in a boat on the Per-dido.”
”It's 'cause you're there, Mama, that's why I'm not afraid.”
Elinor hugged Frances close, and said, ”That's right, you're my little girl, and nothing's ever going to happen to you. Besides, you of all people never have to be afraid of that river. So why are you afraid to stay in this room, when you know I'm right across the hall?”
”I don't know,” said Frances, troubled. ” 'Cause it might get me before you could come in and save me.”
”What is 'it'?”
”I don't know.”
”Then how do you know it's there?”
”I can feel it, Mama!”
Elinor pried her daughter's arms from around her waist, pushed her aside, and looked directly in her face. ”Now, listen to me, Frances,” she said in a patient but determined voice, ”there is nothing in this room to hurt you, you understand? If you see anything, it's only your imagination. It's shadows, it's dust catching the light. If you hear anything, it's only your imagination. It's the house settling on its foundations, or it's the furniture creaking. If you feel anything touching you, it's your nerves going to sleep or it's a mosquito landing on your arm. That's all it is. You're dreaming. You're dreaming that you hear something, you're dreaming that you see something, you're dreaming that something is trying to pull you out of bed. Do you understand? Nothing will happen to you in this room because I won't let it.”
Her mother showed her that some of her clothes had already been brought in and hung up in the chifforobe. Elinor pulled out drawers and made her daughter admit how sweet the sachet inside smelled. She opened the curtains and showed Frances that 52.the view of the levee and Miss Mary-Love's house was very nearly the same from here as from her own room. At the last, Elinor turned the key in the lock of the door of the small closet, and said, ”Look, Frances, I'm locking the door. So you don't have to worry. If there's anything inside there, it won't be able to get out now. You'll be perfectly safe. And just remember, if you hear anything or see anything or feel anything, don't pay any attention. It's just your imagination. You're my little girl, and nothing can happen to you.”
CHAPTER 32.
Locked or Unlocked
That first night of Queenie's return to Perdido, Frances played out her entire repertoire of procrastination tricks, but ingenious as she was, at last she was roused out of her father's lap on the porch and told that she must absolutely go to bed.
”Why are you being like this?” her father asked.
”She's afraid to go to bed,” Elinor explained.
”You have slept by yourself since you were a little girl,” cried Oscar in surprise.
”She's not afraid of being by herself,” Elinor continued, ”she's afraid of the front room.”
”What's in the front room?” Oscar asked. ”I can hardly remember the last time I was even in there. I remember looking at the new curtains, but that was years and years ago! Elinor, have you taken in a boarder that I don't know anything about?”
<script>