Part 10 (1/2)

THE NEXT TIME CURTIS CALLED UP TO INVITE NEELY AND Grub to Halcyon there were new things to take into consideration, one of them being that any particular visit might be their last one. At any point Mom and Dad might give up on getting acquainted with the Hutchinsons and make Halcyon House off-limits forever. Or, on the other hand, they might somehow manage to meet the Hutchinsons, in which case the outcome would probably be pretty much the same. Either way it would be the end of going to Halcyon, since a successful meeting between Connie Bradford and Joyce Hutchinson was pretty impossible to imagine.

After thinking and worrying for quite a long time, Neely decided that maybe it was all for the best. The visits would stop-very soon. Just as soon, in fact, as she had one more chance to talk to Carmen. One chance to find out a little bit more about the mystery of Monica, not to mention exactly what Carmen had meant when she warned Neely to watch over Grub.

So the next Sat.u.r.day when Curtis called up she said okay-for what was probably the last time. But of course she didn't mention that fact to Curtis-or to Grub.

It was beautiful fall weather that Sat.u.r.day morning and as Neely and Grub climbed up Halcyon Hill in the soft suns.h.i.+ne, the gentle warmth and the absolutely calm air made Neely think about the meaning of the word halcyon, and how it came from a myth about a beautiful bird. About a bird whose nesting season was always a time of peace and calm.

Trudging up the road through the soft fall warmth, with a humming, smiling Grub skipping along beside her, was like a brief halcyon moment. A very brief moment, since there was something she was going to have to do before the day was over that would take away a lot of peace and tranquility, at least where Grub was concerned.

She was going to have to tell him that this was their last visit to Halcyon, and the sooner the better, since he would hate it even more if he didn't have time to say good-bye. Taking a deep breath, she began: ”I'm getting a little bored with going to Halcyon. Aren't you?”

”Bored?” Grub stopped skipping, thought for a moment, and then nodded slowly. ”Yes. A little, I guess. But we can't stop. We can't stop going there.”

”Why not? Why can't we?”

”Because...it would be lonely there without us.”

Neely stopped walking and stared at Grub, and he stared back, wide-eyed, smiling just a little.

Neely put her hands on her hips. ”Grubbie. You say the weirdest things sometimes. Who'd be lonely?”

”Lion,” Grub said promptly, and then after a pause, ”and Carmen, and Curtis and... He stopped, letting his gaze drift off into s.p.a.ce.

Neely didn't say ”and Monica,” even though it was right at the very tip of her tongue. She didn't know why but somehow she didn't think she should. But even though she didn't say ”and Monica” she was certainly thinking it-and she was pretty sure that Grub knew that she was.

The next step, of course, was to tell Grub that this would be their last visit-and try to explain why. But somehow she couldn't do it. Not now. Not in the midst of this beautiful halcyon moment. So instead of going on with what she had planned to say she suggested playing Hinky Pinky, one of Grub's favorite word games, to get his mind off the subject. To get both their minds off the subject, really.

They had gone through the gate and were on their way up the long curve to Halcyon House, and Neely had just grabbed Grub and started to tickle him to pay him back for turning one of his Hinky Pinky answers into a kind of insult. (The clue he'd given was ”a slimy girl” and his answer turned out to be ”eely Neely.”) Grub was very ticklish, so he was squealing and giggling and Neely was laughing, too, when she looked up and there was Curtis watching them. He was wearing his baggy shorts and a faded blue T-s.h.i.+rt and carrying a pool stick. As he stared at Grub and Neely, he kept swinging the stick around in front of him.

”Oh, hi.” Neely laughed. She let go of Grub and he bounced away.

”Hi, Curtis,” Grub said. He was still giggling but Curtis stared at him without even smiling. Then he turned and walked toward the house, switching the bushes beside the road with the pool stick as he went. Grub looked at Neely and they both did a questioning shrug, and then Neely hurried to catch up. When she said, ”Thanks for coming down to meet us,” Curtis only glared.

”I didn't come down to meet you,” he said in a surly tone of voice. ”I just went down to unlock the gate.”

Neely laughed. ”Okay. Then thanks for unlocking the gate.”

He only shrugged but at least he looked at her for a moment. A minute later he said, ”Well, my dad's gone.”

”Gone?” Neely said. ”Where? Where'd he go?”

”To this kind of mental-health place in San Francisco, with some other people who go to his shrink. They're having, like, this group session kind of thing where they all sit around and talk about their problems.”

”Oh.” Neely nodded. ”Well, that sounds good. Lucie, you know, my sister, said they did something like that in one of her psychology cla.s.ses. They all sat around and talked about stuff like that. She said it was kind of fun.”

”Yeah, sure,” Curtis said. ”Lots of fun.”

No one said anything more for a while, but a little later Curtis stopped hitting things with his stick and by the time they got to the house he seemed to be in a little better mood. As they were going up the wide stone steps of the veranda he asked Neely if she wanted to play pool. She didn't really, but since he was in such a bad mood she decided she'd better not make it worse by arguing. She would play pool, that is, if she could talk Grub into staying in the game room, too, instead of going on alone to the nursery. And that, she knew, wouldn't be easy.

It took some fast talking, first of all, to get Curtis to agree to let Grub try his hand at playing pool, and some even faster talking to get Grub to think he wanted to.

”We'll all take turns playing pool for a while,” she told them, ”and then we'll all three go up to the nursery. Okay?”

At last she got some grudging okays, but it soon became obvious that neither Grub nor Curtis was having a very good time. Grub was really too short to use the cue stick very well and Curtis refused to teach him how to do it, as he had with Neely. Instead, he kept making disgusted snorting noises when Neely tried to show Grub how to hold the stick. Neely was about to give up and suggest they all go upstairs when she realized that this might be her best chance to have a private conversation with Carmen. Particularly since it might be better to leave Grub in the game room rather than in the nursery. So the next time it was Grub's turn to play against Curtis, Neely announced that she was terribly thirsty.

”You two guys play for a while,” she said. ”I'll be back as soon as I get a drink. I'll just run down to the kitchen. Is Carmen there, Curtis?”

Curtis was so busy watching Grub that he didn't hear Neely's question, at least not right away. Grub was standing on tiptoe and the end of the cue stick was almost touching the end of his nose. It did look pretty funny but Curtis wasn't laughing. Staring through narrowed eyes, he seemed to be so intent on what Grub was doing that Neely had to ask again about Carmen before he heard her and answered.

”Yeah, sure,” he said finally. ”She's in the kitchen.”

But when Neely got to the kitchen Carmen was nowhere in sight. Neely wandered around for a few minutes, looking out the windows to see if Carmen had gone out to the garbage pail, or maybe to feed Lion. But there was no sign of her there either.

Right at that moment, standing there in the middle of the kitchen, Neely considered giving up and going back to the game room. Which might very well be giving up on her last chance to talk to Carmen about Grub-and about Monica as well. She hated to give up, but what else could she do. Unless...

Having suddenly decided to see if Carmen was in her room, she ran up the back stairs and down the long, dim hall-but when she knocked on Carmen's door there was no answer. After knocking twice more Neely reluctantly gave up and went back downstairs, wondering why people who were almost always around insisted on disappearing when you most desperately needed to see them. She was in the lower hallway and starting toward the game room when she decided to take one last look in the kitchen.

This time, as she entered the room, Carmen was coming through the door from the pantries. She was wearing a big ap.r.o.n and yellow rubber gloves, and carrying a large tin pail full of soapy water.

”Hi, Carmen,” Neely said. ”I've been looking all over for you. I guess you're pretty busy but I wonder if I could talk to you?”

”Why, h.e.l.lo, Neely,” Carmen said. ”I didn't know you were here.” She glanced around and then said, ”And Grub. Is Grub here too?”

”Oh, he's all right,” Neely said. ”He's not in the nursery. He's in the game room. And Curtis is with him.”

Carmen nodded. ”With Curtis?”

”Yes,” Neely said. ”They're playing pool, more or less.”

Carmen was frowning. ”More or less?” she asked.

Neely grinned. ”Yeah. Grub hasn't ever played and he's not too good at it, and Curtis isn't exactly in one of his better moods.”

Carmen's answering smile was distant, preoccupied, and as Neely watched it changed into something that looked like sudden fear. Carmen started across the kitchen and as she pa.s.sed the table she reached out to put down the bucket of soapy water-but she didn't reach quite far enough. Neely made a dive to catch the falling bucket but she was too late. It hit the floor with a loud clatter and a great splash of soapy water. Carmen didn't even look back.

Chapter 35.

THE GAME ROOM WAS EMPTY, THE CUE STICKS WERE STILL lying on the table among scattered b.a.l.l.s, but there was no sign of Grub or Curtis. Carmen looked around quickly and then hurried across the room and into the library. As Neely followed close behind her, she found herself fighting against a slowly rising tide of anxiety. There was no one in the library. From above the mantel Monica and her family looked out across a silent, empty room.

Back in the game room Carmen leaned for a moment against the pool table. She was breathing hard, her hands still in the yellow rubber gloves, clutching the table railing. Neely stared at the gloved hands, her mind racing in confused circles. Something about the strangeness of the wet rubber gloves on the beautiful inlaid wood was terribly frightening, turning the trickle of anxiety into a sudden flood of terror.