Part 8 (1/2)
”Yes, probably,” Kyra said.
”I bet your mom knows things about the residents of Pine Crest that would curl your hair. Who knows, between now and Friday, she might slug down a few gla.s.ses of vino and pop out with the answers to questions that were put to her just right by her loving daughter. It's always a possibility, don't you think?”
He leaned across the s.p.a.ce between them and brushed his lips against hers.
”What do you say, babe?”
”Who knows?” Kyra said, trying to act nonchalant and hoping he couldn't hear the pounding of her heart. ”I guess anything's possible.”
CHAPTER.
TEN.
SARAH KNEW SHE SHOULD get the book read so that she could swap with Charlie, but she couldn't seem to make herself do it. After all, she told herself, Thanksgiving was still two weeks away, and there were more immediate demands upon her time-other homework to do, and a good deal of housework and cooking, since Rosemary still had only limited use of her arm and Ted insisted that he didn't ”have the touch for women's work.” There was an algebra test to study for, and even some social activity, as Eric invited her to the movies Wednesday evening. She found it a bit disappointing that he took her straight home afterward instead of stopping at the Burger Barn, where the high-school crowd gathered after dates, but Eric was quick to veto that idea when she suggested it.
”You can't afford to get chummy with the same kids whose fortunes you're telling,” he said. ”We don't want Madam Zoltanne to lose her mystique.”
On the plus side, he kissed her good night when he brought her home.
”Did anybody ever tell you that you're a knockout?” he murmured, holding her close for a moment, his cheek pressed to hers as if he didn't want to lose contact.
”Not for a while,” Sarah answered softly. ”I mean, never here in Pine Crest.”
”Then let me be the first,” Eric whispered, giving her a quick, tight squeeze before releasing her. ”I bet you'll look like a movie star in a prom dress.”
It wasn't exactly a promise of things to come, but it did suggest that there might be nice times in store for them.
Two nights later, when she informed Rosemary that Eric was again coming by to pick her up, Rosemary naturally a.s.sumed it was another conventional date like the one on Wednesday.
”Looks like you two are beginning to be a regular item,” she said with a note of teasing in her voice. Ted had taken Kyra out to dinner at a restaurant, and Sarah and Rosemary had had a comfortable, no-frills meal together, which reminded Sarah of the ones they had shared in California.
”Don't get me wrong, I think it's great,” Rosemary added quickly. ”Eric seems like a lovely young man, and thank G.o.d he was here and knew what to do when I burned myself. I couldn't be happier that you're starting to have a real life here.”
”I wish you had one,” Sarah said, feeling suddenly guilty about deserting her mother for the evening.
”I could have gone with Ted and Kyra,” Rosemary said. ”Ted would have been glad to have me, but I thought it would be good for him to have some private time with his daughter. He was so happy when Kyra called to suggest they spend the evening together that it made me realize how terribly much he misses her.”
”I didn't mean with Ted,” Sarah said. ”You see plenty of him. I was thinking about your doing things with friends like you did in California. Back there you were always so busy going to lectures and concerts and art shows, and here you don't have anything, not even a job.”
”I went over to the school the other day and applied for work as a subst.i.tute,” Rosemary said. ”They said they'd call me if they need me, but they weren't too encouraging. They said they've already got a long list of subst.i.tutes.”
”A subst.i.tute!” Sarah snorted. ”The woman who received the Teacher of the Year award at one of the best high schools in California is groveling for work as a subst.i.tute? Give me a break!”
”There aren't many teaching jobs available in a town with one high school,” Rosemary said. ”Besides, Ted likes the idea of being married to a homemaker.”
”Isn't that unrealistic for a man paying child support?”
”I'm not exactly a pauper,” her mother said stiffly.
”You can't dip into the investments you made with the money from Dad's life insurance!” Sarah exclaimed. ”You've always said you would only do that in an emergency!”
”I'm not going to do anything hasty,” her mother a.s.sured her. ”I do have other savings. And I'm sure I can find a part-time job doing something that will get me out of the house and bring in a little money. And as for friends, I'm sure that Ted and I will make plenty of friends as a couple-after we're married.”
The sound of the doorbell saved Sarah from having to respond.
Ted's apartment was exactly as they had left it. The sofa cus.h.i.+ons were plumped and undented, the kitchen appeared not to have been used, and when Sarah went into the bathroom to put on makeup, the hair shavings still decorated the sink and the towels on the racks were draped in the exact same way they had been the previous week.
”He hasn't been here once,” she commented to Eric as she exited the bathroom to find him arranging candles on the bureau top. He had already moved in the end table and set up the paperweight.
”Where's your costume?” he asked in surprise. ”I thought you were getting changed!”
”I decided not to wear it,” Sarah said. ”It was too small. Where's my cheat sheet? I'd better get busy cramming.”
”Here,” Eric said, digging a sheaf of papers out of his back pocket. ”You'd do best to read them one at a time so that you won't get the stuff mixed up. You've got enough time between readings to prep yourself on each person.”
Sarah began to skim the first paper.
”Cindy Morris? But I've already done her! I told her fortune at the carnival.”
”I told you people would be coming back for more,” Eric said. ”She told me what she wants to ask you. She wants to know what happened to her doll, Dorcas. It disappeared one day and she could never find it. G.o.d knows why, but she's been brooding about it ever since.”
”Kyra can't possibly know what happened to Cindy's old doll.”
”Maybe not, but her mom does,” Eric said. ”Mrs. Thompson is good friends with Cindy's mother. She was there when poor Dorcas bit the dust, or maybe I should say *went up in smoke.' ”
”You mean Kyra is getting information from her mother? Sarah exclaimed. ”I just can't use that, Eric. I can't take information from her! It's bad enough to have Kyra involved, but her mother ... ?”
”What difference does it make where the info comes from?” Eric asked reasonably. ”You're giving your clients what they want, and n.o.body's getting hurt. And Mrs. Thompson is benefiting her own daughter. Kyra goes home with the same amount of money we do.”
The doorbell chimed.
”That's Cindy now,” Eric said. ”It's time to get going, Madam Zoltanne. Do the same great job you did last week, and with four clients at ten bucks apiece, we'll each be over twelve bucks richer.”
Before she could respond, he was gone from the room, and because there was no alternative, Sarah quickly skimmed the notes Kyra had made about Cindy Morris. Her stomach gave a lurch as she saw what they contained. Then she slipped them under the draped black cloth that shrouded the table and sat there stiffly waiting for Cindy to enter. After all, she told herself, it was only a doll. Most little girls lost their dolls in one way or another. She didn't have any of the dolls she had owned as a child, and if somebody had asked her what had happened to them, she couldn't have told them. It didn't matter enough to her even to wonder about it.
The door swung open, and Eric ushered Cindy in.
”Here I am again,” the pretty blond girl said self-consciously as the door closed behind her and she took her seat at the table. She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly like a sigh. ”I wouldn't be telling you this, except I think you know it already. After all, that's what you do-you look in that ball and see things.”
”The crystal ball doesn't always give answers,” Sarah said. ”Sometimes the visions are cloudy.”
”But all the things you told me last time were correct,” Cindy said. ”I didn't want to admit it, but you were right about everything. You said I once had another name, and I did. My parents adopted me when they were overseas doing missionary work, but n.o.body knows I'm adopted except their closest friends. And, like you implied, I do touch up my hair, and I did once wear braces. And I did have a doll named Dorcas.” She paused, and when Sarah didn't respond, she asked, ”What happened to her? What happened to Dorcas? I have to know what happened to Dorcas.”
Sarah was swept by guilt at the intensity in Cindy's voice. There was nothing playful about this. It wasn't fun. She was hearing the deepest secrets straight out of the heart of a girl she barely knew, and she had no right to do that.
”I can't tell you,” she said. ”I don't know. This isn't what you think it is.”