Страница 40 из 70
Superior, Duluth’s sister city, located to the east just over the canal, dampened A
A
At 103rd Street A
Number 1047 had nothing to recommend it but Jo’s assertion that De
Lest her sitting there alarm the occupant-the neighborhood was seedy and A
Half a minute after her third knock, as she was about to give the house up as empty, she heard the whisper of slippered feet on the inside hall floor. The door opened wide. Behind the torn screen a tiny woman blinked from under thick glasses with dark plastic frames; the kind Medicaid provides for the poor. She was older than A
“Mrs. Castle?” A
“Oh, yes,” the old woman replied, and her smile showed a line of large regular teeth that clicked when she talked. “De
A
“He’s at school,” Mrs. Castle said. “But he should be home around three o’clock.” Her face firmed up and she suddenly looked terribly sad. “Oh dear. De
She asked the question with such sympathy A
“Won’t you come in?” Mrs. Castle invited graciously. “De
“I don’t need anything,” A
“Tea…” Mrs. Castle began again on the beverage question.
“That would be fine. Tea would be nice. I like tea.”
“That’s settled then.” Mrs. Castle sighed with relief, showed A
A
In such a neighborhood the dilapidated exterior could very well have been left as protective coloration to keep the old woman from being the envy-and therefore the target-of her neighbors.
An old-fashioned upright piano took up all of one wall of the living room. The top was covered with framed photographs. A
A few snapshots tucked into the frames of more formal pictures showed Hawk and Holly. There was only one of Jo. She wore an Empire-waisted pink brocade prom dress, her hair, as always, parted in the center and stick-straight. A boy whom A
Jo was an enigma, A
Shuffling, slow, careful, Mrs. Castle came in with the tea things. A
“I know,” A
“So it won’t happen again?”
“Something like that.”
Mrs. Castle nodded approvingly. A
“Oh, no.” Mrs. Castle got up and carried her tea over to the piano. She was so small she had to look up to see the photographs. “I’m very proud of them. They are my family now.”
The way she said it made A
“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Castle interrupted. She set down cup and saucer and stood on tiptoe to retrieve the picture of the girl in the prom dress. “This is it. It’s the only one left. I used to have more, but De
Mrs. Castle brought it over to the sofa and held it out for A
“I don’t know his name. He’s the boy who took Jo to the winter formal the year De
A
“They’re good kids. Wild though,” Mrs. Castle said sadly. “They came to visit me a while back.”
“When?” A
“I don’t know really…”
A