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Turning around in mock surprise, Mr. Picton smiled wide. “Why, there she is! She appears out of nowhere, does this one, Doctor, and never will teach me the trick! Come and meet a friend of mine, Clara.” Still clutching the tail of Mr. Picton’s jacket, the little girl followed him over to the Doctor. “Dr. Kreizler, this is Clara. Clara, Dr. Kreizler works with hundreds and hundreds of children in New York, the city that I’ve told you I once lived in. And he’s come all this way-”
“All this way,” the Doctor interrupted, giving a meaningful smile to Mr. Picton that said he’d take it from here, “to see your drawings.” He knelt down to look her in the face. “You like to draw very much, don’t you, Clara?”
The girl nodded; but it was much more than just a nod, we could all see that. It was a kind of request, too: a wish, you might say, that the Doctor would ask her more. And the fu
“Yes, I thought you might,” the Doctor went on, slowly lifting a finger to point at Clara’s clenched little fist. “Because you have so many pencils. But no colored pencils.” He put on a troubled look, then brightened. “Did you know that there are such things as colored pencils, Clara?”
The light brown eyes went very big, and Clara shook her head to make it pretty obvious that, though she hadn’t known there were such things, she’d certainly like to have some.
“Oh, yes. All the colors you can imagine,” the Doctor answered. “Tomorrow I’ll bring you some from town-because you really do need colored pencils to draw things as they actually are, don’t you?” Clara nodded. “My friends and I sometimes draw, too,” the Doctor said, indicating Cyrus and me. “Would you like to meet them?” More nods followed, and then the Doctor signaled us over. “This is my friend Stevie,” he said, pointing to me.
“Hey, Clara,” I said, smiling down at her. “Does your friend draw, too?” I pointed at her doll, to which Clara shook her head hard and thumped her pencils against her chest. “Oh, I get it-drawing’s your game. Let her find her own way to have fun.” Clara’s shoulders began to move up and down; and then a scratchy sound what could’ve passed for a small laugh got out of her throat.
Finally, it was time for the big test: the Doctor pointed at Cyrus. “And this is my friend Mr. Montrose,” he said.
For about fifteen seconds, Clara stared up at Cyrus with a face what was plain impossible to read. Something was going on in that head of hers, that much was clear-and while none of us could yet say just what said thing was, it was obvious from the way that Clara stood her ground calmly that it was not terror. But it should have been: if any piece of Libby Hatch’s complicated story was true, if anything like the infamous attack by the mysterious black man out on the Charlton road really had happened, then when that little girl looked up at Cyrus, she should’ve taken off for the hills, or at the least for the safety of her foster mother’s skirts.
But she didn’t.
Finally Cyrus smiled kindly and bowed. Hello, Clara, he said, his voice sounding especially deep and soothing. “You know, when I was a little boy, I drew a picture of a wonderful house.” He knelt down to look into her eyes. “And do you know what the strange part of it is?” Clara studied Cyrus’s face hard and then shook her head slowly. “The strange part is that I live in that house now-it’s the Doctor’s house.” Clara pondered that for a few more seconds; then she held her drawing pad up to Cyrus.
On it was scratched a rough picture of the Westons’ farmhouse. Cyrus gri
None of us ever found out whether Cyrus had caught a glimpse of what was on Clara Hatch’s pad of paper before he said what he did to her, being as, in that slightly amused, slightly mischievous ma
Mr. Picton slowly started to smile. “Why, yes, he said quietly. “Yes, Clara. I’m sure that the Doctor will know how to make your little girl feel much better. That’s his job you see, to make children feel better. Perhaps you should take him inside, and show him what’s wrong.”
The girl took the Doctor’s hand again, but before going anywhere she looked up to Mrs. Weston.
“Of course,” the woman said, reading another question in the little face. “I’ll go with you. Maybe some of your other friends could use the Doctor’s help, too.”
The three of them walked toward and then into the house.
“That’s the damndest thing,” Mr. Weston said quietly, scratching his head. “Three years she’s been here, and I’ve never seen her take to a stranger that way.”
“As I told you, Josiah,” Mr. Picton answered. “Dr. Kreizler is no ordinary visitor! Alone in his field, you might say-and his field is made up of cases like Clara’s. Well, then-Stevie? Cyrus? Shall we go inside, too?”
Cyrus nodded and began to move toward the door with Mr. Picton and Mr. Weston. But I stayed where I was. “If you don’t mind, sir,” I said, “I think I’ve pretty well served my purpose here. Unless there’s anything else, I’d like to get out to the old Hatch place and see what the detective sergeants are up to.”
Mr. Picton gave me a slightly puzzled look. “It’s over three miles from here, Stevie.”
“Yes, sir. But I’m used to walking. I can find my way.”
Mr. Picton nodded. “All right. We’ll see you back at my house, then.”
I looked to Cyrus, who signaled the okay to me with a little nod. Starting to run down the drive, I suddenly remembered what ma
“What?” the man answered, still sort of stu