Girl in the Shadows (Shadows 2)

What I soon realized, however, was that Mrs.

Westington needed me as much as Echo did. She was

brimful of wisdom and a lifetime of experiences she

desperately had to share with someone she loved. I

like that. I like the feeling of being important to

someone and loved. Even when Daddy and Mama and

my older sister. Brenda. and I were all still together. I

didn't feel as needed as I felt here in the old house and

vineyard property in northern California.

A wrong turn onto a dead-end road brought me

to this place and to these people. After my mother's

death, which wasn't all that long after my father's

secret fatal illness. I had gone to live with Brenda and

her lover. Celia. Both attended college in Memphis.

where Brenda had won an athletic scholarship. Like

my parents. I ignored any thoughts about Brenda's

being gay. I had no doubts that my parents knew it to

be true but kept it locked in their hearts. I was afraid

to ask any questions, afraid that the same questions

might someday be asked of me, afraid that on the back

of my neck I would feel the breeze of all that

whispering.

My deep unhappiness after Mama's passing and

then a traumatic sexual incident with Celia sent me

fleeing to my uncle Palaver, my mother's brother, for

emotional asylum. Before I came here to Mrs.

Westington's home, I had been living and traveling for

months with my uncle. He was a magician and an

excellent ventriloquist who mainly went from theater

to theater in his motor home to perform. I soon