creep slowly down the sides of the bathtub until the last of it
sucked down the drain. Then she sat naked in the empty tub, staring
at her white, wrinkled feet until her butt hurt. Eventually, she
knew, she would have to leave the dark bathroom and try to act
normal.
She got dressed and went downstairs to check on her dad, finding
him just walking through the front door. He had run out to buy ice
cream for dinner?and not just any ice cream, but the good stuff
from the gelato place that Helen had banned him from when the
doctor told him to watch his diet.
?To bring down your core temperature,? he said innocently, shaking
the rain out of his hair.
?Is that your story?? she asked him, her hands on her hips.
?Yup. And I?m sticking to it.?
She decided to let it go. There would be plenty of time to worry
about his cholesterol in the morning. After so many days with so
little food, rich gelato was probably not the best idea, but it did go
down easily. They sat on the floor of the living room with their beloved
Red Sox on television, passing the pint and spoon back and
forth as they cussed out the Yankees. Neither of them answered the
phone, which continued ringing periodically, and Jerry didn?t push
Helen to explain what had happened. Claire?s mom would never
have let her get off this easy. Sometimes there were advantages to
being raised by a single dad.
Helen had to change her sheets before she went to bed. The
stains from the night before had not disappeared as she had hoped,
but tonight she had bigger things to worry about than sleepwalking.
For one thing, she could hear someone or something moving
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around on the widow?s walk. It was different from the sounds she