Scattered Leaves (Early Spring 2)

She rose and came to the bed to stroke my hair.

"You'll be fine in the morning. You just need to sleep and sleep and sleep. Don't worry about getting up early. Whenever you get up, that's when morning begins in this house. Sometimes. I sleep until noon. No one rings any bells here. Of course, it'll be different when you start school. You'll have to get up and have breakfast and get on the bus. The bus won't wait for you, but on weekends, you can sleep as long as your little heart wants, okay?"

"Okay." I said in a little voice that made me sound even younger than I was.

"We're doing to have so much fun together, but you're going to do well in school. too. I'll help you as much as I can. although I wasn't half as good a student as Emma was. I promise I'll do more and more around the house. We'll think about fixing it up and making it prettier. Maybe new curtains and new carpets and even new furniture, if Emma agrees, of course. But don't worry. We'll make sure you have everything you need. We're going to be our own little family, and we're going to be so happy that Emma will be surprised.

"You know why she'll be surprised?" she asked me.

I couldn't make out her expression that well, but I thought she was smiling.

"No," I said. "Why?"

"Because she sent you here to punish me," she said. She laughed as she adjusted my blanket around me and stroked my hair again. "But we're going to turn the tables on her. You know what that means?"

"No."

"It means she'll have punished herself," she told me, kissed my forehead and walked to the doorway. "Sweet dreams. Melody Ann Pinewood," she said and closed the door softly, laughing to herself in the darkness.

Why would my coming here be a way of punishing her? Why would Grandmother Emma want to do that anyway?

I was too tired to think about it. I curled against the blanket and closed my eves. When I did. I saw my mother's smiling face and heard her singing that soft lullaby she sang to me when I was very little. Like an incoming tide, the visions of her in her coma came rushing in to chase away my happy memories. I felt an ache in my chest and the tears pushing at my eyelids.

"Mama," I whispered, as if I'd only been two or three.

I was grateful for my descent into the darkness of my own deep sleep, but late at night I woke up with a start, forgetting where I was. I sat up, my heart beating hard and fast. After a moment I remembered and started to lower my head to the pillow when all of a sudden. I heard what I was positive sounded like someone sobbing. It was muffled and seemed as if it was coming from faraway, I listened hard and thought the crying was above me. After a few more moments of it, it stopped. I remained awake, listening, and now thought there was the sound of someone shuffling along. Then, even that stopped and the house was quiet again, dark and quiet. I closed my eyes, and soon what I had heard felt more like a dream.

Because the shades didn't quite fit the windows, the morning light slipped in all around me and teased my eyelids until they reluctantly opened and I saw a rag doll sitting up on the chair brought close to the bed. It looked brand new. I reached out for it, and a note fell off, I sat up, then picked up the note.

To Jordan, it read.

Every little girl needs a doll to hold and talk to, especially at nightwhen it's dark and she's all alone.

This belonged to Emma but she never held it once. Now it yours.

Great-Aunt Frances.

6 Lost and Forgotten

. The moment the sunlight woke me. I thought there were two small drums being pounded behind my eyes. I closed them quickly and waited, but it didn't help. The thumping was so loud that I imagined Great-aunt Frances could hear it through the walls, When I sat up, a deep, bass moan came out of my mouth like a hiccup. Then I really did start to hiccup. I hurried to the bathroom to wash my face in cold water and drink some. My hiccups were so loud I was sure I would wake Great-aunt Frances if she wasn't already up. I listened for her and heard nothing, not a sound. I didn't even hear a breeze outside the windows or any creaks in the floors, walls and pipes. as I expected I would in such an old house. I did hear the rooster, but he sounded far away.

Back in Grandmother Emma's mansion, where we'd been forbidden to make unnecessary noise, there had been the sounds of work being done most of the time, either by Nancy somewhere in the house or the grounds people, but from what I had learned about Mae Betty's night job. I didn't expect to see her or hear her over here early. I wondered if I would see her here at all. since Felix had left and wasn't around to threaten her. I thought if he returned today, he would be very upset. She really hadn't done as much as she should have with the upstairs. There were still cobwebs and gobs of dust in the hallway, and except for the repair of the window shades in my room. Nothing looked any better or any different. Lester had fixed the leaks in the bathroom. however.

I returned to my bedroom and got dressed to have breakfast. I wanted to just lie there and begin reading Ian's letters, but my gurgling stomach was telling me I needed good food. I made my bed as quickly as I could, satisfied that I had done a far better job than Great-aunt Frances had. I told myself that maybe I should make it my job to make hers as well every day. I could keep a list of chores the way our minder, Miss Harper, had wanted me to keep. Greataunt Frances would surely appreciate that, and when Grandmother Emma found out, she would be very proud of me.

I hesitated in the hallway, listening for Greataunt Frances. Why wasn't she up and about? I still didn't hear anything. so I went to look in on her. Her bedroom door was open. She was wrapped up in her blanket so tightly that it looked like a giant spider had spun it around her. She slept across the bed as if the bed had turned under her during the night. Her Gone With the Wind costume was in a pile on the floor, and her shoes lay where she had kicked them off. I saw that her hair was down and over her cheeks, the strands so close to her mouth that she could have been chewing on them.

Miss Puss was in the bed with her. The cat opened her eyes to look at me but didn't move. She closed her eyes again, as if she wasn't permitted to wake up before Great-aunt Frances. I shifted my feet and cleared my throat, but she didn't stir. so I left her and went down to the kitchen. I thought I would su

rprise her by making breakfast for both of us.

I explored every cabinet and drawer to learn where everything was, and then I started to make scrambled eggs. There was nearly a dozen in the refrigerator, and they did look recently gathered. There were still smudges of dirt on the shells, but I didn't find any orange or grapefruit juice. There was no fresh fruit. As long as I could remember. I'd had juice or fresh fruit with my breakfast. I had forgotten my vitamins. If Ian had been here, he would have lectured Great-aunt Frances about the basic foods.

The bread I found in the bread box was covered with mold. I wondered why Mae Betty hadn't thrown it out. There was part of another loaf in the

refrigerator, however, and I found the toaster in a cabinet. It was full of old crumbs. I shook them out over the sink, then thought about making Great-aunt Frances coffee. too. Nancy had shown me how. I found the coffeemaker, but I couldn't find any coffee. I found some tea and a can of hot chocolate. I didn't know which to make but decided to do the hot chocolate.

Suddenly. I heard the sound of an engine. I peered out the window and saw Lester Marshall on the tractor. The wheel had been repaired and he was cutting the grass and weeds at the side of the house, working his way toward the barn with his dog. Bones, trailing lazily behind. Neither Alanis nor her mother was anywhere in sight, and the shades on the windows of their house were drawn down.