And Roger had built a shed in the backyard that was a combination bike storage area and playhouse, where Maddie could curl up in a corner and read or talk on her cell phone while her little twin sisters played house or dressed up the various and sundry members of their enormous doll collection. Building the shed when the weather allowed had been therapeutic for him. Handling the wood, measuring twice, cutting once. The girls loved it when he was done, and he was proud of it; mostly he was happy that they were pleased with their new playhouse. They’d had a hard year and they missed him. He knew because they told him so. And they liked that he’d kept things the same. They told him that, too. When Peg married Mark, the man she had left him for, and moved into a big house a year later, she had wanted to take the girl’s toys and other items with her, but Roger put his foot down. “You did what you had to do, Peg,” he told her. “And I’ve been damned gracious and patient about it. But what you left behind when you went stays. The girls will always find things exactly the way they were before when they stay with me. I mean it. Exactly. Gives them stability.” Hell, it gives ME stability, he thought. Bad enough that Peg was gone. The fact that she’d married his co-worker at the firehouse was simply icing on the triple-layer, garbage-flavored cake she’d served him that year. So, to all outward appearances, things remained the same in the neat blue split-level home with the big yard on Bartholomew Avenue. It was all very pleasant, very civil. Sounds too good to be true, doesnt it? Bwah-ha-ha-ha.... From Checking It Twice, in Death is Coming to Town: Four Murderous Holiday Tales, 99 cent ebook/$5.99 paperback. sr=1-1&keywords=death+is+coming+to+town
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 20:24:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015