Sense of Rumor (Mount Faith Series: Book 6) by Brenda Barrett

deep breath. This thing was haunting her. She injected some enthusiasm into her voice.
    When she looked up, Micah was standing in the doorway with Taj, her other cousin. In her head, she called him Uncle Ryan's indiscretion. When she had heard the story, she had found it funny. Uncle Ryan was always pretending that he was above reproach. Taj was proof positive that he was not.
    "Hi," Taj said to her. He came further into the room. "Micah said you needed easels."
    "Oh," Arnella hit her forehead, "I just mentioned it in passing to Charlene. I have a whole lot of space down in the basement that I could put easels. What are you guys here for?"
    Taj looked at Micah. "To help you move in. Micah said we should be building easels for you. I am itching to get my hands dirty."
    "That's right." Arnella nodded. "You are a psychiatrist. Not much dirtiness with that job. Well, I could do with six easels. It's pretty simple to do." She got up. "Want me to show you guys what I want?"
    They followed her down a shallow flight of stairs into the vast the basement. She had thrown white sheets on most of her paintings except one: the seascape with the driftwood.
    "That's lovely," Taj said, going closer to it. "You are talented; granted, I am no art appraiser, but this looks really good."
    "It's not done," Arnella said shyly.
    Taj moved away from the art and examined it, rubbing his chin. "The piece has a quality of loneliness, even despair to it…quite moving."
    Arnella gasped; how on earth did he discern that from the piece? Those were her emotions most of the time. Taj looked at her while Micah went toward the easels, examining them and making grunting noises. "You can come see me," Taj said softly. "My services are free for students, even more so for cousins who I know nothing much about."
    Arnella swallowed. She wanted to laugh off his offer, but her voice sounded hoarse, and weak instead of mocking and detached. "I don't need a psychiatrist."
    "No, you don't," Taj said, nodding, "but I sense that you need to talk. It's my job to listen."
    "I talk through my art," Arnella said. "That's my therapy."
    After Arnella showed them out, and she and Charlene were left chitchatting in the living room. She remembered Taj's offer and tried to bury it. She didn't need a psychiatrist, whether they were free or family; she was fine. It took her the best part of the night repeating that mantra before she finally accepted it.
     
    *****
     
    Tracy called Arnella on a whim. She hadn't heard from her since her father had given her that upbraiding at the house. She wanted Arnella to know that she was moving into her new place at Blue Palm Apartments and that she was going to start classes tomorrow. She hoped the news would somehow affect Arnella, maybe make her jealous.
    The truth is, she had listened to her fathers rant on Arnella and had loved every word. She had only pretended to be on the phone, but she really wanted Arnella to suffer a little because nothing ever really affected her. She had watched and waited for Arnella to break down, especially when her father had called her trash, but Arnella had calmly kept on eating while the words rolled off her easily.
    What would it take for Arnella to feel something? There had to be something that mattered to her. She needed to be taken down a peg or two. Surely, she was not immune to the lesser emotions of humanity like fear, sorrow, and confusion. Arnella had always been invincible against hard knocks. The girl was solid as a rock. She shrugged through tragedy and laughed through pain. It had always been a source of envy for Tracy, who thought at the back of her mind that Arnella was a robot.
    Nothing touched her in high school. Tracy used to study her and tried to act like her because the more nonchalant Arnella behaved the more people flocked to her. Tracy had had to work for every single friendship she had, not so for Arnella. During high school, some girls had once teased her that she had all the money and